Well finally got some time to change the pan gasket, took my time and really checked things over while I had it apart. Pulling the front diff was rather easy, much easier than I thought it would be but I do have a lift and a trans lift also which made it much easier than it would have been laying on my back.
The one thing that got me the first go around was the pan gasket in the oil cooler line area requires mods for our trucks. I picked up the gasket from the local GM dealer and they looked it up by the VIN so I’m fairly sure the gasket is correct for my truck. My truck has a raised area where the oil passages are for the cooler so it requires that the gasket go around this area. The gasket I picked up had this area filled with the metal section and two holes that stacked on top of the already raised area. This prevented the pan from seating to the block. Once I realized that the oil pan was not seated fully to the block I pulled the pan and found the issue with the gasket. I pulled the oil gasket and set the old and new one side by side, you could see that the old one had the area that had the two holes removed so I did the same to the new gasket. The area where the two holes are is attached to the outer section with rubber so it’s easy to modify to fit. I’m sure glad I noticed this before getting everything installed and full of oil, that would have been a mess.
Cleaned everything up and got it all back together, filled her up and let if run on the lift for a good while, NO LEAKS glad to get that done.
OH, I replaced the oil pump pick up since I had the pan off and there was a little build up on the screen. The pickup was $20 at the dealer and they had one in stock so I changed it while I was at it.
If I had not taken the time to clean everything and change the pickup I probably could have done the whole job in 4 to 5 hours.
Neal

 

Thanks for the tip. Look at all the $ you saved yourself.

 

Yeah, I did a search on the forum before starting and seen some of the prices that are being charged to do this work which made me think this job may be larger than expected but it really isn't.

Neal

 

You really save $$ and time henderson chevrolet dealership in las vegas charge me to replace the oil pump 1780.00 with a discount my "advisor" said, they keep the hummer 4 days, good joob by handling your own repairs !!

 

I know I'm replying to a rather old posting, but it's worth setting something straight so no one else makes the same error.

The OP describe his oil pan was raised up near the oil ports and his gasket would not seat properly, so we cut that section out of his new gasket to make it work. What do you experienced is on the factory gasket, when you remove it along with the two rivets it frequently separates from the section that goes around the two oil ports that go down to the cooler fitting. It will be stuck on fairly well. However a simple plastic scraper will pop it off and then your new oil pan gasket will properly reseal that area. That is definitely not the spot you want to rely on an old piece of oil pan gasket.