Oil pan removal on 99 C1500 Sub?

How much hassle is it to drop the oil pan on a 99 5.7l C1500 ?

At 230k miles I am considering dropping the pan for a fresh gasket and inspect the oil pickup screen.

Distributor gear looks brand new, and it looked brand new 2 years ago when I did the intake gasket. So I think the oil pump gear is a-ok.


I tossed around the idea of swapping the pump for a high volume one but I think thats not really necessary. Hot idle, the dash reads 20 psi. Maybe 18psi on the worst summer day. That sounds fine to me.

Or maybe its a good idea, after all, can all the armchair mechanics on the internet be wrong?

As long as the gasket is not puking oil all over, leave well enough alone. You open it up you WILL be opening a big can of worms.

So now I need to worry about worms all over the pick up screen .

redfishsc said:

So now I need to worry about worms all over the pick up screen .

Click to expand...

Yup, big ones, almost snake like....lol..

But seriously... if it ain't leaking I wouldn't worry about it....

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Fair enough gents, I appreciate your advice. It's not too hard to talk me out of doing more work right now lol.

redfishsc said:

How much hassle is it to drop the oil pan on a 99 5.7l C1500 ?

At 230k miles I am considering dropping the pan for a fresh gasket and inspect the oil pickup screen.

Distributor gear looks brand new, and it looked brand new 2 years ago when I did the intake gasket. So I think the oil pump gear is a-ok.


I tossed around the idea of swapping the pump for a high volume one but I think thats not really necessary. Hot idle, the dash reads 20 psi. Maybe 18psi on the worst summer day. That sounds fine to me.

Or maybe its a good idea, after all, can all the armchair mechanics on the internet be wrong?

Click to expand...

I guess you are lucky that's a 350 V8 with those many miles.but if you are going to pull that pan.make sure you replace the pump.

A Mellon pump.one that ups the oil pressure.some.for some milage engines they may have a special pump.for the engine.replacing that pump.is the thing to do.check out youtube.

I wouldn't say I'm lucky, there are lots of these trucks with 350s with well over 350k miles. Probably on their second or third transmission and second head gasket but still.

Had to do this 12 years ago when my old 99 vortec 5.7 suburban needed a timing job. The timing covers on these are plastic and need to be replaced when doing the service. Be sure you move the crankshaft position sensor over to the new cover. You have to drop the oil pan to get the cover off, so l started to do that. My truck has the towing package so it has the oil cooler lines and the boss they attach to (what the oil filter mounts to). IIRC all that needs to move, then l went to get the pan off. There's a windage tray in the pan,and one bolted to the main bearing caps. These were catching on each other and l had to pull the motor mount bolts out and jack the engine up a couple inches to get everything out. Put a premium silicone gasket on it, put it all back together, torqued to specs and it started leaking a year or two later. Just kept driving it and checking the oil and it went on great till it got wrecked 5 years later. Sorry to be so long winded but you can see why l didn't want to go through that twice....

Gotta wedge some silicone in the corners of the main caps and oil pan or it will **** oil even with the premium gasket.