Chuck FB

Fred was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young pullets, and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells. Fred's favourite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To Fred's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Fred was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the City Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention. Vote carefully in the next election, you can't always hear the bells.

Certainly as the new model year comes along and that may mean a new refreshed model such as for example the upcoming 2027 half tons and lets just say for arguments sake that current year trucks are in decent supply on the new lot and its not guaranteed but some years and depending on the current economic state that buyers may turn their nose up at the so called old stock/old model and want the "new new" shiny object. When those stars align and in this case GM corporate puts out a great discount on what is becoming the old stock as well as dealers willing to deal to get that inventory off the lot, that's when it would be easier to deal as long as, as it was pointed out that your willing to take what is there for choice of inventory in an area that makes sense to you shopping wise. What you don't get deals on or typically so is the incoming new toy in the showroom, that is where if they don't have much inventory of the new model year and customers that are willing to pay to beat the Joneses and will pay top dollar for it just because. Also sometimes there is that vehicle that few are interested in for whatever reason in how its equipped that becomes two years old and they really want to get rid of that vehicle. New in all cases and warranty the same typically although plan on changing that battery out on the older used one, lot rot of batteries with todays vehicles that draw power constantly. I too was just too leery about buying a newer used truck as I know how all too many seem to treat their vehicle maintenance wise and up here in Canada there wasn't the used market to choose from like one would assume because of all the bull crap going on with under a year old trucks and under certain mileage being bought up by USA brokers and being hauled/driven south to be sold in the sates so the used price was too demanding here. Also a certain insurance coverage I wanted was only available on a new truck at time of purchase and not even a so called new demo on a lot could have that no depreciation loss coverage. I made the best deal I could on a truck I personally chose for options on an order so they knew it was most likely sold before it ever hit their lot so no lot interest charges for the dealer to swallow. I also wanted a new vehicle so that I could plaster the crap out of it underneath with fluid film and see if that will help slow down the rust issues we have here due to the crap they spread on the winter roads.

By rights these trucks should come from the factory or at least have a factory optional anti sway bar for towing high trailers and certainly slide in campers. GM always used to have their trucks fitted with rear sway bars if optioned properly but for some odd reason don't do that anymore. Certainly a sway bar would help that issue a lot, not the ride though but the leaning/control.

Since the ride appears better, does that mean they are adjusted up so that it lifted the truck up some and therefore taking some of the workload off of the main spring pack and also preventing the main pack from landing down onto the bottom overload spring ?. A friend of mine put them on his half ton chev for towing a bumper pull RV as the half ton has rather sad springs to begin with and carrying much weight isn't what they were made for ... ride is the half tons bonus though because of that. I imagine it probably states in the instructions or application that its not meant to fit the 1 ton or I assume it would not fit as the overload leafs would be in the way and perhaps even the frame pad for that matter when the suspension would get stroked out with weight or a big bump.

Great info to have, I printed out what you had in your document as well as Newdudes post as I could see this mistake with the hardware happening very often if not realizing what type of special bolts are being used and just guess on bolt size for torque or the good enough "easy" method as per whack in the used bolts with an impact and send it !.

If all oil manufacturers had to meet a higher standard for not just the initial filtering of the oil but that they had to improve on their formulation so that the oil cleaned the engine such as the Valvoline R&P or the new Mobil product ( assuming it works similar of course ), and the oil was changed on an interval based on good UOA data, there shouldn't be any gremlins running around like miniture rats on top of your heads to be washed down into the oil pan below

A while back on another thread there were comments and thoughts on air filters and I know that can tend to be a bit of a hot topic because of outfits that have a vested interest in selling aftermarket air boxes fitted with the gauze type of oiled elements touting the lower air restriction. However and unfortunately I don't know where I have seen the test results in the past about the amount of dirt through a test procedure that these style of filters do pass more dirt through than a properly designed ( not some cheap Chinese knock off ) paper/synesthetic media filter can do. Lake Speed had a conversation on that topic with one of the employees at Donaldson and there seemed to be a consensus of these oiled filters falling short in the absolute percentage of dirt holdback. Which all ties back into how good the air filter is on the engine at keeping dirt out as that is going to reflect as a contaminant introduced into the oil as well as cylinder wear even if some of that dirt does find its way out of the exhaust rather then the crank case. Put another way that one can throw the kitchen sink at filtering the oil and using a bypass system which I fully expect will do nothing but good for the oils contamination but if the air filter system isn't doing its job then its preventing the engine from reaching the best wear/lasting case scenario instead. Now perhaps this topic is or isn't for this particular thread but Grumpy Bear or anyone else for that matter, do you have access to some scientific trust worthy testing on engine air filter types to get some proper comparison data to post up.

