Can the connecting rod bearings be changed via the oil pan without pulling the engine?

drop the oil pan & replace all the ( connecting rod bearings ) which wear out way more than main bearings. also replace the main bearings if bad. if the bearings are still good use them because of the timming chain is heck to get back to top dead center. hope this helps you out

Sure they can But you have to remove some parts to allow the motor to be jacked up far enough to get the pan off

It depends on the engine and if you can get the oil pan off without pulling the engine and if you have enough room after the pan is off. "5.3 V8" isn't enough information.

Are you referring to connecting rod bearings? If so, I hope you're tooled up and VERY mechanically inclined. If that's the case, you'll want to pull the engine, mount it on an engine stand, remove the bottom components (oil pan, oil pump and any other components that would interfere with a complete and open access to the crankshaft). It is possible to change the rod bearings without removing the top of the engine (intake manifold and carb, valve cover, rocker arm, camshaft, valves, lifters and heads), but I wouldn't recommend you try unless you're a real motorhead. In fact, I wouldn't recommend that you even attempt any of this unless you're very experienced at auto mechanics. Of course, if you're NOT talking about connecting rod bearings, you can disregard everything I've said so far, and elaborate on what you actually want to do.

The connecting rods are probably frozen to the crank from overheating or the bearings are frozen. Pull the oil pan off and inspect the connecting rod bearings for a blueish coloring which is a sign they overheated. If they are you'll need to replace them all and have the crank and connecting rods turned.

The main bearings and connecting rod bearings. The cam bearings. The wrist pins. These are the first bearings that get oil from the oil pump. When you take the oil pan off to replace the pump pull one of the rod caps and check for scaring and color change.

yes

There are several reasons why you would hear a loud knock from the engine, and the knock will usually be either in the top end or in the lower or bottom end of the engine.

The first thing that should be done is to drain the engine oil, and then pour the oil filter into a pan where you can see it, and if there is a lot of metal flakes, or a fine cloud of brass floating in the engine oil, you will not want to waste the time or the money trying to repair that engine by dropping the oil pan and replacing the piston rod bearings, it will only be a very temporary patch at best, that is if the patch even lasts for a day.

If you do find metal flakes in the engine oil and oil filter, the piston rod bearings will not be the only bearings in the engine that will need to be replaced, and the crankshaft main bearings can only be replaced by removing the engine and placing it upside-down on a good engine stand. The biggest problem would be that even if you did successfully replace the piston rod and crankshaft main bearings, it would only take one piece of metal flake that was left over in the engine block to find its way to one of your new bearings and then it will take no time at all before that engine will be right back where you started, and that is how important just the cleaning process is in repairing or replacing internal engine components.

If you do not find any metal in the engine oil or oil filter, then you should attempt to find the actual cause of the knock before you decide how to repair the engine, and you will have to remove the engine oil pan to inspect the rod bearings, and if you do remove the engine oil pan make sure that when you inspect the rod bearings that you only do so one at a time because you can not mix up the rod caps, and be very sure that when you remove a rod cap that you do replace it the same way that it came off, and if you turn around the rod cap and install it the wrong way or scratch the crankshaft bearing surface the rod bearing will fail.

If you can hear the knocking louder from under the vehicle then the most likely causes for a lower end engine knock are a damaged piston, worn out piston rod bearings, a broken piston rod, a broken flex-plate, and sometimes loose torque converter to flex-plate bolts, and the only parts that you can really check out without opening up the engine would be a broken flex-plate, or for any loose torque converter to flex-plate bolts.

If you can hear the knocking more from the top of the engine, then the most likely causes for an upper engine knock would be a faulty lifter, or broken rocker arm, or a broken valve spring allowing the valve to contact the piston, and it will require the removal of the valve covers and possibly the intake manifold to inspect for the problem.

If you have any doubts then it would be a good idea to consider a good used engine that you can hear run before you buy it, or a rebuilt engine for that vehicle.

I hope that this information will help you out and save you some time and a lot of money.

The oil pump can be changed without pulling the engine.

The impressive looking thing is the balance shaft assembly. These counter-rotating shafts balance out the inherent vibration of the engine. You can remove it, as long as you do not disrupt the gear placements relationship to each other. The balance assembly is set to a specific point.

Yes you will have to raise engine to pull pan, but more importantly is why do you need to change rod bearings? If they need replacing you will probably have to change the mains as well as rings and so on. If you have run it knocking, you could have damaged the crankshaft and new bearings won't stay. Suggest you check a little deeper before going to all this expense.