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Now we are in my wheelhouse Any refinery that can run sour crude can and does process sweet. Just can't do it as efficiently. Fact, no refinery in the USA processes ONLY sour crude. They are run on a blend and that the split has more to do with the price of the various feed streams or equipment utilization numbers than the processing equipment itself. When you run sweet in a sour plant there are certain parts of the plant that no long have a function OR are not fully utilized. Sulphur content is what determines the feed being called sour or sweet. So when WTI is sold to Europe it isn't due to a lack of processing ability. It's due to 'limiting profit' running it here. Sour crudes are not just the middle east. Venezuela, Canada, Mexico are also sour. We import all three. Chevron has a very large presents in Venezuela. Chevron's refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and several others along the Gulf Coast, Valero and Marathon Oil are sour plants as are many in the Midwest that use Canada crudes. This all is tied more to profit than to ability. A new refinery built specifically for WTI just makes more money but supply is limited in the big picture. Fact is we only have one refinery in the USA that processes only sweet. Toledo Ohio and it isn't a big one. 180K bpd. There is a second planed for Brownsville to run sweet shale crudes but....also small 160K bpd. Fact, it is cheaper to build and run a sweet plant and there are more high value products in sweet crudes. There is just a limited supply on the planet. Sour plants proliferate in the USA due to past practice when OPEC was flooding the market and it was cheap enough to warrant such a move and US production of sweet was small. There are refineries in the USA that have units that date back to the 1920's. I worked a Getty light gas plant that changed boiler and thermal cracker fuel type up to four times a day based on cost. Ran our butts ragged during the 70's embargo. Nothing in a refinery is not driven by extracting that last penny a barrel. It has nothing to do with the needs of a nation or it's people.

Well, gas prices would be low if we didn't have a combined 12 years of ideologues chirping about how "evil" oil and oil companies were. Why, you ask? When people say things like that, would YOU fork out millions of your dollars to build one? Nobody who understands how business operates would on their worst day! We don't have anywhere near the amount of refineries capable of refining light sweet crude, which is a TX staple (and most of the USA from what I understand), so it all gets sold overseas where they have that capability. We haven't built a new refinery in America since the late 70's!! This is all thanks to militant environmentalism. All our ancient refineries can handle the dirty, mid-east oil ... so we have to import it. We've been beholden to global market speculators FOREVER. I get it - everyone, even us Conservatives, want clean air and water (contrary to corporate media's take ...). But, shooting yourself in the foot based on unproven "science" is just plain STUPID. Not one person on this planet would run their household like this! While America suffers due to all these restrictions, China and India mine coal and burn whatever they need to to keep their BILLIONS of people comfortable and fed. Building an new refinery today doesn't mean an environmental disaster! They seem set on believing that green energy and similar profits as big oil are going to happen full scale. Not in our lifetime ... unless AI dreams up something earth-shattering. Since we could be less than 3 years away from a 180° political shift, NOT ONE oil company is going to dare spend the tens of millions of dollars of an investment, only to be shot down in flames by the next enviro-nazi. Do you blame them? So ... enjoy the fuel prices if you don't like the current leadership. Even with the war, prices would be $2 a gallon cheaper on average if we could refine what we have, and not be in a monetary stranglehold dictated by global speculators. And here's another take: IF prior presidents had taken care of Iran decades ago instead of bending over backwards and feeding them pallets of cash, we wouldn't be here right now!!

Appreciate everyone's help and suggestions. I am going to man up on this one and admit my stupidity. I had the lower control arms on the wrong side and obviously upside down. I should have disassembled and then assembled 1 side at a time. Instead I disassembled both side ones night, cleaned up, and then reassembled the next night. It's amazing how closely everything still lines up with the arms on the wrong side. Close enough that I was able to get one side loosely bolted up. As soon as I went to put the knuckle on and saw that the hole for the lower ball joint to fit into was tapered the wrong direction it hit me what I had done. Once I swapped the LCA's the passenger side bolted right up imagine that. On the driver side I did have to compress the spring again and rotate it 180deg. Once I did that the angle of the shock and mounting ears all lined up as well. Have not got the new tires mounted and alignment yet (later this week), but the improvement was definitely noticeable over the worn OE shocks. I did end up getting rid of the 1/2" Rough Country strut spacer and then adjusted the Eibach's up all the way to the 2.5" setting. No rubbing on the Superlift UCA like I had with the OE one with the same tires. Did not need the wheel spacers.