The not as clean as one would assume theme with the new engine oil, that reminds me of comments over the years with mechanics not always being so on board with filling an oil filter, not from the center anyway due to that typically being the clean side of the filter, danger of some contaminant falling into the filter if not careful but the realization now that the oil may not be as pure as one had assumed it would surely be. Yes it would be possible to fill from the small holes but that means messing with something to prop open the anti drain back valve if the filter is so equipped and not damage that valve in the process. Me, I have hardly ever prefilled an engine oil filter however I have prefilled diesel fuel filters with a filter on a fuel bulk tank and for anyone that has messed with diesel engines with filters and units that have a limited or no way of priming them, putting on a dry filter is a bad day to say the least with those crappy systems. But anyway back to not so clean engine oil, indeed perhaps its not so bad after all that I have not made a practice of prefilling oil filters. As Grumpy Bear commented on keeping things clean, that I really have to wonder what the typical practice is at a dealer or any other shop that changes engine oil, do they make sure to wipe or wash off the oil plug and certainly if it fell into some gunk or onto a dirty floor, or that they wiped the filter mounting flange and didn't go and use some dirty rag and end up adding dirt to the inside of the head of the filter mount. Or be careless in how they stored or handled the new filter and if they were bumping into items under the vehicle with the filter opening facing up and having dirt drop right into the filter and if so right into the threaded center that is on the clean side. The top side, did they clean away the built up gunk that may be around the filler before removing the cap or to be really careful at that point that something right close to the filler hole that was hidden under the caps flange won't fall into the engine. Or did they clean the funnel or was that just laying there covered in oil from the oil change before and dust kicked up from sweeping the floor stuck to the oil and now that will go running into the next persons engine due to just not cleaning the funnel as "they won't know anyway" attitude as that young guy is more worried about taking a break so he can go outside and smoke a joint. Just random points that came to mind when I think about what some hired personnel may do that the shop foreman has no idea of or perhaps the whole attitude of some shops may be "eh ... who cares, they will never know the difference anyway".

And I was thinking of this factor as well in that if a customer does not well maintain their vehicle ( which means going by the manufactures schedule in most cases ), that vehicle in theory by the time they trade it in or sell it privately will have potentially a shorter life span on some major components as a result and so that vehicles life either cut short or a lot of parts thrown at it to keep it on the road. In either case the manufacturer wins because its either selling more parts or that vehicle has hit the grave yard and becomes a win win for the manufacturers. So indeed the salesmen love a scenario like this .. yes yes, treat that vehicle I sold you like garbage so I will be seeing you sooner then you think for your next new vehicle purchase ! OnTheReel, I looked up my OLM percentage for the last oil change that was done with 2500 miles on it and it read 48% and that was an interval through the winter so more idle time and so on and while not scientific, when I changed the oil it had this weird color to it that I can't say I have seen before and to keep in mind that I burn dyed fuel but so does all other gas vehicles I use and I have to wonder if fuel dilution and allowing more of that dye into the oil was showing up or what but it sure didn't jump out at me as saying I was dropping the oil way too soon. Instead it made me think of what a local long time mechanic had commented on with my truck that he recommended I change the oil every 2500 miles as the number one thing to keep this engine type in good mechanical service. But again its not like that oil was sent to a lab to see where its life was at so this is only anecdotal.

I hear you, its just not something one would even think of that the new oil in the container isn't filtered to a spec one would expect it to be. As to a passenger vehicle theme and the maintenance requirement to meet to ensure a warranty is honored, these days with claims of life time transmission fluid on some models and the limited amount of oil changes that would bring one to the end of the factory warranty, that sells vehicles for those that like to hear "easy care maintenance free", but the manufacturer certainly knows different as to what that more than likely means for the longevity of some of the components if given that minimum spec maintenance. Then again I imagine there are a fair number of people that really don't care as long the vehicle gets them a certain number of years down the road because they are the type that want the next new thing, new and improved ... more bells and crap etc on the new one on the show room floor. Manufacturers have learned the phycological game to entice the customer out of their money !

