Best way to remove RTV/Silicone from oil pan mating surface?
 

Plastic wire wheel?
Soft steel wool?

Any suggestions?

Brand new razor blades, held at a 30* angle to the pan, scraping back and forth until it's all gone. It's a pain, but it works. For the groove, get some small rod and cut it perfectly straight, and don't deburr or chamfer the edges. Rake that back and forth to get most of it out, which I find to not be as important as the flat surfaces.

Do this, use acetone (don't skip this step), and liberal amounts of RTV. Once dried and cured, you'll be able to pick up the engine by the pan without any bolts in.

http://www.matcotools.com/ProductImages/SC52_group.jpg

everyone should own one.

the guy that redid our grout left one of those... it's awesome. I used it to cleanup the defrosters on my prelude when i repaired them.

thanks for the advice on the acetone!

I was able to take care of the little grooves using the curvy points on the end of a crescent wrench. Run it back and forth a few times, then run my fingernail lightly through the groove and stuff came right out.

I didn't have an engine stand, however. I did the entire job with the engine upright under an engine hoist. Made it a little more difficult than necessary. I also snapped the head off one of the 10mm oil pan bolts...I'm kinda pissed about that.

I also snapped one of the bolts off -- I got RTV down in the hole and the screw bottomed out early. Fortunately the bolts are fairly soft and it wasn't torqued in due to the RTV, so it was easy to drill a small hole in the broken stud and pull it out with an extractor.

it's useful around here for those stupid window stickers too.

Blow torch a putty knife until red hot, remove rtv until it cools, repeat as necessary.

Also good for separating the pan from the block