16LT4

Light snow day = school canceled, so I did some work cleaning out the bores on the BMW's wheel speed sensors (chasing a WSS, SAS code), and tried out the modified (rubber flaps on the auger's center to scrape the barrel and flip the snow) Snocaster on the '67 Bolens to move the snow. It worked much better than I'd anticipated, which is promising for the inevitable much deeper stuff. Wound up with some extra time, so mounted the little Bambi guard. Thanks Chevy for putting the port side tow-hook bolt head behind the bumper bracket, instead of the nut. Rather than pulling apart the front end for clearance, I cut the head off the offending bolt with the angle grinder and a 4.5" cutoff wheel. For only $100, the unit seems pretty high quality, with solid welds; I got it from eBay. Mounting the thing took under 40 minutes, prolonged due to figuring out how to avoid cutting the bolt, so I had time to finish putting the '65 Kohler K181 back together for the moldboard-plow tractor; it got a hone, new exhaust valve, valve lap, rings, and all gaskets. An oil leak went a little deeper... but you can't kill an old Kohler!

Twice a year, I find the bumpstops. Last year we had a logger pay us $20k to take 94 of the largest, oldest trees back in the woods, and they left the tops and otherwise useless pieces, mostly oak; after I split this, I'll have enough wood to heat the house for half a decade, with enough still left down "in the holler" to last until I retire and move South. To get out, I tossed it in 4-Lo to climb the steep, 200 yard, muddy uphill exit. The truck walked up the hill with minimal throttle and occasional wheelspin despite the AT Pirellis and copious weight.

No vehicle will illuminate a CEL for a single, or even multiple, misfires. The threshold can be quite high, as in the case of my F150 shaking the center console lid above. A quality scantool will show pending codes as well as misfire counts per cylinder, which would offer you more insight. If the history is unknown, you have to assume nothing has been done to the truck. This includes new plugs, wires, fluids and filters. Mechanical issues don't usually tend to repair themselves. On the final drain/fill, I can't recommend a bottle of Lubegard red enough. If the trans can be smoothed out with new fluid, this will do it. My 135k mile 2004-r has survived a hard life behind 4 different engines, including a 455 and now a 350, and LG has been a part of it for years, so there's some anecdotal positives.

If you are turning the key off, the engine is already running, so how would it attempt to re-start? There in lies my confusion. Also with these trucks, you don't have to hold the key forward in the "start" position in order to start it; simply tip it forward from the normal key on-engine on position and release the key, the engine will crank until it fires. This includes ham-handedly shutting the truck off and accidentally bumping it forward again. A tad more qualification of the symptoms and the situation would be helpful.

The bad coil 100% cured the misfire (which was the cause of the shuddering/shaking, sorry that wasn't clear); the new plugs made the engine run better. If you're unsure of spark plug history, do them yesterday. They cost pennies, and at your mileage you should be on your third set. Transmission should be serviced every 15-45k miles, so again assume it's never been done. Fluid also costs pennies; plan to drop the pan and replace the filter. In the case of my Ford 4r75, a few drain/fills plus the Lubegard red on the last one made a very drastic difference with its shifting, eliminating the OD-TC-lockup vibration; at 142k miles, it had never been serviced.

I had an '04 F150 FX4 with the 5.4 3v that would shudder horribly in 3rd and 4th gear, especially with the TC locked, under light throttle; opening the throttle and downshifting also cured symptoms. Once, the shuddering was so bad the center console lid started to crack at the hinge. Finally, I was able to hammer it enough to throw a CEL for a misfire code, #3. At that point, I replaced all the coils, and soon thereafter all the spark plugs; at 140k miles, I managed to not break a single plug. A couple of transmission drain/fills, with a 10oz bottle of lubegard red, solved the faint TC-locked "shudder" (I wouldn't even call it that... more like "fuzzy" for lack of a better descriptor). So, that is a long-rambled way of saying 1) check for pending codes, particularly misfires and 2) if you have over 60k on your plugs and wires, go ahead and change them. Many manufacturers that sold vehicles with "100k mile plugs" have since backed off and lowered the replacement schedule to 60k miles. Plugs for a Chevy are only a few bucks, and take under an hour on, taking one's time to clean the wells and threads.

