GM 5.3 liter V8/6.2 liter burning oil

factorytuned2012 said:
There’s no difference between a 0 & 5w20 at operating temperature, wouldn’t this be when cylinder deactivation is most likely to be functioning?
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I've been having a nearly identical discussion with an Alfa Romeo forum on the difference between 0W-30 (OEM recommended oil grade) and 5W-30 oil in the I-4 Multi-Air equipped engines. A very large portion of them seem to be under the impression that if you put 5W-30 into the engine, the multi-air unit will stop working, the oil pump will stop working, and the main and rod bearings will get torn to shreds.

If the discussion was about which oil to use at temps below -35F, then yes, use that 0W-30 instead of the 5W-30, but when we're talking about spring through fall temps in the vast majority of the US, no, it shouldn't be an issue that needs to be discussed. At normal engine operating temperature, the oils should both be in the same viscosity range for a 30 weight oil as specified by the API. They literally don't have an argument to make.

It's just the dumbest thing to argue about, but yet they do.
I just don't understand it.
 
Navi said:
My point being with this post is a new vehicle costing over $60000 should not have any problems and most certainly not something like burning oil. We should not be sitting here trying to invent fixes for new vehicles. So like I said this is it for me and GM.

To be clear all of the various GM vehicles with the 5.3 and 6.2 are burning oil. Its not just one. Im not sure how we got to "burning oil" becoming the normal on new vehicles.
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I have owned every iteration of the 5.3L since they came out …
Running with with two now …
No consumption EVER - they don’t ALL do it dude.
 
4WD said:
One of our engineers will soon be at 200k on an AFM 5.3L
No Range, and runs M1 0W20 - does not use oil …
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Have to look at exactly how the vehicle is being used. Look specfically at the trip computers where it says average miles per hour. Is it a colder climate? I think this will effect vehicles more with lower average mph and higher idle times.
 
My 2017 GMC Sierra 5.3 is fine until it’s beyond 5k of oil change. Then it starts to use some oil. At 5,500 miles and/or 35% left on the oil life monitor it gets an oil change. Still using 0W20 by the way. At 102k now….
 
I have 180K miles on my 2016 5.3 Hoe. Uses zero oil between the 5-6K mile OCI. I use 0W20 Mobil 1 EP but if I am on a road trip the dealer puts in 0W20 AC Delco. I do both highway and NYC gridlock.
 
We bought a then, brand new, 2016 Suburban with the 5.3 engine. Cam and lifters died, during COVID. I say that as all the parts delays was a mess. Any-who, Chevy dealer charged the same as a rebuilt engine $$$$, IF WE COULD OF FOUND ONE during covid. All they replaced was cam and lifters and some gaskets. Coolant and the normal things doing this operation.

Ours was burning 4-5 quarts between oil changes. Since new, that engine had nothing but Mobile 1 pure synthetic 0w-20 in her and AC Delco filters.

Moral of this thread is stay away from a company that sells poor engines like these. This oil burning is all over the internet slash world. If yours hasn't eaten the cam/lifters yet, wait around. Then don't cry when you have to fork out $12+ grand on engine work. o_O:oops::oops:

I would buy a RAM over any Chevy slash Generic Motors product anyway. And THAT is saying something.

Oh and while looking for a replacement engine I did the ol' Google search. And wow did I hit the jackpot. Many a many sites with people crying about this cylinder deactivation tech, drinking oil and replacing engines.
 
Since I wrote this post Ive added 1.5 quarts of SuperTech 0W20 to the engine.
 
Navi said:
My point being with this post is a new vehicle costing over $60000 should not have any problems and most certainly not something like burning oil. We should not be sitting here trying to invent fixes for new vehicles. So like I said this is it for me and GM.

To be clear all of the various GM vehicles with the 5.3 and 6.2 are burning oil. Its not just one. Im not sure how we got to "burning oil" becoming the normal on new vehicles.
Click to expand...
We have one oil burning vehicle at work...the 2018 f150 5.0 which also needed a new transmission. The 5.3s have not experienced oil burning yet but the one did blow the transmission around 140k miles.
So will you stop buying from all the brands that have had oil consumption issues because of CAFE?
 
350Rocket said:
We have one oil burning vehicle at work...the 2018 f150 5.0 which also needed a new transmission. The 5.3s have not experienced oil burning yet but the one did blow the transmission around 140k miles.
So will you stop buying from all the brands that have had oil consumption issues because of CAFE?
Click to expand...
Both Ford and GM have good years and bad years, good engine/trans bad engine trans. You just need to really know their product line and its service history. For 2018 the only engines to really trust in the F150 lineup were the 3.7 liter V6 non-turbo and the 2.7 liter Ecoboost. All of the other Ford engine options had severe problems in 2018. Many people turned away from the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost in 2018 and purchased the 5 Liter V8 thinking since its been around a long time its inherently reliable. That would be a wrong assumption.

The GM 5.3 liter Ecotec used in the 2015-2020 Suburban (2014-2018 Silverado) was actually pretty good. You just needed to keep feeding it "Top Tier" gasoline and change its oil every 3000 miles especially for work trucks. Work trucks tend to have high idle time and no one is able to keep track of exactly how its actually used. People who are workers usually are not that good at keeping accurate logs and so in that case its best to change the oil at 3000 miles.

The 6 speed transmission in the 2015-2020 Suburban (2014-2019 Silverado) was a lemon. It didnt matter if you changed the transmission fluid or the filter religiously and early it would just break. The main reason for that is GM had a hard thermostat on that transmission which made the fluid run at 220 degrees. GM does have a service bulletin on those trucks where if a transmission is changed a lower temperature thermostat is to be used for that 6 speed. The ironic part is that service bulletin came out right when GM stopped using that 6 speed transmission.

