Ok you gear heads, help me out here. My neighbor has a 99 rcsb 4x4 with a 5.3. He says in the morning that the truck has no oil pressure at idle till the truck warms up. He has to keep his foot on the gas for it to have pressure. My questions are #1. He called the local dealership here and they said that his vin is saying that he has some special bolt pattern 5.3 that was used in the early years??? Can he just get any 99-07 5.3 and swap out, I have never heard of this bolt pattern thing execept in the headbolts being a little different around 03/04. #2, if we decide to just swap the pump how difficult is it to drop the pan on the four wheel drive models vs the 2wds. Thanks in advance Nick....

 

You just need to loosen and almost unscrew all the oil pan bolts, then take off the front accessories/water pump/timing cover . Then you will be able to change the oil pump, the hardest part is getting the new oring / pickup tube inserted. But it can be done.

The oil pumps generally dont wear out, they are gear driven, i bet its the older style faulty o ring isnt sealing correctly. I believe the new o ring is green.

I havent heard of a diff. bolt pattern for the 99 5.3

Good time for a cam swap while you are there!

 

Thanks Tim... this is his work truck that he bought new and has pulled a trailor about every day for the last 12 years. It has over 300k on the motor so I doubt that he is gonna be intrested in a cam swap, lol...So how much will the pan drop, I thought the crossmember had to be dropped to do this job?

 

Man for the money you will have in parts i would just find a low mile 5.3 and swap in. You'll be further ahead, they can be had for 5-600$.

 

Wild thing here is we have had two oil filters fail in the last 2 months with two different trucks. One was a Wix and one was a delco in two different trucks. One was a 2000 yukon and the other was a 2000 truck. Same type of problem too, could have sworn the press. relief stuck.

Changed the filter on both and problem was gone. One was starting to hammer a bit on the top end even!

 

If yall are sure the engine in it now is in good condition and the bearings aint gone then i would drop oil pan clean it out good. Remove all front engine items and balancer pull the front timing cover and replace oil pump and pickup tube o-ring, and put a new timing set on it.. Just take your time with everything.. Does the engine use oil or smoke now?

 

Wow man thats crazy.

I could understand if it was a crappy Fram filter, but i hate hearing it was a wix and a delco, the only two kinds of filters i run!!

Good point though for the O.P. TJ, good outta the box thinking !!