The Mrs. comes home yesterday, says her service engine soon light came on and the "oil pressure thingy" went down to 0 unless she revved it up. So naturally she drives it the 5 miles home. I go and buy oil and a filter for it, and start investigating. The valve cover gasket sprung a leak and puked enough of the oil out to make a heck of a mess under the truck. Drop the oil, looks like metallic black on a motorcycle. Not into silver, but still lots of shiny in it. So, I'm spending the rest of the day underneath the truck, going to drop the pan and check for chunks. Will put a new oil pump on while I'm at it, assuming there aren't pieces in the bottom of the pan, and of course replace the valve cover gaskets. Oh well.....

 

sorry to hear it. my wife does very well watching the gauges and calls me with anything that seems out of the norm. but she's driving a CTD and proud of it. Yours is just after your truck! lol

 

Did this happen to your Wife's Suburban, or to your truck? I'm assuming the Suburban from your signature, but was just wondering...

My Wife came home one night saying that her Saturn coupe 'smelled funny'. I go out to the garage and there's a huge oil slick developing under the car. A friend had just replaced the clutch in it, and (I think) during the removal/install he dented the oil filter, just to the point where it held together for a couple of days. I drained the oil - found out there was maybe a quart left in the pan. My Wife said the oil light never came on... Anyway I changed the oil and filter, no problems. She ended up driving that thing for another 20K or so until a girl pulled out of a parking lot right in front of her.

 

Unless the engine blew or was making lots of noise you should be okay. Of course you can use this against her by saying it will take $$$ to fix it then put those bucks into your truck. Then tell her you fixed it yourself and saved enought to buy MORE stuff for your truck.

I am soooo smart!

 

Now you wouldnt try to do that to beagle would you

 

if you pull the pan i would put rods and mains in it to be on the safe side.

 

Motor was rebuilt about 30k ago, has always had a real brief knock in it when started. I always kind of wondered if the put a stock bearing on a .010 rod or something. Guess I'll find out tomorrow, I have to figure out a way to get the torque convertor cover out of the way, and short of dropping the exhaust I'm not seeing anything obvious. I'm going to try dropping the tranny pan and the front drive shaft tomorrow, but I'm going to need a wobble extension for my impact before I tie into the drive shaft. These newer GM's are a pain, 3 different size nut or bolt holding the pan on, then had to drop the oil filter adapter and take out a motor mount bolt that holds on a bar to the torque convertor cover to get the pan to come down. Was starting to get irritated, and contemplating either BFH or BFPB, and decided to come in and drown my sorrows, and try and finish up tomorrow.

 

The knock you hear on cold startups is normal as bad as that sounds. It is called piston slap ( pistons rocking in the bore). They have a high expansion rate thus the clearences are looser until the temps come up.

 

If it's piston slap, they were way off when the bored the hole. Sounds exactly like a rod knock, and quits instantly as soon as the oil pressure comes up.

 

I'd say just put oil in and drive it. I'm not a chevy guy but my brother is and he's killed a few. Considering the way he drives that's not bad.

 

What kind of pistons where installed at the time of rebuild? Pistons slap has been a problem in the last generation gm products.

 

Yup. It's a GM thing. My dad's vette does it, my mom's 2000 suburban did it, my buddy's 06 GMC does it, my other buddy's 2000 GMC did it, my neighbors 01 Chevy did it. Every chevy I've heard since they came out with the 5.3L has done it.

 

Exactly, its actually been going on since the early to mid 90's. Even GM's ZZ series of high performance engines do it. There is only one way to get rid of it and that to install pistons that do not expand as much due to heat, with the correct piston to wall clearences. Most GM drivers just get used to it and pay it no attention.

If it was a rod knocking on cold startup, the bearing would not last long. And in little time the rod would be broken due to the growing clearences in the bearing to crank area.

 

If the suburban is 4x4... Have fun w/ dropping the pan! I'd just fix the leak and put oil in it... Chances are it's fine.

 

That '94 prolly still has a 350, yeah? Never heard of them knocking on startup like the new-gen 5.3's and 6.0's. I had an 89 blazer that hydro-locked #7. It developed the same mystery knock and ended up being a grossed out wrist pin. Installed a GM crate engine and drove it for over 50k with nary a knock...why was the engine tore down last time?