Chuck FB

That's interesting, I assume that would add to the cost of the oil but also I was forgetting to bring up the issue of the low tension rings allowing more oil past which in turn forces the cats to have more oil additives pass through them that wouldn't otherwise so they are creating that problem and of course its all in the name of fuel economy. Mind you the other issue would be the lack of additives that fight the formation of carbon within the piston ring grooves which turn the engine into an oil burner and with in this GM forums case is your average off the shelf Dexos licensed oil, meanwhile the other off the shelf oil being Valvoline's R&P isn't licensed and the only one that is which is that certain Mobil oil that came out recently ( its not even being marketed in Canada ) and only a fraction of vehicle owners are going to be using it out of all the other oils on the shelf or the quickie lube bay that meet the Dexos spec by way of actual licensing. Also I suspect that its an easy excuse to pool the non turbo DI engines in with the turbo DI engines and design the oil to not have LSPI issues in the most demanding engines and short change the naturally aspirated DI by not offering a higher concentration of additive package they could handle and still not be at risk of LSPI. I wonder if Amsoil flipped the switch just lately and did whatever packaging designation at the same time as I wonder what oil formulation I would have bought in May, of course I don't know when it was packaged at the factory vs how long it was in storage at the Edmonton warehouse. I know its been said at least in the past that the big players switch over to a reformulated oil but the packaging has not changed until they make that move as well so there is that cross over time where its a new formulation in a predated formula marked package.

I agree, there is no one answer fits all as every rig is different, one may be pulling some little aluminum fishing boat while another is towing a monstrosity that weighs a lot and hopefully the owner if the rig has some prior experience to know what drive mode they should choose. It also struck me and this is from watching a few of those boat ramp escapades videos in the past, Ford being one of the vehicles that has the auto front axle hubs and sure enough its found out that one hub has crapped out and won't engage and may not have manual hubs to even select on both sides so they are on the boat ramp stuck with no four wheel drive and spinning .... they flat out need a tow to get up the ramp and deal with the vehicles new found issues. That can happen to all brands of pickup, finding out either four wheel drive or 4 low isn't working right at the time its needed it to work as some electronic crap has failed.

Its possible you never had the joy of the crappy boat launches we tend to have around here or really some of them are just grades down to the river if its a river scenario and the conditions change all the time with the river levels and silt deposits. Some of the lakes we went to years ago, there was no such thing as a cement pad that went down into the water that the trailer stayed on, it was gravel maybe up to the water line and then duck crap much beyond that so sinking the boat tires into mud. Of course some of the more established lakes had a cement bar type boat ramp but sometimes it was covered in green slime closer and certainly within the water and a two wheel drive had all sorts of fun if one had to touch that slime with the rear tires. A neighbor of mine had made a comment years back with his chev truck that was probably about the same year as yours but a half ton extended cab 4x4 and he a a fiberglass boat with an inboard so it wasn't a feather weight and he had gone out to one of the large popular lakes in the area and don't ask me how this happened but he was in two wheel drive as he figured he didn't require four wheel drive for that boat ramp and somehow upon pulling the boat out he twisted one of his drive axles. I suspect it must have spun and then grabbed on the cement ramp and shocked it to the degree of twisting it. He would have had the standard 8.5 or whatever it was axle housing as the 9.5 ring gear like my truck has also has larger drive axles as far as I know. Anyway he was feeling a vibration driving home and had it checked out and a shop found that the tire/hub was wobbling because of the axle had twisted so in went a new drive axle. After that bad experience he said he made sure to put it into four wheel drive to lower the stress on the rear axle. Of course that is where an HD truck can handle a lot more stress and no doubt these newer half tons with their larger ring gears probably have larger drive axles as well to match vs back in the day.

I read through that and I won't lie, my eyes rolled at some of the quirks about how it can turn off the trailer braking for example but I can see how it could help control or even up the torque applied to the ground with each wheel in a boat ramp scenario. But of course what it can't do is increase the torque to the wheels if the need is there as it ends up being like driving the four wheel drive version of a two wheel drive ( high range that is ). So far the neighbor that ended up with the 3.0 duramax with the max tow package which meant the 3.73 gears and high range only, I think its been doing ok for what he has been towing but doubt he ventures off into the soft stuff with his holiday trailer. He may have towed his dads river boat locally with it ( he always used his 6.6 duramax before ), I'll have to ask him sometime if he got into a lack of power to the wheels situation as after all that engine produces a lot of torque at low speed once the turbo winds out a bit and I think it has the 10 speed and if so they have a pretty good first gear ratio at 4.70 I see which is vastly better than the 3 or four speed overdrive models of years ago.

