Talk about disappointment.... Suburban content inside....

In reply to tuna55:

Definitely not an expert, but I've heard multiple horror stories of cam/lifter failures. I believe there was a recall or at least a service bulletin on some of the early GMT900 trucks over it.

Chadeux wrote: In reply to tuna55: Definitely not an expert, but I've heard multiple horror stories of cam/lifter failures. I believe there was a recall or at least a service bulletin on some of the early GMT900 trucks over it.

So the recall says:

"Hey our DoD engines eat cams and stuff. If that happens, make the owner buy aftermarket parts and install them himself in his driveway"?

In reply to tuna55:

Notice the parts where I said "early" as in they claimed they "fixed" the flaw in the design. I'm probably wrong all together though. Usually am.

tuna55 wrote:

Chadeux wrote: In reply to tuna55: Definitely not an expert, but I've heard multiple horror stories of cam/lifter failures. I believe there was a recall or at least a service bulletin on some of the early GMT900 trucks over it.

So the recall says: "Hey our DoD engines eat cams and stuff. If that happens, make the owner buy aftermarket parts and install them himself in his driveway"?

Sounds fairly GM.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: The wife's box-body 'Burban has a TBI 350 that struggles to make 190HP, but it still gets mid-upper teens for fuel economy and will hopefully do so for many more miles.

The transmission will die well before the engine (full disclosure: I do not own a suburban but I have a friend who went through 3 transmissions before trading that thing in).

tuna55 wrote: I missed some of this: What made you tear the engine apart? What symptoms does the DoD failure give? That sounds ridiculous for something that new. Was this your own vehicle? This is not under warranty or TSB for a four year old truck?

It's probably like the completely random LS7 valve train failures that kill the engines......which GM basically won't admit to there being a problem. Just remember it took many years and a class action suit over the dexacool bullE36 M3.

tuna55 wrote: I missed some of this: What made you tear the engine apart? What symptoms does the DoD failure give? That sounds ridiculous for something that new. Was this your own vehicle? This is not under warranty or TSB for a four year old truck?

Preventive maintenance.

DOD failure shows as excessive oil consumption like a qt in 5-800 miles. When that happens, you rering or new shortblock. Cha-ching! I'm spending now to avoid lots more later.

At 84k miles, I am the warranty.

Just watched a friend go in for this failure at 85 a couple months ago on an 09 5.3 in an Avalanche. Had another buddy loose the entire motor at 135k on a 5.3 1/2 ton. Both were well maintained vehicles.

Oddly, I haven't heard about any transmission issues since the 4L65. I have personally gone through 3 4L60s in a 1/2 ton 97 van behind a 350.

marks93cobra wrote:

volvoclearinghouse wrote: The wife's box-body 'Burban has a TBI 350 that struggles to make 190HP, but it still gets mid-upper teens for fuel economy and will hopefully do so for many more miles.

The transmission will die well before the engine (full disclosure: I do not own a suburban but I have a friend who went through 3 transmissions before trading that thing in).

Yeah, but it's a 700R4. They're like $300 to rebuild. I put a shift kit in it, and it lives a fairly easy life. knock on wood

Ranger50 wrote: DOD failure shows as excessive oil consumption like a qt in 5-800 miles. When that happens, you rering or new shortblock. Cha-ching! I'm spending now to avoid lots more later. At 84k miles, I am the warranty.

That's not the DoD failure that I've been seeing. The lifters actually fail, leaving you with the kind of drivability that you'd expect from a V8 with a valve that won't open.

When this happened to a BOAF the dealer tried to tell him he needed an engine. A few well-placed phone calls downgraded it to a lifter replacement.

hmmm, interesting. My father in law bought a '12 Silverado with a 5.3.

How would one know if it's DoD equipped? Anything to watch out for pre-emptively?

In reply to xflowgolf:

Cycle the cluster settings to display the mpg's. It should say v8/v4 mode.

