You will tear the pan gasket unless you loosen all the bolts and drop the pan down some at least, if not remove it all the way. To remove the pan, you have to remove the xmember and remove a couple of diff carrier bolts and let it rotate downward and to the front some so the pan will clear the oil pump. This last step may not be necessary, as the pan will drop enough to let the timing cover come off, but perhaps not enough to put a new gasket on the pan...

Not responsible for advice not taken...