The link for the gasket is for your monte. But if you check RockAuto.com, they have a couple others like it. Just ensure it is a metal core gasket.

As for changing trans fluid every 30K, that might be a bit over board. I believe the GM recommends every 100K (unless you do a lot of up hill driving). BUT, I also know these transmissions do have a history of issues. You won't go wrong changing it more frequently, but I think you might be spending a lot of money and not getting a good enough return. Unless someone more knowledgeable on these transmissions weighs in, I would suggest stick with 50-100K. BUT, if you are comfortable with the cost of doing it every 30K, all good, you won't hurt anything.

Also..... A piece of advice I learned. Start a spreadsheet to track your maintenance. Log the date and mileage a service was done. Any notes, such as part brand, length of warranty and where you bought it. I began doing that YEARS ago and thankful I have.

 

Thanks, I will order that gasket, always good to have quality parts that will last. 30 is probably overkill, but I also change my oil every 3 months regardless of how often I drive it simply because I just like to baby it and make sure its taken care of. I dont drive it far or often, i probably drive 4K miles a year so if i changed it every 30k miles that would mean i would only have to chnage it every 7.5 years, although i wouldnt let it sit that long, probably chnage it regardless every 2 years. Both of those gallons of trans fluid were only $34 at walmart so thats not too bad. Autozone wanted $30 for one.

I dont do a lot of hill climbing, Michigan is relatively flat so thats good, but I would still change it just to make sure its taken care of properly. I've heard about all the issues with these transmission and I remember reading that when they made the 4T65-E's they didnt use great quality parts, so at some point when mine goes bad and I have it rebuilt, I'll have to let them know that info so they dont use the same OEM parts.

as for the spreadsheet, yeah I learend to keep track of that stuff too haha, theres just soooo much to keep track of with a car its impossible to remember it all, I got a google sheets spreadsheet made up of all my repairs, additives, filter chnages, washes etc.

 

Look at you, going into this with all your ducks in a row. very impressive assortment of automotive and personal safety gear. The tools will be essential to successful execution of the immediate task and yet great to have for years to come, nicely played. The experience you will gain from having bloodied knuckles, greasy fingers, occasional use of choice words (me, often use of them) will be mentally self-gratifying (mechanical savvy) as well as financially beneficial. Looked over all you purchased, jack stands look robust with teeth and pins, nice, going to need that peace of mind when laying under 1.75 tons of metal. Me, I always use 8 under the car, guess I want that fail factor integrated into the equation. Car gets rocked and misplaces a stand, perhaps the 2nd one catches the shift. Guess I'm spooked as I had a car fall on me 40 years ago, but there was a 2nd person involved who kept jacking the car up on the side of the road as I was getting the fan belt back on, then plunk it comes down with compression but rebounded as the tires were still on, otherwise it would have been uglier than a split lip. I have to chuckle, it is a lot of work arresting the rust, going to be ugly, but a necessary evil. You have waaay to much time to be able to keep records like you are presenting, okay okay, you use your time efficiently, that is perfect, cost analysis like that. I dont even want to know about my costs, just pay the bill and throw the invoices into a folder. probably half a house in there. But yeah, extensive tools, materials, good job, its almost show time for you, weather breaks soon.

 

Thanks! I still have a few things here and there to buy yet, today I bought a borescope that i will use to see inside my rocker panels and other parts of the car that i cant see with my eyes, I will post videos and pictures of my findings with it. I replaced my multifunction switch the other day so I understand about bloodied hands and swearing, I did plenty of that while replacing it LOL, also nicked my hand on the metal part under the steering wheel haha, but I got the job done and my new switch works beautifully. I was thinking of buying more jack stands as well but im not sure, I don't believe there's such a thing as being too safe, especially with something like this, if that car falls on you, thats it, your life is over, so I dont want to take those risks. Your experience is pretty scary, It would be a long time before i ever got under a car again if that happened to me haha, if ever again.

I made a video detailing everything I bought so far, including some new stuff.

 

So I tried my new ramps out today and they work great! I took some pictures under the car and the vast majority of it is rust free, just the rear end and som spots here and there are rusty, but nothing serious so this wont be anywhere near as hard as i thought. I have a really bad feeling about whats under those rocker guards though. While I was under there I did notice my transmission pan was missing some bolts, at least 2, you can see them missing in the pictures below. What size bolts do i need to replace them? and where can i get replacements?

 

Will comment more later, have to get out the door. But the bolts I'm think may not be missing, but the heads broke off from a previous filter change, perhaps not, hopefully not, yikes. But if so, you get to learn how to extract a broken bolt, and possibly cut new threads to a bit larger size. Poke something up in there and see if it goes in deep or not to see if bolt is still in there. Be back later, out the door now.

