csyvarth

I was recently told by my mechanic that my upper and lower pan gaskets along with my valve cover gaskets need to be replaced. He told me that it is labor intensive as the engine needs to be removed. What I would like to know is if anyone has gone through this and the approximate cost.
Thanks, Charl

Vetteman Jack

Moved to C5 Tech.

Tron Z

I'm not saying that it's right, or wrong, but removing the engine sounds like a whole lot of extra work to me. If it were me, my preference would be to lower the subframe for clearance, rather than removing the engine.

Either way, it's a time consuming repair. Dropping the subframe to perform the repair would easily take the better part of a day. Pulling the engine would likely add another day to the project ... assuming that everything goes perfectly. Broken exhaust bolts and hardware could easily add an additional several hours.

If you have a manual transmission and are in any way concerned about the condition of your clutch, then removing the engine makes a lot of sense. Adding a remote clutch bleeder also makes a lot of sense. Even if you don't have a manual transmission, rubber Giubo joints don't last forever! In fact, it's amazing that some of them last +/-20 years. We never saw anything like that out of the Giubo joints on BMWs and those engines make far less torque.

csyvarth

Thanks so much for your reply. I will mention this to my mechanic, but I am also looking to get an approximate cost. I love the car but am also retired on a fixed income and hoping to hang on to her, but she is losing quite a bit of oil.

Supercharged111

Your mechanic should be able to give you an idea of the labor cost. He'll have a program that tells him how many hours to bill you for. Just be sure you're sitting down when he responds. This oil you're losing, is it leaking or being burned? Most any car is going to weep some if the gasket is still original, that you can live with.

Smoken1

First thing I would do is clean it all up and add some dye to your oil to actually find your leaks. The lower pan gasket is easy enough to check and to see if they have loosened up. I would also take a good look and make sure it is not just oil being blown back from a leaking front main seal.

csyvarth

It is leaking, stains in my driveway are proof. My mechanic will have an estimate for me on Monday, I was just trying to find out from some one who has had this done an approximate cost so I know I'm not being taken. Thanks so much for getting back to me.
Charl

csyvarth

Thanks for getting back to me. Dye was put in and the leaks were detected on both the upper and lower pan as well as the drivers side valve cover. I am really hoping to get a rough idea as to the approximate cost just so I know I'm not being taken. Again thanks, Charl

cdee63

I had mine done at C&S Corvette in Sarasota. Did it removing the cradle, engine was not pulled. Valve cover gaskets are a simple job, I just did mine in the back yard 2 days ago.

spfautsch

Just went through a pan gasket replacement myself.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...r-edition.html

Just a side note, if you're not willing to do the work yourself, you have less than a leg to stand on when worrying if "you're being taken".

Valve cover gaskets are an easy afternoon job.

Upper oil pan gasket is not.

Also I would want to confirm whether or not the rear main seal is leaking because when it does the oil runs down the back of the rear cover and then around the outside of the oil pan gasket frame, and it can be hard to tell where the dye is actually originating from.

Edit: Also, the engine absolutely does not need to be pulled to replace the oil pan gasket. The rear main seal is another story. Best to ask for details...

Tron Z

Prices and pricing strategies are a bit nebulous.

Chevrolet stores will likely indirectly base their labor hours on the warranty time guide. But, since warranty times are notoriously less than generous, they will probably double the warranty time for a quick in and out job and price big jobs at 1.5x the warranty time. Then of course the dealers are going to have multiple labor rates. At a minimum, one for warranty, one for customer pay and one for menu items, such as oil changes and quick maintenance type items. Some stores will even have matrix pricing, but this is more common at the very large National dealer organizations, such as AutoNation and Sonic. Additionally, the labor rates will of course vary dramatically across the country.

Independent shops will not have access to the Chevrolet warranty time guide, because they will of course not be doing warranty repairs for GM. Instead, they will have a subscription to Chilton"s, or Motor's for their time guides and repair manuals.

When the shop presents the estimate to you, simply ask how they derived the charges. In addition to the aforementioned references, if you are dealing with an one-man operation, he may say, "I've replaced the pan gaskets on a dozen C5's and it takes me x hours to do the job." Any of these responses/references are OK, so long as the shop has a good reputation and you trust them. If they can't give a reasonable explanation of how the charges were derived, without a bunch of jargon which doesn't pass the "straight face test," then this is a red flag.

cdee63

As far as cost I dug up my invoice. $3600 which was pan gaskets R&R, harmonic balancer R&R with the shop supplying the Summit balancer, crank seal at front cover, engine mount R&R, mounts I supplied.