I had skimmed through that article when you posted the link and honestly I felt rather defeated in a sense and realized that all these years in changing oil that in fact putting in what I was told was a good quality oil was probably not filtered as well as it should be although the filter put on the engine would be what ( as long as it never went into bypass mode ) would be the final filtering of the new oil that the engine components would first see, but then the filtering media itself is not up to par to what is ideal because a full flow filter would be too restrictive to filter fine enough for the engines best outcome in the long run. Only one of our tractors over the years which was a Versatile with a 855 Cummins had a separate bypass filter, some engine manufacturers did spec a partial bypass system within the main oil filter but I don't believe any other trucks or equipment I was servicing used such a filter. No doubt a product like the Amsoil bypass system is of benefit as long as nothing goes sideways with the extra plumbing and filter such as a rupture/leak that could cause the oil to pump out of the engine ( yes that Versatile had a remote canister with hoses routed to it as well ). With the idiot egr system on a diesel and as a result forcing a lot more soot into the oil, that certainly isn't helping the diesel engines cause or as you pointed out the GDI engine issue with creating more soot and aside from having a fancy secondary filtering system, changing the oil more often helping lower the total soot load. So oil manufacturing and the end product is not something one can control and I wonder if there are specs on what various oil packaging companies produce in particle count or size. As to the filtering, if the OEM is not designing a filter size and spec that is really what it could be, they too are short changing the end user and so what is the answer. Of course as you say the oil side can only do so much if the air side isn't keeping up its end of the picture and air filters are only so efficient and if in a dusty environment such as farm or construction or driving gravel roads there is a lot of dirt to filter out and some of that ends up into the air stream. Of course the irony in places like where I am where they dump the salt on the highways but also will mix in some calcium or outright pure calcium for problem road area's, or using calcium as dust control on gravel roads, the vehicle that gets used in that environment may rust out before a properly engineered engine and maintenance finally wears out so one has to face that reality in the rust belt.

I imagine the cold winters up here with repeated short runs in town every day for those that live and work in town and given what I have come to learn on this forum with DI engines having fuel dilution issues, and if they don't change the oil until it says to but keep driving it for a while, I bet all that is just lovely on those finicky lifters.

I certainly could be wrong but I hear of pickups far newer than that 2007 cutoff which may not be going to the wrecker but are having engine work done and be that a reman engine or new engine or trying to repair the existing engine. Some of it would be design issues as per the cylinder deactivation system that GM has and one of those lifters wiping out the cam and the question of oil changes moving the needle or not on that whole mess, or in the case of Ford pickup engines that have the long timing chains and wearing them out and the roller followers and phasers and some of that certainly goes back to oil change intervals. But in those various cases the truck has all sorts of life left in it and so the unfortunate owner and may be original owner or used market owner that is pouring money into repairs so the truck is not seeing the salvage yard yet but damage is happening by infrequent oil changes. A friends son had bought a 2018 I think it is half ton GM and it had some sort of extended or used dealer warranty on it and of course the lifter issue bites and its rattling and so the dealer had to swallow the bill and was at least 7000.00 and I think they only replaced what they felt they had to replace so yeah, I can see that being a ticking time bomb in the not too distant future. Would frequent oil changes cure all these engineering "marvels", probably not but some engine designs have shown that they do much better if the oil is changed a lot more often then if the manufacturer service claims are followed. New trucks cost so much that there is an incentive to keep the existing truck on the road by repairing.

I hear you over the negativity towards dealerships as some most certainly have earned their reputation and not exactly good reputations either, in either the quality of work done or with outright ripoff tactics and the problem is when one lives in a rural area where there are only so many dealers in a main town and don't have the options that someone who lives in or is surrounded by cities with multiple competing dealer businesses has available to them. Then there are the independent shops and again some can be more on the up and up while some are always waiting to pounce on that circumstance where they can rip the customer a new one and the customer does not realize what just happened was not how it could have gone. And interestingly enough and I don't know if all dealers have the access to genuine parts and a completely different lower line of parts and suspect rebuilt parts but there are certainly dealers that play that game and the customer can be lead to believe they got the genuine part like what came on the vehicle when in fact they got some inferior part that in some cases is extremely failure prone and they know it but they replace it with that junk anyway as that vehicle will come back again with the same issue once again. If one comes across a dealer or independent shop that actually does proper work and stands behind their work if it goes south, that's the shop one certainly wants to associate with.

