Re: oil pan gasket question
Well that depends on how the engine/bilge area is constructed in your boat. If you were to do the job with the motor in the boat, you would need access to the oil pan, to take out all of the bolts on all 4 sides, and pull the pan down and out to one side of the engine. You'll have to look at your setup to see if you think you can do that. I know most boats don't have access to do all of that, I know mine doesn't.
Are the bolts on the pan tight? Could just be loose bolts on the front of the pan... would be worth checking first.
You can't lift the engine up with the drive installed because of the drive shaft. If you removed the outdrive, then you could lift the front of the motor some but it still wouldn't give you much room probably, without taking out the rear mounting bolts and loosening the exhaust boot so that you could lift the entire engine up. By that time, you'll just about already have the motor out so might as well lift it and get it on out of there to make the gasket job easier.
Even if you could manage to get the pan out from under the motor with your boat setup, I still don't know if it would be possible to get at the rear pan bolts. Do you have a monkey, or small child?
