2007 Silverado, the Grosh Truck

FYI, mazdeuce's 5.3 is an LS motor. The ls2's were infamous for burning oil. Straight out burning it. As were some ls6... Literally just a destroked ls with a different intake (for more low end torque vs hp) My flexfuel one was one of the rare al block ones. (most truck motors came with an iron block).

I believe (could be wrong) pre his gen is a vortec but not ls design motor...

much as I like my f150, if I could geta z71 for 3500 i'd probably sell it. just for family financial reasons...

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to Spinout007: Do we know where the oil is going? Clearly some of it is going into the intake, but what is the mechanism for that? Just through the crankcase ventilation? That's widely regarded as the route of oil loss for the CTS-V cars on track, and I would use at least 1/2 quart during a track weekend.

The common answer on the GM truck forums is that it is an oil control ring issue. Apparently they like to "get stuck" and the fix is "drive it aggressively" to help it get unstuck.

I have a theory that it is a combination of extended service intervals and the fact that you rarely need to spin the motor over 2500rpm. I'm going to add a quart of MMO to my next oil change after the move and then change it again on a short interval combined with another shot of MMO to see if it improves.

Where we're moving to the avg speed limit is 45 mph and I'm fairly certain I won't be going that fast on a number of those roads in a full size ext cab long bed 4x4. So my version of aggessive driving will likely be very short bursts of half to three quarters throttle.

And yes, the only truck I would trade this one for would be a similar model with a 6' bed. Tight parking lots with a 157" wheelbase is not much fun. Hands down mine rides better than my fathers 03 F150 lariat, and mine is a vinyl floor, cloth bench manual windows work truck. I love it.

So the van is dead, the kids have outgrown the add-a-third row in the FJ, and we want to go to the Grand Canyon this week. 163k miles, the uniballs that are the upper ball joints are clunking (I have new parts but haven't had the time) and it needs me to try some paint repair, probably needs new rear shocks too as these are stock and felt very iffy the other day when I towed the rally car home. Other than that, what could go wrong? Pack the code reader and the AAA card.
Off to the Grand Canyon!

It'll probably be completely fine. It's nice to have stuff that 'just works' sitting around even if you spend most of your time ignoring it. Brain is now attempting to come up with a joke involving your truck being in the 'friend zone'.

The truck is sort of that friend from your childhood that you don't really hang out with socially any more but your more interesting friends are unreliable and you're bored so you call him to take a road trip because he's always down for something dumb and fun.

I'm kind of jealous of you guys with these half ton trucks. Having a crew cab long bed HD truck does not allow you to have as much fun for stuff that doesn't involve work.

Six people and a dog on two bench seats travelling comfortably across the country getting 16mpg. It's 1982 all over again.

mazdeuce wrote: Six people and a dog on two bench seats travelling comfortably across the country getting 16mpg. It's 1982 all over again.

Growing up, my family drove up and down the east coast in an '83 Suburban - the second row seats were the most comfortable of anything I've ridden in. I think you'll have a great trip!

hope you are ready to buy a new ass for whomever is sitting on the middle jump seat up front...

ps. I read all of you "how bad could it be?" posts in Jeremy Clarkson's voice...

The middle seat in front isn't that bad. The whole truck is wearing Wet Okelee seat covers and that seat has an additional one inch piece of foam shoved under that. It's not great for adults, but there are four other seats for adults, and only two adults, and none of the kids need a car seat anymore, so they all get a chance riding middle seat. Builds character.

Today we explored the personal history of Mazdeuce. Way back when I used to do things like have a job, I worked out of town a LOT. One of the places I worked for several months was Shamrock Texas on Route 66. The only interesting thing in that godforsaken tiny town is this old art deco gas station that was just starting to be restored when I was there. They've got it looking amazing now, even though it was closed so we couldn't go inside. From there we headed up the road to an even smaller nearly abandoned town. I used to drive by this town when I lived in Shamrock. This was also when Mrs. Deuce was pregnant with Deucekid#1 and we were bouncing around names. We had a very solid family name for her middle name but couldn't come up with a first. This town has long ago seen it's best days, but the name is pretty so I threw it into the hat. It stuck, and today I was able to take a picture of my kid in front of the abandoned school that has her name on it. This picture has the name purposely cut off because putting your daughter's name out there on the internet still seems weird. Behind the school was a nice selection of burned out Corvairs including a Monza and a Greenbriar. Quick stop by the Cadillac Ranch. It was weird watching everyone gleefully graffiti the cars. I know it's living art and part of the whole thing, but it was still odd trying to look at it while dodging over spray. Last stop of the day was right outside Albuquerque to check out some petroglyphs. You can see there is a subdivision right outside the park, kind of strange. They don't interpret the petroglyphs because it's supposed to be insensitive to the spirits of the makers, so you can think what you want about this happy guy.

I just stopped at the U Drop Inn about a month ago.

I'm sad about those Corvairs though.

That greenbrier is nicer than the one I drove in high school, but mine had good glass so I'll call it a draw.

Someone clearly stashed those back there to save them and then someone else burned them. It was pretty crappy.

