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Dropping the trans is only a pain because of tool access and hard to reach fasteners. Having done the RMS job as well as the SFD the method I would use if I had to do it again is similar to a SFD installation. By using rear trailing arm bolts in place of the OE subframe bolts you can leave most of your engine components as well as wiring in place and drop the entire subframe a few inches. @hawairish tought me this method and it works very well. This will facilitate tool access and open up a lot room in between the top of the tans and the trans tunnel to see what you need to get at like the upper bell housing bolts, the nickle plated breather tube assembly thats bolts to the upper bell housing and the coolant cross over tube. Then while you're at it toss in a pair of gaskets for the coolant cross over tube because that also requires the trans to be dropped and a SFD because all the work to get there is the same.

Good info, thanks. It gets me wondering if perhaps easing off the throttle a little once it's going is what's causing it to 'dump pressure'. Like, it builds up revs and eventually stalls, but the slightest throttle drop resets. You can see in those videos there were several moments where the trucks starts moving up and then rolls back down—that's me trying to limit the build up of revs to prevent the lunging once it's going, where I expect the truck to maintain pace and just crawl up. Unfortunately, if I don't ease off the throttle over the crest, it looks like I'm gunning it. If I ease off the throttle, it looks like the truck can't even make the climb. There's no middle ground. I think my scanner can monitor and record throttle. I may have to look into that. Throttle body and intake should still be pretty clean, just did all that maybe a year ago. Notably, my TB is "rebuilt"...I had taken it apart to clean the contacts, even though it is not intended to be serviceable. My truck has previously thrown codes related to mismatched "A/B" signals, but all that went away when I rebuilt the TB. I ran diagnostics and re-learn tests on it at the time, so I think the system is behaving correctly. Previously, the issues would cause the truck to stutter and would cancel cruise control and such...no issues like that since. In reality, this is probably just going to be something I have to learn to live with. I do have a small RMS leak, so there's also a decent possibility that I go with crawler gears if I'm going to go through all that work to pull the trans down. Given the stall speeds above, I would expect this issue to largely cease because the RPMs would be higher, but I'm not sure it really solves the problem completely.

I replaced my main seal when I rebuilt the transmission. I removed the transfer case first, then the transmission separately. Together they are too dang heavy and difficult to handle. When installing the seal onto the engine you will need the backing board from a package of bacon or similar thin plastic sheet. Wrap it around the crankshaft to work as a shoe horn when installing. I know this does not make sense now, but it will when you go to do the install. I did not remove my pan when I replaced the seal and had to reuse the old pan seal since the new one would need to be compressed to fit. Honda Bond is your friend. BTW this is a good time to remove the knock sensor and relocate too.

The rear main seal is located at the back if the motor and is only accessible when the transmission is removed. SFD=Sub-Frame Drop This is the primary method of gaining lift over 2" in the R50 platform. To install the SFD the transmission does not come out, but allows you to drop it down a bit to gain access to the upper area of the transmission. You cant drop the mated motor and transmission very far but the small amount of room gained by using the control arm bolts in place of the OE subframe bolts will make the job much easier. The work required to replace a rear main seal opens up opportunities to do preventative maintenance on a variety of other items that require access to the same area. Oil pan gaskets, coolant crossover pipe gaskets etc. The oil cooler does not require the transmission to be dropped to service it and can be done with minimal tools and a pair of jack stands.

FWIW I’ve just installed OME MD front coils (with KYB GR-2) and Fleury’s 1” spacer. Lifted the front end today to check at full droop - could not hear or feel any CV binding with wheels straight ahead or at full lock.

Shop took care of it. Probably took them 10 min, but without a lift and proper leverage that one bolt would not give. Crazy how the wobble was actually worse with only one bad arm than it was with 4 bad arms.

Mine was the rear seal of the oil pan. You cannot be sure until you remove the tranny. I replaced the RMS while in there. It was a PITA. If I knew I was going to replace the oil pan gasket, I may have just pulled the engine.

That's crazy man! Gonna need an emergency recap ladder to get in that thing. Looks great! A little high for my personal liking, but have complete respect for the mad fab skills it took to get it done. Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk