Oil pan gasket and pickup tube seal replacement

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JonnyTahoe

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I just tightened them until they felt tight enough. They hold a tin baffle tray they don't need to be real tight.
 

JonnyTahoe

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On this motor I believe you have to drop the transmission and a plate comes off above the pan for the rear main seal. From what I recall my old LT1 was a bit different (easier) but that was 15 years ago lol I this stuff is like once in a decade work for me.
Yes Trans has to come off fun times with that job will have to wait until we get some warmer weather like months before that's going to happen.
 

JonnyTahoe

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You don't need anything in those rivet holes anymore to keep the gasket from moving around. The new gasket (as shown above) grips the bolts a tiny bit and holds them in place while lifting up the pan.
I never put any bolts in the pan holes before lifting the pan up to the motor. Looking back on it that would of made the installation go much faster.
 

Matthew Jeschke

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Darn i forgot to take a picture. I am curious the dumb gray wire loom clips. They are all broke where thr harness attaches to the tranny cooler lines and oil pan. Curious where can you buy those things?

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JonnyTahoe

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Darn i forgot to take a picture. I am curious the dumb gray wire loom clips. They are all broke where thr harness attaches to the tranny cooler lines and oil pan. Curious where can you buy those things?

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You might be able to find them at your local auto store.
 

Matthew Jeschke

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I found a few thing prob should have been done better than others i saw do in videos...

I did use the gm part for rtv, 10-2010. Perdon who did mine before used regular rtv and this is where ot leaked.

I put in ONLY the small screw, i think there are 12 of them. Torqued them to thr 18ft lbs and let setup for 24 hours. Then i put in remaining screws after rtv had setup

I cleaned thr mating surface with scotch bright and rasor (very careful with rasor). Then went over with 100% alcohol so as to leave no residue.

I applied rtv straight to engine bock.. on BOTH front and rear covers. You will see the seam on block this is where rtv goes.

When complete i couldnt spin oil pump so i filled filter with oil then put filter on. I then pullled fuze to injectors and fuel pump relay. Turned engine with starter by taping start position about 3 or 4 times. Scarey as hell at startup it still took about 5 seconds to build oil pressure.

Let engine idle till heat soak then searched for more leaks. None found. So far so good.

Hope these extra notes help :)

Bonus, while down there with pan off i actually had room to work. I see guys taking off oil baffles, repalacing pickup tube oring, cleaning oil pan inside, etc. My opinion is if it aint broke dont fix it. However at this time your wiring harnesses at bottom are easily accessable. I insoected mine and rebuilt the looms as they were decentegrating. I had only a short time before seeing bare wire and shorts. I would encourage focusing on this instead of removing harmess oil varnish. Some ppl also say is easier to do engine mounts at this point too, mine were fine. Look and inspect things made accessable by removal of oil pan. My 2 cents.

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Matthew Jeschke

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There is a black wire guide which screws onto the front of the oil pan. I'm trying to find a parts diagram with that in it or picture or something to determine if it's installed correctly. I believe it has the power cable to turn over the starter, and then the oil sensor lines etc. Does anybody know what that's called and or have a picture of it installed correctly... I just have one bolt for it.
 
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Matahoe

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There is a black wire guide which screws onto the front of the oil pan. I'm trying to find a parts diagram with that in it or picture or something to determine if it's installed correctly. I believe it has the power cable to turn over the starter, and then the oil sensor lines etc. Does anybody know what that's called and or have a picture of it installed correctly... I just have one bolt for it.


Hey Matt. I would start another thread for further questions (no matter how related they may seem) This is my thread. You'll get more visibility with your own I assure you. A service manual has all the pictures you need. I'll give this one to ya but I'm pretty tired answering questions that can be answered easily with a service manual subscription or via a quick Google pictures search. :)


115161177.gif
 
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JonnyTahoe

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I found a few thing prob should have been done better than others i saw do in videos...

I did use the gm part for rtv, 10-2010. Perdon who did mine before used regular rtv and this is where ot leaked.

I put in ONLY the small screw, i think there are 12 of them. Torqued them to thr 18ft lbs and let setup for 24 hours. Then i put in remaining screws after rtv had setup

I cleaned thr mating surface with scotch bright and rasor (very careful with rasor). Then went over with 100% alcohol so as to leave no residue.

I applied rtv straight to engine bock.. on BOTH front and rear covers. You will see the seam on block this is where rtv goes.

When complete i couldnt spin oil pump so i filled filter with oil then put filter on. I then pullled fuze to injectors and fuel pump relay. Turned engine with starter by taping start position about 3 or 4 times. Scarey as hell at startup it still took about 5 seconds to build oil pressure.

Let engine idle till heat soak then searched for more leaks. None found. So far so good.

