I forgot what a PITA it is to drop the transmission pan NEED HELP w 2 Manifold Nuts

Foggy · May 9, 2026

I tried getting the trans itself up a bit.. I even removed the mount hoping
to be able to wiggle stuff around...
The trans just tilts the motor with it... Only gives about another 1/2" at
most. Not quite enough... Maybe on a RWD it would give enough ?
So I soaked the 2 remaining nuts again in FreeAll and DeepCreep
I'll try again Sunday

OR VietVet · May 9, 2026

Foggy said:
I think I tried that years ago on my 2014... I don't remember that giving much
more clearance...

My landlord has a 2018 Suburban 4x4. I did it that way and had plenty of room.

2011burbLTZ · May 11, 2026

I've heard that you can get the pan off without removing the exhaust. I was going to do a trans filter, plan and fluid swap this summer. I just picked up a 2011 Suburban 4wd with the 6L80e. I've had the dorman pan (with drain plug) new filter and 12qts of Maxlife waiting. I def don't want to remove the exhaust and the dealer welded a new flexpipe to the catted ypipe so I can't disconnect it either now.

Foggy · May 11, 2026

2011burbLTZ said:
I've heard that you can get the pan off without removing the exhaust. I was going to do a trans filter, plan and fluid swap this summer. I just picked up a 2011 Suburban 4wd with the 6L80e. I've had the dorman pan (with drain plug) new filter and 12qts of Maxlife waiting. I def don't want to remove the exhaust and the dealer welded a new flexpipe to the catted ypipe so I can't disconnect it either now.

Its the 3 manifold nuts at the flange that have to be removed...
Not the back part of the exhaust
When you pull down the Y pipe with cats, it gives you enough
room to remove the pan..
My 2014 was definitely not this frickin difficult.. But I suppose
that was over 6 years ago. Then I did headers & Y pipe so the problem
doesn't exist anymore. Just pull the pan right on down !!!!
I'd do headers on this 2013, but kooks headers & Y pipe are now well over
$3200 for the 2 part numbers

tom3 · May 11, 2026

I did mine at just over 30k miles and those exhaust bolt were really tight. Seems like they must have been torqued to about 70 flbs. One an older vehicle with some rusty studs that would be really a pain.

hagar · May 12, 2026

I use a long pry bar and leverage the exhaust down while slipping the pan out.

Meathead16 · May 13, 2026

For dropping my tranny pan I found that if you take off the gear selector cable assembly, the metal retaining tab (well.. bend it anyway ha), and remove the pass side heat shield, and pull the exhaust in the appropriate direction, there will be just enough room to drop the pan a little bit, then swivel it in place 90°, and then it'll slip right down and out like butter.
This was on my 03 AWD, may or may not work for yours, but hope it helps.

rdezs · May 13, 2026

hagar said:
I use a long pry bar and leverage the exhaust down while slipping the pan out.

That's exactly what all the shops do... A 24-in long pry bar, under the crossmember and on top of the pipe just below the pan. Either have a second person hold the pry bar upward, or to doing it by yourself you can use a ratcheting strap to keep the tension up on the pry bar.... I've also used the floor jack to push upward on the pry bar and hold it in place. You only need to flex the pipe down about an inch.

Foggy · May 13, 2026

Well... The problem of the trans pan removal/install is done

I had to remove the driveshaft, sway bar, oil filter to get access to the
1 remaining nut on the left side... Had to cut/grind it off including the stud
to get the exhaust down. The 1 remaining nut on the right side I was able
to get with the appropriate deep style nut extractor.

I don't know who put the one on and what the heck it's made out of..
but I tried and broke 8 dremel cut off wheels before I just
to a larger hd 3" cut off wheel to it.
Was able to get most of the nut ground away from the stud... but still no dice

Now I just have to fill it up with trans fluid, oil, filter
and then clean up every tool ever built by man.
Then Pull the Exhaust Manifold to put 1 new F'n Stud in it

All this for a trans service...

OR VietVet · May 13, 2026

Foggy said:
Well... The problem of the trans pan removal/install is done

I had to remove the driveshaft, sway bar, oil filter to get access to the
1 remaining nut on the left side... Had to cut/grind it off including the stud
to get the exhaust down. The 1 remaining nut on the right side I was able
to get with the appropriate deep style nut extractor.

