MG Car Repair: Stripped oil sump bolt hole, soft aluminum, bolt holes

Question
My oil sump pan was leaking at the front edge.  Removed all the bolts to put on a new gasket, but cannot get the pan out from between the frame members. It drops down an inch or two, but it seems to be held up by something inside, such as the oil pickup. Therefore, I cannot get to the two stripped bolt holes to put in a heli-coil.  Is there some other way to either get the pan off or repair in place the two stripped holes without removing the engine? Thanks.

Answer
Hi Tom,
Since you have not told me what kind of car this is I will have to guess. Since you say the front pan bolts are stripped I will guess it is a 1500 MG Midget since that is the only British car that is common on (except the 1500 Spitfire "Same engine")

A poor design used a soft aluminum or "Pot metal" bar across the front to secure the pan which can not handle the same torque as the rest of the pan bolts. A secondary problem is that if the wrong bolts were installed in these holes it is easy to poke the ends of the holes up into the pan area and if the bolts fall out you can loose all of your engine oil.
You need to either remove the engine or you may be able to just remove the motor mounts etc and raise the engine enough to remove the pan and if the holes are not punched all the way through you can get a "Bottom tape" of the next size up and tap the holes out. If however the holes have been punched through you should replace that cross bar.
Howard