Originally Posted by eallanboggs

You MUST lower the oil pan a little unless you are Houdini Sissor Fingers. You need the space you get by lowering the pan in order to remove AND replace the pick-up tube BOLT to the pump body. You should remove the bolts on the front and sides of the pan and just loosen the bolts in the rear slightly. This will drop the pan enough to get the bolt out and in. You should put a few shop rags in the space you create when the pan drops so just in case you do happen to drop the bolt the rags will catch it and you won't have to completely remove the oil pan to retrieve the bolt. The magnet method that was suggested might work, but you'll probably win the lottery before that happens. I'd try the shop rags rather than temping fate. The ported oil pump is a good idea altho a little pricey. My oil pressure went up to 60 psi at idle after I installed a ported and blueprinted LS6 pump. The Rollmaster double chain is a good idea at this time as well. Be sure to orient the required spacer that comes with the double chain properly to allow the oil to flow at full capacity. It can be installed upside down restricting the pump output. I also removed the pump cover and took out the DRIVE and DRIVEN gears to make it a lot easier to get the pump pickup tube started into the pump body. This is a problem because the spacers required with the double row timing chain move the pump body forward about 1/8". This doesn't sound like much, but getting the pickup tube snout into the pump input port can be difficult and the "O" ring can get pinched if you try and force it. By removing the DRIVE and DRIVEN gears you get the extra wiggle room you need to rock the pump body just enough to get the pickup tube into the pump. When you put the gears back into the pump body be sure to note the "DOT" on one of the gears. The "DOT" faces outward. One more tip is to not tighten the timing cover bolts until AFTER you seat the crank pulley. You just thread the bolts in the then install the pulley. This makes the pulley and timing cover oil seal "CONCENTRIC" which ain't a bad idea at all. Then you tighten down the cover bolts. This is just a little thing, but sometimes the little things can add up.