Reading this is making me happy that my '12 Camaro SS (LS3, manual transmission) doesn't have this AFM/DoD stuff.

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

marks93cobra wrote:

volvoclearinghouse wrote: The wife's box-body 'Burban has a TBI 350 that struggles to make 190HP, but it still gets mid-upper teens for fuel economy and will hopefully do so for many more miles.

The transmission will die well before the engine (full disclosure: I do not own a suburban but I have a friend who went through 3 transmissions before trading that thing in).

Yeah, but it's a 700R4. They're like $300 to rebuild. I put a shift kit in it, and it lives a fairly easy life. *knock on wood*

$300 for a GRM'er, of course ...in this case it was a 'the car is broken, take it to the shop' person so that's an easy $1k each time for them

Dad's 07 'Hoe with DoD has 170k miles with no issues. I wonder if this is a blown out of proportion issue like many we hear about? I mean, how many DoD 5.3's were built and installed from '07-12? a few million?

Bobzilla wrote: Dad's 07 'Hoe with DoD has 170k miles with no issues. I wonder if this is a blown out of proportion issue like many we hear about? I mean, how many DoD 5.3's were built and installed from '07-12? a few million?

I've always kinda had the feeling it's like the Jeep 4.0s with the crack-prone 0331 heads. On those, somewhere around 20 - 30% of them will fail, the rest will be fine. The issue is that they fail with random amounts of mileage and with no warning or event to prompt it, so you have no way to know if you'll go 200k without issue or if it'll blow up at 90k.

Bobzilla wrote: Dad's 07 'Hoe with DoD has 170k miles with no issues. I wonder if this is a blown out of proportion issue like many we hear about? I mean, how many DoD 5.3's were built and installed from '07-12? a few million?

It's not as common as sayyyyyy, pistons and rings and timing chains in the Equinox/Terrain 2.4L. Literally they need new pistons, rings and timing chains every 50K, unless the owner blows it up from running it out of oil or it jumping timing, in which case it gets a new engine. And strangely you don't hear people kvetching about that like they do the AFM/DoD system.

We don't see many issues with the DoD on the GMT-900s anymore, maybe the occasional collapsed lifter or plugged oil pressure sender screen or stuck AFM pressure relief valve.

and not as common as a Honda torque converter or trans issue? Nobody complained about those either.

Phuck virtual VE......

NickD wrote: It's not as common as sayyyyyy, pistons and rings and timing chains in the Equinox/Terrain 2.4L. Literally they need new pistons, rings and timing chains every 50K, unless the owner blows it up from running it out of oil or it jumping timing, in which case it gets a new engine.

I have never once seen that happen, and I've had plenty of 2.4 engine customers since new.

Curious.

On the other hand, we do 3000mi oil service intervals, too, now with semi synthetic oil. No extended intervals unless the customer ignores the sticker. Oil life is usually in the 40-50% remaining range at this point.

Ranger50 wrote: Phuck virtual VE......

I haven't had the pleasure of messing with that. I've heard it's a steep learning curve.

doc_speeder wrote:

Ranger50 wrote: Phuck virtual VE......

I haven't had the pleasure of messing with that. I've heard it's a steep learning curve.

Looks like everything with variable cam timing uses it.

I haven't had to mess with it yet. I dread the day that I have to. I'm half-tempted to buy the cheapest GM that I can find that uses it, license it in HPTuners, just to muck around with it so I can learn it.

I get the gist of it and that was its an easier computing power crunch to do it this way then look at a table and figure off that number. Problem I have is that unless you have the numbers for the table areas you're scratching your head in wtf fashion...

I'll get it at some point soon.

Did you do a compression test? That porcelain could have messed with the rings, cylinder or valves. Did you refresh the valves and seals?

If the above aren't issues, then I second or third the tune.

wow.. at least rover 4.6s will wait till around 85,000 miles before dropping the liners..