Right, I know Demonworks youtube channel talked about the the new pan design, I just never knew when that came out but your right that in theory it should drain out more. The neighbor that has the 2022 model 3.0 drives his front end up on blocks and made the comment that it more than likely drains out better due to where the drain plug is situated to have the front end up on his series of truck.

That's interesting about the oil splatter, makes sense though the thinner it is as it doesn't have the body as such to it that helps slow the flow slightly and also holds itself together better for a lack of a proper term. I've never handled 0W20 yet to experience what its like. I probably had asked this before but have you been cutting your filters open to see what shows up within the filter media. Certainly to begin with no doubt there would be a bit of something show up on that initial filter but after that there shouldn't be much, that is unless the thrust washer takes a dump and the crank shifts from end to end as that would show up as quite the spectacle in the filter.

The sad fact is that some of these oil pans and it certainly makes no sense to me, that in the case of the GM 6.6 Duramax and the 3.0 Duramax as a couple of examples, neither of those pans are designed with as good of complete drain then they could have made them with by a fair margin. So getting every other oil change done by a sucking method that may not be quite perfection, its a far cry better than not changing the oil at all at that interval and having it done only every 10000 miles. And at Valvoline they never touch the drain plug by that method so one less thing to screw up is never a bad thing. Your watching and paying attention and making sure they fill the engine with oil and no doubt noting if there was ever any oil leaking at home for reasons of a leaky plug gasket or the filter not snugged up enough. I can just imagine how horrible ( way extended ) the average north american vehicle does get its oil changed in this current era and the amount of engines that run low on oil because of becoming leakers or burners and the owners having zero clue as they don't check the oil, after all they need that money for fancy coffees, doing their hair and nails etc ( ok maybe that is a San Fran exclusive on some of that )

I feel better now for my own view point and actions or lack there of towards the dealership service theme reading your post and others. GM corporate is who offers the two free oil changes on the HD trucks and I bought my truck in Feb of 2025 and those oil change offers run out within 2 years I believe and I highly doubt I will be using either one of them. I had asked if I could officially give those free services to another customer ( a friend ) and they said no, its all a GM corporate thing based on the vehicle in question. What that service advisor did however was go into a little story about how such and such customer was denied engine warranty because he had done his own oil changes because then they are not documented ... you see where that goes and so an employee playing the game of scaring the customer into having the service work done there most certainly triggered my thought process. At a later date I did talk to the person who handles warranty claims at the dealership and she said to be sure to document the oil changes and keep receipts for the oil and filter ( coped the receipts from cases of Mobil oil and case of filters I bought from them ) and the vehicles VIN, the date of service, mileage etc and staple that together as a record I would give them if that was ever needed and I keep my own log book for services for each vehicle as well. Oh and about 8 months after I bought the truck the dealer starts calling me to offer a maintenance service since they haven't seen my vehicle show up on their system ... for the mere fee of 300.00 Canadian to change the oil and rotate the tires and a few other minor checks and I declined the offer, I get the call again a couple of months later for the same thing and she could tell I was not interested and she asked if they should take my name off the call list and I said yes, do that !. By the way did you happen to keep your factory oil filter to open it up and see the surprises inside as I expect some will show up as per the odd little sliver of metal shaving and particles that the filter does trap along with bits of grey silicone sealer that come off of the inside edge of mating surfaces. I have cut open every filter so far on my truck although few miles but have changed the oil often and the second filter was vastly better with very little of anything, that first filter was the unsettling one as I expected it would be.

I doubt two wheel drive pickups are a hot seller off the new vehicle lot in your area !, I highly doubt any of the dealers around here have brought in one two wheel drive pickup for many years as that four wheel drive system isn't along for the ride here or I can well imagine in Vermont during the winter. Of course some of our more poorly maintained gravel roads are so bad that during the summer if it rains a person could get stuck right in the middle of a gravel road in two wheel drive LOL.

Definitely its a habit to get into, every so often go through the motions of both high range and low range and allow it to rotate over for some distance to coat all the surfaces with oil that otherwise may not receive any otherwise and like was said to coat and work the seals etc. I too am doing it on a non busy gravel road during the summer or come winter again the snow covered gravel road simply because its not busy and can mess around putting it into four low. Of course I am using four wheel high range quite often for portions of each drive all winter which would be different then one who lives in an area where unless going off roading the four wheel drive almost never gets used.