You can look up the capacities from AMSOIL on their look up guide. https://www.amsoil.com/c/products/1/?zo=521390 Let me know and I can get you the best price.

it is what it is

https://imgur.com/gallery/only-costs-30-to-fill-up-PxtnfUE#gmNI219

Any fuel tax suspension is just stupid because they will complain about it in every single legislative session moving forward, saying we don't have as much money anymore. Then they will dream up new ways to tax you more while also asking for pay raises for themselves because it's a tough job and hard to make ends meet.

Only us old geezers remember the long lines, every other day fill-ups, and the wasted time of the early '70's, and yes the increase in price too. Not worth my time to research the price increase in percentage terms as I really don't care as much about price as availability, thankfully we're not dependent on the middle east for our domestic supply any longer. I was reminded of this a few years ago when we were almost stranded in Maggie Valley,NC when Russian hackers shut down a pipeline from the Gulf that supplied a good part of the SE with refined product. All flow valving had been converted to electro-mechanical switching controlled by computers and all the old geezers that had a clue how to bypass the new valving had retired, so the pipeline company payed the ransomware hackers. There are only 4 gas stations in Maggie Valley, tourist town with mainly hostelry, restaurants, and curio shops. Fortunately for us the owner of our Air BNB had just seen a tanker at a Citgo station, so we hustled on down there and filled up. You hear lip service about how our critical infrastructure is vulnerable to foreign adversaries, but the solution seems to be all about "hardening" our critical systems against computer attack. It would be expensive to install and train the personel but I believe we need MECHANICAL redundant systems at all our critical points, a mechanical switch that could actually be thrown by a human at a substation or an actual valve that could be turned by a human at our domestic water supply station, but that's just me, since I'm old my only worries are for my children and grandchildren and their world.

Did the passenger side today. Seemed worse than the drivers side. I’ll check back in 5000 miles or when the low oil light comes on - whichever comes first. on another note - went to do sway bar bushings and 3 of 4 bolts broke. Gotta love New England.

I find all this amusing and perplexing. In measuring oil I use the supplied tool. It’s called a dip stick. Using the supplied tool I have been fortunate enough according to this thread not to have oil usage problems in all but two vehicles. They use one qt every 2500 miles. Different manufacturers both said within normal perimeters. I have access to quite a few vehicles. They have countdown meters for oil changes. I figured using that and pulling the oil checking device I could actually show no oil usage problems. I’ll show them I thought. Then I realized I can’t prove I didn’t add oil. So I decided, screw it. I know what I know. If people want to believe that all vehicles use oil. That’s fine with me. I’m not going to get in the weeds. It’s comes down to what your definition of what is, is. Seems I heard the analogy before.

The level of trolling from someone who joined on Tuesday of last week is pretty high. My guess is former member promoted to visitor who created a new account, or is using a shadow account to bypass user blocks. Just a guess. :shrug:

ENOUGH!!!! The rules say no politics

Driving habits definitely affect oil consumption. Grumpy knows. Towing with light trucks, heavy trucks, when you're running full boost more often or spinning gas engines at their peak torque for prolonged periods, they consume more oil. Period. Y'all flat-landers need to come out here in the Mountain West and tow for a while.

Yes Grumpy! I have said forever how oil changes are the lifeblood of an engine. Back in the 70's when I raced quarter mile on the weekends with a daily driver small block Chevy I always changed the oil before and after racing. Never had engine problems.

