Cold weather and GM 5.3's

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Hi all, Im currently on vacay in DE and its about 30 degrees F. Started my suburban which has 5w30 mobil 1 and some supertech 5w30 (left over bottle or two)... Heard that piston slap but it was loud, didn't sound like damaging loud, but everyone else heard it too. It went away in about 20 sec. We all went to the movies tonight, I heard another 5.3 suburban startup on the way out, It had the same sound. Just enjoying the sounds of cold engines!
 
It went away in 20 seconds? Wish mine did, the piston slap on my Accord lasts a lot longer than 20 seconds.
 
bought my 02 suburban with 88K miles and it didn't have the piston slap sound until I changed the oil. I had Valvoline 5w30 and the sound was moderate. Just put Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy 0w30 and the slap is really loud now.

Don't know what they had in it to quiet it. Probably something thicker.

Anyone know what kind of oil will quiet this?
 
-10 f this morning....neighbors 5.3 Chevy started and sounded like woodpeckers attacking a steel roof!

Turn up the radio a little.....the sound goes away warm and the engine will go 300,000 miles anyway!

My 2008 Sienna was pretty clicky at first also! No dummies, it is not in the heated garage, that is for the Ski boat, of course!
 
HTSS_TR, lol. i haven't seen 35 in over a month.
got to 15°f today. and that was a warm up..

i am going to aunts house tomorrow. she said low single digits. -5°f and below rest of this week.
i ran the causin's 1500 z71 up there a few weeks ago. 5.3l w/ 250k. The nite i got there -15°f. 5:30am it was -17°f. that thing was a talking for awhile.

ken
 
Originally Posted By: ChevyBadger
My 5.3 sounded just fine at -15 this morning.


Yes it did. That's because around 05 or so we got a piston update that fixed it. No more slapping.

Note that we ran 'slappers here for a long time in a fleet. Our longest lived motor was a noisy girl from new and ran 500k miles and STILL WORKS in Michigan!
 
I've got 270k on a 99 5.3. She slaps when cold and lights the tires on fire. Piston slap might be an annoyance however it doesn't affect the longevity of the engine.
 
Another friend of mine has an 01 Firebird Firehawk that had the engine replaced at 30k miles because the piston slap became consistent and loud. Tech told us it's do to the super short piston skirt the LS engines have.
 
Originally Posted By: Realtech214
Hi all, Im currently on vacay in DE and its about 30 degrees F. Started my suburban which has 5w30 mobil 1 and some supertech 5w30 (left over bottle or two)... Heard that piston slap but it was loud, didn't sound like damaging loud, but everyone else heard it too. It went away in about 20 sec. We all went to the movies tonight, I heard another 5.3 suburban startup on the way out, It had the same sound. Just enjoying the sounds of cold engines!


30 is warm. DE is southern state for crying out loud
smile.gif


Going to be -2 this Friday, can't wait.
 
My 5.3 has a little slap first start on a cool day. Running P Ultra 5w30 I tend to forget its even there until
threads like this come up.
 
My '99 GMC Sierra slaps on cold mornings for a minute of so with Shell T5 10w30. My '12 Silverado doesn't. Both 5.3's.

If I had bought the GMC new I would have worried about it, but by the time I bought it in 2009 I had read enough to know it was a minor annoyance that doesn't cause any damage.
 
Originally Posted By: 6lbsoft
Another friend of mine has an 01 Firebird Firehawk that had the engine replaced at 30k miles because the piston slap became consistent and loud. Tech told us it's do to the super short piston skirt the LS engines have.


Complete baloney, and typical of stealerships.

Virtually all engines use the same design for friction reduction. GM simply allowed excessive clearances to go out the door.
 
My 96 GMC 5.0 slapped pretty good, but never seemed to cause any issues. Seemed to take several minutes on a cold morning to quiet down. Takes a while for the skirts to heat up.
Werent performance engines with forged pistons known for piston slap until they warmed up?
 
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