General motors/ Chevrolet Vortec motors

[vajeep]

Calling all GM/Chevy owners with Vortec motors.
Does any one out there use too much oil? Does your vortec motor knock?

Please go to this web site and see if your vehicle has any of these symptoms.
http://www.pistonslap.com
My 6000 vortec does knock but I thought it was just "bad gas"
I will keep you all posted and please let me know if any one else has a similar problem or knows any one that does.

Thanks,
abe

[davidz71]

Piston Slap:
This stuff has been going on for a number of years and was the reason I did not pick the 6.0 as the powerplant in my 2500hd. What is strange is that it does not occur in all 6.0 engines. As a matter of fact, people with 5.3 and 8.1 litre engines have also been plagued with the troubling noise upon startup. When people have gotten fed up with the excuse that "It is normal for this engine" they have gone to arbitration to get an extended 100,000 mile warranty. One guy on the pickuptrucks.com forum even had his engine "scoped" to show cylinder wall wear and finally won his battle with GM. While I am not saying that piston slap will cause the same scoring on the cylinder walls he reported, some are saying that the noise is caused by the short piston skirts.

Oil Consumption:
Some 8.1 engines were using more than one qt. per 1,000 miles and people were understandably upset. One problem found had to do with the PCV valve and it was changed. Big block 7.4 and 8.1 engines are going to lose some oil, most do. I have just over 33,000 miles on my 8.1 and I have to put in anywhere from 3/4 qt. to 1 quart per 4,000 miles. Matter of fact, I installed my Amsoil Dual Bypass Oil Filtration system 2,700 miles ago and I just put in 1/4 qt. day before yesterday to bring it to full. I am running Amsoil 5W-30 synthetic and have since the truck had 2,816 miles on the engine. On the other hand, my '92 Chevy Z71 5.7 could go 18,000 miles with the Bypass system and I only had to add one qt. in addition to the single full flow filter/one qt. change at the 9,000 mile interval. That engine was rock solid.

[Silvertwinkie]

Abe,

Do a search by entering piston slap. I am sure you'll find a bunch of info as it was discussed in great detail.

[vajeep]

"This stuff has been going on for a number of years and was the reason I did not pick the 6.0 as the powerplant in my 2500hd. What is strange is that it does not occur in all 6.0 engines. As a matter of fact, people with 5.3 and 8.1 litre engines have also been plagued with the troubling noise upon startup. When people have gotten fed up with the excuse that "It is normal for this engine" they have gone to arbitration to get an extended 100,000 mile warranty. One guy on the pickuptrucks.com forum even had his engine "scoped" to show cylinder wall wear and finally won his battle with GM. While I am not saying that piston slap will cause the same scoring on the cylinder walls he reported, some are saying that the noise is caused by the short piston skirts."


Thanks Craig!
I love the look on my service advisor's face when I ask him to explain "piston slap" It was sort of like story time around the campfire. Alot ! (alot) of talking went on with out any thing that expalined why my 6000 vortec with 5553 miles on the odo some times makes a clicking sound at cold starts.
I feel that Chevrolet is trying to cover up something and I feel that history will show that some cost savings measure somewhere backfired. IMHO Chevy will continue to quitely buy back the problem vortec motors because this is cheaper than fixing the root problem. What makes this even harder to understand is Chevy continues to be ranked #1 in JD Powers customer satisfaction. From some one that is going through a "buy back" on my 2004 Suburban with Quadra-steer I admit I have had superb customer care, but I am a little worried about the product that Chevy is producing.
(Off soap box)

Abe

[TomW]

Originally Posted by vajeep

Calling all GM/Chevy owners with Vortec motors.
Does any one out there use too much oil? Does your vortec motor knock?

Abe,

I have a '97 5.7 liter Vortec & a '99 6.0 liter Vortec, and neither uses oil between changes or makes annoying noises.

Now my '84 7.4 liter carbureted workhorse keeps OPEC in business

Tom

[jcanavera]

So far so good with me on my '03 GMC Savana van with the Vortec 6.0. No slap or oil consumption.

Jack

[FireFighter]

i drive a 99 silverado just rolled 118k yesterday. use it for pulling everything all of the time and to work and back 200 mile round trip, i run 7-8k between oil changes and never have to add any oil. in the very cold michigan mornings do get some piston slap upon start up. annoying yes caused my engine to fail early doesn't look that way.

[Tin Hut]

Since I'm researching a new tow vehicle, when I looked into piston slap it does not seem to be exclusive to any one manufacturer. I found several sites with owners complaining of the same thing on their Fords. Also, the problem or at least the # of complaints seem to have peaked 2-3 years ago. I'm leaning toward the 8 liter 2500.

Originally Posted by jcanavera

So far so good with me on my '03 GMC Savana van with the Vortec 6.0. No slap or oil consumption.

Jack

[vajeep]

Hut,
It happened. My 2004 2500 burb is going back.
I will order a 2005 2500 w-q steer exactly the same, but with the 3.73 rear end not the 4.10. For me the 7300# rating is still plenty for the 27' Overlander. Will be happy to share any ordering info after Monday.
Abe

[john hd]

abe

sorry to hear of your troubles, my '00 siverado with the 6.0 have 45,000 miles mostly all towing with no knock slap or strange noises.

when i first got it, a strange gurgling noise came from the winshield area when driving in rain, i discovered that the side trim on the winshield would "flap" in the wind! two tiny beads of silicone under the weather strips fixed that!

one minor point for you chevy fans with the 6.0, make sure you use ac delco or equivilent oil filters. the cheap ones have poor anti drain back valves, causing valve clatter on cold start. (frams are the worst)

john

[Silvertwinkie]

My folks have an '00 2500 w/ 5.3L. So far no slap, wiggle, ping, etc. Of course it's only really got about 15k on it.