Howdy Ya'll

I have searched endlessly looking for anyone else to post about pulling a 2002 5.3 motor from a Tahoe and yet to find anything. Well I feel like I am the first.
So far I have one bolt left left and 4 bolts left on the motor mounts, wiring harness is all disconnected.
I discovered the intake has to be removed to get to some of the bell housing bolts.

I must say as a 26 year heavy mechanic with surgeon quality hands that working on this Tahoe is extremely frustrating. What a huge engineering nightmare, one thing is for sure and that is the designers did not take into consideration that one day someone might have to work on this nightmare.

I have owned this since it was new and it has leaked oil from the day I bought it back in 2002. Now a days it will leak 2 quarts every two days running or not.

while prepping the motor for removal two of the exhaust manifold bolts simply snapped off just by me putting the socket on the bolt, Now I have broken many bolts off in my day from applying to much in order to remove a bolt but this is a all time first of just putting the socket on the head and the bolt coming off in my fingers, How lovely
Next the bell housing is already missing 2 bolts at the top that are just gone.

I have had this since new and it has bolts missing that connect the motor to the bell housing. I know How lovely again.

Today a friend asked me how it was coming with the motor and I summed it up pretty good I think by saying that working on a 2002 Tahoe trying to remove the motor is like,, well imagine you have 500 bolts to remove and every one of those bolts requires that you use precision while holding a wrench in a odd position and can only turn the bolt a fraction of a turn then while bent in a awkward position that is unbelievably uncomfortable and extremely difficult you then have to flip the wrench in a new position only to turn the bolt another fraction of a turn... OK now imagine for every 500 bolts there are 12 to 15 bolts just like that one that also are as difficult to remove only to get to that one bolt.

I would be interested to see or hear what other people are doing do pull the same motor.

This is nutts

For crying out loud GM had the intake bolts made so that they do not even come out. Yes thats right the intake bolts can only be loosened and are made into the intake. That should be fun trying to put the intake back on with new fresh gaskets with the long bolts hanging up on the new gaskets since they are made into the intake. What a joke

Yes the 5.3 is a screamer of a motor and has alum heads but for Christ sake what a nightmare to work on.

Why cant everything just be as simple as a 24 valve cummins diesel?

btw
am pulling the motor in a last ditch effort to replace all seals and gaskets to try and put a stop to the endless oil leaks.

LOL

Crazy
Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated.

Negative replys are also welcome and if you are local and super angry at my post you can come by the shop and punch me in the stomach.

 

Holly folks

Gm has made it clear that they did not take into consideration that someone might work on there product.

OK so I have logged about 8 hours of labor so far just to pull the motor.

Everything is wrong with this design, its truly a mechanics worst nightmare.

In the future, and I already have other people who have 01 to 06 Tahoes who want me to do the same service lined up, I gotta say It's gonna be 3000 in Labor alone to do another one of these.

So the motor is pulled and so far nothing has been damaged, Still scared as **** that for some reason the check engine light will be in my face when I have everything put back in and running.

I have decided to go ahead and change the knock sensors sense they are buried in the motor.

Here are some pics of the motor after I got it pulled.


I think it's amusing that no one has chimed in yet and I think that is because no one has ever done what I am doing. Again I have searched endlessly for someone else pulling a motor from a 2002 Tahoe, all of the post that I have ever found were BS guys talking about prices for a new motor.
Which to me means a bunch of soft hands.

So folks if you want me to pull the engine from your 2002 Tahoe it for sure will now have a solid price of 3k and up depending on what you want done.
LOL


Like anyone in the northern 48 can afford that. Ha


Here are some pics

 

Some pics only because I cannot find any other pictures of a engine pull on the world wide web. So here is a first.

2002 Tahoe motor pulled on a engine stand.
Started pulling the motor on 10-11-2014

Have about 9 hours of labor so far to get the motor out safely and put on engine stand.


Does anyone know what the labor rate is for a R&R for this motor?

I feel like talking on this forum you all are still looking at me like a dog that just got shown a card trick. Clueless

hmmmmm

 

While I have removed and reinstalled engines in old Corvettes, I can't even think about what it would take to do what you did. Good luck.

 

Thanks

today spent 243.00 on all new oil gaskets, timing cover, oil pan, rear main seal,valve cover, intake, exhaust manifold, oil pan gasket. you name it.

May the Force be with me.

 

Nice bike.

Yeah, what Shark said. I've pulled my share of motors - 81 Regal (to install a GN motor), 71 Nova, 73 Ventura - but my head would explode trying to get my arms around pulling the motor from one of my Burbs.