Now in the current timeframe the 5.3 liter in the 2021+ Suburban/2020+ Silverado is a lemon and cant be trusted. The 10 speed transmission in them is actually quite good right now unlike the 6 speed transmission of the past. The 3.5 liter Ecoboost is now Generation 3 and has many reliability improvements over the lemon 3.5 Liter Ecoboost Generation 2. The 2.7/3 Liter Ecoboost is the most reliable engine in the Ecoboost lineup. The lemonade part on todays Ford truck is the front differential. Some horror stories on that front diff. My truck is about to go back to the dealership for the 2nd time on that front diff...1st time they rebuilt it and now 20000 miles later its making noise again.

So its all a matter of knowing that particular engine and transmission. For Ford you want to stick with either the non-turbo V6 engine or the 2.7/3 Liter Ecoboost. The jury is still out on the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost Gen 3...we will see. The list of reliability improvements is encouraging. As for the 5 Liter V8 I simply dont know anything about it because I dont use it. When it comes to GM this new 5.3/6.2 is a lemon and I see no reason for anyone to get a vehicle with that engine in it.
 
Navi said:
Both Ford and GM have good years and bad years, good engine/trans bad engine trans. You just need to really know their product line and its service history. For 2018 the only engines to really trust in the F150 lineup were the 3.7 liter V6 non-turbo and the 2.7 liter Ecoboost. All of the other Ford engine options had severe problems in 2018. Many people turned away from the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost in 2018 and purchased the 5 Liter V8 thinking since its been around a long time its inherently reliable. That would be a wrong assumption.

The GM 5.3 liter Ecotec used in the 2015-2020 Suburban (2014-2018 Silverado) was actually pretty good. You just needed to keep feeding it "Top Tier" gasoline and change its oil every 3000 miles especially for work trucks. Work trucks tend to have high idle time and no one is able to keep track of exactly how its actually used. People who are workers usually are not that good at keeping accurate logs and so in that case its best to change the oil at 3000 miles.

The 6 speed transmission in the 2015-2020 Suburban (2014-2019 Silverado) was a lemon. It didnt matter if you changed the transmission fluid or the filter religiously and early it would just break. The main reason for that is GM had a hard thermostat on that transmission which made the fluid run at 220 degrees. GM does have a service bulletin on those trucks where if a transmission is changed a lower temperature thermostat is to be used for that 6 speed. The ironic part is that service bulletin came out right when GM stopped using that 6 speed transmission.

Now in the current timeframe the 5.3 liter in the 2021+ Suburban/2020+ Silverado is a lemon and cant be trusted. The 10 speed transmission in them is actually quite good right now unlike the 6 speed transmission of the past. The 3.5 liter Ecoboost is now Generation 3 and has many reliability improvements over the lemon 3.5 Liter Ecoboost Generation 2. The 2.7/3 Liter Ecoboost is the most reliable engine in the Ecoboost lineup. The lemonade part on todays Ford truck is the front differential. Some horror stories on that front diff. My truck is about to go back to the dealership for the 2nd time on that front diff...1st time they rebuilt it and now 20000 miles later its making noise again.

So its all a matter of knowing that particular engine and transmission. For Ford you want to stick with either the non-turbo V6 engine or the 2.7/3 Liter Ecoboost. The jury is still out on the 3.5 Liter Ecoboost Gen 3...we will see. The list of reliability improvements is encouraging. As for the 5 Liter V8 I simply dont know anything about it because I dont use it. When it comes to GM this new 5.3/6.2 is a lemon and I see no reason for anyone to get a vehicle with that engine in it.
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Yeah I'm aware of a lot of those. My solution is to just keep my 2005 Silverado and not buy anything newer. Spending a few thousand a year in maintenance and repairs on it is better than a $70,000 truck that will last half as long as the 2005 has so far.
 
clinebarger said:
$12,000 plus for Cam & Lifters?
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Yes, installed at the Chevy dealer during covid. Labor was a huge part. Cam and lifters alone was near $2,000.00 several years ago. Timing chain, gaskets, coolant, oil change and so on. What would this cost now in the Biden 0 inflation era? LOL
 
My neighbor just informed me that he is on his 4th oci using Valvoline 5w30 R&P in his 22 gmc at4 6.2. Went from adding a quart every 2k to using 1 quart in 6k oci. He plans on running R&P from here on out. Tows his 30hp tractor around but not a work truck.
 
Navi said:
On these GM trucks with cylinder deactivation (AFM or DFM) you can only use Dexos1Gen3 0W20. The collapsible lifters are designed based on 0W20. Basically it uses oil pressure to collapse and expand. There are a few videos on YouTube which explain it.

The owners manual only lists 0W20. No others.
Click to expand...
Except for the fact that the 4.3L ecotec is basically the same engine and calls for 5w-30…also the 2013 and previous 5.3s have AFM and require 5w-30…
 
Navi said:
On these GM trucks with cylinder deactivation (AFM or DFM) you can only use Dexos1Gen3 0W20. The collapsible lifters are designed based on 0W20. Basically it uses oil pressure to collapse and expand. There are a few videos on YouTube which explain it.

The owners manual only lists 0W20. No others.
Click to expand...
i guess the 20+ of these trucks i run on 5w-30 are all running incorrectly? i dump the FF for 5w-30 as soon as i possibly can. they don’t use oil on 5w-30 and the valve train doesn’t sound like it’s coming apart.
 
I bought a brand new 1997 Chevrolet ton truck with a 454 engine, I think it had a four speed stick stick and it burnt a quart of oil every 800 miles from the get-go that was quite normal. I thought it was BS.
 
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