Sunday, January 30 - the work of disassembling the engine continued...
First I figured I'd lighten the load up a bit by removing the reversing gear housing and the reversing gear.

Once the cover is off, the whole reversing gear assembly lifts right out, leaving a big empty space at the back end of the oil pan.

I set the assembly aside in a box for safe keeping.

I borrowed one of my neighbor's engine stands and he helped me get the block mounted on the stand.

That made it much easier to remove the oil pan (that's a big heavy sucker, too!).

Which left the engine with a naked bottom!

The really nice thing about the engine stand is how it allows you to easily flip the engine over.

Which made it easy to remove the valves.

I ran out to WalMart and bought a bunch of cheap Glad containers to keep everything organized.

I'm also putting small parts (like all the nuts and bolts and stuff) into Ziploc bags and writing on them with a Sharpie to identify where they go.