Is My Rear End A 12 Bolt Or A Ten Bolt On My 2005 Silverado Ls 4.8

How much does a rear differential cost to get replaced?

As everyone here says, you dont give enough info to answer accurately. To start though, for every model car there has been published a suggested time for a competent mechanic in a shop to r+r (remove and replace) or otherwise service all the parts in a car, that information also gets collected and put into aftermarket books available online. You can start by calling a dealer for the car you have and asking the book time to do the job- that will be a number of hours- that you multiply by the hourly rate to get a cost. I see 4 hrs mentioned, that is by no means standard across all models!As differential gears usually last the life of a car, buying the assembly used is likely a reasonable option, swapping out the whole unit is usually a much less technically demanding job that can be accomplished by casual mechanics, correctly assembling and shimming the internal gears should be done by an experienced shop.I see some have answered assuming it is a solid axle car, lots of modern cars have IRS (independent rear suspension), so the hours of required labor needed are all over the place.

How long does it take to repair a head gasket?

You don’t repair a head gasket, you replace it.Once I had a rally car - a bit of a ratty old junker if the truth be told - that had a 2.3 litre overhead cam engine. It was a bit like this, only this one is way nicer:Anyway I was heading off to do a rally on some Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before, I took it out for a blast around the lanes to shake down any last-minute faults, and blew the head gasket. It was too late to do anything about it that night, so next morning, I got up at the crack of dawn, stripped the engine down to the point of having the head off (it was OHC, so that involved also removing the cambox, timing belts, etc. plus the exhaust manifold, inlet manifold and carburettors) By then it was almost 9am, so I drove to the nearest big town - 25 miles away - to get a replacement head gasket set. 25 miles back, and by 10am had the head all cleaned and ready to be reassembled. Engine back together and running by 12pm, I then had to drive it 250 miles to where the rally started. It all went smoothly and I made it with plenty of time to spare.So the answer to your question, for me, on that occasion, for this car, was about 6 hours, including an hour to fetch the parts. Sometimes what you need, apart from the basic skills, which in my case don’t amount to all that much, is a great big incentive!As I recall, the rally ended in disaster, but that’s another story.

Will exhaust leaks at manifold gaskets cause the engine to misfire?

I'm going to address the issue that has so far been overlooked. Most gasoline passenger and light duty trucks on the road today utilize electronically controlled fuel injection. Exhaust manifold leaks have the effect of “fooling” the oxygen sensor. Exhaust gas travels in pulses with high and low pressure zones. Exhaust gas leaks out during the high pressure event. Outside air is drawn INTO the leaking area during the low pressure event. The result is an oxygen sensor that reports a lean condition. (Too much air in relation to fuel). The Powertrain Control Module (PCM) will then increase fuel delivery to compensate. With a leak of sufficient magnitude, the PCM can end up substantially increasing fuel delivery in an attempt to “correct” the perceived lean condition. The engine (or that half of the engine) actually ends up running quite over- rich (Too much fuel in relation to air). Spark plug fouling can result, which in turn may lead to a MISFIRE. If this situation occurred on , for instance, a 98 Ford F150 with a V8, the following may be present. Lean exhaust code and misfire codes set on the bank with the exhaust leak present. The exhaust leak did not cause an immediate misfire. But it is the root cause of the resulting mayhem.

If you swap an engine, do you have to swap the transmission?

If you swap an engine, do you have to swap the transmission?I don't know if this has been addressed yet or not but I'll give a point form answer:when swapping an engine to a different engine, space is a concern. From behind the cooling system to the firewall. Between the wheel wells and underneath the hood. Those dimensions MUST BE taken into account first. If it's a 4 cyl to a 4 cyl or V8 to V8, those concerns are usually minimal.Motor mounts MUST be properly placed so that the engine being swapped in sits in the correct place (height, forward/back, etc)When it comes to the transmission, if swapping in a trans that is meant for the particular engine, no worries. If different, an adaptor and proper bell housing will be required. A weak trans behind a powerful engine will be a disaster waiting to happen, so gearing, input and output shafts must be taken into account. Wiring is an issue too since most new transmissions are electronically controlled. If using a newer engine and older one wire trans, wiring harness conversion kits must be used. Transmission mounts must be changed for a swap too.Transmission tunnel space must be accounted for if swapping to a larger transmission that is different than the stock transmission.Length must be accounted for as larger transmissions will be longer and require variations to the driveshft length.This is the tip of the iceberg. Yes, engine swaps can be done but there are MANY different calculations and measurements to take before the work begins. To put it simply, most any passenger vehicle engine and transmission can be swapped in, but the amount of work to do so will vary depending on the size differences (as an example: I run a 4bt diesel in my Wranglers which originally came with a straight 6 in-line 4.0L and I run a TH400 trans in place of the stock NV3550 5-spd). It's LOTS of work but it is possible.