Hope these extra notes help :)

Bonus, while down there with pan off i actually had room to work. I see guys taking off oil baffles, repalacing pickup tube oring, cleaning oil pan inside, etc. My opinion is if it aint broke dont fix it. However at this time your wiring harnesses at bottom are easily accessable. I insoected mine and rebuilt the looms as they were decentegrating. I had only a short time before seeing bare wire and shorts. I would encourage focusing on this instead of removing harmess oil varnish. Some ppl also say is easier to do engine mounts at this point too, mine were fine. Look and inspect things made accessable by removal of oil pan. My 2 cents.

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If your Oil Tube/Pump O-ring ever goes bad your going to wish you replaced it while you had the Pan off. We are cleaning the oil pan and related parts because we all have OCD.
 
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JonnyTahoe

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Hey Matt. I would start another thread for further questions (no matter how related they may seem) This is my thread. You'll get more visibility with your own I assure you. A service manual has all the pictures you need. I'll give this one to ya but I'm pretty tired answering questions that can be answered easily with a service manual subscription or via a quick Google pictures search. :)


View attachment 215996
Great Diagram.
 

Mr T

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HELP! I've been doing the same job to my '08 Denali 6.2L. Loosened the steering linkage for it to drop, removed the axles but that much of a drop for the differential still wouldn't let me get the pan out. Thus, I removed the front differential. Was able to have free access to clean out the block and pan and apply RTV on the corners and front and back.

My troubles is I have the pan back in, all connections made and steering linkage in tight and right. Used thread lock on those as I saw it on there when I removed each long bolt. HOWEVER, I am really struggling how to get that differential back into its proper position. I don't have a lift; I do have a son helping me jack the differential while I try to teas it into position. I ran out of strength and am calling it a night. I just couldn't figure out the right angle to get it to slip in. Does ANYONE know how to angle it when lifting the front differential into position? I know you let the passenger-side hang low at first, but do I twist it? Any suggestion would be very welcome!!!
 

Matthew Jeschke

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HELP! I've been doing the same job to my '08 Denali 6.2L. Loosened the steering linkage for it to drop, removed the axles but that much of a drop for the differential still wouldn't let me get the pan out. Thus, I removed the front differential. Was able to have free access to clean out the block and pan and apply RTV on the corners and front and back.

My troubles is I have the pan back in, all connections made and steering linkage in tight and right. Used thread lock on those as I saw it on there when I removed each long bolt. HOWEVER, I am really struggling how to get that differential back into its proper position. I don't have a lift; I do have a son helping me jack the differential while I try to teas it into position. I ran out of strength and am calling it a night. I just couldn't figure out the right angle to get it to slip in. Does ANYONE know how to angle it when lifting the front differential into position? I know you let the passenger-side hang low at first, but do I twist it? Any suggestion would be very welcome!!!
Hrm... i ran into a little trouble but not much...

I supported the pumpkin part of diff with jack. Another person SLOWLY raised jack as i held diff in alignment.

We had to raise and lower a couple times to get it right.

I first put in top most bolt then fiddled with jack to get lower bolt in.

Lastly torque tube...

I left all bolts completely loose. Just enough threads on nut to hold nut on. Once everything fit i tightened things up..

Oh and if you took steering arm appart.... you will want to redo with castle nuts or red locktite. You dont want that puppie comming apart on you.

Last note i still have a leak. I think seal on my front cover is also compramised :(

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SnowDrifter

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Five seconds without oil pressure is not scary.
Speak for yourself! I about shit myself waiting for the queue time after doing anything major. Seconds feel like hours to me until everything normalizes. Start the thing. Tick. Did it go right? Tick. Hope I didn't **** something up. Tick. Oh **** did I tighten this bolt? Tick. Nothing's happening. Should it be happening? Oh jeez oh man!! Tick. Phew everything's alright
 

Mr T

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Hrm... i ran into a little trouble but not much...

I supported the pumpkin part of diff with jack. Another person SLOWLY raised jack as i held diff in alignment.

We had to raise and lower a couple times to get it right.

I first put in top most bolt then fiddled with jack to get lower bolt in.

So you don't require any special angle or lifting? Perhaps what isn't working for me is I thought it had to be slid up into the pocket at a slant then rotated somehow. Last night was painful as I was worn out after all the work was done and this sucker weights at least 75 to 100 lbs.
 

Matthew Jeschke

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So you don't require any special angle or lifting? Perhaps what isn't working for me is I thought it had to be slid up into the pocket at a slant then rotated somehow. Last night was painful as I was worn out after all the work was done and this sucker weights at least 75 to 100 lbs.
Nope goes straight up and in. Mine had a tendancy to not want to stay aligned. So i had to hold it level as guiding it in. It likes to droop to the one side.

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Matahoe

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My guess would be the oil sensor. I think i had same problem way back when on my camaro. Actually felt it would be hard to mess up the job... but interestingly was way easier on the camaro.

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Well here is the much needed and helpful news all of you have been waiting for!

