OP
OP
Chooko
Full Access Member
At long last, I was able to work on the Tahoe today!
I recently started a new job, and I've been living in a hotel since the end of March, and away from home, so obviously unable to do any work. Today I installed the new head unit, and got the wires run most of the way to the back for the rear view camera that I'll be installing at some point in the near future. It looks great, and sounds even better. Wireless Carplay is worth ALL the effort. While I was in there I also added a bunch of acoustic foam, and more Killlmat under the dash. In particular I Killmat'd the back side of the panel that's at your knees when you drive. Hopefully all this sound deadening is worth it.
Once that was done, I jacked the Tahoe up again, got underneath it (wearing ear protection!) and had my wife start it several times trying to verify where the oil leak was coming from. I noticed some leaking around the %^&*&%ing adapter that you have to use with the Milodon oil pan. I tightened all of those bolts up a couple of more times, and finally got that to start leak, and I thought for a few minutes that maybe I was going to get lucky and not have to replace the main seal. Alas, it was not to be. It started ******* oil all over the place again once it got hot and I knew that I'd be pulling the transmission. I got to work, and like most things that you do for a second time, it went pretty smoothly. I even managed to get all of the bellhousing bolts without pulling off the intake manifold. I wasn't to bad when I let the engine/transmission hang down and back, and then used about 3 feet of extensions to get tot he top bolts. Once it was out, i pulled the flex plate, and could see that, sure enough, the rear main was not square (round?) on the crank snout. I'm sure that the plate that holds it got pulled slightly as I #$%^'d with that #$%^ing Milodon adapter which bolts into it from below and through the flange of the oil pan. Tomorrow I'll be installing a new seal, with the tool holding the plate in place as I tighten the @#$%ing Milodon adapter. Then I'm going to put everything together, and see what I'm deaing with.
A couple of questions:
1. Is there any way to test the seal before I put everything back together? I'd like to start it with the transmission pulled, and verify that the seal is holding. But I'm not sure if the car will even start, or if there is some other reason why that isn't a good idea?
2. My fans aren't coming on. I really don't know why because they were working great before I pulled the car apart. When I installed the new tune in HPtuners, and started the car for the first time, it appeared to me that the fans were being commanded to on, so I don't think its the tune. What is the best way to troubleshoot/fault isolate the fans?
3. We started the car several times over the course of about 45 minutes, and it got up to 210 degrees on the coolant temp. Then I gave it a solid hour or more to cool off before i started working on it. The headers were cool, the oil pan was cool, but the starter was so hot I could barely touch it. I managed to hold onto it long enough to get the bolts out, and get the connectors on the back off, but it was HOT! WAY hotter than I'd expect for a starter, really ever, and certainly after the amount of cool off time I gave it. I had only disconnected the battery a couple of minutes before I pulled the starter, and the heat of it made me suspicious that the starter was drawing current all the time, just sitting there, but on the other hand the car just sat for 2 months and the battery was good, so I don't think anything has been drawing that shouldn't. The starter is an aftermarket MSD. Anyone ever experienced this? Does it seem normal?
I recently started a new job, and I've been living in a hotel since the end of March, and away from home, so obviously unable to do any work. Today I installed the new head unit, and got the wires run most of the way to the back for the rear view camera that I'll be installing at some point in the near future. It looks great, and sounds even better. Wireless Carplay is worth ALL the effort. While I was in there I also added a bunch of acoustic foam, and more Killlmat under the dash. In particular I Killmat'd the back side of the panel that's at your knees when you drive. Hopefully all this sound deadening is worth it.
Once that was done, I jacked the Tahoe up again, got underneath it (wearing ear protection!) and had my wife start it several times trying to verify where the oil leak was coming from. I noticed some leaking around the %^&*&%ing adapter that you have to use with the Milodon oil pan. I tightened all of those bolts up a couple of more times, and finally got that to start leak, and I thought for a few minutes that maybe I was going to get lucky and not have to replace the main seal. Alas, it was not to be. It started ******* oil all over the place again once it got hot and I knew that I'd be pulling the transmission. I got to work, and like most things that you do for a second time, it went pretty smoothly. I even managed to get all of the bellhousing bolts without pulling off the intake manifold. I wasn't to bad when I let the engine/transmission hang down and back, and then used about 3 feet of extensions to get tot he top bolts. Once it was out, i pulled the flex plate, and could see that, sure enough, the rear main was not square (round?) on the crank snout. I'm sure that the plate that holds it got pulled slightly as I #$%^'d with that #$%^ing Milodon adapter which bolts into it from below and through the flange of the oil pan. Tomorrow I'll be installing a new seal, with the tool holding the plate in place as I tighten the @#$%ing Milodon adapter. Then I'm going to put everything together, and see what I'm deaing with.
A couple of questions:
1. Is there any way to test the seal before I put everything back together? I'd like to start it with the transmission pulled, and verify that the seal is holding. But I'm not sure if the car will even start, or if there is some other reason why that isn't a good idea?
2. My fans aren't coming on. I really don't know why because they were working great before I pulled the car apart. When I installed the new tune in HPtuners, and started the car for the first time, it appeared to me that the fans were being commanded to on, so I don't think its the tune. What is the best way to troubleshoot/fault isolate the fans?
3. We started the car several times over the course of about 45 minutes, and it got up to 210 degrees on the coolant temp. Then I gave it a solid hour or more to cool off before i started working on it. The headers were cool, the oil pan was cool, but the starter was so hot I could barely touch it. I managed to hold onto it long enough to get the bolts out, and get the connectors on the back off, but it was HOT! WAY hotter than I'd expect for a starter, really ever, and certainly after the amount of cool off time I gave it. I had only disconnected the battery a couple of minutes before I pulled the starter, and the heat of it made me suspicious that the starter was drawing current all the time, just sitting there, but on the other hand the car just sat for 2 months and the battery was good, so I don't think anything has been drawing that shouldn't. The starter is an aftermarket MSD. Anyone ever experienced this? Does it seem normal?
