Engine lift points for 2013 Impala ltz

They stopped installing the lift brackets on most engines years ago. These days you normally need to find a spot where the cable or chain will line up with a solid mounting area, then you bolt on a lift tab like part J-36857 in that spot. Typically I simply pick a couple solid areas on the engine to bolt to, like an engine mount bolt, a cable around an exhaust manifold, or similar. No sheet metal or lightweight areas. GM shows the image as areas but it's very poor.

Not useless, you just need some short chains or similar that reach a couple bolts on the engine, those are what you connect to. I just showed the spec tools to give you an idea of how they work. As an example I hang fully assembled big blocks using a plate bolted to the intake manifold. In your case put the bar across the engine bay and see what is below it that is a solid point. Front cover bolts, rear transmission bolts, empty holes in the block. You look for those, then use some quarter inch chain or similar with a longer bolt to connect to those points. The subframe bolts are not that long, They will run out of threads long before you get the clearance you need. What support bar do you have? One like the image? If so they are sold bare because of all the odd options, and you just make up something that works. OH one thing, When you get the balancer out, look at where the seal is seated in the cover. Then examine the snout on the balancer for wear damage from the seal. If you can feel it with a fingernail you can install the seal to a different depth to avoid having the new seal in the groove.

Yep, find a couple points and hook it up. Then just to be safe I like to put a clamp on the two bars once it's lined up and you are ready to lift. Just to be sure it doesn't slip when you are lowering the engine. I have the same one and it works good as long as you don't try to go overboard with it. Be sure to grease the bolts and start with them in so you can let the engine down as you may need to lift up a bit to get the mounts loose. I generally lift it a bit, then remove the mounts and then set it back down on a couple blocks. Then lower the engine down onto some stacked cribbing. Do the work and lift it back up with a jack as someone tightens the nuts down. Prevents a lot of swearing as the threads are not that strong. It will hold it just fine but it's not really meant as a lifting tool.