I pulled the oil pan tonight, which gets me to the end of the tear-down phase of this project. Nothing blatantly bad-looking from the outside.
I did, however, find these bits of metal when I removed the circular oil pan cap thingy in the photo. I have no idea what they are. Can shavings like this be produced when you strip threads, perhaps on the oil pan drain plug? My drain plug is not OEM, and I wonder if that's because the hole had to be tapped at some point. (I have a new OEM plug sitting around, so I guess I'll find out soon enough)
Anyway, good stopping point for the evening. I'll tackle the rod bearings over the next few nights.