I don't know who put the one on and what the heck it's made out of..
but I tried and broke 8 dremel cut off wheels before I just
to a larger hd 3" cut off wheel to it.
Was able to get most of the nut ground away from the stud... but still no dice

Now I just have to fill it up with trans fluid, oil, filter
and then clean up every tool ever built by man.
Then Pull the Exhaust Manifold to put 1 new F'n Stud in it

All this for a trans service...

The fun in living in a salt on the roads state.

strutaeng · May 13, 2026

Those exhaust nuts are always really tight. I'm guessing they self-tighten from the heat cycles and rust?

We don't have general rust here, but those are always kind rusty. I've even tried copper anti-seize and the next time I did them on one of my trucks within maybe 6 months they were really tight again. And they'll usually pop and let got once you finally break them loose...Heating them up is the only thing that works somewhat, along with an impact (pneumatic seems to work better IMO).

I once had an LS exhaust manifold that came with an engine I was swapping, and one of the bolts wouldn't budge. I broke it. Then welded like 3 or 4 nuts to try to extract it and nothing. It was like the threaded stud was part of the manifold. The weld just fractured at the interface. I thought maybe the heat cycles change the metallurgy of the metal? Anyway, I had to go find myself another manifold to use.

Foggy · May 13, 2026

OR VietVet said:
The fun in living in a salt on the roads state.

Crazy thing is this Yukon is spot free/ rust free in and out !!!
I wonder if some tech was mad and tightened it to 140 lb ft when it was
serviced last !!!!

rdezs · May 13, 2026

2014 Escalade.... No rust anywhere.... Four of the six came out no problem. Two were stubborn. A large breaker bar with a pipe to extend it further did the trick. Twisted and snapped the studs right off. Good excuse for two new exhaust manifolds.

DaveO9 · May 14, 2026

I got lucky in doing my engine swap - all the manifold flange nuts came off without too much of a fight. You can get good access to one or two each side if you remove the wheel skirts. But what really worked best was a 15mm impact socket with a wobble adapter behind it and then enough extensions behind that to attach my heavy air impact. that and a lot of PB blaster.

Foggy · May 15, 2026

Well, I tried a different stud extractor after I had to cut the nut/stud combo off.
And it worked. So I don't have to pull the whole manifold. I was able to
install a new stud on that crazy one. Then all new nuts of course.
Pulling the driveshaft, Oil filter, sway bar and heat shield gave me 'just' enough
room to get the stud puller in.
Front driveshaft went to local driveline shop for new U Joints and Balance.
One expense I wasn't planning on. And of course all the days of working on this
mf'er to service the transmission

I did new Oxygen sensors while they had to be out. They were the originals.
I used new GM genuine parts for the O2's

Then when all that was done... I had to change out the new defective thermostat.
Got on a test drive today .. Running right at 188*-190*. So perfect.'
Trans runs quite well too with very good temps

West 1 · May 15, 2026

Long battle but success, way to stick with it.

opfor2 · May 17, 2026

buckwild27 said:
Yes use a 2" ratchet strap loop it over the pipe and back down to the transmission or transfer case cross member so the ratchet is on the cross member and start slowly pulling the exhaust pipe down. This is how I do it every time.

Any pictures?

buckwild27 · May 17, 2026

opfor2 said:
Any pictures?

No sorry, and I'm driving the duramax because the transmission went out of the other truck. So I can't even get you a picture.

Foggy · May 17, 2026

opfor2 said:
Any pictures?

Nope.. I'm bad at that . i used to be able to post right from my phone pics to this
website, but last year it quit working. I don't really have the umph to go thru a
3rd party app to post. sorry

buckwild27 · May 17, 2026

there's nothing to it just get a 2" wide ratchet strap that you can hook the end of the strap over the strap side of the ratcheting part. Throw it over the exhaust pipe right above the transmission cross member hook it together underneath the cross member pull it tight and slowly ratchet it down until the pan will clear.

I forgot what a PITA it is to drop the transmission pan NEED HELP w 2 Manifold Nuts

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