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New cold start tick, not piston slap

zedbear

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zedbear Enthusiast

zedbear

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A little history first. I bought this truck almost 3 years ago with 70K miles. It’s always had the usual cold start piston slap. Loud when it's cold out and sometimes doesn't do it at all in the summer. It usually starts to knock after its been running about 10+ seconds and fades away after about 30 seconds or so. I knew about the whole piston slap thing before I bought it so it never really bothered me. It now has about 96K miles. Its a 2000 with a 5.3L.

 

I recently took the truck on a 3500 mile round trip. Ran great, no problems. I changed the oil before I left. The morning after I got home, I started it up and it was ticking/tapping pretty loud from the moment I started it for about 10 seconds. Then it faded away and I heard the usual piston slap/knock sound begin like always. The oil looked pretty dirty so I figured I'd change it but it's still doing this every morning. It's running fine otherwise.

 

The new sound seems more like a lifter ticking to me. I suppose it could be a new twist on the piston slap sound. Any way to verify the source? The road trip consisted of mostly 70-75 mph with the a/c on most of the time. No load or towing. When I start it now, it sounds like an old 70's or 80's beater with sticking lifters. :wtf:

BlackZ71Silverado Senior Enthusiast

BlackZ71Silverado

Posted
Posted

Sounds the way my 2001 Silverado did, perfectly normal. They are known to be loud like that...........What did the oil look like when you changed it, was it milky or discolored? Take a look at your coolant level just for kicks if you think it's louder than normal.

zedbear Enthusiast

zedbear

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Sounds the way my 2001 Silverado did, perfectly normal. They are known to be loud like that...........What did the oil look like when you changed it, was it milky or discolored? Take a look at your coolant level just for kicks if you think it's louder than normal.

 

 

Normally, I might agree but it didn't do this before the road trip. Why would the sound suddenly appear?

 

The oil was just sorta dirty, no signs of coolant. Coolant level is good. I changed the intake and valve cover gaskets just before the trip. Wonder if a piece of crud got in there and is partially plugging a lifter? Or perhaps the new sound is still piston slap but it changed due to some carbon buildup on one or more pistons being blown away by the long road trip?

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