1998 GMC K1500 Suburban Vortec 5.7 4WD
It looks like I've got leakage at several points around the oil pan. It’s not terrible right now but its annoying and for sure it won’t get better whit time.
I've done some searching and it seems like the common consensus is that the engine has to be lifted up in order to get the pan off of the 4wd versions.
As I’m looking at it, there seems to be two problems for removing the pan.
1) There are these two rods that connect to the engine and transmission. On the engine side the mounting bolts of those rods cover one of the oil pan bolts on each side.
2) While it looks like the pan can be lowered quite a bit (4"-5"), I doubt there is enough room to completely remove it.
That brings me to my questions;
Has anyone successful replaced the oil pan gasket just by lowering the pan?
How much force are those two rods holding? Would I need to brace up the transmission, the engine, or both if I were to remove them, or at least remove the bolts to get access?
I don’t have the means to lift up the engine so that’s out of question.
I’m just a regular Joe trying to fix what I can on budget.
Please share if you have any experience.
Thanks.