2011 5.3 silverado engine oil decision

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Devildog0331

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May 9, 2017
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San Diego, ca
Hey everyone new member here, but I have been following for a while. Anyway I'm at a crossroads for some odd reason. I drive a 2011 5.3 crew cab silverado with 28550 miles on it. I have a few mods nothing out of the ordinary, just a custom tune. I live in San Diego. I do drive pretty hard on it, I drive a lot in WOT, and just accelerating hard. A 50/50 highway street mix. But I only drive it a couple times a week. As you can tell from the miles. So I usually stay with the 5w-30 fully synthetic. Past two changes were with pennzoil platinum plus, also the Lucas synthetic [censored]. After reading here I've leaned my lesson
wink.gif
also with all the reading here I'm at that crossroads of going to maybe a thicker oil? I'm totally going to change the oil in the next few days. To be honest no idea why I'd want to go thicker maybe more protection? But that will cause some heat up issues as well and I don't want that. Thinking of going to 0w-30 or 0w-40. It doesn't get below 45 degrees here ever. I've always ran WIX XP filters so I'm covered there lol.
Thank you everyone for the future help to a dumb dilemma.
 
Welcome.

Keep using the Pennzoil, if your are concerned about wear or breakdown which is unlikely given your use case go for an UOA.
 
Originally Posted By: barkingspider
.... 10w30 is good too. No need for Lucas or 40 wt oil


+1; never below 45•F a 10w oil will be great; but you will also be perfectly fine with 5w30.

Not a PZ fan, but it is a good oil; any major brand would serve you well.
 
Have you had any problems with cylinder deactivation yet on your 5.3 ? I've done about 10 conversions on 5.3 engines where you swap out the lifters & then turn off the cylinder deactivation via a custom tune. Before the lifter issues, they all ran 5w20 & saw horrible oil consumption numbers. Switched to 5w30 & it got a little better, then the lifters collapsed & the conversion was done. After the conversions, they ran 5w30 again, but still had oil consumption issues. Switched to 10w30 & no more problems.
 
Hey y'all thank you so much for the responses and help!!

Fasttimez- I haven't heard of lifter issues. I've been running my custom tune for about 4 years now and no issues. I did have a slight oil leak at the oil filter a week ago which prompted my oil change the other day. But coming to find out I think the filter came slightly loose. Anyway I've used mobile 1 5w30 and 0w30 and penn 5w30. No consumption at all ever lol might be a east coast thing hahaha jk! Jk
 
Today Mobil 1330 SAE 30 is going in a 2013 1500 5.3L SLT. Out: 1300 15W40. The best deals are usually on 5 gallon pails of 15W40, not so much the mono-grades.
Delo 400 SAE 30& 40 still show old school mid saps for those wanting a good flat tappet boutique oil at a reasonable cost.
Unfortunately Mobil ADL & 1630 & 1640 are only available in drums.
 
My 2006 Cadillac CTS 3.6L gets a 10w30 conventional year round. GM said it had to have M1 5w30. Still doing great. And that is in the upper midwest. I would jump on a 10w30 year round living in southern Cal in a heartbeat. The Lucas.... never. And for high mileage needing a heavier oil like a 40w? Gonna have to tell my 12.7L Detroit engine with 688,000 miles on it that a 30w won't work. It never got the memo. It uses about 2 qt in 22,000 mile / 500 hr OCI's and UOA's look as good as they did below 100,000 miles on the engine.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
My 2006 Cadillac CTS 3.6L gets a 10w30 conventional year round. GM said it had to have M1 5w30. Still doing great. And that is in the upper midwest. I would jump on a 10w30 year round living in southern Cal in a heartbeat. The Lucas.... never. And for high mileage needing a heavier oil like a 40w? Gonna have to tell my 12.7L Detroit engine with 688,000 miles on it that a 30w won't work. It never got the memo. It uses about 2 qt in 22,000 mile / 500 hr OCI's and UOA's look as good as they did below 100,000 miles on the engine.



You do realize that engine requires an oil meeting GM4871 spec - which is synthetic oil. Atleast make sure you are using a DEXOS certified oil in that car.
 
Originally Posted By: Devildog0331
Hey y'all thank you so much for the responses and help!!

Fasttimez- I haven't heard of lifter issues. I've been running my custom tune for about 4 years now and no issues. I did have a slight oil leak at the oil filter a week ago which prompted my oil change the other day. But coming to find out I think the filter came slightly loose. Anyway I've used mobile 1 5w30 and 0w30 and penn 5w30. No consumption at all ever lol might be a east coast thing hahaha jk! Jk

I'm guessing you're tune has the cylinder deactivation cut off, so you don't have to worry about that problem.
 
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
My 2006 Cadillac CTS 3.6L gets a 10w30 conventional year round. GM said it had to have M1 5w30. Still doing great. And that is in the upper midwest. I would jump on a 10w30 year round living in southern Cal in a heartbeat. The Lucas.... never. And for high mileage needing a heavier oil like a 40w? Gonna have to tell my 12.7L Detroit engine with 688,000 miles on it that a 30w won't work. It never got the memo. It uses about 2 qt in 22,000 mile / 500 hr OCI's and UOA's look as good as they did below 100,000 miles on the engine.



You do realize that engine requires an oil meeting GM4871 spec - which is synthetic oil. Atleast make sure you are using a DEXOS certified oil in that car.


You do realize that I still have the original owners manual, and it calls for GM 6094M oil spec for my 3.6L LY7 engine. And Pennzoil 10w30 conventional meets the 6094M spec. This was long before dexos was a blip on the radar.

 
Yep. Maintenance section of the PDF version of the 2006 Cadillac CTS owners manual I keep on my computer. I downloaded it from Cadillac years ago. I keep a PDF version for my 2015 2500 on the computer along with a batch of owners and maintenance manuals for components on my semi trucks.
 
Ok was reading the 4718 but did not know what's on other pages. I find the GM books make you look 3 places to get an answer - but beats the 200 pages Ford will have on tires alone !
 
You were right with 4718M, if I had the V8. But I have the 3.6L V6. That is where the confusion is. I agree, some OEM's, you have to rummage thru pages and pages scattered all over the manual to get the scoop. Probably so they OEM will confuse everyone, and then the consumer makes a mistake and the OEM can play warranty denial games. About as good of an explanation as anything else. With all the spec stuff being thrown around nowadays, it is a wonder than anyone gets any of it right. Next thing they will come up with is one spec on one oil change and another spec on the next one, then repeat.
 
Fasttimez- yes torque management and the governor and AFM is all turned off, I also use E85 because it's 75 cents cheaper here than 91 octane and that's what I have my tune calibrated too. Well I'm going back to Mobil 1 and I should really do a UOA lol but 10w30 would be too thick in the morning since when I do drive I usually start driving 2-5 mins after starting the vehicle.
 
And even a 10w30 would not be fully throughout the system in that 2-5 minutes? I barely wait a minute before starting down the driveway using 10w30 in my 12 year old Cadillac, even in winter. To be fair, it resides in a garage as opposed to outside, but even in my garage it is colder in winter than San Diego is likely to see. But do what you feel is best. No wrong answer here.
 
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