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June 12, 2011 8:20 p.m. Dusterbd13 Reader
IO love this forum due to all the different kind of guys here. ive worked on a lot of cars, and most of them are fairly straightforward, though. this one has me puzzled. i posted over on LS1 tech a day or two ago, and never got any help. so i copied it instead of making a completely new post. i suck at typing, and ot takes me a while.....

im definately new to f-bodys. fairly familiar with the LS platform due to trucks and corvettes though. im not a wizard by ANY stretch of the imagination. my primary wrenching has always been muscle cars, GM TBI trucks, and wiring.

anyway, my brother has a 2001 trans am WS6. automatic if that makes any difference.

we need to do some service work to this thing, and i have it scheduled to fill up a bay in my shop next week.

he needs an oil pan gasket, tune up, and a few other things that i cant think of right now. im trying to help him out due to him being my brother and his current life troubles, and not put much money ito these repairs.

the two biggest questions i have right now are:
1. how do i change the pan gasket on this thing? it almost looks like i have to pull the motor, but there has to be another way. ive got a 4 post drive on lift, so i can get under it really easy.
2. how do i change the rear two plugs? i cant even see the dang things. looks like id have to go in from under the dash....
so, any advice you can send my way would be greatly appreciated. hes owned this car since new, and its pretty much all he got out of the divorce. id like to help him keep it going a little longer.

and i did try google and the search, but i never could find anythiong that really showed me what i was looking for. the whole searching thing is tough for me due to all the specific nomenclature, etc that every forum has.

Michael
June 12, 2011 8:46 p.m. Ranger50 HalfDork

You can either pole jack the balancer with the engine lose from the kmember or pull the motor.

The plugs are an underneath deal or get the stubby plug socket from up top.
June 12, 2011 8:51 p.m. Dusterbd13 Reader

so im either pulling the k-member or the motor? no other way? or am i misreading due to fear and i can loosen the motor mounts lift the motor, ans stuff the bad boy in?
June 12, 2011 10:07 p.m. Nitroracer SuperDork

I haven't done the oil pan gasket, but I did change the plugs and wires on my 98' camaro last month. I was able to get to every spark plug from the top but my arms did look like I got in a fight with a cougar for a day or two.

Pull the air injection tubes to gain a little room, they have metal gaskets that can be reused.

Biggest issue was the rear-most plug wire on the passenger side. I pulled the coils as a unit, installed the wire onto the coil, and then onto the plug from under the car. I think it took me two hours overall, which is not what I was expecting from what I read on the internet.
June 13, 2011 9:52 a.m. itsarebuild Reader

if you have a 4 post lift just drop the k member with the engine on it. i have never done it, but from the tv shows (powerblock stuff) it seems like that is the best way to do anything on these cars.
June 13, 2011 10:54 a.m. hrdlydangerous Reader

I think what Ranger50 is saying is to unbolt the motor mounts and then use a pole jack on the harmonic balancer to push the engine up enough to get to the pan gasket. Even if you drop the K member and engine the pan is no more accessible than it was in the car. You'd need a cherry picker to hold the engine while you dropped the member.
June 13, 2011 4:06 p.m. DirtyBird222 SuperDork

the back two plugs are way easier on your wrist if you take the coil packs off the top of the valve cover gasket. To get those off it's 5 10mm bolts, but if you are dropping the whole engine to change the oil pan gasket you can just get them then lol. Also you might as well change the rear engine cover seal and rear main while you are at it. The rear engine cover seal is prone to leaking all the time and it could jsut be that which is leaking. If you do decide to do that, once you have it all bolted up and lined up with the oil pan, I personally put a bead of Hondabond (or you can use the GM equiv, i just have a ton of hondabond) around the rear engine cover seal so if it does leak again it won't ruin another one of my clutches.