Advice on oil pan and rear main seal gasket job

[shippster]

First of all, thanks for all those that dedicate their time and knowledge here.

I am a teacher and have spring break off from work and am thinking of tackling the oil leaks in my 2002 2WD 5.3L Tahoe. I took it to the local shop for something else and had them verify where the leak is coming from and they said oil pan and rear main seal.

My questions are:

1. Is this job so much work I should forget about DIY'ing it? For reference, I have changed gaskets on valve covers and intake manifolds (upper and lower), steering gears, power steering pumps, water pumps, alternators, a fuel pump, etc. but never lifted an engine or removed a transmission.
2. Any advice on being smart about the approach to doing both of these? For example, I am sure you can change both by lifting the engine, but that would probably not be the easiest way.
3. Anything else cheap I should look at changing while I am in there doing this job?
4. Any good resources I should be looking at? I have access to alldatadiy.com for this vehicle and have used youtube, should that be good enough.

 

[SnowDrifter]

It's a pretty extensive job to do the rear main. Trans needs to come out. Best done with a friend. 2 if you don't have a trans jack. You might look into changing your "barbell" while you're in there. It's under the rear cover gasket which comes out to do the rear main anyway. You can get to the upper bell housing bolts from otherneath with a bunch of extensions and u-joins. Some prefer to take off the intake manifold. YMMV

Oil pan should be fairly easy being that you have 2wd. No front diff in the way. Drop the cross member and go. While you have that off, look into replacing your oil pickup tube o-ring.

 

[shippster]

You might look into changing your "barbell" while you're in there. It's under the rear cover gasket which comes out to do the rear main anyway.

I've found the oil pan pickup O-ring and the gaskets/seals at rockauto, but could not figure out what the barbell you are talking about it. Anyone know a different name for it? Is it any of the parts on this diagram, or which parts is it between? https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fus...E&Title=Chevrolet-Tahoe-LS-V8-5.3- Liter-FLEX

I also found a video where the guy has the car up on 4 jack stands, pulled the tranny for other work, then did oil pan, pickup gasket, rear main seal and gasket in that order. Seemed doable if I can get the transmission off. I have a transmission jack I can borrow from a friend. Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[Erickk120]

https://www.amazon.com/Billet-Barbe...7-9-LQ4-LQ9-4-8L-5-3L-6-0L-6-2L/dp/B078YZRBL9