I talked Mrs. Deuce into staying at a motel on the cheap side of town last night. Rooms were literally half as much if you drove seven more miles. What could to wrong?
Well....I woke up to the sound of dripping water, from the ceiling, note the quality texture match on the previous repair. And when I stepped outside to go let the manager know, I was greeted by the sight of the police having the gas station taped off as a crime scene.

This is how kids learn to appreciate nice hotels.

Since it rained last night we passed on the hiking we had planned for the day and headed to Canyon De Chelly.
There are cliff dwellings in the crack on the far wall. It was a big canyon. The canyon itself is closed to general traffic as it's a sacred native site and is still actively farmed by Navajo. It was cool, but the signs had me properly freaked out as a dad. We took the long way to our next destination including 20 miles of bone shakingly bad washboard dirt road. I thought I was being a wimp about it when I saw a 10 year old Hyundai driving on the same road faster than me, but when we finished I had managed to break the mounting tab for a fog light and it was swinging in the breeze. Rough enough to break fog lights counts as rough.
Lots more driving. Volcanoes, rocks, and a stop and Meteor Crater to see a mile wide meteor crater. Too big to get in one picture.
Truck is still running well. It likes the roads with 55mph speed limits much better than 75mph speed limits. It'll do it, but with the old four speed 4L60E it doesn't really like it.

Not to divert back to the oil consumption issue - but there's a known issue on all the GM Truck LS motors with cylinder deactivation (8cyl to 4cyl). In 4 cyl mode, half the lifters lose oil pressure when a solenoid opens. The excess oil is vented thru a valve in the oil pan - this valve sprays an oil fog into the engine - oil overwhelms the PCV system, and makes life challenging for the oil control rings - and eventually you foul Cyl 1 and 7. My 09 5.3L was using a quart every 1000 miles - and that was after a PCV system recall (changed rocker cover with new baffle) and a top end cleaning to un-stick the rings. This service was done at 55K miles - and it started fouling plugs at 70K miles. The dealer tried to tell me that the "Valero gas I was using" caused the problem. So they fillet my engine - and I walk back with the service manager to see the parts. He lays the Valero story on me, and I reach over, grab the intake, crack open the throttle plate and attempt to pour a 1/2 qt of oil on his nice shoes. He manages to dodge the oil, but can't explain how Valero gasoline put oil into my intake. I hand over the 8 page GM service bulletin on oil consumption - and we start the conversation about a new engine/engine rebuild. They end up rebuilding it with 8 new piston, ring & rod assemblies and a new downpipe with 2 new cats and 4 new 02 sensors. GM foots the bill. I use Mobil 1 now and change it at 6K miles. Also installed a PCV catch can - but it doesn't seem to catch anything. Redneck word on the street says to add a can of Seafoam wonder treatment just before you change the oil - it helps keep the "low tension" oil control rings from gumming up. All of this to say... pull #1 and #7 plugs and check for oil burning. If you see any, pick the Redneck oil treatment of your choice to clean the oil rings. GM recommends pulling all the plugs and letting all cylinders soak for 3 hours with GM Top End Cleaner - which I'm told is just Chevron Techron Fuel Injector cleaner. - Your mileage may vary.

That's super interesting about 1 and 7 and I'll check them when I get home. Any idea on how that might relate to oil loss only late in the oil change interval? The truck has had exclusively Mobil1 since it's first change.

Grand Canyon day! It was cold. Cold enough that the road was icy on the way up this morning. The truck wiggling just a bit made Mrs. Deuce slightly nervous. Deucekid#4 fell on his can in the parking lot cartoon style.
We hiked down three miles and 2000 feet in elevation into the canyon and ate lunch. Did I mention that it was cold? Kids were troopers for the hike back up though all of them agreed that their initial feelings that they could totally hike all the way to the bottom and back up were wrong.
The Grand Canyon is pretty amazing. Worth the stop.

Woke up today and drove half an hour the wrong direction just to take a picture of Mrs. Deuce taking a picture of Deucekid#2 in front of the Tuba City sign.
Headed down to Saguaro National Park and spent some time wandering around these magnificent giants. I love the desert. It's the closest I'll ever come to landing on an alien planet. One of these years when I'm an old man I'm going to spend a month living out of the back of a truck just spending days and days exploring.

I've added a quart of oil so far this week. About normal for the mileage driven and this point in the oil change interval.
When your parents are geologists you get to visit rocks, in this case granite at Cochise Stronghold. And then a rhyolite tuff at Chiricahua National Monument. Mrs. Deuce found me the most amazing shortcut back to the freeway. Nine miles of silky smooth gravel road up and over Apache Pass with dozens of corners at a suggested 15mph. Even in the truck I was faster than that and it was glorious.
Then on to El Paso where we ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Chinese buffet overlooking Juarez Mexico. Hard to get more American than that.

mazdeuce wrote: Then on to El Paso where we ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Chinese buffet overlooking Juarez Mexico. Hard to get more American than that.

I have eaten there! We stayed at the Hampton Inn.

