Chevy Uplander rear valve cover gaskets

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I’m helping a neighbor with his 2008 Chevy Uplander. He needs new valve cover gaskets as well as plugs. I discovered I have to pull off the front dog bones and crank the engine forward with a ratchet strap to access the rear valve cover and plugs. Here’s the problem: I can’t see anything back there and don’t know how accessible the valve cover is. One guy on YouTube took off the alternator and power steering pump, but that was on a 3.5L engine in an Impala, instead of the 3.9L on the Uplander.

So, anyone know if I’ll need to remove the alternator and power steering pump to access the valve cover? I didn’t really want to find out after I take off all the connections and crank the engine forward.

2

Im not familiar with that vehicle and dont know if this will help but I had a ford windstar that was hard to get to the back plugs and coil pack. I took off the wiper arms, the wiper cowl, the wiper motor and linkage and was able to have room to work.