 

Thanks for mentioning that, I didnt even stop to think they could have broken off. So I just went and put the car back on the ramps and crawled under and looked directly into the holes and the bolts are in fact, just missing, not broken off thankfully. it is only just 2 bolts also. Thankfully a simple fix. All i have to do is just source some new ones. I'm thinking maybe i should just replace them all.

 

Honestly, the underside looks pretty good! The rocker panels might be fine, but without taking the ground fx off, it's tough to know for sure.

Now, the trans pan, you can take any of the bolts of the pan, go to the hardware store and match it up. Odds are they won't have flange bolts (like the factory), so a bolt and washer are fine. Only on my blue Monte (not my daily driver), I have become addicted to stainless steel hardware (my blue Monte has a small fortune in stainless hardware lol). Next time I drop my trans pan, I have the vented aluminum pan from ZZP that also has a drain plug, that will go on the car.

I did notice areas with brake lines to keep an eye on (potential leaks about to happen). Brake/fuel line rot is ALWAYS the worst where the brackets are that hold the lines on the car, and it sucks, because most of the lines look fantastic. If you do decide to replace them, the stainless set I used, fantastic OR you can deal with other lower cost options (for fuel line, I would use nylon replacement material and for brake lines, get tubing and hand bend it all and Eastwood sells an awesome brake line flaring tool).

 

Yeah i was surprised too, this was the first time seeing the car from this angle, im pretty relieved. I'll buy some wire wheel brushes for my drill and just touch up areas to get rid of all the rust then use the degreaser, then the metal prep, then the por 15. I think i actually may have enough as the area in front of the car doesnt need to be done because thats where the engine is and the aluminum subframe. I'll probably do as much spots as i can in the engine bay, like the battery area but other than that it should be all good.

As for the brake lines, that may be a little out of my scope, im not too confident i could do it. I think i will pay belle tire to do that one. If i had a lift then i would try it but using ramps and a or a jack, that will be more difficult. I will ask them if they can use stainless steel, also maybe I can paint the new brake lines with por 15, is that a good idea or not? im not sure if brake lines get hot or not. I would like to use stainless steel stuff as well, anything that doesn't get rusty is always good haha.

 

So, the brake and fuel lines, if you go with stainless lines, they do NOT need coated. Good grade stainless will not rust. The ones I put on my monte (that were pre-bent), got put on as is. And those prebent ones worked very well, the real pain was snapping them back into the plastic guide that is around the top of the driver side front wheel (fyi - that is where they might be in the worst condition). Outside of that, pretty easy. Now, I admit, I say that because I was doing the job on a lift (definitely helped) and I have some experience on this job from doing it for years. I am not sure if a local shop will work with stainless. I will also tell you, I had to re-flare a stainless brake line and that went fine, but good luck doing anything with the stainless fuel line (too stiff). BUT, you can also use modern nylon fuel line.

I completely understand you being nervous to do brake and fuel line repairs. Honestly, I usually relied on those pre-fabricated pieces the parts stores sold. Then I was having a friend help with me who was experienced with flaring line (that was what intimidated me). He finally looked at me and said "you try". He explained it, step by step, I did it, and he checked it out and said it was perfect. And it was. Since then, I had not done much with fuel line, usually it's brake line. But I am NOT bothered by it anymore. And learned some tricks. A good trick, to avoid the line bleeding out all your brake fluid, find something to hold the brake pedal down. Nothing worse than flaring an existing line and having fluid dripping all over you. Also, you don't always have to replace a line front to back. On my dailies, I usually find only half the line is bad, so I run a new line from one end point to where the factory line is still good and put a union. Also, I feel doing these lines is an art. Some are hacks and how ever they can do it quickly (leaving the old rusty lines) and others remove the old lines and try to keep factory routing. I try to be as factory as possible.

Because you seem very serious in learning (which is fantastic, knowledge is power), I would suggest get a piece of line (I buy a coil from the stores) and mess with it. Brake line is easy to hand bend, fuel line, not so much (as you might pinch it too easily, so a tubing bender is needed). And try cutting it (I use a pipe cutter) and flare the end. If you get comfortable with what needs done, you have the knowledge to take on the task if and when the time calls for it. And the parts store has a free loan-a-tool usually on a flaring kit, but seriously, here is the kit I found to be AWESOME (and I just got this 1-2 years ago, only used it like twice, but well worth it):
https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-on...16-tubing.html

I have seen others like it on Amazon for less money. But again, a worth while flaring tool for brake line!