It definitely seems quite evident that emissions and fuel economy targets rule above the best case scenario of what the engines best health and life could be otherwise. Items like DI and turbo DI engines with their LSPI issues as well as cats being reduced in life if the proper levels of certain additives were allowed to be utilized and so something has to be compromised and as you point out that is the engine protection from sludge, acid and wear which isn't in the manufactures best interest regardless to worry about in this race to profits from higher sales and so if the engines wear out sooner the next sale is closer at hand. I am hearing that its likely the two new 2027 GM half ton truck engines will call for a 0W-30 oil, now if that is an existing oil I would have to think so but we will see in the coming months. Sadly as you've pointed out to me, over the last number of years the push has been on to reduce the actual operating temperature viscosity within each designated viscosity grade so that 11.5 to 12 range for a 30 weight for example is more in that just above 10 range at 100c along with that temporary viscosity sheer dropping it even further down as per that "energy conserving" designation, not to mention how some oils are not as sheer stable as would be ideal and that mixed with a long OCI paints a picture with a little too much glitter shall we say !. All that and the warranty gods scaring the vehicle owner into sticking with that watery wine or risk loosing their warranty coverage if they go and use an oil that is of a higher viscosity even if it meets the emissions and LSPI requirements and would never damage the engine but may very well allow for an engines longer life depending on engine use scenarios ... high ambient temps, towing etc that push oils to their limits.

Of course actually engaging four wheel drive is step one or even daring to use a ramp like that with a two wheel drive and getting into a mess because of it. As to 4 low, these last few years if its a GM half ton it may not even have low range. A lot of the newer pickups have a lot lower first gear in an automatic transmission then they once did as it was common at one time for a gas engine truck or even the older diesels to just sit there and bog the engine due to the torque converter stall point and not enough torque was generated on reasonable traction to even spin a tire or get out of its own way up a steep grade and 4 low HAD to be used to get enough power to four tires to get them turning. These days traction control systems may hinder a vehicle in a situation like that although that means a tire or tires are spinning so in some ways the traction control can reduce wild spinning and anyone can correct me on that but I think some vehicles cut traction control off in low range ?. By the sounds of it and you may have the proper equipment but if your responsible for helping vehicles out if they are not able to get out under their own power, I would say to be using a nylon tow rope or have one available so that one is able to give a bit of a run to help sling shot them some initial momentum as most tow straps are made out of polypropylene and impart way too much shock load if used to jerk a stuck vehicle into motion but are totally fine to use if going more from almost a dead pull with the tow vehicle and they are a lot less expensive to replace if damaged. That and some soft shackles to hook onto closed loop tow hooks on the truck your pulling as well as you having the proper shackle insert in your truck so there are no bad accidents with metal clevises joining things together or chain on the end of a tow rope or tow balls being hooked onto etc flying and causing damage or worse if it lets go. Its always a challenge pulling people because some are clueless and will over run the tow rope or strap and drive over it or that risk of ramming into the back of the tow vehicle so usually a few instructions are needed to clue in the driver of the stuck truck. Yeah ... have fun out there

A very short video, I think some of you will find this amusing and perhaps useful as well into the future LOL. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1298748819002953

I am curious if they reused the leaf spring ubolts, if you live in a salty road climate it would be obvious but perhaps not otherwise.

I can only guess as well that something was clicked on that brought you to the half ton choices by accident. By all means try again and chose the 3500 and sort out that its the cab and box configuration you want and choose four wheel drive ( rather obvious to have a transfer case ) and to make sure the dually isn't chosen. I find or at least did a couple of years ago when I was sifting through the options that it would sometimes jump ahead after choosing the series of truck and in this case 3500 and skip some of the other initial configuration choices and have to watch the heading bar and sometimes back up by choosing the first in the series of option break downs. I think sometimes the computer will remember items that were last chosen and skip over the first part. Anyway go through it all and depending on the trim level chosen and I think the LT is one that may fall into that where the option of having the 4 high auto transfer case can be chosen, where as a High Country doesn't show that option as it just comes with the fancier ( not necessarily better though in terms of potential problems ) transfer case but for sure both transfer case choices are equipped with high and low range in the HD truck segment. Like Newdude said who works at a dealership, its the half tons that are the ones that will come with the single speed unless certain options or trim levels are chosen that add the two speed transfer case but as your looking at an HD, you don't have to worry about that hot mess. One item that at least didn't show up and not sure if it does yet or not in the HD options on the manufactures pubic website is the upfitter in cab switch option if one is desiring that. Unfortunately its not wired in at the factory but the panel with the switches is on the dash but the wiring harness to be installed gets tossed under the rear seat to be installed by whomever after the fact to complete the installation.

