Tallman3

There wasn't even close to enough leakage to warrant low oil levels. The truck was full of oil at the time I pulled off and wasn't leaking at all with the damage. The oil pressure dropped very low at idle, but an oil pressure warning never came up on the dash like it should have if it was in a state of emergent damage. I've even heard new vehicles will shut off to save themselves. That makes a lot of sense instead of no code, no warning.

I was waiting for this comment. Leaking oil cooler lines - a critical part in insuring your engine doesn't self destruct? Yes GM's fault. A loose oil filter that had a bead of oil running down it (and then I found it)? No not GM's fault, but far from catastrophic. All of the above mentioned should not cause a heavy duty engine that rarely sees 2500 rpms to self destruct. Motors live with leaks for 10's of thousands of miles if not more. And an engine tick? Very common accurance in the valve train that doesn't equal "pull over immediately and trailer it to the nearest dealer". Something in this engine failed when it shouldn't have.

I purchased my 21' Silverado in the fall of 22' with 74k miles on it from a dealer. That being said, that was peak truck prices and I had to deduce those miles were highway since 74k miles in less than 2 years is an incredible amount. I'm now at 130k miles. In the fall/winter of 2024 a heard a metallic ping start to happen that was alarming and annoying. I took it to a mechanic (not a gm dealer) and he looked up all service bulletins for the truck. From GM "the l8t makes noises, don't worry about it". So we changed the oil and let it go. The sound went away on its own after a few months.. weird. I then found a small oil leak coming from both of the oil cooler lines at the solid/soft connection points. I took it back to that same mechanic, and at the time the oem parts were not available (winter of 25'). We replaced the broken/blown sections with hydraulic lines and hose clamps. The mechanic said he's seen these fail due to cold temps (I live in the mountains) so I figured the hydraulic lines were even better than the OEM. Fast forward to this fall, I noticed the lines were leaking at the hose clamps slightly. I tightened the clamps as they had worked a little lose and fixed the small leak. I changed the oil last month after it threw a code (which i unfortunately did not write down) but it had to do with oil.. possibly to do with the dual stage oil pump or oil pressure. In any case, I found the oil filter was barely hanging on, so i figured it had to do with that. I cleared the code and it's been fine for the last month. Fast forward to last Wednesday. I drove to work and stopped to wash the truck and while at the self serve wash, I could here a new ticking noise that was pretty alarming. It sounded like lifter tick, but I headed to work thinking "these engines are just loud, maybe its the injector noise". I got to work and felt it was just too loud to ignore so I took it to the same mechanic that has been looking at the truck and he said "take it to a dealer, its definitely valve train related." When i left i noticed at stop lights the oil pressure gauge would drop to ~5psi at idle but would go back to normal under load. Another thing to note is the engine temp never got above normal. I got 15 minutes down the road and heard/felt the engine lose power going about 45 mph and make TERRIBLE metallic noises. I pulled over immediately and trailered it to the dealership. They drained the oil and it was fully metallic. They didn't need to look further and said it needs a whole new engine and radiator. So now i'm staring down the barrel of a $12k engine replacement and still owe quite a bit on the truck. This happened in a matter of 20 minutes with no check engine light, no low oil pressure warning, no excessive engine temps, nothing. All i can deduce is the oil pump failed on my way to work and it starved itself before any signs other than a tick could present. I'm pissed to say the least, as these are touted as being super bulletproof engines. How an oil pump could fail with no warning sign other than catastrophic valve train noise is crazy to me on a modern vehicle. All this to say, don't take GM's "these engines make ticking noises, don't worry about it" BS. If you hear any valve train noise get it fully investigated. Nobody wants to pay 2-3k to get lifters done but it could save you $12k or more on the new engine. Also, if you ever see the oil pressure drop below 30 pull over immediately and shut it off. I'm getting the new engine with warranty but I might turn around and try to trade it in to see what they'll give me. If I can walk away even I will. All trust is lost on this truck and motor.