RENAMED!! The adventures of Chase and his 2006 Yukon XL Denali!! Follow along on my travels!

[adventurenali92]

At any rate I knew opening up the oil pan was going to suck. I didn’t even know if I could do it on my own. mechanic, and buddy Chris both told me I could handle it. It would suck and it was going to test me and be difficult but just keep at it. So I gathered all the necessary parts, in addition I decided to tackle the timing cover seal because I knew it was leaking. I also realized well the pickup tube is attached to the pump and the pump is right behind the timing cover. Absolutely don’t wanna do this job twice so I may as well just do it all in one job. Watched tons of videos, gathered tools and man did I hate every minute of this job……

So when I finally managed to get the oil pan out, after fighting the diff and it not coming of the truck despite being completely unbolted from the truck, I got my first look at the inside of the oil pan. Not a single flake of metal and I was surprised to find almost nothing where “dirty engine sludge” is concerned. Like the oil pan was clean except for the dirty oil. lol.

 

[adventurenali92]

And unbolted the pickup tube…. The minute I got it out I knew it was the cause of my low oil pressure….. I still don’t know why the shop that did the o ring used entirely the wrong o ring…… especially when I brought them the right one to begin with… like I’m amazed that with this o ring installed, that my engine had any oil pressure at all for the last three years…. It doesn’t look like it failed, it wasn’t flattened out or cracked or torn. But nowhere near as thick as the red one on the new tube. And in addition I could see it had wiggle room on the tube and didn’t sit flush and secure where the new tube and new o ring was snug and didn’t move around at all on the pipe….

 

[adventurenali92]

Definitely could see why the timing cover was leaking…. Half the gasket literally fell off as I pulled it away from the block. I was surprised that getting the new oil pump installed was pretty straight forward.

 

[adventurenali92]

New oil pump in

 

[adventurenali92]

Oil pan clean and new gasket in proper position ready to go in. I knew it would be a difficult maneuver to get in with the diff still in place but I took my time and wiggled it up slowly and steadily in one shot, and then put the jack stand under it to hold it in place a couple inches below the engine mount so I could reach up and dab RTV into each corner. I think that sort scared me the most of the whole job and it went relatively smoothly. The rest of the reassembly fought me and many many loudly yelled swear words happened in the process lol.

 

[adventurenali92]

New timing cover gasket….. so smooth lol

 

[adventurenali92]

Threw new valve cover gaskets in, did the passenger side a couple weeks ago when I had a few spare minutes, and then the drivers side before the disassembly of the oil pan. Was having a weird little oil smoke under certain driving and figured it’s been close to 75k since the valve cover gaskets were replaced. Can’t believe how easy it is to swap out valve cover gaskets on these engines. Put new rubber grommets on the valve cover bolts as well since the came with the new gaskets this time around.

 

[adventurenali92]

Moment of truth hit yesterday evening after filling the Nali back up with oil and coolant. He fired right up even after sitting in the garage for three weeks. AND….. GOOD OIL PRESSURE!! Thank god!!

 

[willinnashville]

Son, I would have been a salty MFer.....

I feel for you removing that oil pan to get to that O-ring. I did exactly the same thing last year and it was not a pleasant job lying on your back. Your adventure with the other O-ring is exactly why I did mine myself, also despite having zero experience and dreading it. Just like yours, mine turned out OK too. Glad you got it fixed. Sucks that it needed to be done more than once