horrible weekend

[mooneyes 89]

well,after all the testing and trying everything,i concluded that my timing chain needed replacement on the 89 s-15 4.3.dove into the job saturday morning at 10-it's now sunday night at 8:30 my time!i had the timing chain on by 3 saturday,and thought i was almost done!WRONG!you have to jack the motor up 4",pull the exhaust,and all kinds of other fun stuff to get the oil pan down enough to replace the gasket!if i had known you had to virtually pull the motor out,i would have went ahead and put a v-8 in!this is most horrible experience i have ever had in my life working on what should have been a day job!i don't know how many of you guys can feel my pain,but if you don't have a shop with a lift,i would definately not recommend this job at all-take it to a mechanic!i'm still not done-this will bleed into next weekend,i'm certain!the ambient temperature here is 100-i look like a lobster,and feel like i just fought godzilla and lost!what was i thinking?old-school chevrolet small blocks take about 3 hours max to do this job on-gm really screwed that up!the biggest problem is getting the flywheel/torque converter out of the way in order to remove the oil pan!THIS SUCKS!

[wrenchead3]

Dude,don't hunt me down and kill me but there is a trick to it.You only have unbolt the first 3 bolts on each side of the pan at the front.I think it might be real beach to try and explain.It can be done " if you know the trick".I might be able to draw you a pic in MS Paint if you think it might help.Trust me, I know your pain.If you want the pic let me know, all I can do is try dude.

[mooneyes 89]

i promise i won't hunt you down and kill you!i'm not a 'tard-in fact i used to be a mechanic!but this has me badly beaten-it hits the exhaust no matter how you move it-it just will not come out for me!if you know a trick-do tell!PLEASE!thanks,scott

[wrenchead3]

Why dont you pm so it dont suck up space.

[wrenchead3]

You still here dude or did it truck get ya? If you wanna MSG me it will take me min or so so to get it set it.It's been a few years for the msg 4 me.Never called ya a tard either.I've been doin this 4 23 years and I still get brain farts.

[Tink]

mooneyes 89, is your truck 2wd? I replaced an oil pan on an 89 S15 4.3L 2wd... and I agree, I would have been better off swapping in a V8!! I pulled the motor up 3", Hacked off the y-pipe and still did not have enough clearance to get the oil pan out! Ended up dropping the tranny to do the job. I definitely feel your pain...

We've have also done the timing chain on our 91 Blazer... but, being 4wd, we dropped the front diff and it was super easy to remove the oil pan. But wresling that front diff back in was no fun either... :knockout_

[mooneyes 89]

yes-it is 2wd-i,in my frustration-contemplated sawing off the y-pipe!glad you told me that didn't work before i created more expense!i used to be a mechanic,and have built street rods,race cars,etc!the last time i put a timing chain set on a small block it took two hours,start to finish!i feel like i have been raped and tortured!you say i gotta pull the tranny now?i might as well-the only thing holding the motor in now is about 8 bolts between the engine and trans-i tried jacking trans up-no habla!thanks for your response!