Made it home yesterday after 11 hours behind the wheel. Heading from West Texas to east Texas is 700 miles on one road that's not terribly exciting, just grinding out the miles.
Only had one issue involving high pressure liquid and a small orifice. Luckily my kids are long since potty trained because I have some old stories that would work with that lead in too. In this case we had stopped for lunch and decided to eat on the move which we very seldom do. We bought the kids drinks with screw on tops, for safety. Deucekid#4 was sitting front and center with a rootbeer when it slipped and hit the floor between his feet. If the top had been on properly, no problem. If the top had been off, a bit of a problem. The top was mostly on, which was a huge problem as an exploding root beer fountain appeared between his feet. Mrs. Deuce did her best impression of falling on a grenade to save us all and kept things from being worse. The truck is getting an interior scrubbing today.
We drove right about 2900 miles and burned about 185 gallons of regular gas. Total fuel cost to drive the whole family around the west for a week was $347. The great American road trip is still a bargain.

2900 185 gal $347.13

Back when the truck was my only car I did what anyone would do and spent money on it. I put on the biggest sway bars I could find and Camburg front coil overs to give the front a bit of a lift. I did this all when the upper ball joints went bad for the first time at 60k miles. Instead of buying new upper arms for $100 each, I spent way way more than that on upper arms from Camburg. The big thing this gave me was close to five degrees of caster rather than one degree stock.
Worth it.
The upper ball joints on these arms are massive Teflon lined uniballs that use inserts to make them work as a ball joint. Pretty cool, and new uniballs are cheaper than new stock upper arms so I should actually save money slightly before 1,000,000 miles! The eagle eyed among you might notice that there are new inserts in that picture. That's because when I took everything apart three weeks ago to fix things before driving 3,000 miles all over the desert it became clear that the current inserts were basically chemically welded into the uniballs. Crap. I put all of the old parts back together, ordered the inserts, and didn't get around to fixing it again until last night/today. It's better now. Much better in fact. Kind of amazing how much better things feel when you drive on worn parts for 15k miles.
And because this is a good repository of information for me, the part number on the bearing is FKCOMH20T. Assuming the antiseize I put on the inserts this time works I should be able to save a few dollars by buying them from an industrial supplier rather than Camburg.

I have no clue on why oil consumption would get worse later in the change cycle unless by some magic the older oil can't keep the oil rings rotating or something... and oil starts to work past the rings. Check 1 and 7 - you'll be able to tell if you're burning oil like a 52 Buick with no rings left - I was... I was amazed that I never saw a puff of smoke out of the tailpipe - but maybe these new fangled close coupled cats do a better job eating the oil mist than the old style under-floor cats. I know the dealership replaced my $1100 down pipe/o2 sensors/cats without me even asking - so either GM tells them to do that - or they knew my truck was soon to start throwing cat codes after eating oil for 75,000 miles. I have an 09 with the Aluminum Block 5.3L and the six speed. I can guess that the thicker block walls means my crank bays have less volume than an iron block - and that maybe the 6 speed keeps the truck in 4 cylinder mode more often. I'm due for an oil change soon so I dumped 6oz of SeaFoam Engine Miracle in a Can in it - hoping that cleans the rings before I change it - it gets only Mobil 1 5W-30 now. Just about to hit 96K miles. Had no idea that anyone made performance suspension parts for these GMT900 trucks - probably a good thing, but mines's a 4WD - so I don't think I'll be autocrossing it any time soon... Now if I could just find a regular cab short bed 2WD, lower it, drop in a junkyard 6.0L iron block with a Chinese turbo kit, then we'd have some giddy-up... but I digress. Nice trip photos - glad you didn't lose a kid over edge of a cliff. That would be messy. Better to drive about 500 miles further West and lose them in the La Brea tar pits - less evidence that way... Not that I condone that type of behavior - at least not in public.

Ordered Bilstein 5100's for the rear last week. Put them on today. The front and rear have behaved differently on choppy bumps since I put the front shocks on, and my brain says it has gotten worse. Rear shocks have 168k miles on them so they should be bad, right?
My 'push the shock down' shock dyno says the stock shocks are still charged and feel stiffer than the Bilsteins, in compression at least. I am aware that this is not a scientific procedure. Drove it around the block and I'm not sure that things are different enough to notice. Oh well. Saved the old rears. I suppose they'll be good to put back on if I blow out a Bilstein.

The last part of the suspension refresh was quieting down the sway bar. I previously added some washers to the stack on the end links to make up for the bushings aging, and that helped. Next was the bushings for the bar itself.
You might notice that the new bushings have much more material than the old ones. This means they don't fit. Crap. The problem is that the mounting holes are too close together on the truck to accommodate that extra material.
First I mashed the metal loops in the vice until the holes matched the frame (no pictures). Then out came my Japanese pull saw that I once thought I needed for something but haven't really used, and I marked depth.
Then the angle grinder for some precise reshaping. It worked well. For now anyway. We'll see if I get the same 100k out of this set that I did the last set. The final front end clunks are gone which makes me happy.
I also forgot to add that the new rear shocks made a HUGE improvement when driving back and forth to Michigan for Christmas. Highway manners were much improved.
Now all there is to annoy me is the barrage of squeaks and rattles in a truck with 173k miles on it. I might need to work on those.