OIL LEVEL QUESTION

Z71Silverado

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Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Location
Maiden, NC
HELLO, I WILL START OUT SAYING THAT THIS SITE HAS ALOT OF HELPFUL INFORMATION AND GOOD PEOPLE.....SO HERE IS THE QUESTION...I HAVE A 04 SILVERADO EXT. CAB Z71 5.3L AND THE OTHER DAY MY CHECK OIL LEVEL LIGHT CAME ON, SO I CHECKED MY OIL LEVEL AND IT WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DIP STICK... I DO NOT SEE ANY EXTERNAL LEAKS AND CAN NOT FIGURE OUT WHERE MY OIL IS GOING TO...I CALLED THE DEALERSHIP AND THEY SAID THAT IT IS NOT UNCOMMON THAT YOU HAVE TO ADD 1QT. OF OIL EVERY 1000 MILES IN A V8..I HAVE HAD A TRUCK AND A SUV WITH A V8 IN THEM AND NEVER HAD TO ADD OIL...IT HAS BEEN ABOUT 2500 MILES SINCE MY OIL CHANGE...DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT TO DO OR ANYONE HAD THIS PROBLEM? THANKS FOR ALL OF THE INPUT...
 
The dealership is wrong. Some oil evaporation is expected, under more harsh conditions. If it ain't leaking, then it has to be burning it. How many miles on your engine? What kinda oil are you using? could be you have a couple large puddles under the valve covers. Does it smoke at all? cold start up or otherwise?
I have owned several GM's that maybe went down a 1/4 Qt between changes. That was acceptable. And that was on high mileage engines.
 
THE TRUCK HAS ABOUT 56000 MILES ON IT...I AM USING VALVOLINE OIL NON SYNTHETIC 5W30...THE TRUCK IS NOT SMOKING....I FIGURED THE DEALERSHIP AS BLOWING SMOKE UP MY REAR....I MIGHT PULL MY VALVE COVERS OFF AND CHECK FOR PUDDLES...ANY OTHER HELP WOULD BE GREAT....
 
There are others on this board more qualified to answer your questions. I am not too familiar with this engine. Just seems like a lot of usage to me.
 
ACCORDING TO GM, one quart of oil used in 1500 miles is NOT excessive oil usage.

This is their stance, especially since the LSx engines came out. If you go to ANY car manufacturer it will be some what similar, though we all know it's not right.

If the vehicle were under warranty, you would be given a work sheet to fill out with dates and mileage to cover oil comsumption. not until the usage reaches 1qt every 1500 mile will they even consider doing anything about it. As a former GM tech, I went rounds with customers about this, especially the owners of trucks with the 8100 engines.

I hated telling folks that, but what can I do ? I'm just the lucky stiff who got to try and figure it all out.

The 4.8, 5.3, 6.0 engines in the trucks are known for several things, piston slap and oil consumption being the most known complaints. intake leaks and valve spring issues being the next well known. In my experiance, the 6.0 seemd to have been the owrst offender, probably because they were worked harder than most.

The folks who have the pleasure of feeding an 8100 big block (496 cid NOT 502 cid) know they have intake gasket issues, crank position sensor failures, oil consupmtion issues, and a few other minor things.

a few things to check out on your engine, do a compresion test, hot and cold, if you find a low cyl, this could be your problem. a cyl leak down test may also be something you want to check out.

These engines do not pull a lot of vaccum, so a valve seal issue wouldn't present a smoke screen like an older engine would, also considering that the cats are probably burning a lot of it out as well.

these engines are also pretty well sealed up, so an external leak would be pretty easy to spot, and there is no path for oil other than the cyls, as the "valley" between the heads is sealed seperate from the intake, hell , ya have to pull the heads to swap the lifters should the need arise.

And just for grins, check out this site, pretty much covers some of the details

http://pistonslap.com/

May wanna read this as well http://www.pistonslap.com/tsb/010601011A.pdf
ENjoy
 
Blkvoodoo said:
ACCORDING TO GM, one quart of oil used in 1500 miles is NOT excessive oil usage.
Click to expand...

Yeah... these are the same folks who made the Saturn SL series motors, which are renowned for BURNING a quart every 1,000 miles(!) and they consider this "normal".
Rediculous, but that is their stance.

I don't even bother changing the oil in my wife's Satty, I'm adding a quart every 3 weeks anyway, it's all fresh, lol. Just change the filter!
 
I HAVE DONE A COMPRESSION TEST BEFORE BUT IT HAS BEEN A WHILE....IM PRETTY SURE THAT YOU SCREW IT INTO THE SPARK PLUG HOLE AND CRANK THE MOTOR...BUT WHERE WOULD I GET THE INFO ABOUT TELLING ME WHAT MY COMPRESSION IS SUPPOSED TO BE? AND HOW MUCH COULD I GET A COMPRESSION TESTER AT LIKE AUTO ZONE OR ADVANCED? SHOULD I PULL MY VALVE COVERS OFF TO CHECK FOR OIL (IF IM NOT MISTAKING I AM SAPPOSED TO HAVE OIL UNDER MY VALVE COVER FOR LUBERCATION OF PUSH RODS AND ROCKER ARMS)?
THANKS FOR THE HELP
 
This is going to sound stupid, but humor me.
Kevin, I can't explain the science only that it was advised by a local grey haired tech and it has worked.

Wifes Yukon has 5.3 now at 192k (BTW 4l60 behind it has never been in either despite over working it more than once...lucky me *knocks on wood*)

Go to GM dealership and get a new PCV valve and replace it. DO NOT USE ONE FROM ADVANCE OR AUTOZONE, their orifice size is larger and will actually suck oil out.

Mine will burn about a quart to a quart and a half between oil changes once every 30k or so, a new PCV and it goes away another 30k. It went like 5 consecutive oil changes before he told me this the first time.

As always YMMV.
 
Not sure about it myself Ron, but I think GM has figured out that a constant sight vacuum on the crank case will let the rings seal tighter, and you are correct, it is definately a specific sized oriface. also notice that there is no guts, just a small oriface and a hose connection.

It also has to deal with the fact that these engines don't pull much vacuum, ( you'll notice that the '03 and newer fly by wire throttle controlled engines have a vacuum pump mounted to the brake booster, '05 and newer use hydro boost brake assit. )

I forgot about the PCV valve, that could make a differance in his case.
 
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