I have three teenagers, and, fortunately, a well-paying job. I don't have the time, and I do have the money, so, God forbid, if I ever need to pull the engine, I'll be paying someone to do it.

 

Well Hello all

Thanks intheburbs .

I'm not sure though I would trust a mechanic to do this job, This motor is built like a NASA rocket ship, it's basically a little hot rod motor the way that the crank journals are made. The motor looks to be built to with stand serious RPM's but it's for sure frustrating at first but now its all coming together.

The front timing cover and front main seal have to be put on with the harmonic balancer because the harmonic balancer is used to align the front timing cover and front main seal, With all of the bolts in the front timing cover and front main seal would still move around, NOT good because if tightened down the front main seal could be to far over to create a proper seal on the harmonic balancer. This is a reason I would not want a mechanic to do this, Could have been over looked. The same goes for the rear main seal.

This motor had me using my brain the entire time to insure a proper seal, but we shall see when the motor is running.

Another issue that I was able to remedy fairly quick was that since the motor sits so far back and the front bumper is so far forward the engine lift would not reach to the motor. And my forklift forks also were not long enough so I found some scrap square tubing and was able to make a 1ft extension for the engine lift. Worked out perfect and I made sure to keep the load inside of the wheels of the engine lift.

Today Saturday OCT 18th 2014 I finished with the last part of the new gaskets and seals and put the motor back into the Tahoe and have so far bolted the motor back to the Tranny and put the bolts into the motor mounts, Now just the small stuff left, power steering pump, water pump and exhaust and so on.
BTW I had 3 exhaust manifold bolts that broke off in the Alum heads. Two I got out in no time and the last one fought me the whole way but got it cleaned up and re tapped to 8M-1.25 and for me the trick was using a good carbon steel tap and a lot of patience with several size drill bits.BTW had a few of the drill bits break off in the head which each time meant 20 to 30 mins extracting. FUN.When drilling the broken bolt I would put each drill bit in another bolt hole and mark its depth so I would not go to far into the motor. I went ahead and used the tap to clean all of the other threads as well.
The Oil pan, front timing cover, water pump, and rear seal cover and intake and intake tray are also all M8-1.25 so there is a lot of tap cleaning to be done. Thats 40 or 50 bolt holes to clean with the tap.
I Have worked at many shops in my day and unless the mechanic is a close family friend I seriously doubt a Mechanic would take the time to do the job correctly. I just don't see it happening. Not too mention I really don't think there are many mechanics out there with the know how either. I am not trying to say I am a expert but after nearly 20 plus years of working with all kinds of mechanics I just don't see another mechanic doing a thorough job.

Anyhow I ordered a exhaust manifold stud and bolt kit for the exhaust, hopefully this will reduce the chance of bolts breaking off in the head when installing the exhaust manifolds and hopefully I can tighten them down a tiny bit more, Just have to see if the nut side threads are fine, if so I should be able to get a tighter seals.

So far I have been working on this off and on for about 1 week now and I hope to have everything finished tomorrow evening. Only waiting on the stud kit to come in.

Since the Tahoe was down I went ahead and had the holes in the drivers seat repaired. I took them out and ran them up to the upholstery shop and had them repaired using vinyl instead of leather and it looks great great, just kind of expensive.
The drivers seat frame had a nasty crack in it so I pulled it out and put a decent little weld on it and it looks really good now..


Again I am posting my progress as I go only because I have not been able to find anyone else on the NET who has ever posted about pulling a 2002 5.3 motor from a Tahoe.

 

Pics of the seat crack and weld.

Engine lift extension.
The square tubing came off a semi truck in the back yard. Was a old toter truck for mobil homes and this square tubing is from the long extendable mirrors. Worked perfect for the engine lift.

 

WOW

That was a huge job. Ok so if anyone in the Dallas,TX area wants the same service done I will do it for 2500 to 3500 depending on how many bolts break off and have to be extracted.

Got everything back together tonight Oct 20th.
She runs and idles amazingly smooth.
Most importantly NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS :-) Only issue is I cannot reset the change oil light.

So I pulled the motor and replaced every seal and gasket on the motor without pulling the heads or crank and it took me about 25 hours or so maybe 30 and 8 days. I also had some upholstery repair done on the drivers seat.

So the Tahoe runs amazingly smooth now, No oil leaks.

My hands are so sore I can barley type.

Anyone attempting this please feel free to ask any questions.

Again for some reason the motor idles so smooth now.

Fresh synthetic oil with fresh coolant and distilled water.

Good night

 

Fun project? surprisingly the work is not really difficult but having the right tools makes the job a whole lot more manageable