"Midnight Rider" 1970 C10 SWB Fleetside

[omodified]

The piece I have been waiting on to help me install the oil pan arrived. Everything I read about sealing an LS motor says alignment is critical. The front and rear covers depended on the oil pan and other tools for critical alignment. However, there are no tools to help align the oil pan correctly. GM says oil pan alignment for my application is critical due to the fact that the 4L80e transmission uses two mounting holes on the oil pan. So, all mounting holes have to be on the same plane to prevent cracking on the oil pan and/or the transmission case. The only option I had handy was to mount the transmission to the engine and I'm not ready for that right now. So, I found a used bellhousing on Ebay from a 4L60. This made things much easier to work with.



First, I removed the oil pan so I could clean the mounting surfaces really good. GM and Holley both recommend that a small bead of RTV is used on all four corners where the front and rear covers meet the block. Once everything was clean and dry, I used Permatex in the prescribed areas.




Put the pan back on with a new gasket. I lubricated the oil pan mounting bolts and installed them all hand tight.





Engine is back on the lift.



Bellhousing installed. I very lightly torqued the bellhousing bolts to draw the oil pan even with the rear engine mount plane. Then I torqued the oil pan bolts to GM spec.



Removed the bellhousing and put the engine back on the stand. Last thing was to seal it off with a new oil filter.