Indeed that photo makes me laugh as its almost comical in a sense when I think about Christmas at a certain brother inlaws as he turns on the tv and puts it to the burning fire place channel, an image of reality but yet far from reality in what it accomplishes in any physicals sense. When I search for answers to what is the optimum oil level in which to run an engine, of no surprise it states that its NOT ideal to run the engine constantly at the add mark but IS ideal for the longevity of the engine to run the oil level at or near the full mark on the dipstick. While its fairly typical although not written in stone as per the one quart difference between full and add on what I would refer to as a full size vehicle engine, as one goes up in engine size for trucks, field tractors, other industrial equipment etc and the oil capacity increases they stretch out the volume between full and add. Typically highway tractor engines tend to be a gallon of oil and that may be 1 tenth of the total engines oil volume. Looking back at the older GM full size pickup engines, some of them only held hardly over 4 quarts ... that 1 quart low was taking 25% of the total oils volume away and no wonder they started bumping up the total oil volume with a larger sump on pans for the same engine platform to help the engine and retain the oils integrity to increase the odds of the engines life span.

I did a search outside of this forum and came across a thread from this forum from two years ago which was amusing but one I recall now from a trusted member who had himself had to add a quart on his brand new truck to bring it up to near the level plug level. Then after accumulating 5000 or so miles on the truck he pulled the cover to drain it out and wiped out the bottom of the diff housing and put the factory cover back on and in his case it took exactly 4 quarts to bring it up to within that 4/10 of an inch below the fill/level check plug, far more than the GM spec. That is a big difference between that GM spec ( which is why the GM diffs are below the level they themselves say they should be when coming out of the factory ) vs what amounts to around 8 pints of oil. My own truck when I first got it home from new, I had not measured how much volume mine took since I used a hand pump on a 6 gallon pail of gear oil to top it off but I had measured it by using a bent wire on the flat shop floor after the truck sat overnight and a ruler and it was exactly 1" below the bottom of the fill hole on the rear diff. That fell right into line with what others have measured from a factory filled rear diff on these HD trucks, however the GM instructions are to fill from within between 4/10" of an inch or up to the bottom of the fill/level check hole as the full range. So that is why it alarmed me when you mentioned not seeing any oil in that window although I wasn't sure if that diff cover held the exact same amount as the factory cover so can only speculate its probably very close to retain the same oil flow characteristics over the top that the ring gear provides with the factory curved cover vs some of these odd flat back diff covers ( the whole video Gale does on that about some of the goofy after market covers out there ).

Yes I read that as well on their website and its all in how its interpreted for one thing and I believe the GM spec itself does not call for enough volume to bring the oil level up to the bottom of the factory covers fill/level port which also is puzzling. Banks are also bouncing between two different truck makes in the instructions since both the Ram and the GM use AAM axles with those instructions. The problem with not seeing the oil in the window is that one has no idea where the actual level is. Certainly anyone else on here reading this and having worked with the banks covers should chime in as they may have more information to provide. I am just simply concerned because I don't want to see someone underfill the diff as its not just the diff that is critical to lubrication, its the wheel end bearings. The dealership I bought my truck from had two HD pickups a while back have their rear wheel bearings fail because of being too severely underfilled at the factory and no one had checked and topped them off at the dealer but luckily warranty paid for a whole new complete axle housing as it mangled the axle housing spindles when the bearings failed and sent metal throughout the whole diff.

That is an odd comment Banks would have about the volume given that the sight glass is there for the specific reason to allow for not only bringing the level to that range but to visually be able to check at any time that the diff has a sufficient level. I know its been commented that what GM claims is the volume required for the rear diff ends up falling short of what it actually takes if filling it to the bottom of the factory level plug, and the fact that GM ( actually the axle manufacturer ) is underfilling the diff at their factory below their own specs as mine was as well which has been a whole other issue and is leaving the oil down almost a quart low from full. As I read about the Banks cover instructions right on their webpage, they do say to go by the sight glass ( half way up the sight glass on level ground ) unless the vehicle has had the pinion angle changed due to a lift etc that throws off the factory pinion angle. I'll put it this way, if I installed a Banks cover on my own stock truck I would fill it half way up the window and then recheck after the truck has been driven and sat for hours while sitting on level ground to confirm the level.