Day 4: We took off work on Thursday to work on our project of gloom. Mostly we attacked the underside. Started with disconnecting the exhaust system where the exhaust header meets the exhaust pipe. I dreaded these four bolts that are always rusted. Driver side with a little effort from a very large breaker bar came off without breaking the bolts but the passenger side wasn't as fortunate. The bottom bolt came off but the top started to strip. After trying many different methods, we went on to other items.
We elected to leave the passenger side exhaust manifold in place, but the driver's side manifold needed to come off because of the EGR pipe/valve. Since the V10 has aluminium heads, the bolts for the exhaust manifold came off without any real issues. No trouble on the other misc. parts under the engine until we came upon the flex plate to the torque converter bolts.
Accessing the torque converter/flex plate bolts through the removable plate on the bottom of the transmission was impossible because of the oil pan being too close. To gain clearance, I unbolted the oil pan and moved it forward as possible. Afterwards, I replaced the oil pan. The next day, I read online that these bolts could be accessed through the starter opening. Live and learn. The rest of the day was spent just double checking that we were ready to pull the engine over the weekend.