If I took off the catalytic converter, will it make my fuel get better mileage?

Don't listen to the naysayers. A engine is a pump, anything you do to increase pump efficiency, is going to increase gas mileage. A new cat will not rais fuel consumption much, But if it has over 100,000 miles on it, You will see a marked increase or “restoration” of gas milage. This is especially true of cars with a secondary air pump. They are not exactly filtering the air, before its pumped into you exhaust.This is what gets fun. If you reprogram, or modify the O2 sensors signal to bring the engine to stylometric fuel ratio or just less, you will get a 5–10% increase in gas milage. This trick really shines in stop and go traffic. If you analyse the wave form of the upstream O2 sensors, you will notice it spends a lot more time rich, than lean. You are sitting at red lights feeding that Fat Cat, so it can make more smoke.All cars are set up to fuel that catalytic convert. This keeps them hot and working. Without extra fuel pumped thru the engine, that cat has nothing to do, cools down, and slowly plugs up. To bad your cat will plug up if you lean out the engine. Hint, Hint……….

How hard is it to convert an automatic to manual?

Too hard. If you have to ask, seriously, it's too hard and not worth thinking about.Of course, anything is doable with enough ambition and, more importantly, money. It is done all the time, but it is very complicated and expensive and only makes sense for rare/enthusiast cars.You don’t need to be a mechanic to get the general idea. For example, you obviously will need a clutch pedal and everything that goes with it (clutch master cylinder, hydraulic lines, slave cylinder). You will need to cut the firewall, fit and mount all of those components.You will need a new shifter assembly and all of the linkages that go with it. Routing them in/through/around the interior of the car is very difficult and will require disassembling much of the interior of the car.The new transmission can be bolted to the same engine, but it will need different mounts, probably a different driveshaft, and wiring for its own sensors.Then, you will need to deal with all of the minor issues like the fact that your automatic transmission car won’t let you shift out of park without pressing the brake… and your manual transmission version will need a clutch safety sensor to make sure you can’t start the engine without holding down the clutch… and that will need to be wired into the ignition and brakes… and you will need to get rid of the old Transmission Control Module and figure out how to bypass any traction control that was built into it.On older cars (pre-1990s) it is more doable because there are less electrical components and sensors to overcome, but it’s still difficult. If you’re paying someone to do it, it would be cost prohibitive on all but the most rare and valuable cars.I know people who have done it… again, the older the car, the easier it is… but it was a huge pain and you would be better off paying an extra couple grand to find a manual version of the car you want so that you don’t spend the rest of the life of the car dealing with little follow up issues.

Auto Repair: How long should brake service normally take?

There is also the issue of skill. Some shops have newer guys do simpler jobs, like maintenance. So it's also very likely the guy was having some trouble. Even at an independent shop 2 hours was about the tops for 4 wheel brake job. We'd order the parts and take it all apart, if machining needed to be done get it started and move to something else.  By time the parts arrived you'd hopefully be able to put some stuff together. You check the parts and if they're right, get it together, if they're wrong you get new parts ordered. The worst I ever had was a brake job that came in around 2, checked it and needed front pads, rotors, and rear drums and shoes. Took it apart and moved on. Checked parts when they came... the rears were all wrong. It was 4 already because delivery gets busy near the end of the day. Assembled fronts and waited until 530 to get rears again. Made sure they were right, gave old ones as exchange and put rears together. It was almost 6. Got the car ready for a brake flush(also sold), performed the flush and let the writer know. It was almost 615 and the customer waited the entire time, needing to get to class. That was the worst.Typically it's 40 minutes in a dealer setting for all 4 without machining, about 60 with. You check them, get parts, and assemble. That's it. Machining is typically very easy if you know what you're doing and you get started ASAP so you can work and machine. In a smaller shop you can hear when they're finished to remind you about them. If you forget though nothing happens and time is wasted.So what you want to do is not wait for your car to be done if you can. Let the shop worry about issues and you can get on with it. If you're on a tight schedule and need the car consider returning when you have more time, brakes very rarely need to be done immediately, as it is with most vehicle repairs.

Why is antifreeze coming out of the exhaust? What can I do?

First, you're positive that it's coolant? Green and matches the stuff in your radiator? I ask because you will have a certain amount of condensation developing in the exhaust pipe and this increases in cold weather so it may look like a bunch of water is coming out when it's just normal condensation.If you're sure it's coolant, your vehicle should also be running poorly as that means your head gasket is blown and coolant is getting into the cylinder(s). Coolant in the cylinder is very bad and you should stop operating the vehicle immediately or risk further (more expensive) damage.