Oil leak on 5.3 Sierra

Joined
Jun 4, 2005
Messages
1,108
Location
North Florida
I have a friend who has a bad oil leak on his 2006 5.3 GMC Sierra with over 300,000 miles. I crawled under it to take a look and after wiping off the bottom of the engine I could see a steady drip coming off of the starter when the engine was running. The starter is mounted about halfway up the bellhousing on the passenger side. The only place I can think of that would cause a leak above the starter is the valve cover on that side. I checked the bolts on the valve cover and they were all tight. Does anyone have any experience with a similar leak? If it is the valve cover gasket, do you have to remove the intake manifold on a LS engine to change the gasket?
 
The valve cover gasket on an LS engine does not need the intake manifold removed. Pretty straight forward/easy job. The old gasket pulls out of a "channel" and the new one presses in. Very quick, clean and easy compared to the old days of scraping off old gasket material.

I would look up torque specs and sequence, from what I remember when I had mine off (many years ago) on my LS6 in my `03 vette to do valve springs you will be amazed at how nice this engine is to work on.
 
I replaced my valve cover gaskets on my 02 5.3 Yukon a few months back while changing the intake manifold gaskets, like zfast03 says, it is an easy job. Just buy quality gaskets. Look closely at the valley pan gasket, and especially the the oil pressure switch, which can also cause a leak in that area.
 
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