Yeah, a BIG one. Didn't your state have a CHAZ / CHOP zone where not even cops would go? Real nice. Ever wonder why all the leftist run left-coast states have THE HIGHEST fuel costs in the Nation? MA has the third highest electric rates in the nation, thanks to the green-eyed moonbats running the state. Green can't win on merit ... so they FORCE it. Kinda like communism. Funny how they love communism & socialism, and legislate in lock step with both. All your buddies bleat about how "great" MA is, as every road in the state tears your motor vehicles to pieces, the healthcare system bleeds us dry and then steals our tax returns if we don't have APPROVED insurance! (Ain't communism great? How does THIS help the POOR??) I can afford to pay cash for any procedure without insurance ... but for some reason I'm forced to buy it. Must be why auto insurers have to get a green stamp of approval from the state first before they do business here. That's not shady at all. Then any big city you go to is lined with homeless encampments full of addicts & criminals - they're even living on the bike trails they wasted millions on ... yet, still can't find a dollar to fix any of our roads ... Taxes are through the roof, there's a half-million fees on every damned thing the state FORCES us to buy, the People get ZILCH while illegals get put in 5-star hotels / motels ... and nobody seems to know where the money went or how much money has been spent on that whole fiasco ... the generational welfare crew gets free EVERYTHING - all paid by the state at OUR expense- and the weather sucks, too. Your idiot buddies also claim we have "the best" (there's that word again!) education in the nation. That's funny ... because NOT ONE KID knows ANYTHING about American history when they graduate here ... but know all about gender ideology and who George Floyd was. You're ok with that???? WTF man ... You & your acid-trippin' buddies definition of "best" is flawed.

E85 makes my Silverado run way better even though I have to mix it. The Suburban loves it since I converted it. I wish manufacturers would start back producing FF vehicles and let us decide what few we want to use. Also I wish they would produce a higher quality diesel fuel. They can do it, just don't want to spend the money to produce it. That would help solve some with pollution. A better quality fuel would burn cleaner.

About 500 miles on Pepper now since the latest maintenance. Was low 80's today and very pleasant. Moderate humidity and a nice northern breeze in double digits. 10 gallons of fuel set me back $53. Ouch. 222 miles so almost 24 cents a mile and 22.2 mpg on 36% alcohol. Whew.... I'm liking my Mitsubishi Mirage more and more. 11 cents a mile in this market but the truck in a nicer ride. She ran cool. 175 F water, 200 F oil and under 160 F on the transmission. I forced the fans on with the A/C in towns with low speed limits and long lights. Trans peaked 170 ish a few times in towns with low speed limits and long lights but would pull down to 150 F pretty quick once back in open air. Now that she has nearly 200K on the clock and well broken it the AFM will tip in at the drop of the hat and that is becoming problematic. The programing for the converter clutch struggles at city speeds so I find myself running in M5 for anything under 53 mph. 50 mph in high gear with AFM on was one of my favorite speeds for fuel efficiency. Not really doable now. Clutch shutter so it's 50 in M5 or M6 and 53+ or nothing. That's had an impact on fuel economy but makes it livable. Just part of the aging process. Happy to give away some milage to keep it out of self destruct mode. Now the Interstate is unchanged. 60-63 mph and low 20 mpg and running cool, smooth and in sync. Happy little camper. E-85 is locally priced at a point where even with the milage hit the cost per mile is attractive. Even runs a bit cooler. Off to it.

Thanks, y'all. After reading this, I ordered the Amsoil. It's quite a bit more than Valvoline full-synthetic, but I reckon it's worth the premium.

Its a shame the updated for 2005 version never hit the market as they shrunk the axle width out back to make it fit with a standard sided box instead of the 1/2 dually flares. Of course I can't find the picture right now, but it was a red crew cab short bed behind a fence with the rear wheels turned and everything. The price supposedly was cut as well. The Silverado EV/Sierra EV/Hummer EV 4 wheel steering works great though. And is the same principle as the old Q-steer, just modernized. Less complex since its IRS out back for suspension, so its like designing the front but for the rear, instead of a rack mounted to a diff cover of a Dana 60 like Q-steer used.

