Oil for AFM 5.3 GM engine, 2008

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1. What kind of vehicle you have 2008 Silverado, 5.3 liter AFM flex fuel
2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well. 5W30
3. Where you live, South Carolina
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?) easy
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?) short trips, less than 15 miles twice a day, city
6. Whether your car has any known problems. This engine is known for lifters leaking by after sitting for a few hours, every morning for me, and ticking for a few seconds or longer after initial start up. Engine class is known for oil usage if lifters goes bad.
Mine has done this since I bought it with 92,000 miles. First oil change I used Mobil 1 5w30 DEXOS labeled, and the engine didnt tick till after 4000 miles. No oil usage and plug were fine. I also used AC delco filter with anti drain back filter.
Second and third oil changed I used Pennzoil Full synthetic platinum, or whatever their best stuff is, and the engine started ticking at less than 2000 miles upon start up.
Fourth oil change back to Mobil 1. Currently at 111000 miles.
So, my question is, what makes the oil within Mobil one bottle seem to maintain its integrity longer within my specific engine? Or is their an oil that actually can get into lifters quicker or stay in lifters longer due to the oils recipe. I would like to have oil last longer than 4 or 5 thousand miles in the engine. But if I have to change early, am I wasting money on synthetic.
 
Its a mechanical issue with these engines..cant fix that with oil. Its just a noise and tons of people just get used to it. I have over 230K on my tow rig and it is noisy at startup..til it warms up.

I have used 5w30, 10w30, 5w40 and 10w40 from my oil stash and also tried WIX, ACDelco and Fram filters. Nothing changed in the sound department..

Bottom line is that they are great engines that have poor fuel mileage... So no sense in using high dollar oils.
 
Originally Posted By: krismoriah72
Bottom line is that they are great engines that have poor fuel mileage... So no sense in using high dollar oils.


I agree.... synthetics are a waste of money unless you are pulling some VERY heavy trailer loads in high heat.
I'd run 10W-40 or 15W-40 in that thing in Texas.
 
I’ve used all kinds of oil in my 2007 5.3 Flex. At 135,000 miles, it burns a quart plus between oil changes which go 7-8000 miles per the OLM. The best oil I’ve found to reduce consumption is M1 HM which cuts it in half. So I use that unless I have some other oddball stuff to dump. For example, at AZ, they had Pennzoil 10W-30 Pure Platinum jugs on clearance for $10 then $5/ jug. Can’t resist that. So, it’s running it’s first load of this and just needed a quart added at 4,000 miles since OC.
 
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Thanks for advice etc everyone. SO, I am fortunate in the ticking noise issue many hear with this motor. The ticking noise only comes on after engine oil is used for some time, as stated in first post. Not when new, so something within the oil additives Mobil One uses is able to last a pretty long time.
I will try HM next time. I think GMs engineers didnt do their homework on the proper lifters or design of this AFM feature.
 
Originally Posted By: Indydriver
I’ve used all kinds of oil in my 2007 5.3 Flex. At 135,000 miles, it burns a quart plus between oil changes which go 7-8000 miles per the OLM. The best oil I’ve found to reduce consumption is M1 HM which cuts it in half. So I use that unless I have some other oddball stuff to dump. For example, at AZ, they had Pennzoil 10W-30 Pure Platinum jugs on clearance for $10 then $5/ jug. Can’t resist that. So, it’s running it’s first load of this and just needed a quart added at 4,000 miles since OC.



I have a '01 Suburban 5.3 with 250K miles TX/OK truck all its life that had LOUD piston slap and lifers, I used my "free" stash of M1 HM 10-40 I had and it quited it down alot and now runs VERY smooth !!!


HUGE difference vs other oils I have used in past


Dave
 
I have a 2006 Silverado with a 4.8, but no AFM. At 210,000 my lifters started to get noisy only for a little while after start up. At 190,000 miles I started to notice metal flakes in my oil filter ( I always cut open the filter and look in the pleats just for this reason). I found that 2 lobes on the cam and the associated lifters were the culprit. I changed the cam and put in new lifters and the noise went away and no more metal in the filter, it's been 40,000 miles since then and 2 years. I have 255,000 on the truck now. I use Valvoline 5W-30 since new. I did change to HM after the cam work..

Mark
 
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