I agree and why it seemed to make logical sense to swap it out before it did have a failure mode. I have no idea what the typical mileage was reached on the Allison 6 speed and variants from the beginning of the Duramax engine series but they were not putting through as much power either other than maybe the 2017 to 2019 models relative to the 2020 model trucks with the 10 speed. I am guessing there were some changes/upgrades over the years with that transmission as the engine in front of it certainly changed in output. I see some reviews of the Ram with the new 8 speed and comments about how great this transmission will be relative to the Ford and GM, but only time will really reveal how it all plays out as use and abuse always eventually show how good something is or what weakness it may have.

Of course we have the privilege of seeing into the future and noting how the used transmission for whatever reasons did not do so well or so it would appear with the metal wear and its just a matter of when it will pile up. The unknown is the original transmission, how much longer would it have kept going and would it have left him stranded far off somewhere at a time when getting repairs may have been impossible to find. I rather doubt that these 10L1000 transmissions are going to be looked back on as an incredibly long life type of unit as there are other items besides the valve body that were never made as well as they could have been and why the aftermarket has come out with some better grade components. I guess there is one way of finding out though if the original trans is still on the shelf, install it with no modifications and keep on adding on the miles and see how far it will go !.

Would you mind sharing your maintenance regiment and what brands of oils you have been using. For example engine oil change intervals and the specific type and viscosity used, fuel filter intervals, ( engine coolant, is one that tends not to get changed often enough ) diff oil type and interval, transmission pan drops if that is how you refreshed a portion of the oil, transfer case and anything else you happen to think of. By the way has the truck been on a lot of salty roads over these years and the first thing that shows up is the wax is gone on the frame from the rear of the transmission back and it isn't typically kind to brake life either which is why I was surprised how fantastic the brake pad life has been. Also if the park brake pads have been replaced as that has been discussed on here as per the rust belt area's cause the park brake shoe linings to fall right off.

Two women are chatting in an office. Woman 1: "I had sex last night, did you?" Woman 2: "Yes." Woman 1: "Was it good?" Woman 2: "No, it was a disaster... my husband came home, ate his dinner in three minutes, got on top of me, finished having sex in five minutes, rolled over and fell asleep in two minutes. How was yours?" Woman 1: "Oh it was amazing! My husband came home and took me out to a romantic dinner. After dinner we walked for an hour. When we came home he lit the candles around the house and we had an hour of foreplay. We then had an hour long session of fantastic sex and afterwards talked for an hour. It was like a fairytale!" At the same time, their husbands are talking at work. Husband 1: "You wanted sex last night, how was it?" Husband 2: "Great. I came home, dinner was on the table, I ate, had sex with my wife and fell asleep. It was great! What about you?" Husband 1: "It was horrible. I came home, there's no dinner because they cut the electricity because I hadn't paid the bill; so I had to take my wife out to dinner which was so expensive that I didn't have money left for a cab. We had to walk home which took an hour - and when we got home I remembered there was no electricity so I had to light candles all over the house! I was so angry that I couldn't get it up for an hour and then I couldn't climax for another hour. After I finally did, I was so aggravated that I couldn't fall asleep and my wife was jabbering away for another hour!"

Yes, and also pulling heavy trailers or a large camper up steep grades as well as descending grades such as the more rustic off road camping locations and using engine braking with that low gearing as well as soft ground can just suck the power . I realize pickups these days tend to have an over all lower first gear ratio compared to automatic transmission pickups from years back so that has helped a lot in its ability in high range but there comes a point if in four wheel drive the torque runs out at the wheels, certainly with a gas engine. They don't put two speed transfer cases on pickups for a cool factor, they have a function if one needs that massive torque to the wheels that high range can't deliver.

