if you remove the pan, i would suggest this item for an easier installation. or i think easier, havent done it on a vx, but when i replaced my pan after an new engine install, i either found, or they came with the pan gasket these little clip things. turn your imagination on here........these things are about 1/4" round, and about 1 1/2" long. they are threaded on one end, and have little "barbs" on the other.

what you do is this,
you screw 4 of them in the bolt holes for the pan on 4 corners, in the block.....then, you lay your gasket, or in our case apperantly, bead of silicone around the pan.
then, you get under the truck, and line up the clip thingies with the corrosponding holes in the pan, and push up until the little barbs click the pan in place, and hold it there. now you can free up your hands to install all the other bolts snug, then remove/unscrew the clippy things, and install the last 4 bolts in their place. then tourqe everything down.
with these clips, once your pan is "clipped" in place, you dont have to worry about scraping the silicone off like you would if you were laying under your truck, bolts in your mouth, pan on your belly, hoping you can line up a hole and get a bolt in there and not smear silicone everywere but where its supposed to be trying to get another bolt from your mouth to its appropriate hole.
am i making sense? like i said, i dont know if autozone carries these, or if i got them with a gasket, but they sure made things easy-peasy. maybe someone else knows what they are called, and where to get em. i still have mine if you cant find em, and want to use them, ill send em to you. but i might want to check on thread size. its probably the same.
i will try to post a pic of these gems for clarification purposes

david