GM got the govt. money in 2008, and repayed in 2010. That was 16 years ago. Irrelevant to the current situation. The recent quality issues sort of mirrors Boeing. GM wasn't watching their suppliers as heavily as they should, the suppliers were letting product through that was bad. Cranks, lifters, rods, etc. Even the telematics module issue right now with them bricking on 2024-2025 SUVs. Lax in monitoring the supply chain during COVID, but an urgency to crank product out. Things were sacrificed to get product on the ground.

You mean the same states who say defund the police? There’s saving there. As we all know that wouldn’t raise the crime rates. Right? Anyone over 30 should know how the game is played in government especially. Knowing that how to mitigate the whims of our fearless leaders. I’m thankful that finally someone has the gonads to eliminate a potential disaster that everyone has warned us about. I was in the gas lines of the seventies. Bought my first home at 13 percent interest. Saw the hostage crisis until Reagan. And saw a resurgence of our economy shortly after. I know the game and who the grifters are, right Nancy. I’m ok with the federal taxes on gas. But I know how the game is played. I’m prepared. Venezuela the fifty first state sure, fifty two Cuba. Yea baby.

every truck needs a companion

I have no first-hand knowledge about it but I have seen quite a few comments that GM selected lower viscosity gear oils to slightly improve fuel mileage. Personally, I care more about longevity and reliability than fuel mileage on this type of vehicle, and I have not read any cautions about using 75w90 in place of the 75w85 specified for the front differential, so I went with the 75w90 I have used for 35 years on other GM trucks and SUVs.

This happened to me with my gasser on the 2nd "free" oil change. Stupidly I never checked the dipstick and when I changed the oil next myself I drained out 10 quarts (Duramax spec). I, too, thought they put the wrong oil in so I sent a sample in to Blackstone, but luckily they confirmed it was 5W-30. I'm assuming the oil change "tech" saw an HD truck and just did the "standard" 10 quarts.

Ballroom?

Is this the new replacement for the valvoline restore and protect, & do not miss the rinsing at the end https://x.com/Jacquesjazz45/status/2060829208855638312?s=20

I saw that happen for real in my father’s 1970 cst hugger orange Chevy truck. It had the 402 engine. His oil guy called him real excited about a new oil called Cristal 50. My father bought several cases and had an oil change party with his brothers. Lucky for them it went in their personal cars that weren’t driven much. My father on the other hand drove a couple hundred miles day between his job sites. This oil guy supplied all the oil and grease for my father’s business. At the time he had 60 pieces of heavy equipment and 80 men. This was in NJ. Before the week was out I heard him come home. When he opened the door I heard his truck running it seemed wide open. It had headers and glass packs. And he looked pretty pissed. I went out open the door and there was a brick wedge holding it wide open. The tack said only 3K RPMs. I heard him screaming at the oil guy saying the dip stick will not come out. It had no oil pressure and the closer to home he got the slower it would go. The oil was for racing to be drained frequently. I can’t remember how often I was 14. The oil guy paid for a new engine. My mother made my father remove the brick. It made a shriek and it got towed. The next day he pulled up in a El Camino SS with a cowl induction hood. My uncle got the truck.

Speculation of course but I bet it would not only prevent oil from leaking out of the engine as explained here, but probably would prevent any future oil use within the cylinders as well once it gets a chance to work its way through the engine for a few minutes

Try to keep up. Oil consumption is affected by driving habits. That's generally true. I'm not sure anyone has said that is the cause of your L8T's oil consumption, but as a general rule, the harder you work an engine, the more engine it's likely to consume. A quart every 3k does seem like a lot, but, by GM's documentation it's somewhere within their self-determined limits of consumption. The limits are set mostly so they don't have to do anything about it except for extreme cases. If GM won't help you and you're uncomfortable with your L8T consuming a quart every 3k, get rid of the truck? Seems like the only option you have left?

I have the same DLH faced thin light tension rings and GDI system in Pepper. She's got 193K on her and uses no oil. I treat it for what it is, not what I wish it was and we get along just fine. I don't short hop her. I use a polar oil and I change it. I use UOA's to spot issues with the fuel system. I practice what I preach. It's the advice we've been giving. Low tension rings are not a death sentence. They are a warning to treat it better than you had to in the past. You came with your hat in your hand looking for help. People are trying. Don't bite that hand.

