I would like to take my engine oil pan off and clean it off and make sure its not sludged up to much or anything. My buddy works at a body shop and his boss is cool so i haveaccess to a lift. My question is how hard is it to get off. Do i have to disconnect anything to lower it out of the way. I had a cherokee before so im used to solid front axles not sure if anything from the ifs is in the way that would have to be disconnect so that we could slide out the oilpan. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

sockets, new gasket, look under the truck!

 

 

damn so you have to remove the axle. anyone know if its possible to do without removing the axle. that was my biggest fear and i guess it came true. what i know about the cherokees is if you disconnect the shocks and a few other things you can get the front axle to come down far enough that the pan can come out.

 

you could raise the engine a lil bit. but what makes you think you have sludge in the bottom of the pan?

 

theres not really anything making me think i have sludge just thought it would be good for it to clean it out but im not gonna go to any extremes to do it either.

 

I certainly wouldn't. I wouldn't even go to the trouble of removing an exhaust pipe (like on the 5.2L engine). If the engine runs fine with good oil pressure, just drive it and enjoy it.

 

If you want to see if you have a sludge problem, just pull a valve cover. If you do have a problem, cleaning the pan won't due much good anyway

 

The info you guys/gals share is wonderful. Here is my deal. I have a very bad knocking. Last night I got the valve cover off and everything looked fine. Right now I am attempting to lower the oil pan so I can further asses the my situation. do i have to remove the front axle? How?

 

It says in the service manual the axle has to drop, but I talked to a guy whoI know did it, and he said he unbolted the motor mounts, and took the fan assembly off, and hoisted the motor up enough to get it off ? Now that is the 4.7 motor.