Oil reccomendation

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sprint_9

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Ok, well a little background info. Ive got an 07 Silverado 5.3, about 70k miles, just bought it. It mostly sits with the occasional trip on the weekend or a short hop to the grocery store once a week. I mainly put on not much more than 5k miles per year. Ive had problems with the Active fuel managment on this as well. 1 lifter would stick when put into AFM mode, after allowed to sit it would re-lock back into place and run fine. I have since disabled AFM on the truck. It also might be burning a small amount of oil, due to blow by on the AFM cylinders. I suspect this is due to cheaper oil being ran and gumming up the oil ring on these pistons.

So with all that I have been running some MMO with a shorter OCI trying to clean things out as good as possible without disassembling the engine.

Im getting to where I want to make a decision on an oil to use long term. I will likely run a 6 month OCI, kind of lining up with the changing seasons.

With all that what would be your recommendations? I am leaning toward Pennzoil Gold Syn Blend but am unsure what to think.
 
I agree pyb or another good quality Dino.
Your driving habits with that truck are not ideal for extended ocis therefore synthetics would be a waste of money.
 
Originally Posted By: sprint_9
Ok, well a little background info. Ive got an 07 Silverado 5.3, about 70k miles, just bought it. It mostly sits with the occasional trip on the weekend or a short hop to the grocery store once a week. I mainly put on not much more than 5k miles per year. Ive had problems with the Active fuel managment on this as well. 1 lifter would stick when put into AFM mode, after allowed to sit it would re-lock back into place and run fine. I have since disabled AFM on the truck. It also might be burning a small amount of oil, due to blow by on the AFM cylinders. I suspect this is due to cheaper oil being ran and gumming up the oil ring on these pistons.

So with all that I have been running some MMO with a shorter OCI trying to clean things out as good as possible without disassembling the engine.

Im getting to where I want to make a decision on an oil to use long term. I will likely run a 6 month OCI, kind of lining up with the changing seasons.

With all that what would be your recommendations? I am leaning toward Pennzoil Gold Syn Blend but am unsure what to think.

Good call disabling the AFM, I did as well. I get the same mileage running 8 cylinders full time as I did with AFM. Ok back to the topic at hand. I have liked Quaker State conventional the best so far with mine. Pennzoil was nice too. I have recently put some Valvoline Maxlife in and that is nice and smooth as well but it's too early to tell. All will achieve your 5k oci. For what it's worth Quaker State conventional went the longest without having to add any.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I would kind of like to stick with something dexos 1 approved, or higher quality, but Im not sure if its needed with a short oci, or since I have disabled the afm if the oil is now under less stress.

Chevybadger have you had any oil consumption problems? I havent put enough miles on mine to tell, just based off of the spark plugs I am likely going to have trouble with mine.
 
Synthetics leave behind less ring deposits. Thats how they have always been able to be used to achieve GM 4718M, LL-01, etc, specs that need synthetics to reach high enough.
So if you'd like LESS ring deposits, go for a decent synthetic oil. Try M1 Ext Perf in the 5 quart jug cheap at walmart or amazon.
 
You can do whatever you want. Using a DEXOS approved oil wouldn't be required for your vehicle, although GM says Dexos1 replaces GM6094M, a lot of conventional oils still carries the GM6094M specs. and I wouldn't hesitate to use a good conventional oil. Otherwise, if you still like to use a dexos approved oil, I would use synthetic and go once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: sprint_9
Thanks for all the replies. I would kind of like to stick with something dexos 1 approved, or higher quality, but Im not sure if its needed with a short oci, or since I have disabled the afm if the oil is now under less stress.

Chevybadger have you had any oil consumption problems? I havent put enough miles on mine to tell, just based off of the spark plugs I am likely going to have trouble with mine.
I have had comsumption issues with certain oils like Napa Synthetic and plain Valvoline Next gen. Quaker State and Pennzoil conventionals burned a considerable amount less. I have recently bought a programmer to turn off AFM. So I am not sure how much that will help but its nice not dealing with the sporatic 4 cyl mode and kicking back into 8 cylinder for a 2" incline. I am getting the same mileage in fulltime 8 cyl like I said. Give Pennzoil conventional a shot for a oci or QS. I do have a oci's worth of Formula Shell that I will try also, that will complete the Sopus family of conventionals. I will report back on how the Shell does. I honestly dont think a synthetic will make that much of difference, it will still burn some in these first gen AFM engines.
 
I should add that the Maxlife I have in the sump currently is the first HM oil I have tried. Been in for two days, I can report back on that also.
 
I'd just stay with the Maxlife you're already using. That should handle a 5k yearly OCI easily. Use up your Formula Shell too. Your original choice of Pennzoil Gold Syn Blend is fine as well. 5k -1 year is doable with almost any oil in normal applications.
 