IF we don't point out the negative, WHO is going to FIX it??? You're ok with scumbags running SEVEN DECADES in a statehouse & screwing the populace at every turn?? You LIKE high taxes??? WTF, seriously!

1) The 6.6L L8T gasser already calls for synthetic 5w-30. That's what should already be in it. 2) The L8T does not have DFM. If one cylinder is guzzling, they're all guzzling. Your article is probably talking about the L87 in the 1500 trucks and other models, and yes, 0s-20 was too thing and caused big problems.

I have 10 qts for the car so I am good. Will be using in July after I swap out to 15W-50 for a track event.

I let my family members buy them now days. They come over to let me drive them all proud. I thrash on them for a few minutes. Hand them back and happily drive my payment free old stuff.

Seems more is being posted on oil shortages so to speak. As long as this doesn't turn into the toilet paper grab all will be fine. Just keep on doing normal daily routines. It's my understanding that this is a short, no pun intended, oil shortage and will not last.

And this my friends on why GDI has a multitude of wins for the manufacturers. Keeps the EPA happy with emissions and mileage and keeps the average consumers coming back for new vehicles after fuel dilution has killed their engines by the 100K mark. The rust free '05 K1500 that I inherited from by Dad will probably outlast me also. Plenty of gitty-up with the L33 5.3 MPI which has some factory goodies like LS6 heads for starters. Impressive hp for the era, but a little lacking in tq, so not a heavy towing machine.

As an update to the situation if anybody happens to run across this problem... even though I called about six dealers all telling me from taking the fender off and unhinge the door to cutting the panel off, which I was ready to do. But all I did was bend the top half of the door panel back at the top by the window. I assumed the door panels with all the plastic were quite rigid but apparently on the new Silverados they are quite soft. I got the idea from a guy replacing a window sweep on a 24 Silverado and all he did was work the top of the door panel where it's inserted by a lip where it meets the window and bend it back ... had access to the whole inside.

Fordow is the facility you're talking about, it existed before 2018, and Iran used to allow the IAEA to monitor its activities until we violated our agreement with Iran. The JCPOA was torn up in 2018 by DD and we've had problems ever since. You'd think we'd be able to at least achieve as much as the JCPOA afforded global nuclear stability by going to war for the last 90 days but we don't even have that AND us pump gas and diesels are at their highest prices ever. $40 Billion on the taxpayer dime and counting, and not a yellow rock to show for it.

212k miles on shelf oils. 2003 LM7 5.3 I bought a couple weeks ago. I would consider this a clean, well maintained engine and do have the records. Still some room for improvement. No “sludge” per se but a little dirty for sure. To keep clean just takes better products than they used. Either way, bores look great, nice cross hatching. Cam shows almost no wear. These pre-DI and pre-AFM engines are treats. But as Grumpy says, we are past this point. To keep a newer DI, low tension ring engine even just in this “average” state at 200k takes some care. It’s not 2003 anymore.

Been doing some maintenence (oil, fuel filter, etc) and decided to pull my MAP sensor. Truck has 21,xxxkm (13k miles). It was fairly plugged up. Its simple to remove. I popped the hood, waited an hour to make sure the truck was sleeping, popped the connector off, took out the 10mm bolt, cleaned the soot off with MAF sensor cleaner, let it dry for 30 minutes and reinstalled. Will likely start doing this at every oil change.

BP in Rochelle, Illinois E-85 $2.60 (test 84%) 87 $4.80 89 $5.30 93 $5.80 Pepper is back on E-85

Your disrespect makes you a little man. We’re in the top three for growth. You live a beautiful area. Maybe you’ll change your voting habits before all your businesses are gone. It’s utopia here except for two months of oppressive heat. In retirement it’s very easy to work around the heat. Remote start, climate control garage and an emergency generator. All easily affordable with all the money saved with low taxes and low cost of living. All you bluebirds can continue to vote in the destruction of your state. All I ask is don’t move here and ruin our wonderful utopia. Unless you finally wise up.

