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Well, as I’ve posted before on this truck, it’s got some issues. like buring oil and anti-freeze. But no anti-freeze in the oil.
Well this past weekend, I changed the oil. Found a huge lump of metal flakes on the drain-plug magnet. Not really much in the oil itself. But 2 days afterwards, as I was driving home, the engine stalled twice on me. Once at a stoplight and once while driving and turning. When I got home, I checked the oil and it was at perfect oil level but, the dipstick was covered in metal flakes. The oil was practically gray and black. My dad said, since it’s a thinner oil, 5w-30, it might be gray. I told him, with the most serious voice and deep voice. “Oil should NEVER be gray” and littered with metal flakes like little girls birthday party filled with popped ballons with glitter.” Now mind you, this is the man that knows nothing about gas engines but everything about diesels. He’s also the one who decided to not get the oil changed and now the truck has had a lifter tap for years.
Any way, since then, the engine has burned VERY little oil and has been great with coolant. I guess she wants to live out the last days happy huh? Haha.
Any ideas of what’s going on? Did I make a mistake? What’s to come? I think it’s a bearing going bad but there’s no sound beyond the valve/lifter tap. Thanks.
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An oil analysis will tell you which type of metal is contaminating your oil, which will give a clue to its origin, but I don’t think that matters now.
It’s time to pull the engine and tear it down.
Something is being machined down. If it sounds top end could be a lifter.
You could try removing the valve cover or intake to check the top end.The noise i’m telling you, which is a lifter tap, isn’t what’s causing this. It didn’t just syart tapping. As I said, it’s been tapping for years but never gave any issues. It taps because the oil isn’t getting to the lifters anymore because like I said too, my dad failed to change the oil and now it’s oil ports (holes) are clogged with sludge and chunks of bad oil. I’ve tried seafoam, transmission oil, oil cleaners that pump in new oil infuzed with super strong detergents that’ll get pumped back out and pumped with new oil. i’ve pulled the valve covers off before and I cleaned up as much as I could and there weren’t any metal flakes up there. No signs of that kind of wear too.
P.S It’s not chunks of metal but it’s glitter like metal that’s soo small and dense, it’s making the oil black and gray.
Glitter sounds like crank bearing material. Knocks are soon to follow. Or, it could be cam bearings since there is a lack of lubrication to the valve train. Either way, it’s going to need an overhaul.
I figured it would be bearing material being that’s what I find in my lawn mowers I work on and worktrucks. I drive an International 4900 that you’ll find a “few” threads on. But, if it’s had the lack of lubrication for years now, wouldn’t the cam bearings gone a while ago?
BTW, the check engine just shut off too. Seems to want everything to be perfect for her last day…. Hahaha
At what point the cam bearings go is nebulous and impossible to determine. Depending on their material they could possibly take a beating for a long time until they finally succumb and deteriorate. If it was crank or rod bearings there would most likely be knocking, and you didn’t say there were any noises other than valvetrain.
Now, would the knocking be instantly though? And by a few years, I mean 7 years at least. We’ve gotten estimate’s all over the place on how much it would to be to fix the lifters and it would be around $3,000 because they’d have to replace all, take top engine, replace valves, pushrods, camshaft. So we never got it fixed because we never have the money. I’ve thought about doing it on my own but, I don’t want to do something wrong and cost more money. I’m still learning.
[quote=”brian98redskins” post=139863]Now, would the knocking be instantly though? And by a few years,” I mean 7 years at least. We’ve gotten estimate’s all over the place on how much it would to be to fix the lifters and it would be around $3,000 because they’d have to replace all, take top engine, replace valves, pushrods, camshaft. ”
I clearly said that.
I seriously doubt it should cost $3k. You could get a whole rebuilt engine for half of that. Thinking about it, since you more or less confirmed that there isn’t any knocking sound currently, and have provided history of lack of valvetrain lubrication, I remember now that this is a vortec engine, and these have needle bearings in the rocker arms. Perhaps that is the source of the glitter and the noise. It would certainly be a relief to you if the damage is restricted to the rocker arms. The rockers are oiled through the pushrods. If these are sludged up or have become impacted with dirt, oil won’t get to the rockers.
If it is lifter noise, replacing the lifters constitutes removing the valve covers, rocker arms, pushrods, and intake manifold. Not terribly difficult, but there is a lot of ‘stuff’ to unbolt and remove to get them out of the way. It is certainly a doable job, though. However, the cam and cam bearings should usually be replaced also, and this is a little more work, but only if there is significant wear on one or more lobes (the cam end of the lifter will tell the story). I would start off by removing the valve covers and inspecting the rocker arms for missing needle bearings. You can tell easily if there is some wiggle of the arm on the shaft (with that valve closed to remove the load on the rocker). If you have to replace one rocker arm, you should replace all of them, and the pushrods. You may get lucky and replacing the rocker arms and pushrods cures the noise and the metal in the oil.
Thank you, I shall look into it. How much would it cost on average to have all this done? includes time, labor, parts, etc.
You could probably do it yourself, even with limited mechanical experience and a good manual. GM Wholesale Parts has the valve cover gaskets for $16.96 each (2 required), the rocker arms for $11.18 each, the pushrods for $15.20 each, and the lifters for $30.64 each. Napa has aftermarket pushrods for about $5 each, lifters for $13 each, and valve cover gasket set (both included) for about $15, but they don’t carry the rocker arms. If you do the lifters, you’ll also need a head gasket set ($246.60 at Napa) as well.
I’m almost certain, from your description, that there is significant wear on the rockers. Whether or not that covers all of your issues, I cannot guarantee over the internet since I cannot personally inspect your engine. You could start out with just removing the valve covers and inspecting the rocker arms. A shop could do that for you for around $100, more or less, but you could more than likely do it yourself. That would give direction on whether the rockers are indeed damaged and if further investigation is needed.
No. With the Vortec 5.3’s, you NEED to take off the head in order to thoroughly clean the lifters by hand. It is impossible to take them out without removing the head.
Also, I’d much rather not do this myself only because this is my dad’s truck, I don’t wanna mess anything up and him having to pay more, and not have a working truck to get to work. Plus, I don’t have the equipment to do so. What we can do is, have the mechanics that work at the dairy look at the truck. We had them replace a bad bearing for less than $200. One of them has his own shop.
I am not convinced it’s a lifter issue anyway. I’m feeling strongly it is a rocker issue. Otherwise, for what a shop labor rate would be (R&R heads alone is 13 hours book time, not including parts) I would just swap the engine with a used or rebuilt one.
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