I won't claim to know as much as EB but, I do believe that it is a good idea to remove ALL the old gasket material......If your truck is IFS(post '86) then yes, there is a possibility of some axel work to remove the oil pan but AFAIK, it's easier to put a jack under the tranny and remove the motor mounts and jack it u to get the clearance that you need, you've already got the timing cover and the head off, you might as well clean out the oil pan too. This is what killed the motor in my truck, the PO changed the timing chain and didn't bother to clean out the oil pan, when the motor blew, we found that the pickup was blocked by plastic shavings <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" /> However if you have a solid axel rig(pre '85) then I believe it's as easy and just unbolting it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" /> Take your time, do it right and do everything, you'll have a dependable rig for another 200K <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />