Valvoline premium blue RESTORE and new updated valve covers for a ls lq4.

I remember when it was $0.79 a quart.
I remember when there were Castrol rebates. There was no such thing as a 5qt jug. Metal or cardboard 1qt. Dad bought 10qt Sears spectrum oil in a 10qt metal can which became a used oil drain pan if correctly cut with tin snips.
 
Called local Cummins dealer and verified the Cummins part# via Valvoline customer service support. It is produced for Cummins as a private label and Valvoline don’t know too much about it. This is the Gen 2.

C898013GA (Gen2) $74
 
i will say, if the oil doesn’t fix it doing valve seals on an LS is a walk in the park. valve spring compressor, needle nose, spark plug socket and a magnet is all you need.

pull all the spark plugs out and run the valve spring compressor down a little then rotate the crank slowly until you see the valve pickup out of the spring. use a magnet to lift out the keepers and release the compressor. you can do all 16 in about 2 hours and they’re super cheap from BTR racing.
 
Called local Cummins dealer and verified the Cummins part# via Valvoline customer service support. It is produced for Cummins as a private label and Valvoline don’t know too much about it. This is the Gen 2.

C898013GA (Gen2) $74
May vary slightly per area a couple dollars. This is what I spent for 5 gallons with shipping.

IMG_8545.webp
 
i will say, if the oil doesn’t fix it doing valve seals on an LS is a walk in the park. valve spring compressor, needle nose, spark plug socket and a magnet is all you need.

pull all the spark plugs out and run the valve spring compressor down a little then rotate the crank slowly until you see the valve pickup out of the spring. use a magnet to lift out the keepers and release the compressor. you can do all 16 in about 2 hours and they’re super cheap from BTR racing.
Appreciate that. With as many miles that’s on the motor if I have to tear it apart I thought about just rebuilding it with some goodies or buying another reman. If I can save it tho I would like to try to put miles on it than dad and be all original.
I talked to dad a while back about redoing the valve seals and he’s pretty set on if we pull the motor apart to just redo the whole motor. I’ll just look at it as an opportunity to put a Texas speed chopacabra in her
 
Even if I could convince my local Cummins dealer that VPBR Gen2 exists (I tried once already), I wouldn't buy any until I see a VOA on it.

My 07 6.2L Denali 199k mile road hard- and hung-up wet by previous owner stopped consuming oil 6+ yrs and almost 70k miles ago when I did GM TSB: https://f01.justanswer.com/ebrock63...il+Consumption,+MIL+ON,+Engine+Runs+Rough.pdf
So far I haven’t had any smoke at all since doing this so I’m really happy about that. I plan on driving it back and forth to work next week to see if consumption has decreased any. With it not smoking on start up and getting on it pretty hard I’m pretty confident.
 
Appreciate that. With as many miles that’s on the motor if I have to tear it apart I thought about just rebuilding it with some goodies or buying another reman. If I can save it tho I would like to try to put miles on it than dad and be all original.
I talked to dad a while back about redoing the valve seals and he’s pretty set on if we pull the motor apart to just redo the whole motor. I’ll just look at it as an opportunity to put a Texas speed chopacabra in her
doing valve seals is far away from tearing it all apart. valve covers and rockers are as far as you get into it.
 
Even if I could convince my local Cummins dealer that VPBR Gen2 exists (I tried once already), I wouldn't buy any until I see a VOA on it.

My 07 6.2L Denali 199k mile road hard- and hung-up wet by previous owner stopped consuming oil 6+ yrs and almost 70k miles ago when I did GM TSB: https://f01.justanswer.com/ebrock63...il+Consumption,+MIL+ON,+Engine+Runs+Rough.pdf
That cured my 4.8 too but he's already done that update to this one. Could be a combination of valve seals and sticking rings at this mileage.
 
So far I haven’t had any smoke at all since doing this so I’m really happy about that. I plan on driving it back and forth to work next week to see if consumption has decreased any. With it not smoking on start up and getting on it pretty hard I’m pretty confident.
I wouldn't give up on it yet....my engine isn't burning oil but it has cracked castech heads (not a problem on the 6.0) and I have a 4.8 in the truck and 3 5.3 LM7's in my possession.

If I have to pull heads I might as well put the same effort into a lower mileage 5.3 and replace all the common problems (like oil pump o ring, etc) so I'm getting an engine upgrade at the same time.

If I had a 6.0 I'd try to get as many miles as possible out of it.
 
The TSB addresses the stuck ring issue (piston/combustion chamber soak).
After 199k miles my valve seals are still doing their job.
Here is what all my sparkies looked like in 2018 when we bought it.
View attachment 256007
Wow. I had a little bit building up on a couple plugs before I bought the truck....was my company owned work truck.....I got a slight stumble off idle and checked the plugs and swapped good used ones in and fixed it for free.....after doing the valve cover TSB (my tsb didn't mention rings as far as I remember) the plugs stay perfectly clean.

The reason my valve cover was sludged up in the PCV though turned out it be the coolant seeping through porous cylinder heads (another TSB that only affects 4.8/5.3 01-06). I scraped out as much sludge as possible when the valve covers were off and did multiple filter changes and cut them open. Currently at 270k miles and pretty sure I can get another couples years/40k miles before I need to swap in another engine. If I wasn't planning that I would do the heads asap as the engine urgently burns almost zero oil.
 
That cured my 4.8 too but he's already done that update to this one. Could be a combination of valve seals and sticking rings at this mileage.
I just did the new valve covers about a week ago for that update so it hasn’t been long. I will say tho I’ve had absolutely no smoke anymore. Haven’t check oil consumption yet, but it also hasn’t really been driven enough to see. If it’s still consuming oil then it could definitely be either or both. If it’s it’s the piston rings im really hoping the premium blue restore will address that.
 
I wouldn't give up on it yet....my engine isn't burning oil but it has cracked castech heads (not a problem on the 6.0) and I have a 4.8 in the truck and 3 5.3 LM7's in my possession.

If I have to pull heads I might as well put the same effort into a lower mileage 5.3 and replace all the common problems (like oil pump o ring, etc) so I'm getting an engine upgrade at the same time.

If I had a 6.0 I'd try to get as many miles as possible out of it.
Yeah my dad is really by the book when it comes to fixing stuff properly. If it’s valve seals then the local machine shop quoted me 500$ to redo either per head or both heads. Can’t remember correctly if that price was per or both. Been a few years. If I can can oil consumption down to 1 quart every 3k miles I’ll take that as win at this point instead of 1 quart every 1k miles. I definitely would love to have this engine last longer my dad’s old ranger if I can. The 4l65e was rebuilt at 318k and corvette servo upgrade. The truck also has a custom tune on it and a lower temp thermostat. Hoping it all help. I’ve also started doing Techron complete in the gas to clean fuel injectors instead of Seafoam since lake mentioned that as a great product for it. Didn’t know that could affect wear until he mentioned it.
 
Yeah my dad is really by the book when it comes to fixing stuff properly. If it’s valve seals then the local machine shop quoted me 500$ to redo either per head or both heads. Can’t remember correctly if that price was per or both. Been a few years. If I can can oil consumption down to 1 quart every 3k miles I’ll take that as win at this point instead of 1 quart every 1k miles. I definitely would love to have this engine last longer my dad’s old ranger if I can. The 4l65e was rebuilt at 318k and corvette servo upgrade. The truck also has a custom tune on it and a lower temp thermostat. Hoping it all help. I’ve also started doing Techron complete in the gas to clean fuel injectors instead of Seafoam since lake mentioned that as a great product for it. Didn’t know that could affect wear until he mentioned it.
Hopefully the valve cover fixes it. In my case it was obvious that the PCV was completely plugged....and smoke stopped immediately along with all of the oil consumption (used to be 1qt per 2k miles now it's half qt per 4k miles).

If it was smoking before valve cover replacement then it must have been sucking oil into the intake because of the valve cover PCV issue.

I also started using a lot more PEA cleaner (we have gumout regane but no techron in Canada) lately since I have to change the oil every 2k miles because of the coolant intrusion anyway. The spare 5.3s are drive by cable so I'll be swapping this intake and injectors into the replacement engine so might as well get them cleaned up now. They were getting quite noisy before multiple fuel treatments.
 
Hopefully the valve cover fixes it. In my case it was obvious that the PCV was completely plugged....and smoke stopped immediately along with all of the oil consumption (used to be 1qt per 2k miles now it's half qt per 4k miles).

If it was smoking before valve cover replacement then it must have been sucking oil into the intake because of the valve cover PCV issue.

I also started using a lot more PEA cleaner (we have gumout regane but no techron in Canada) lately since I have to change the oil every 2k miles because of the coolant intrusion anyway. The spare 5.3s are drive by cable so I'll be swapping this intake and injectors into the replacement engine so might as well get them cleaned up now. They were getting quite noisy before multiple fuel treatments.
Lake mentioned gumout all in one as well. He was more specific on techron so I went that route.

I really hope so tho. Definitely giving me hope however with the miles on the motor it wouldn’t surprise me about the rings or valve seals either. Just hoping that’s not the case or isn’t too severe yet and was mostly the valve covers. It’s crazy how something as simple as that and a design flaw could use that much oil. Same with computer ecm updates in the new 5.0 f150s fixing their consumption issue.
Next I would love a new 18 and up 3.5 ecoboost tho. Don’t really need a diesel but for a gasser that’s the best 1500 I’ve seen for towing. Ford apparently fixed and made updated cam phasers as well which makes me feel more at ease buying one. Gotta pay off mine and her daily first tho.
 
Hopefully the valve cover fixes it. In my case it was obvious that the PCV was completely plugged....and smoke stopped immediately along with all of the oil consumption (used to be 1qt per 2k miles now it's half qt per 4k miles).

If it was smoking before valve cover replacement then it must have been sucking oil into the intake because of the valve cover PCV issue.

I also started using a lot more PEA cleaner (we have gumout regane but no techron in Canada) lately since I have to change the oil every 2k miles because of the coolant intrusion anyway. The spare 5.3s are drive by cable so I'll be swapping this intake and injectors into the replacement engine so might as well get them cleaned up now. They were getting quite noisy before multiple fuel treatments.
I definitely need to clean out my injectors some more.
 
Lake mentioned gumout all in one as well. He was more specific on techron so I went that route.

I really hope so tho. Definitely giving me hope however with the miles on the motor it wouldn’t surprise me about the rings or valve seals either. Just hoping that’s not the case or isn’t too severe yet and was mostly the valve covers. It’s crazy how something as simple as that and a design flaw could use that much oil. Same with computer ecm updates in the new 5.0 f150s fixing their consumption issue.
Next I would love a new 18 and up 3.5 ecoboost tho. Don’t really need a diesel but for a gasser that’s the best 1500 I’ve seen for towing. Ford apparently fixed and made updated cam phasers as well which makes me feel more at ease buying one. Gotta pay off mine and her daily first tho.
I'd like to drive one just to experience the power and the driving experience but wouldn't trust one to own it long term as a daily work truck.
That reprogram on the 5.0 Ford's only works on a small amount of them. Most of them it's a ring seal issue. Our 2018 at work uses a qt per week.
 
Back
Top