Thanks to everyone. Got the oil pan off tonight. Phew! More involved than I thought it would be, but glad it's at least possible to do. On my slant six mopars from the early '60's forget it. Engine has to come out: the K frame is too in the way.

Gotcha, thank you. Will be doing that tonight - haven't been under the car for a few night now. Other 'honey-do' projects regularly tear me away.

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@JW: Hardly. Nothing I asked made me reluctant to accept advice. I was questioning whether it was required, as it seemed more like a suggestion to try, not a normal process.

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Rotated the crankshaft, and the counterweights are no longer in the way. I have not removed the transmission lower bell housing: was seeing if it was possible to avoid removing that. But that may be the key to getting the pan off - just need a little extra longitudinal clearance - hopefully it won't hit the flywheel. Do other people really remove the steering linkage to get the pan off? Doesn't seem like you should have to do that.....?

By the way, what size crank socket do I need to fit over the head of that massive crank bolt on my damper?

I feel like this is a dumb question, but you all said 'lift the engine' slightly to try and get the oil pan out.

Unless I get out my cherry picker, where would I be lifting by? Most of the time, I chock of a block of wood under the front of the oil pan to lift, but since I'm trying to get the oil pan off, do most people just pick at the front of the block and lift from the head? or is there a different lift point from beneath somwhere else on the block where I can lift and remove the oil pan simultaneously?

Thank you kindly!

It seems like there's a date stamp cast into the head of my 356 8, right next to the thermostat housing at the front of the head . Just checking: is that what it is? What does it refer to? IIRC, it reads 11-4-47, when I cleaned and wire-brushed it.

That's great to know! I will make a request. Getting to see how-to videos on our old cars can sometimes be difficult to find on YouTube and the like, if the poster has not tagged their video correctly. There's usually plenty of how-to videos on new cars, but not old ones

@Wes - thanks for the video. Again, quite helpful. Would love to see the whole thing - any public link?

@West - That's an amazingly huge honkin' compressor on the top of that 356. Wow. I observe no clutch on the front of that pulley - I assume it was just always on unless you disconnected the fan belt? I'm very surprised the top of it cleared the hood. Wonder if anyone persuaded their local Packard dealership to custom-install AC on their 22nd series...that would be an interesting setup, however it could be accomplished.

@Howard - Thanks! You know, I should have seen those stabilizer mounts but I completely missed them. The passenger's side is crusted in grease, and the drivers side is under the generator where I couldn't see it. Before I jack the front of the engine up to replace the mount, I'll loosen the bolts of those stabilizers so I won't tear anything. So far, I've been surprised: most of the fasteners on my beast here have come loose very easily, without any stripped threads or undue tapping.

Anyone here have a 22nd series (any model) that has that dealer-installed accessory "light bar" installed on the dash to illuminate the early engraved dash buttons that had no lighting provision for nighttime driving?

Have yet to drive my car, let alone drive it at night, but wondering how well this accessory worked.