5/17/2026 Service Note 192,500 Miles Got Pepper back last night. Added to the work list above a compression check. It was better than good. After 37,750 miles on alcohol the injectors removed looked like new as did a borescope of the cylinders. I'll look in having them rebuilt anyway and hold them in reserve. HPFP piston seal was indeed leaking. 60% of the OEM pad still there. Better than originally thought once measured during disassembly. Jason said, "I love working on this truck. Clean as new everywhere and nothing fighting me. It's like working on a new truck" (I do get a discount for that ) He also likes to drive it. I need to get the AFM disabled from the lower gears. Low speed, low throttle position shutter when active. Easy work around. Use M5 in town and run 50 mph or more on the highway. (Shorter gear when replaced). She's not wear free, just wear low. A bit of play in the pinion bearing. Nothing serious but....a reason to change gears I need new rubbers for the lower air box mount. Found during service, unable to source replacement at this time. Need some bed plugs too. No catch can, no problem Not only were the runners clean, the manifold was dead dry and the throttle body was hardly worth the cleaning he gave it. MAF cleaned as well. I'll run down this tank of Shell V Power Nitro + 93 and go back to alcohol.

I've owned my truck for Just over five years. I put new tires on it (earlier than needed), I've changed the oil and filters ahead of schedule and now I just completed the fluid changes recommended using the severe maintenance schedule in the manual. It always hurts to spend $2,100 but I'm doing everything I can to keep this truck in good repair. For one, that's just my nature. Second, is that I loan it to my daughter to pull a small camper when her family (grandkids) go camping. Given the cost of a new truck, or any vehicle for that matter, $2,100 is a small price to pay for reliable transportation that also provides good utility from time to time. All tolled, I've spent $4,500 on maintenance - so less than a $100 per month and less than 10 cents per mile. That seems reasonable. I wish I had the tools and ability to do things like the brakes, but those days are gone. I did all the work on my cars in my teens through my 30's. Then I got a job with a car stipend, leased cars, and never had to even think about repairs. However, in retirement (8 years), I now own my vehicles and I'll have to pay to get things done. I think the best thing I could do now is find a good independent mechanic so I don't have to rely on the dealer.

I've had red brake calipers on my last 3 trucks. All three trucks were black. All had chrome aftermarket wheels . A lifted 2018 1500 on 38s, a 22 1500 High Country and a 23 1500 High Country. Now my 26 3500HD LTZ is White and I'm putting some TIS 544C 20x9s with 37x12.50R20 Toyo Open Country RT pros. On the fence if I should do it again. And what color, red again? I'm sure I'll be getting flamed for this and that's cool but I really want you guys' honest opinion. I won't get all butthurt if you don't like the idea.

You start with finding out what size tire valve the new rims actually uses, instead of guessing/assuming/using some ai bot to tell you. Then, if they truly do use a different size, you drive out to the nearest lake with at least 10 square miles of surface area, throw all those TPMS sensors as far as you can into that lake, then drive back to town, buy new tpms sensors that fit those 16" rims.

So I just had this issue. Fans on High, no movement of the temp gauge on the dash. Replaced Coolant Temp Sensor, no change. Replaced thermostat, no change. Interesting note; the engine temp could be read via data stream on the code reader, but the needle on the dash gauge never moved. Checked with code reader again, P0128 as expected. Attempted to clear codes and noticed that my scan tool read "erase command rejected". I have never seen a request rejected before. Went with the sure fire way to clear codes, disconnect the negative battery cable, wait, then reconnect. Verified that no codes were present with one more read before starting up. Everything worked after the hard reset. Temp gauge worked and agreed with what I was seeing on the scan tool and the fans were not running any more. Be sure to clear your fault codes to make the sensor/thermostat fix actually work.

I left one of the highest taxed states long before it was a thing. Now I’m being joined by others. I think Washington is number 4. Enjoy. Your jealousy is showing. At least learn how to go with the flow. This is a just a blip in the radar here. Didn’t you just lose Starbucks? Rock on, learn nothing.