Interesting, I suspect I would have fueled up in Lee Vining as the day prior I would have filled up either in Laughlin or near there and maybe again before I entered Death Valley and once out the other side late that evening as I kept on driving into the night up near Lee Vining. Next morning I most likely fueled up in LV before heading over Tioga Pass into ( as I refer to it as "Yose .... Mite" ). And again that was 19 years ago but the price then must not have jumped out at me like the 5 bill a gallon theme of nutty cult hippy country Big Sir or head so far up their rear Aspen. I'd be curious to know where the highest prices are in the lower 48, I probably would not be far off to guess somewhere in Cali forn ie. Coldfoot and Prudhoe bay may have those prices beat but that is a whole other world up there and when prices are more normal elsewhere that is about what they can be up there I believe in no mans land. Anyway interesting that the 395 corridor is hosing people and the thing is, its tourist season and its not like there are a lot of competition options when driving up that highway from what I could see. Yup, big ole Boaterhomes and various other RV's ahead and behind me at the Yosemite entrance gate and they have to get their fuel somewhere.

Yes, the key seems to be with the half tons that if it has the Z71, then it definitely has the two speed. What got me was that the two speed AND the lower geared towing package option could not be chosen together the last few years unless it was mated up to the 6.2. Want the 3.0 duramax and 3.73 tow gears ... nope, can't get the two speed transfer case ( neighbor son realized that after he had bought his used 3.0 half ton .. where the frick is the low range ? ! ). I am still unsure which truck series, the half ton or the HD truck that the original poster is referring to for sure other than yes his question is in the HD section of this forum but that doesn't guarantee the question got asked in the right section.

I wonder what the price is out at the coast, Big Sur or other out of the way locations as I bet they are charging quite a premium over the in land pumps.

Were you looking at the HD trucks on the GM website or the half tons as that makes all the difference. As far as I know there are only two options for the HD trucks and that is the standard 2 speed transfer case or the 2 speed transfer case that has the added 4 high auto feature and they put that transfer case by default into the LTZ and High Country although its optional in the LT and not sure if its available in the work trucks. The half tons, that is where its been a total mess in my estimation for a few years now with most trucks below the top trim having the single speed transfer case as standard but with the option of having the two speed such as one would get by choosing the Z71 package, however then not being able to get the two speed transfer case with the towing package unless it was a higher trim truck AND had the 6.2 gas so one could combine the towing package gearing diffs with the two speed transfer case. Having said that if its a trail boss package then it gets the two speed transfer case but not necessarily able to get the tow package as it would depend on trim level and engine chosen. Believe me, people have bought the GM half tons assuming "of course it will have a two speed transfer case" only to find out after when they really pay attention to what they now own .... crap, there is NO low range !. I don't believe Ford or Ram have gone that way yet with their half tons but like I say its been a few years now that GM has done this with the half tons.

I am guessing that is good relatively speaking given that its probably a popular vacation spot and that usually means a captive market. Right now we are sitting at 1.73 a liter for regular and that would have ethanol in it as we don't have such a thing as no ethanol regular fuel it seems, and diesel at 1.80 a liter, priced in Canadian Pesos ......

I have never seen GM instructions for the other trucks as per the HD with the 6 speed or the half tons but had got the impression that the HD trucks with the 6 speed were not having the same problem that the 10 speed and pan presented. Also video that I have seen of the HD 10 speed with the gas engine starting in 2024 model year showed that it was a real struggle to even make it work when pulling down hard on the exhaust after undoing the exhaust hanger bracket on the side of the transmission as after all there is little room for the pipe to even go down behind the Y joint as it soon would hit a frame cross member. Also that they had tried just like I did with the gasket off and no way was that pan coming out any way they tried to manipulate the pan. From that as well as the local transmission shop talking about the pain in the rear issue, I was not expecting my pan to come out because GM shows it was not even intended to come out without dealing with the exhaust piping. It would be nice to claim, here's what you do and its easy to remove the pan guaranteed on any HD truck with the gas 10 speed but dollars to donuts the next guy trying what I did would not have the same luck as the exhaust was just manufactured slightly different and be pissed off at my claim that the pan comes out with no issue. Its more of a try and see if your particular truck might work like mine did .... or not !.

