Dropping the pan on a '98 Disco1, 300TDi, engine in place

[skejam]

So... How do I do this? I want to push the pistons out through the top. There seems to be a couple pieces crossing under the engine, that look as if they will be in the way of dropping the pan...

[ANDYD]

Hi Jim,

I did this on my 300 TDi Defender a while back, lifting the piston out of the top.
Just to confirm, are you referring to the Steering / stabilizer bars running wheel to wheel or is there some oil pipes that run around the side of the oil pan? (not too familiar with the TDI Disco set up).

cheers,
Andy

[skejam]

The steering stabilizer bar looks to be the major obstacle. Will I have to remove that? (Izzat tricky?) Farther back is the anti-sway bar, less of an obstacle. The front axle looks threatening too. What did you do? I didn't notice oil lines.

[ANDYD]

You should be able to just disconnect one end of your steering bar fairly easily and swing it out of the way. Another thing to that will help to give extra room is to jack up the front end on the chassis (not jacking on the front axle, this will lift the engine but allow the axle to stay lower. this will give you more room under your oil pan. I don't remember having many obstacles, should be fairly straight forward.
I believe the V8 has the oil lines on the Disco so I wasn't sure if they had them on a TD1 Disco. Maybe yours doesn't have them.

-Andy