08 Silverado - Overfill or dipstick issue?

[HondaMan]

Stated capacity is six qts.

Required oil filter is the AC Delco PF48.

When purchased the oil was WAY over the fill line on the dipstick..... no worries... I dumped the factory fill and poured in 5.5 qts. of oil. I did not change the OF.

I am now still well over the fill line.

IMO it is apparent that the dipstick is NOT accurate. Thoughts or comments?

 

[bubbatime]

The only thing that is apparent is that you put too much oil in. The dipstick is fine.

 

[chevrofreak]

Something I've learned is that stated oil capacity and the amount of oil it takes to refill the crankcase during an oil change are only loosely related.

 

[HondaMan]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
The only thing that is apparent is that you put too much oil in. The dipstick is fine.


bubbatime,

How did you come to the conclusion of your statement?

Do you know the capacity of the OE PF48 oil filter? Does it have an ADBV? Is the oil filter horizontally mounted?

I do in fact know the answer to the above questions.

I poured in exactly 5.5 qts. in a 6 qt. capacity engine.

You didn't even bother to ask how 'over' the fill line, so please do tell me how you came to your apparent conclusion.

 

[Gary Allan]

When I have these moments, I try and check my blood sugar.

Order a new dipstick. They aren't expensive.

Maybe the tube is the wrong one for the dipstick (if it has a tube).

 

[Blue99]

My experience with the GM 5.3L truck engine is that some oil in a fully primed oil pump system will drain down from above the filter when the filter is removed.

If the filter is not removed, I would have dumped in only 5 quarts and then added whatever fractional portion of a quart to meet the fill line on the dipstick.

My suggestion, is to back out the drain plug & drop about 1/2 a quart & refill to the fill line on the dipstick.

 

[Twin]

I have a 06' silverado with the 4.8 v8 and had the same issue,I just left the oil stay a little over the full mark. Then guess what? GM yet again changed the oil filter application for the silverado v8. It's now AC delco PF 61. Now amazingly they figured it out and the mark is dead on the stick.The PF 61 is definitely larger and has greater capacity. Go get this filter and you'll be ok.They even changed my wife's 02 trailblazer to this application.

 

[HondaMan]

Originally Posted By: Twin
I have a 06' silverado with the 4.8 v8 and had the same issue,I just left the oil stay a little over the full mark. Then guess what? GM yet again changed the oil filter application for the silverado v8. It's now AC delco PF 61. Now amazingly they figured it out and the mark is dead on the stick.The PF 61 is definitely larger and has greater capacity. Go get this filter and you'll be ok.They even changed my wife's 02 trailblazer to this application.


Twin,

This seems to be the general thoughts of most on other boards. Begining in 07 however, the filter was changed and the threads are metric. I'll check the PF 61 specs ... I've not heard that this is an option as my quick guess is that it's threads are not metric.

 

[gnet158]

Why didn’t you change your oil filter too? I hope it wasn’t because it was stuck like mine was. If so buy yourself the filter remover with the metal band that goes around the filter. I tried all the others and none of them worked except for this one.

Anyways you should change your filter because who knows that the oem blue filter is and the last thing you want is it going into bypass mode.

 

[Steve S]

call the dealer and ask! With a new engine I would also change the filter.The extra oil is not enough to worry about.

 

[gnet158]

Forgot to mention that the factory oil was over the fill line too. I really hate the 6 foot dip stick that GM uses on the new trucks. I just changed my oil too this past Saturday with Pennzoil Platinum and used 5.5 quarts too. Only because a buddy of mine kicked an open Pennzoil bottle and spilled about half on the garage floor. I won’t be worried.

 

[Twin]

OK. That I didn't know. I thought it was all the same.Please by all means double and triple check B4 you use the PF 61. If GM did change it to metric that would be %&^$#.

 

[HondaMan]

twin,
Oil filter threads are metric on the PF48. Drain bolt is 15mm.

gnet158,
My plan was run the factory oil & filter to 4k .... I decided to drop the oil at 2k and at 4k drop both the oil and the filter. We'll see how tight that oil filter is soon enough.

I poured in a good OLD batch of 2005 Havoline 5w30.