(spoiler alert) What I can tell you is that my leak is not from any of the sensors I removed. those were dry. Ok...read on.

So in a nutshell this is was I did today:

Basically I raised the front on jackstands and took a really long 3 hour look at the pan. That's all. Pretty much just got under and starting looking from the front of the pan..working all the way back trying to see where the leak started. Because as you know when you are going down the road the wind blows the oil backwards... into the bell housing area. That is exactly where I found the droplets forming and falling to the ground. But the oil was on both sides of the bell housing. Not good in my opinion.

I looked and looked ...pretty much looked at everything I worked on or touched.

What I found was a bit confusing to me. It turns out that the first 90% of the pan was dry. I didn't see any leaks on the pan (wish i would have took pics). But the back 10% of the pan was wet.

I also must mention that I first checked he whole front differential assembly as i was crawling up under from the front. The whole assembly was completely dry. Guess I did a bang up job on replacing those seals.

Now I looked back too the row of bolts at the rear part of the oil pan. They were all wet. I had to remove the starter to see if the crank sensor was leaking or not. Nope, dry. Tried to look up to a highest point. I looked all around the pan. Everywhere above the pan sealing surface was dry. In desperation I removed the flex plate and torque converter inspection covers (those round stainless covers). No leaks found under those. The torque converter was dry and so was the flex plate. big relief...but now i am worried the pan gasket is definitely leaking. Crap...it's the only thing left. No sensors leaking, oil filter not leaking, rear main seal not leaking....nothing else left to blame.

I gave up for the night. In desperation I threw in a small bottle of ACDelco fluorescent oil dye so the leaks would show up next time under UV light. I also tightened up a few of those rear oil pan bolts. probably over tightened a few im sure.
 
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Matthew Jeschke

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Well here is the much needed and helpful news all of you have been waiting for!

(spoiler alert) What I can tell you is that my leak is not from any of the sensors I removed. those were dry. Ok...read on.

So in a nutshell this is was I did today:

Basically I raised the front on jackstands and took a really long 3 hour look at the pan. That's all. Pretty much just got under and starting looking from the front of the pan..working all the way back trying to see where the leak started. Because as you know when you are going down the road the wind blows the oil backwards... into the bell housing area. That is exactly where I found the droplets forming and falling to the ground. But the oil was on both sides of the bell housing. Not good in my opinion.

I looked and looked ...pretty much looked at everything I worked on or touched.

What I found was a bit confusing to me. It turns out that the first 90% of the pan was dry. I didn't see any leaks on the pan (wish i would have took pics). But the back 10% of the pan was wet.

I also must mention that I first checked he whole front differential assembly as i was crawling up under from the front. The whole assembly was completely dry. Guess I did a bang up job on replacing those seals.

Now I looked back too the row of bolts at the rear part of the oil pan. They were all wet. I had to remove the starter to see if the crank sensor was leaking or not. Nope, dry. Tried to look up to a highest point. I looked all around the pan. Everywhere above the pan sealing surface was dry. In desperation I removed the flex plate and torque converter inspection covers (those round stainless covers). No leaks found under those. The torque converter was dry and so was the flex plate. big relief...but now i am worried the pan gasket is definitely leaking. Crap...it's the only thing left. No sensors leaking, oil filter not leaking, rear main seal not leaking....nothing else left to blame.

I gave up for the night. In desperation I threw in a small bottle of ACDelco fluorescent oil dye so the leaks would show up next time under UV light. I also tightened up a few of those rear oil pan bolts. probably over tightened a few im sure.
I still have a leak but not from the pan. There is oil on my starter. Just ever so little bit of oil. And also oil coming down onto rear of bell housing. It is not enough to drip but is there and lights up w my dye i put in.

I didnt know about sensor above starter. I may have to check that. Thanks :)

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Matahoe

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Your leak description is exactly like mine. Perhaps because we used RTV or we put it on the wrong area. That waffle looking area might actually be a symbol to not put anything on that area? Who knows.

The instructions did say to use a specific sealant. When I had the pan off I checked both the block machined surface and oil pan surface to see if they were 100% flat. The pan was a bit off. Didn't think anything of it. I was hoping the gasket would fill in any gaps.
 

Matthew Jeschke

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Your leak description is exactly like mine. Perhaps because we used RTV or we put it on the wrong area. That waffle looking area might actually be a symbol to not put anything on that area? Who knows.

The instructions did say to use a specific sealant. When I had the pan off I checked both the block machined surface and oil pan surface to see if they were 100% flat. The pan was a bit off. Didn't think anything of it. I was hoping the gasket would fill in any gaps.
I cannot find a single leak anywhere on the oil oan tho. It appears to be coming from higher on mine. I had kind of woundered if perhaps is leaky intake gasket. But i cannot see back of engine to confirm. My leak is so slow i am just ignoring it for now.

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