Our work truck eating its timing chain at 33k miles of remote starts and excessive idling is an interesting contrarian. Devil’s advocate: remote start is a roughly 15 year old convenience? 3 vehicles within that time frame is generally not reliable data on longevity. My station car is about to turn 52 years old and its worn seats poke springs into my back, but provides a half century of data. That’s a mild inconvenience because the heat works full within a few minutes of startup even in subzero temps, a feat my K2 couldn’t dream of. I’ve seen UOAs showing the differences between warm-ups and not, and the positive change in UOAs when warmups were nearly eliminated. Just because one doesn’t notice the difference doesn’t mean the difference isn’t there.

OP you can have my remote start. IMO, a remote start is one of the most useless, and dangerous, modern features for longevity. I'm not going to wash the cylinder walls, dilute the oil with fuel, and starve the bearings with viscous, low-flow oil on a cold start; I hop in, start, and go. UOAs have shown a quantitative difference in metals and flashpoints between idling "warm ups" and "start-and-drive" operational procedures. Hmmm, I wonder if remote-starting is a commonality among all the "failed-lifter" threads?

Uh... false. Hence my comment about time and knowledge both increasing. Specifically, at the time, not a single person replied mentioning they'd been using 5w-30 in their 5.3, with the responses ranging from "nope, only use the approved oil" to "the 5w-30 is for the V6 not the V8." I guess you should have responded 3-5 years ago. I never looked to compare the hard parts of the various engines, or the recommended oils for the different engines, simply because I don't have any interest in the V6, the 6.2, or the Camaro/Corvette and never thought to, nor did I think they'd have different oil specs.

Homemade drain plug.

Might want to check that; my '16 CPO is 6 years/100k, the warranty expires October of 2022 on time. I'm about to hit 99k miles, so I'll run out of miles sometime in the spring.

I don't have complaints with them, simply that they are a maintenance item; in my experience, "coil failures" are often actually a "boot and spring" failure on COP engines; the 5.3 has separate coils and wires, and wires have always been a tune-up item; Fords have replaceable boots on the coils which is good, BMWs do not. Cheap and easy to do to prevent misfires and prolong coil life. I did mine with spark plugs at 72k miles with AC Delcos for both.

I do spark plugs every 50-60k miles on everything I own; just replaced the plugs in my daily driver at 48k miles (on the plugs) due to electrode material transfer to the ground strap, meaning the gap remained the same. Wires on these trucks are cheap, so do them to. The boots/springs of COPs are often what lead to replacement of the entire coil rather than coil failure itself, so just doing the wires makes it easy. D6 for the trans AND transfer case. Remember, the transfer case's "spinny spinny" parts are always spinning, even in 2wd, and the fluid is unfiltered. For 2 quarts, it's not worth it not to. I pill flipped my trans, run Redline D6 in it with 10oz of Lubegard red. Don't forget the differentials every 30k miles, especially the rear with its clutch pack. I like M1 oils, but not in a direct injection engine; M1s have high additive counts, which means high ash numbers and CBU on the intake valves. M1 on BMW or VAG DI engines is a known no-no due to the elevated CBU, so I don't see why a GM would be different. Everyone has their choice; I'm currently running 0w-20 Pennzoil Platinum but may switch to 5w-30 on my next oil change. I'm about to cross 99k on my '16, with no drivetrain issues.

Back when I was living in the Ford 5.4 Triton world, switching from 5w-20 to 5w-30 was deemed beneficial to the engine considering the phaser and tensioner failures. A few years ago I'd posed the oil upgrade question here with regards to the 5.3, and at the time, switching to 5w-30 brought negative, "don't do it" responses. It seems time and knowledge has been gained in that time; with the 4.3 and the V8s in the cars using 5w-30, I see valid reasons for switching from 0w-20, other than the cold-start viscosity of 0w vs 5w. On my daily driver, there is a definite cold-start difference (noted by changes in metal particulate in the UOAs) between 0w and 5w. A 0w-30 would be perfect for me. The warranty on my '16 expires soon and I'm about to cross 99k miles, the engine quiet and smooth, and I'd like to keep it that way.

