Oil Pan and Rear main parts advice

I pulled off the pan today. Was extremely easy to get it out.

I remove the upper big nut from the driver side motor mount and the two bolts from the passenger side motor mount.

Jacked it up underneath the transmission pan with a wood block. My pan is cast aluminum.

Plenty of room to get all the bolts and remove the pan easily. Only four of the bolts required a universal joint.

My oil leak was definitely from the rear main seal. It was an original rope seal and was totally shot. I was dreading removing the whole engine to pull the rest of the seal out but then I talked to my neighbor and he gave me a tool called the sneaky Pete.Essentially a flexible corkscrew that you put into the seal from underneath the car rotate the engine and pull at the same time. Rope seal yanked right out cleanly.

I then used a flexible bore brush to clean the engine side seal groove. Unfortunately the crank mating surface was pitted slightly and kind of ugly. I took my time with red Scotch Brite while turning the motor by hand and cleaning up as much as I could. Couple final blasts with air some pipe cleaners etc to get it as clean as I could.

I put a small amount of black right stuff on the back of the seal that touches against the engine block. on the lip side of the seal I used heavy duty green grease.

I inserted the seal while rotating motor slightly if it got hung up and it went in without issue. I left a small amount of seal protruding from the block approximately 3/8in.

I then cleaned the seal retainer thoroughly and placed the two side seals into the assembly. Unfortunately the side seals that came with the supposedly correct kit were slightly undersized so they also got a treatment of black right stuff.

The other side of the seal was then inserted with a small amount of black right stuff on the back edge and green grease on the sealing lip. I also used a small touch of black right stuff on the mating ends of the seal.

Snapped into place and then tighten to 30 ft pounds.

I couldn't finish the job today because the paint was taking longer than expected to dry on the oil pan.I'll give an update tomorrow and whether or not the silicone gasket sucks ***.