I decided to give it a shot and see what sort of a gong show it would be to a pan drop themed oil change on my 2025 gas truck with the 10 speed. All indications I had seen so far was that there was no way that pan was coming out of there due to the cross over exhaust pipe not allowing enough clearance for the back end of the pan to duck out from under the valve body since it hangs lower than the pan to trans mount flange and certainly the filter does. I never touched any of the exhaust mount hardware at all, be that the engine manifolds to Y pipe, the bracket on the side of the transmission, or the two bolt flange further back behind the trans/transfer case. I put the truck up on four jack stands as there was no way I was going to struggle with that lack of clearance under the truck. The truck was cold as it had sat over night so all the trans fluid had drained to the pan, so I drained the bit of oil that would come out of the level check plug at the bottom near the front of the pan and put the plug back in to reduce the ensuing mess after that. Then took out all but one bolt front and rear and then pushed up on the pan and took out the remaining two bolts and then let the front of the pan tilt and spill out most of its contents into a drain pan. I then popped the pan gasket off its two locating nubs and kicked it a bit to the left side so it was no longer on the flange of the pan to get all the clearance I could and managed to get the pan slipped out of there by swinging the front of the pan to the right but keeping the rear part of the pan inline if not slightly to the left of its mounting flange area and lifting the front of the pan enough to keep the rear part of the pan low enough that allowed the pan to "JUST" slip out without forcing anything. I installed a new trans filter and seal and as per GM instructions on this site I torqued the two bolts to that 44 inch pound goal ( they take an 8 mm socket ) In reversing the pan procedure after I had cleaned up the pan both inside and out completely ( touching the outside of a dirty pan and dealing with installing a gasket at the same time would be a disaster ). First I slipped the pan into place and yes it took me a while as it won't go unless its slid in just at the right angles, then once the back of the pan was into the area of the flange mount, I went and got the gasket and then threaded that through the front of the pan and feeding it under the filter etc and finally working it onto the flange of the pan and lining up the two locating nubs to drop into the pan. Then lifted the pan up into place and get a couple of bolts started and check and make sure the gasket is where its supposed to be as the bolts were being put in. I never used any power tools as I don't have any of the whimsy little drive guns, I use what looks like a small screw driver handle with shank that has a 1/4 drive on the end of it and added an extension and those bolts use a 10 mm socket as some times power tools can bite a person if used on delicate parts ( torqued to 80 inch pounds ). Also should note as per rules around pulling the add plug out first, yes I cracked that loose with a 8 mm Allen bit socket on a 3/8 slim head ratchet as there isn't a lot of room to work with there either due to the exhaust on the right side of the trans. I already had delco ULV oil on hand and of course the quart bottle pump wasn't made for those small cap threads so I had to use some other containers that the pump would fit and keep transferring oil over into them so a wasted exercise there but indeed the small pump did work just fine as ULV oil is thin and easy to pump in summer time weather. I put in 9.5 quarts as per prior minimum recommendation and yes that cut it pretty close as once I had the truck ( off the jack stands so its level ) and the trans oil up to 167f , about 6 ounces came out but a level kit or what have you could throw it off just enough that it wouldn't be enough oil so probably that 10 quarts is a good amount to put in so one doesn't have to add more oil as when its hot I sure wouldn't want to be adding oil so would have to let the exhaust cool. All I do for warming up the transmission is sit there with it in park and rev it to about 2500 rpm and it takes close to 20 minutes to get it up to that lower limit of 167f, weird how it will warm up more doing that then by driving it, I am not real keen on power braking the truck to get the temp up there and don't seem to have to either. By the way I only have 9000 miles on the truck so probably not a very good payback on doing it that soon and the magnets had such a minor thin layer of fines on them so that was good to see and the color of the oil was a darker red then new oil but still looked very good as it should and I've not done any towing with it so its been living a pretty easy life so far. The filter is made in such a way that its next to impossible to pull out the filter media but there certainly was some fines showing up there which makes sense give the trans having to break in. I hadn't really planned on explaining this much of what I had done since there are various instruction videos kicking around or I think so, as the gist of my message as that by fluke or what have you, for some reason my truck has just enough clearance to slip the pan out from the trans. Of course there is no guarantee that other trucks like this in general will also allow the pan to be taken out without messing with the exhaust as I expect its probably a crap shoot if it will or won't, I was just happy to find out that mine would work and avoid all the other struggling and possibly damaging things in the process,