Well, it has NEVER taken me 8 - 9 hours to remove pan, clean pan and
strainer, and replace the oil pan on an MGA. The last time I did the pan
removal job was to change a set of rod bearings. The whole R&R job
including the bearing replacement and the pan/strainer cleaning took about 4
hours (an afternoon). I think that it took me 5, maybe 6, hours on my first
try (as a teenager in my parents driveway in the early '70s) and much less
after that learning experience. Removing the motor mount bolts, raising the
motor, and removing the pan bolts is more of a pain in the a$$ than it is a
lengthy job.
Personally though, with frequent oil and oil filter changes and decent air
cleaners, I find that sludge formation is not significant and that the pan
and strainer don't get overly cruddy. In the past, I HAVE gone through the
procedure to clean the pan/strainer only to find minimal crud present after
15-20000 miles. As the rod bearings are best changed at, or around, 40000
miles anyway IMHO (a good number of years at my pace !!), I now wait for the
bearing change time before I clean the pan/strainer.
If the car sits for a good part of the year without being run to operating
temperature regularly, the frequency of oil changes may be inversely
proportional to the amount of sludge buildup. IMHO etc.
Dave Q.
57 A coupe
59 Twin-Cam
62 and 65 Bs
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