Originally Posted by Snappy

First off, I tried to search and found a lot on turbos and engine swaps and whatnot. No luck.

Bottom line - is there something out there that attaches to the engine to lift it up without having to remove the intake manifold?

I have a 2000 Silverado with a 4.8L. A cat went out and I installed a set of Dynatech headers with the cats. I'm in an area in Texas where they are required and I would run them anyway. The crossover pipe from the driver's side to the passenger collective needed a lot of motivation to not hit the trans crossmember and not leak. Now that's taken care of, but the passenger side headers are tapping the frame causing false knock and a O2 sensor heater malfunction code...odd, but I changed the sensor and the brand new one says the same thing. Anyway, I figured after 140,000 miles it may have worn out the mounts, so I swapped the tranny mount. Not hard to do, but I think it made it worse because now the tranny is higher. So, to go after the engine mounts...$350 at a shop, or I could rent a lift/engine hoist and do it myself. I actually rented a hoist and brought it home before I read the manual saying there isn't a bracket to hoist the engine on the V8's. It says something about casting lugs but I can't for the lift of me figure out what they are or how they would hoist the engine. So, my question is how do I get the weight off the engine to change the mounts without having to buy the plate that installs where the intake manifold is? I don't really want to strap my headers and lift it by them - is there a better option?

On future mods - I'd like to keep the original engine, and may bore/stroke it to an iron 383. I'm tempted to do a 6.0L swap, but can't convince myself to chunk the 4.8L - sure, I could swap in a low mile unknown 6.0L or even 5.3L engine and keep the headers, but after going to a machine shop and making sure it was solid I'd be in about as much as the 383 - I think. I'd like to go with e fans, I have a cold air intake waiting to go on until after I sit down and play with my new GTech meter and will toy with tuning. Plus bigger tires, after my 2" lift in the front I can get 32s. My dad has a a TrailBlazer SS and wants to do e fans as well and may go with 3.73 gears over the stock 4.10 for better mileage, so I'd get some good use out of the HP Tuner software. If I get all crazy and sneaky I may tune my '03 Z06. I promised the wife I wouldn't tinker with it too much. Anyway, I'm rambling - think you can help?