Stanley, what year is your car?
Mostly, you remove the A-pipe which is the section of exhaust going under the oil pan. That can be easy or difficult depending on corrosion.

Then some years there's braces between tbe block & the tranny, easy to unbolt.

Then just unbolt the pan. No need to unbolt the bearing caps, unless you're actually replacing the bearings.

 

ohh yeah I 4got about the down pipe. Thats gonna be fun if its the stock exhaust have a TQ wrench handy when you to jump into this fun stuff.

 

2001 Accord EX 4cl MT

I did take a peek at how difficult it could be when i did my oil change this past weekend... I think you're right, its just the exhaust -- which does look rough...

But i thought you couldn't really get to anything without taking off the bearing caps? Like i wont be able to grab the rods and attempt to rock them and what not?

 

I may be late on this, however way at the beginning, Sir-Nasty said something about a compression check, and I'd add to that a oil pressure check. What these will tell you is the condition of the cylinders/rings, and bottom end.
If you don't pass any of these, then you follow that particular route to troubleshoot. These are easy and un-expensive tests that give you a good idea of what's up with your engine.
You can do the oil pan removal, and try to grab each connecting rod at a time and try to feel any play - do not expect to feel it right away, it's not a lot to feel and normally you use gauges for that. But if you're patient you may be able to detect it, if it's there. Also may want to move the rod sideways about the piston to check for piston slap - you want to move that piston to bottom and grab the rod close to the piston.
Piston slap is when the skirt of the piston slaps the cylinder wall when it goes up/down - all engines have it, it's the nature of the beast, but it gets noisy with wear and increase in tolerance piston/cylinder.

 

I have a 2004 Accord EXL 3.0 that had piston slap. The noise started at 30M and kept getting worse. The noise would have made any diesel proud. The local Honda dealer did a valve job and said that was the best they could do for the noise. Contacted Honda case worker (big mistake), told me to take car to local dealer. After a week and many, many calls, the verdict was, yes it has piston slap, but your car has 70,000 miles and tough luck it is out of warranty. However to fix the problem we will install a new block at $2400 for the engine plus labor. Oil and filter had been changed every 4m using Mobil One. Eventually the noise became so loud I had to replace the engine. I found a used one for $600, and this fixed the problem.

 

I've got a similar problem, but mine started with the rattle on Tuesday when I ran out of gas (was testing out the need gas light.. the wrong way) and I'm worried I'll have to go through the same procedure and have see if I can get that timing belt package done to my 98 accord lx 4cyl.
A friend of mine told me it could be that a rock from the bottom of the tank that builds up over time may have passed through the injectors and that's what may be causing the problem, but told me to adjust the valves anyways, maybe that will solve it...
Any thoughts/comments on this? I think the rattle might have gotten louder since I began to notice it. But it happens between 1.25k rpm to around 2k rpm when I accelerate and when it's decelerating with no throttle on it.

I started following this thread, today, and I'm trying to choose a course of action... down to the same options as Stanley on whether to do the t-belt package or just get a used motor