How I removed my pan; 1) completely loosen aft mount 2) place bottle jack on 6x6 dribbing, jacking up on a 4x4 spread beneath the frame. Under the 6x6 cribbing was a ratchet strap, which ran up and over the exhaust. The 6x6 anchored the ratchet binder. 3) place second jack under the transfer case, and gently raise the case while at the same time pulling the exhaust down. There is enough "give" to be able to slip the pan out. The purpose of the bottle jack is to secure the exhaust-pulling strap down to the ground. 4) once out, I drilled a hole in the pan, made a castle nut with an angle grinder and a cut-off wheel, and welded it castle-side-down to the inside of the pan, and used a standard 14mm GM drain plug so that I'll never have to revisit the pan-drop again. As you (the OP) are limited as to what you can do, the easiest and most cost-effective method is to pay the dealer the couple hundred bucks to do it. What they'll likely do is disconnect the cooler t-stat from the side of the transmission, connect 2 work lines, and use the transmission pump to pump fluid into one container, while the low pressure side draws in fluid from another. The lack of transmission dipsticks is nothing new, I remember automatics back in the 1990s not having them. My main daily driver is a 2008 and doesn't have an engine oil dipstick either; it sounds scary, but with 185k miles on it, the same amount of oil comes out at an oil change as what I put in so the lack of dipsticks don't matter to me. Nice to have, but not detrimental without.

Certainly will, but my other vehicles live in the same environment as the truck and don't exhibit the same corrosion. The truck's frame and underside are virtually spotless (still full coverage of the factory undercoating, and most fasteners are not corroded), which is why the condition of only the UCA bushings being so horrible was surprising; only those bushings show such intensive corrosion. The truck seldom gets driven in the snow/salt and lives most of its life away from the coast, unlike the other vehicles.

Back in August, we bought a new Pacifica, so now that the Silverado is no longer the long-distance family truckster, I don't feel bad about some slight mods at the expense of fuel mileage. So, on went 1" Motofab leveling blocks this past Tuesday. I'd noticed the occasional "tink" sound, so decided to replace the sway bar bushings and end links at the same time. The frame bushings were ovalled, and one of the end links turned out to be sheared when I removed it. I went with Moog frame bushings for the 24mm sway bar and Duralast gold end links. I'd also noticed the bottoms of the shocks were rotted, so I replaced the rears with Bilstein 4600s and the fronts with loaded Monroe coilovers (the fronts, having to support the truck weight, were becoming a safety issue, and I didn't feel like dealing with disassembling the coilovers). Once in there, I noticed my UCA bushings were completely smoked, so I ran up to AZ for duralast gold loaded upper control arms (bushings and ball joint) for both sides. I made sure to mark the UCA prior to removal so that the alignment could be good enough to get me to the dealer for an alignment (they give me 30% off on alignments). Despite the clean condition of the rest of the truck, I'm shocked at the condition of the bushings; my mid '80s GMC and Oldsmobile have better original upper bushings! My appointment was yesterday (the immediately following Saturday from the suspension work, and I hadn't planned to drive the truck; Friday afternoon had other plans. My trusty 185k '08 BMW had a crank-no-start issue trying to leave work, so the wife had to make the daycare run and then pick me up. While waiting, I reserved a uhaul trailer; once home, I had my brother in law meet me at my house to follow me in my '84 S15 back to the Bimmer, picking up the trailer along the way. Why two trucks? I needed the S15 as a pusher to get the Bimmer up onto the trailer. Dragged it home, then brought the trailer back. I live 15 miles from work, and I get the trailer a couple miles from work, so there was a lot of back-and-forth. Once home, I quickly diagnosed a bad fuel pump on the Bimmer; no big deal. A flat tow would have been over $300, the trailer rental $60. With the ATF pill flipped, the highest temp recorded on the ATF was 140*, and that was at the beginning of the 15 mile trip with 6000+ lbs of trailer and car, which included several stop signs, lights, and upstate-NY hills. With most of the suspension refreshed, the truck rides muuuchhhh better! The pogo stick effect over bumps is gone, and the rear judders less over broken pavement.

Thread divergence: @Blainebug: out of curiousity, from your sig, are you an ACVW guy?

