I've never used fluorescent dye before to locate an oil leak. Can this stuff cause any damage to sensors?
CK5
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engine dye in 99-07 Silverado?
- Thread starter wazzabie
- Start date
t9ojetpilot
Registered Member
No damage but a wet spot will tell you where a leak is, we all hate leaks but they will happen over time anyhow and at 10-15-20 years old most vehicles will have some issues. How bad is the leak your chasing, its not too tough to chase most down without dye
between oil changes I'm down a quart
iirc that gen engine had a bad valve cover design. 1 push rod would squirt oil into the pvc baffle. GM changed the design, i don't think it was a recall. there are several TSB regrading oil consumption.
If you don't see an oil stain bottom of engine, you are burning the oil not leaking.
If you don't see an oil stain bottom of engine, you are burning the oil not leaking.
t9ojetpilot
Registered Member
down a quart in 3-5k miles is tolerable for engines with some miles......ford even thought a quart in 600-800 miles was acceptable at least at one point
If the PCV system is the problem, you'll have an excessive amount of oil in the intake manifold. Pull the intake tube off of the throttle body and push the throttle blade open. Take a look inside with a flashlight. Bad cases will have standing oil on the floor of the intake.
GM's standard in all it's oil consumption bulletins is 1 quart in 2,000 miles is normal.
If it's leaking you'll see oil on the engine and on the ground/floor. Clean it up and drive some more and you've found the leak. If it's all clean down there, then it's burning. My '05 developed an oil thirst and it turned out to be plugged baffles in the valve cover. There was oil in the intake as a tell-tale. The official PCV fix is to buy a new valve cover, but I got mine working fine again by spending a little time with oven cleaner and some small tools.
As mentioned above, oil consumption is often due to the PCV system on those engines. I just went through my 09 and installed the updated valve cover design and the baffle in the oil pan while also fixing an oil pan leak. I suspect my consumption issues will be related to the AFM / DOD system though. My engine is quite high mileage as well.
The main issue with the valve cover problem didn't come on until the afm/dod engines hit the ground. So post 2007 and later. The earlier stuff has no bulletins written going after the valve cover.
Now the afm/dod engines could have another couple of sources of oil use. The main one being the outlet of the diverted oil from the afm system when it is working. It comes out through a valve in the oil pan and it shoots oil up directly at the backside of the #5 and #7 pistons. Left alone long enough the oil control rings get stuck and stop keeping oil out of the combustion chambers.
The fix was installing a baffle on the outlet to keep the oil from hitting the pistons and replace the rings on the two cylinders.
Now the afm/dod engines could have another couple of sources of oil use. The main one being the outlet of the diverted oil from the afm system when it is working. It comes out through a valve in the oil pan and it shoots oil up directly at the backside of the #5 and #7 pistons. Left alone long enough the oil control rings get stuck and stop keeping oil out of the combustion chambers.
The fix was installing a baffle on the outlet to keep the oil from hitting the pistons and replace the rings on the two cylinders.
Mine is a 01 5.3L so I guess the valve cover issue is not an issue. It is leaking down below from what I can tell. Oil pan perhaps.
