Nothing is easy. Ever.

[ssurgul]

Stupid gasket failed after all.  I probably asked too much of it with too little cure time.  And naturally, since this time I know what I'm doing and things were going too well and too quickly, one of the last non-oil-pan-bolts opts to choose this afternoon to round off on me.  One trip to Sears, and $20 later, I have a fun set of damaged bolt removers.  That definitely did the trick.  Now, we'll let the copper based gasket stuff set overnight, and give it at least 16 hours before doing anything with it.  At least I also found the source of the new rattle, and the excess engine noise that developed since last time.  And I was able to reconnect the oil sensor finally, too.  All's well, just formerly annoying.