I don't have hydronic baseboard heaters in my house, and don't use the electric ones, and never said I did. I exclusively heat with a single hot, cast iron box, kept above 300*F from November through March by the ignition of cellulose. It has no blowers, no fans, and no shrouding to direct heat flow. The increased heating rate of the ATF flowing past the "hot boxes" now that it is allowed to flow past them is hypothetically why my ATF heats up faster. Can you provide an alternative hypothesis to explain the data? Heat rises, until it reaches the ceiling, and then heats downward. The junction between the exhaust manifold and the engine block serves as a ceiling. I 100% PROMISE you that if you were to lay under the truck, reach your hand up under the exhaust manifold, you WILL feel radiant heat from several inches away. In the engine room of our ships, the exhausts (12" diamater schedule 80 pipe) are insulated with lagging 360*, not just on their tops, because while heat does rise, it also radiates out 360* from its source. The radiant heat from aftermarket exhaust headers has been known to "cook" starters, which are often found beneath (or at least next to) them, hence one of the reasons for header wrap and mini-starters. Dieselfan's data above with the pill flipped also shows a faster rate of ATF heating then my truck ever saw prior to flipping the pill, even in the 50s or 60*s F. So, I'm happy with my quicker heating coupled with markedly reduced heat ceiling.

How the heating much different? My entire house is heated quite comfortably by a small iron box kept at 450*F, by radiant and convective heat transfer. If trapped engine heat under the hood was insignificant, the snow/ice on my hood in the winter wouldn't be melting off the hood within a few miles of driving, especially with the insulation material beneath the hood. Hot air can't be both significant with regards to density-power yet insignificant to other parts found within that same space. I popped the hood yesterday to take note of the routing of the ATF cooler lines: they are tucked in between the engine block and the starboard exhaust manifold, which gets to 300+*F within minutes. One of my cars' sole method of producing cabin heat is by blowing air over the exhaust manifolds and then pumping that heat into the cabin, and I have HOT air out of the vents within less than a minute of starting the car, even in sub-0 ambient air temperatures. So yes, simply flowing ATF past a heat source will heat because the tubes are being constantly heated. Last I checked, the Sun does a pretty good job at heating the Earth entirely by radiant heat transfer. Note: I'm not discounting the effectiveness of GM's updated AT thermostat, simply stating that I've yet to see a single negative effect of flipping the pill in my application.

Maybe maybe not, but heat soak is the best explanation I've come up with. Also, don't discount heat soak; if under-hood engine air can cost an engine 20-30 hp (based on fuel trims and trap speeds from engineer friends who log this sort of thing for fun), it will certainly help heat anything in the engine bay. Even in sub-zero ambient temperatures, snow/ice melts off my insulated hood surfaces within a few miles/minutes, so heat-soak is definitely a factor. Here's some information I obtained on another one of my vehicles to compare intake temperatures with and without the factory "cold air" intake snorkel installed, taking note of IAT (which is closely equivalent to engine-room air temp, of 100*F): On the same loop, in the same direction every time, at the same range of speeds 30-65 mph. Some N52 E83 data from today: Ambient air temp: 27.5*C After 5 mile drive to get to operating temp as per ECT: IAT 29.5*C. I stopped, removed the intake snorkel elbow from the air inlet to the air box. IAT shot up to 33.5*C within a few hundred yards. By the end of the loop, IAT hit a max of 38.2*C, dropping back to 37.2*C when I slowed down to a stop at the starting line. Back to starting point. Re-installed the elbow. IAT dropped to 33.4 within 100ft, and ranged 31.5-33.5*C while driving. Some interesting points. Regardless of whether the intake elbow was in place, idle temp after both loops was the same 36.5-37.5*C. With the elbow OFF, 65 mph showed a 2*C WARMER IAT than at 35-40 mph. Under full throttle acceleration, where one wants power, IAT reached 39.5*C; if I sustained throttle position even longer, I would fully expect even hotter IAT. With the elbow on, however, full throttle application saw the reverse. From 33*C at cruise at 45mph, I could instantly drop IAT to 29*C with my right foot, and then watch IAT more slowly raise back to its starting position once the throttle pedal was released. As long as I maintained the call for power with my right foot, IAT remained close to ambient air temp, unlike elbow off. Elbow On showed a smaller IAT temp delta at all speeds, only 2-3*C range compared to about 5*C, with the range occurring closer to ambient temp. Elbow on IAT stayed within 10*C of ambient air temp at low-load conditions with only a 2*C delta at higher load conditions, while elbow off showed a minimum of 10*C and 12*C, respectively. The divergent IAT data implies a few things: 1) under-hood airflow/air temp equalization is virtually nonexistent on this chassis and has no affect on IAT. If it did, IAT and vehicle velocity would have inverse relationships regardless of elbow installation. 2) further support that the factory air intake truly is a “cold air intake”, as lifting those valves higher and opening the throttle butterfly increase cold air velocity, combatting engine heat soak on the air intake tubes. The same speed-dependent elbow-on IAT data from above was replicated at a constant speed of 35 mph by downshifting into lower gears, increase engine RPM and intake air velocity, attempting to remove airflow as a variable.