I'm still debating which oil to run afterwards. Perhaps another run of dino, perhaps straight to PP, M1, M1 EP ... I'm not sure.

 

[gnet158]

HondaMan,

You really don't want the metal shavings from your new engine floating around for very long. I changed my oil at 1,350 miles, I wanted to change it a 1,000 but didn't have a chance. Either oil your looking at is fine but you do want to change the oil and filter sooner rather and later. Good luck!

 

[TJ72651]

I bought a new 2008 Silverado with a 5.3L engine ("J" cast iron model) and had the same problem as HondaMan. The dipstick reading was showing way above the dipstick dots and was halfway covering the dipstick part number (12610053). I drained the oil and replaced the oil filter with a PF-48. After refilling with 6 quarts of oil, the reading was the same. I asked the dealer's mechanic if we could check the oil level on another new pickup on their car lot with a 5.3L 2008 "J" engine. Sure enough, the new pickup also showed the same high oil level reading. The mechanic had no idea why the engine oil levels were too high. I think that the best case scenario is that the 6.0 quart fill spec is wrong and worst case scenario is that the engine may be part/all 4.8L instead of the advertised 5.3L on the dash VIN. Would love to hear from others having this problem...does GM/Goodwrench have a hotline for handling/explaining/resolving these types of issues?

 

[INDYMAC]

I had the same problem when I changed the oil and filter on my daughter's 08 Avalanche 5.3L. The OEM fill was reading overfill on the dipstick before the change. I bought a Wix filter that was recommended by Wix (it's a newly designed spin on part#) to the engine and 5 qts of Valvoline 5W-30. After the oil and filter change, the oil was considerably above the full line on the dipstick.

 

[gonesurfing]

I had the same problem with my 2.7L Tacoma. I found others with the overfill problem on ToyotaNation which apparently is common on the newer 4cyl models. The stated drain/refill capacity is something like 6.1qt and actual required for full on the dipstick is 5.25qt. There is at least one other BITOG'er that confirmed this capacity. Dig around, and you'll be likely to find similar info for your Chevy.

 

[HondaMan]

Originally Posted By: TJ72651
I bought a new 2008 Silverado with a 5.3L engine ("J" cast iron model) and had the same problem as HondaMan. The dipstick reading was showing way above the dipstick dots and was halfway covering the dipstick part number (12610053). I drained the oil and replaced the oil filter with a PF-48. After refilling with 6 quarts of oil, the reading was the same. I asked the dealer's mechanic if we could check the oil level on another new pickup on their car lot with a 5.3L 2008 "J" engine. Sure enough, the new pickup also showed the same high oil level reading. The mechanic had no idea why the engine oil levels were too high. I think that the best case scenario is that the 6.0 quart fill spec is wrong and worst case scenario is that the engine may be part/all 4.8L instead of the advertised 5.3L on the dash VIN. Would love to hear from others having this problem...does GM/Goodwrench have a hotline for handling/explaining/resolving these types of issues?


Wow... I hope this begins to get more attention. I'd bet there are a some Chevy owners out there who will make enough noise about this to get an answer.
Hopefully that answer will make its way back to the board here.

BTW.. I have the same 'J' 5.3L iron block.

 

[INDYMAC]

When I bought my 2000 Tundra V-8 it had the wrong dipstick (Land Cruiser). It would take 7-7.5 qts to fill while the book said 6.5 qts. Toyota eventually came out with a TSB that authorized dealers to order the correct (longer) dipstick for us about 1 1/2 years after I bought the truck.

 

[McLovin]

I have a 2008 Silverado work truck with 4.3L V6. The manual said the oil capacity is 4.5 quarts. I added 4.5 quarts. When I checked the dipstick, the dipstick indicates it is way over the full line. This was my first oil change. When I emptied whatever was in there intially, it looked like WAY more than 4.5 quarts. It almost overflowed the pan I emptied it in.

After I saw that the dipstick said I was way over, I drained out about a cup of oil after this, but I already know I didn't overfill it. I am going to assume that this dipstick is wrong. I don't want to drive around with less than 4 quarts of oil.