2004 Tahoe - Time for a new engine and transmission?

firsthere · May 20, 2024

Hello everyone, I recently joined the forum hoping to get some insight into the best route to refresh the ol Tahoe.

As a little background, we have an 04 Tahoe 4x with a 5.3 (gas only) with 194k . It's had a cracked head (or two) since we bought it at 118K. Been adding coolant for the past 10 years and now's as good a time as ever to replace the engine and possibly the transmission while its in the shop. I could do it myself as I have done several motors on cars, tractors, and Motorcycles, but what I'm worried about getting a bad reman and having to do it all over again, so a shop warranted replacement is our thinking for now.

I did a compression test and found 170 PSI on 7 cylinders and 140 an cyl. number 8. Had the valve cover off as it now has a ticking from #5-7 area but could not find a broken spring or anything out of sorts other than, one coolant leak near the center head bolt and ugly oil residue all over the head and valve train. Overall the engine runs good just a little low on power.

The transmission runs fine, I have done the filter and 4 quart ****** fluid changes as scheduled so no problems there so far. While the motors out I plan to do the pump rub fix on the transfer case and look into u-joints while at it.

Any comment s or other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Big Mama · May 22, 2024

Welcome to the forum from Virginia. This post will gets lots of answers so hang tight. Some questions might be: do you want to have more power than stock? More gears from your trans? Etc..

strutaeng · May 22, 2024

Sounds like a good plan. Regarding the transmission, that's probably an independent transmission shop so you can also get a warranty. I wouldn't think any shop would do both engine and transmission in-house (it would be great if there was such a place though.)

OR VietVet · May 22, 2024

If you trust the engine shop and they are giving you a warranty, they likely have a transmission shop they like to do business and can recommend to you. My neighbor recently did a reman Ford crate engine and was gonna do a Ford crate transmission but transmission was months out. My shop owner friend and myself knew of a good transmission shop in town with a good reputation. They did the transmission and $16k later, the engine and transmission are done, along with many new components for the engine and transmission. It was in a 2006 F150 with a 5.4 engine and a 4R75W transmission with 137k miles on it. The customer could not be happier and the truck runs great.

If you like the 2004 Tahoe and it meets your needs and it is not all rusted up, you will be money ahead over the long haul. If you buy new, get the Brinks truck backed up for payment. If you buy another used, you have new surprises to look forward to.

Welcome to the forum from Oregon.

tooleyondeck · May 22, 2024

Consider that for what you are about to pay for a shop to build and swap in a crate motor, and another shop to rebuild your transmission, you could probably buy a newer vehicle. That's got to be close to, if not over, $10K

OR VietVet · May 22, 2024

tooleyondeck said:
Consider that for what you are about to pay for a shop to build and swap in a crate motor, and another shop to rebuild your transmission, you could probably buy a newer vehicle. That's got to be close to, if not over, $10K

That is why I said, "Buy another used and get surprises, lower mileage or not". And I said, "if meets your needs and not a rust bucket and you are not just wanting another/different vehicle", do the engine and transmission. If the current one needs an engine, at the least, you will get crumbs for money for it. You will not be buying much of a vehicle for $10k, that can do what the existing truck does.

Raptor Tahoe · Aug 25, 2024

OR VietVet said:
That is why I said, "Buy another used and get surprises, lower mileage or not". And I said, "if meets your needs and not a rust bucket and you are not just wanting another/different vehicle", do the engine and transmission. If the current one needs an engine, at the least, you will get crumbs for money for it. You will not be buying much of a vehicle for $10k, that can do what the existing truck does.

I would go with the engine and transmission… my 07 has almost 250K miles and is still running strong. I am planning on a Chevy rebuilt 5.3L, 4L60e, and transfer case (installed by a local trusted mechanic) this fall just to avoid any downtime when the original engine gives up.

Then, a quick trip to the tuning shop! I considered looking at other Tahoes, but prices were too high and I didn’t want other people’s problems. I know my Tahoe quite well and it runs great.

Good luck with your project!

GreenTahoe2004 · Monday at 12:27 PM

firsthere said:
Hello everyone, I recently joined the forum hoping to get some insight into the best route to refresh the ol Tahoe.

As a little background, we have an 04 Tahoe 4x with a 5.3 (gas only) with 194k . It's had a cracked head (or two) since we bought it at 118K. Been adding coolant for the past 10 years and now's as good a time as ever to replace the engine and possibly the transmission while its in the shop. I could do it myself as I have done several motors on cars, tractors, and Motorcycles, but what I'm worried about getting a bad reman and having to do it all over again, so a shop warranted replacement is our thinking for now.

I did a compression test and found 170 PSI on 7 cylinders and 140 an cyl. number 8. Had the valve cover off as it now has a ticking from #5-7 area but could not find a broken spring or anything out of sorts other than, one coolant leak near the center head bolt and ugly oil residue all over the head and valve train. Overall the engine runs good just a little low on power.

The transmission runs fine, I have done the filter and 4 quart ****** fluid changes as scheduled so no problems there so far. While the motors out I plan to do the pump rub fix on the transfer case and look into u-joints while at it.

Any comment s or other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

If your transmission is still functioning, you may want to just take it to a reputable local shop to have them inspect it and renew components. My 2004 Tahoe required $1400 of repair work at 190k and another $1600 at 373k in addition to routine maintenance.
Regarding, the 5.3 …. Hard to say. I have 472k miles on my original 5.3 liter Flex fuel engine (replaced water pump at 260k and radiator at 300k). Regardless, consider using the longer oil filter. I switched from the Mobil 1 M1-107A to the longer M1-206A after 190k. The change seems to have worked better for the past 280k miles. I tended to trip the high pressure bypass at 3500 miles on the shorter 107A filter. Newer Tahoes have filters similar to the longer 206A albeit with metric threads rather SAE.

2004 Tahoe - Time for a new engine and transmission?

firsthere

TYF Newbie

Big Mama

Full Access Member

strutaeng

Full Access Member

OR VietVet

Multnomah Falls

tooleyondeck

Full Access Member

OR VietVet

Multnomah Falls

Raptor Tahoe

GreenTahoe2004

TYF Newbie

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Latest posts