The ATF cooler lines are still ran through the engine compartment, which are increasingly well sealed to ambient air, so my untested hypothesis is that the lines, and therefore the fluid flowing through them, is heated by radiant heat soak from the engine. Yesterday, ambient temperature of 58*F, my ATF was at 90*F within 5 minutes of run time and less than a mile. With the ATF t-stat working as designed, I'd be almost home (12 miles) before hitting that temperature IIRC. I don't have shutters.

To my understanding, the AT thermostat as originally designed is closed until the transmission reaches its operating temperature, so the ATF isn't being exposed to 210*F coolant until the ATF reaches high temperatures, opening the flow through its thermostat; ECT increases faster than transmission temperature. Coolers are often heaters when said cooler is liquid-liquid; the oil cooler on my BMW acts as an oil heater on a cold start, because ECT also increases faster than oil temperature. ECT doesn't reach 200* for at least 10 minutes, sometimes 15, during the cold season right now, so the trans fluid isn't being exposed to 210* coolant until the coolant itself warms. Regardless, one doesn't need to fully understand the "how," when the data and numbers don't lie. My ATF is hotter by the time I get to work (12 miles each way) now than before I "flipped the pill", so here an unforeseen result of flipping the pill seems to allow the truck to spend more time driving with hot fluid than cold. One can read and consult google, but the best data is what is personally collected. Even towing a car 200 miles back in August, my AT fluid never got hotter than 165*, even in stop-and-go. Before the pill flip, I'd see temperatures in the mid 190*s, unladen on the highway.

This identifies "person" not dealer; note the interstate verbage, though. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/30112 A brief look at CA DOT page mentions requirements for the HOV lane: all HOV corridors require 2+ occupants (any person occupying a seatbelt; this includes the driver. No, removing a seat belt does not skirt this on a technicality, because the seat requires/had a seat belt at when manufactured and sold). Some further require 3+ occupants. In San Fransisco, 2-occupant vehicles are permitted (pickups, non-commercial vans, Corvettes) as long as they have a maximum of 2-seat occupancy and filled with 2 occupants. Note the $490 fine, plus possible (probable) administrative fees. Because the 3rd seat is still there, despite lack of seatbelt, the HOV infaction still applies, with possible additional tickets. A full console swap would probably be the safer bet because the seating position itself is moved entirely. https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/hov IMO, trying to play "I'm smarter than the law" seldom works in one's benefit. If caught, and trying to argue "well Your Honor, yes my truck originally had 3 seat belts, but because I removed one to make it a two seater (despite the 3rd seat still there), the law doesn't apply to me" is like saying "This ticket for no brake lights is improper, because I removed all the brake light bulbs;" same logic applies. If you're already in court, the State is going to collect its money, and probably tack on fines for tampering with safety equipment. Between fines, possible points, and time/expense lost in trying to fight the ticket, is it worth it to hop in the HOV just to save a few minutes? Not worth it to me, so do so at your own risk. I don't know about CA, but in NY HOV violations result in 3 points on the driver's license, the same as being ticketed for speeding up to (including 10mph over the posted limit. If one has a CDL (like I do), that HOV infraction (or even towing a trailer in the left-most lane on some highways) quickly makes that quick "hop" into the HOV an expensive nightmare. Every few years, I read in the news about someone being pulled over with a dummy (literally) in the passenger seat to use the HOV lane; the cops don't find it amusing: https://www.longislandpress.com/2021/06/02/6-drivers-who-hate-long-island-traffic-so-much-they-used-dummies-in-the-lie-hov-lane/ https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/07/12/dummy-in-hov-lane/ https://huntingtonnow.com/man-ticketed-for-fake-passenger-in-hov-lane/

Which goes back to the "where" of the OP. In my state, it is illegal to register or to operate a vehicle that does not comply with the seat belt relevant laws when manufactured. At the very least, OP would want to verify that removal of the seat belt to skirt one law doesn't put him in violation of another. Under federal statute, OP would be unable to sell the truck without the seat belt AFAIK.