Hey guys I was wanting to fish around for some info on your thoughts about a new oil pan for the truck based LS motor.. A couple of months ago I lost oil Pressure on my 03 Denali and hit the internet looking for info... The other day I started taking the front down to oil pump dropped the front end to finally get to the oil pan.. Once I got the oil pan off I removed the pickup and the screen was full of metal shavings.. ... Me and my dad was looking at the oil pan and where the pick up was.. We are looking at redoing the truck oil pan and brings me to this.. I was wanting to get some feed back that if we can do this the way we want we will be able to clean the screen without removing the hole oil pan.. If I can pull this off would anyone buy these upgraded oil pans .. Just seeing if this would be something that would sell and if enough people show interest then I could also look at the oil pan for the car LS motors and also custom work... again just looking for feed back to see if its worth moving forward and then start marketing them for sale...

Um, you're going to want to figure out where the metal shavings are coming from before you do any other work first. If you are getting 0 oil pressure because of metal shavings, then your probably looking at serious engine damage.

yea I was surprised at it.. I bought this thing 3yrs ago for wife and kids to run back and forth in.. She got her a CTS and I took the Denali cause I have been wanting a Trailblazer SS and figured this would be as close as I get to one... It rolled over 185k mi and still sounds good no rattles not knocks just about a month after I started driving it started one morning and oil pressure dropped.. I changed out the sending unit up top cause figured it had to be something small... Well i was wrong.. I cleaned it out yesterday im going to start putting it back together we are working on a pump attached to a air supply and going to shoot oil thru the oil pump to get oil back in it.. and see what happens.. lol... if not I am going to build a heck of a tire burner....

I do have to question this however, how would an oil pan be designed such that allows the pickup screen to be accessible without dropping the pan?

Also, if this is your first run in with this issue in 12 years and 185k miles, how would that justify the means? Even assuming it was done once every 5 years/50k miles.

It seems like a great idea and everything, but I keep getting hung up in the logistics of it.

Some of the V6 engines the 3.6 litre have a plate bolted to the oil pan designed to access the oil pickup-tube.

On another note Ive seen oil pumps grenade causing no oil psi leaving metal debris in the pickup tube. Usually if caught early and changing the oil, the engine can be saved.

rjolly87.. I see what your saying but if you take someone like me that only has time to do things like this when im on vacation if someone runs into this once and has to take to a garage and have to pay $500+ to do the job.. The next time would only take a few extra min during a oil change and could do it regular keeping pickup clean from anything .. sludge shavings.. but chevy82 done said some v6'* already has this design.. and plus the old hotrod guys that are using this motor more and more in swaps would benefit from this little upgrade while there doing swaps.. put this is what im looking for is feedback and see if its worth even trying to do..

I think you missed my point earlier. You should be more worried about WHY and WHERE the shavings came from than worried about easy access to the pickup tube because this is not NORMAL for shavings to be in the pickup tube to cause 0 psi. You can bet that engine is toast now.