This excessive oil use problem predates the AFM vehicles but was made worse by it in my opinion. There is a ton of info on the web about the 5.3L oil use problem specifically. Some good data and some useless data as usual on the net. I have chased my own
The upshot is that there have been TSB's issued for the problem that range from cover your butt to some helpful ones. In the pre-AFM vehicles it seems related to bad quality control on the left side valve cover. Oil was being conveyed all the way to the PCV which in my case was an integral part of the valve cover. The relation to the lifter tick seems to involve this path. Burned oil buildup in that area has caused sticky oil control rings according to some. In fact GM has a procedure for piston side cleaning in one of the TSBs and markets a product specifically for it.

On the valve cover GM has tried to lay it off to blocked oil return slots in the cover but the fact is that, at least in my case, it was simply poorly made and not allowing the oil to drain back to the valve train side of the head. I replaced it like for like with a "new build" GM part (note that they did not change the part number). Consumption immediately went to one quart per 2000 miles. There may be more improvement left.

There is another GM part that the parts guys call the "oil control valve cover" released for 2007 5.3L. At some places it is all but unknown but a good Buick guy brought it out and showed it to me. Where the regular VC (tired of writing that) has a circular hole and no lip around it toward the front of the left side, the 07 VC that is the "oil control" one has a square hole with a lip.

The lip itself looks to me like it would stop a good deal of the oil that goes in that upper conduit with the pressure in the direction of the PCV. I have not bought it yet as I did not find that one until I had gone with the "new build" OEM (plus nerves at the time about mine being a 2004 and not a 2007 but I don't think that's a problem). And I was still in the process of trying to characterize any benefit from the OEM one.

Other than the other one having a lip and a different shape hole I have been unable to bring anything else to light. AllData has the TSBs as of course any dealer would. AFAIK the oil control VC is NOT listed in TSB anywhere I can find.

The bottom line seems to be, if you don't mind using some oil then the catch-can path is attractive. The oil does not get back in through the intake and maybe the sticky ring and lifter tick problem doesn't happen. Or try the 2007 oil control VC which they quoted me for $78 back in January or so. Or both I guess. VC is cheaper though.

If the lifter tick already exists run your favorite solvent through there a few times or use the the GM top treatment and use the highest detergent oil you can find for a few changes and see what the results are. The problem scares people (it did me) because it just sounds like an expensive problem. But I have halved the consumption so far, solved the lifter tick completely and have a path forward to try next, the new VC. I suspect that the oil sqirters in those later models puts a good deal of oil right where the cylinder is hottest and that may be the mechanism for the sticky rings in that case. Just guessing,

Good luck my friend, I know it is a PITA.
 
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Great info, I didnt know they actually had a tsb for ring cleaning or different model valve covers.

I was thinking about going with a catch can and might do so instead of changing valve covers, waiting to see how everything else turns out in the next few months after I get some miles on.

What solvent and oil did you run in yours to help with your problems, might be something I want to try.
 
Originally Posted By: sprint_9
Great info, I didnt know they actually had a tsb for ring cleaning or different model valve covers.

I was thinking about going with a catch can and might do so instead of changing valve covers, waiting to see how everything else turns out in the next few months after I get some miles on.

What solvent and oil did you run in yours to help with your problems, might be something I want to try.

I Seafoamed the oil and intake a couple of times, used repeated Techron with no result really. But, having done that, I have used two different ester based oils for their high detergency and let it go that way for the last 8 months or so. So far, so good but, as usual, more time (and cold weather for the lifter tick) is needed. As winter approaches I will make the valve cover vs. Catch can decision. Like you I'm leaning toward the catch can. GM has a part number for the cylinder/ring cleaner. I'll try to find it for you.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: DeepFriar
Originally Posted By: sprint_9
Great info, I didnt know they actually had a tsb for ring cleaning or different model valve covers.

I was thinking about going with a catch can and might do so instead of changing valve covers, waiting to see how everything else turns out in the next few months after I get some miles on.

What solvent and oil did you run in yours to help with your problems, might be something I want to try.

I Seafoamed the oil and intake a couple of times, used repeated Techron with no result really. But, having done that, I have used two different ester based oils for their high detergency and let it go that way for the last 8 months or so. So far, so good but, as usual, more time (and cold weather for the lifter tick) is needed. As winter approaches I will make the valve cover vs. Catch can decision. Like you I'm leaning toward the catch can. GM has a part number for the cylinder/ring cleaner. I'll try to find it for you.


Well I wish I had found the following sooner and it wasn't from lack of looking. At the risk of confirmation bias (never happens here on BITOG ;-)) this jives well with what I have found doing it the hard way (Dang) as usual. It is an excellent suumary. Covers the AFM, oil consonsumption, lifter tick and the sticky ring issue. Will someone please tell me how to rename and cross post this to the Maintenance topic?

http://www.silveradosierra.com/vortec-5-3l-v8/latest-theory-on-oil-consumption-t57177-70.html
 
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