GrumpyGhost Rusty 1999 GMC Sierra Z71 Ongoing build!

[GrumpyGhost 26]

It was ran on dino oil for about 130,000ish miles. I switched it over to synthetic in 2011, it may have gotten one or two or a few quick lube changes with castrol or quick lube synthetic, but i usually ran mobil 1 synthetic and changed it at 5,000 miles...... or if i felt like it had been more than a year since it was changed but it didn't get 5,000 miles in that year.

This truck has seen a lot of city and highway driving. These last 20,000 miles have all been city stop and go miles around Florida, top speed usually around 50mph. This was my dads truck he bought new in 1999, before me the oil change interval is questionable, it probably got changed every 8,000 miles on dino oil before i got it. But during that time period it saw all highway miles of about 60ish miles a day on no hills straight roads.

I also added cheap ebay cold air intake in 2011 and changed it to a name brand k&N filter later on. Cold air intakes let more air in while also letting in more dust and crap. Im not too surprised at the sludge, but it was more than i was expecting. My goal is to get another 2 years out of this truck as a daily driver and then ill go and buy a new vehicle and put this in the garage for a restoration.

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[Grumpy Bear 3,711]

You may find this useful.

 

Water from cold combustion and combustion byproducts for acidic precursors that with time and heat from sludge and varnish. When this happens on a hot surface you get varnish. The hard coppery brown color under you see on the reciprocating assembly. On a cold surface alone or in concert with soot forms the black deposits, sludge. 

 

The detergent in an oil keeps these acidic precursors in solution preventing it's conversion. 

The dispersant holds the soot and amalgamated solids of of combustion and oil degradation in suspension. 

The anti oxidant 'hinders' the free radical oxidation the creates those acidic precursors. 

 

Additives deplete. ALL additives deplete. High water loading from short tripping especially in cold weather hurries this along as does temperatures above the oils thermal degradation limit. This varies by formulation and by base oil. Poor tune, ring leakage...all of these can and will end an oils usefulness in combating these conditions sooner than later. 

 

This is why there is no such thing as a 'forever' or even a 'long drain' oil. There are more pieces to the puzzle than a high TBN. Your proof is in the photo below. Hope you find that useful. 

 

 

[Grumpy Bear 3,711]

By the way, I've seen much MUCH worse. Like scoop it out with an ice cream scoop bad. 

[GrumpyGhost 26]

I still have to drill out the rivet and clean up the front lip, but this is how "clean" i got everything. I already installed the windage tray and oil pick up tube.

I must say that installing the pick up tube was a pain, i really hope i didn't pinch the new oring but time will tell i guess. I preoiled the oring and i would get the tube to "suck" down but i would need to move the pick up tube to get the mounting brackets on the studs. It took me probably 20 mins to get it back on and feel okay with how it went in.

Overall this has been a not fun job but its doable. Ive been taking my time, but if i really put my mind to it or was getting paid i could probably do this in about 5 or 6 hours with some prepping. I wonder how much shops charge for this job.

I broke out my pressure washer and cleaned off the gunk from my skid plate and my cross member. I hit the oil pan but i just have a cheapy electric pressure washer and it didn't have the power to clean the oil pan.

Anyhow next post will be either good or bad news on oil pressure!

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[GrumpyGhost 26]

I did not change the oil pressure sensor yet. I heard their is a screen that can be cleaned under the pressure sensor. Its a pain to get to and by the time i got my tools and mess cleaned up from all of the 20 plus years of sludge and grime i ran out of motivation.

I did not even put the skid plates back on as i want to watch the drive way for leaks.

The noise is not as predominant as it was before, oil pressure is slightly higher but that seems typical by just doing the oil change. I have a feeling as i believe this will be the 4th oil pressure sensor i have put on this truck. It reads the same on my obdII scanner as it does on the dash.

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[GrumpyGhost 26]

By the way, I've seen much MUCH worse. Like scoop it out with an ice cream scoop bad. 

Yeah it wasn't that bad, but it makes me wonder what they use in synthetic oil for certain things like dirt and water suspension. Like i know back in the day quaker state oil used an addive similar to paraffin which is a wax based compound that caused sludge.

I guess its better to have the engine walls lined with sludge and grime than to have it on the important stuff like my cam or bearings.



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[Grumpy Bear 3,711]

15 hours ago, GrumpyGhost said:

Yeah it wasn't that bad, but it makes me wonder what they use in synthetic oil for certain things like dirt and water suspension. Like i know back in the day quaker state oil used an addive similar to paraffin which is a wax based compound that caused sludge.

I guess its better to have the engine walls lined with sludge and grime than to have it on the important stuff like my cam or bearings.

No matter what they use; when it's used up, it's used up. Water is either absorbed by the filter (to a point) or boiled off by keeping the oil hot long enough to accomplish that task. In these cases you just have to change more often. 

 

If it's knocking it may be to late already but..................you could try: 

 

Melling M295HV  Made for this situation. 

Edited January 4 by Grumpy Bear

[txab 1,666]

17 hours ago, GrumpyGhost said:

I did not change the oil pressure sensor yet. I heard their is a screen that can be cleaned under the pressure sensor. Its a pain to get to and by the time i got my tools and mess cleaned up from all of the 20 plus years of sludge and grime i ran out of motivation.

I did not even put the skid plates back on as i want to watch the drive way for leaks.

The noise is not as predominant as it was before, oil pressure is slightly higher but that seems typical by just doing the oil change. I have a feeling as i believe this will be the 4th oil pressure sensor i have put on this truck. It reads the same on my obdII scanner as it does on the dash.

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No screen under the oil pressure sensor on a '99 model. Only later years after AFM was in use for a while

[GrumpyGhost 26]

Grumpy has zero oil leaks according to the driveway, i have not installed the skid plate and i haven't seen any oil on the ground and i checked today and see nothing underneath that is wet!

I have yet to change the oil pressure sensor but it has also gotten cold here. The oil pressure is the same when cold. Also the sewing machine\ticking noise is gone at cold start up in the morning and does not come back until the engine is warm. By warm i mean at least 160°F as i only drive it about 5 miles a day.

I ordered some stock multilayered exhaust gaskets as I can some carbon build up on the rear exhaust ports on both sides of engine. The bolts are broken and i couldn't get my welder in there to weld a nut on the broken bolts. So i ordered some dorman brackets to hold them down, but they were never tight at oil changes when i would check them so i removed them all together and it has ran for years with no leaks i think until now.

When i tried to repair the broken bolts before i replaced the exhaust gaskets with cheap ones from napa. At the time i did not know about the inferior exhaust gaskets and that I could just reuse my stock ones. Originally i had 3 broken bolts and i replaced all of them with the gold number 8s off ebay claiming they wouldn't break.

Anyhow i think my excessive sewing machine noise is from my exhaust gaskets leaking again. When i find time to replace the oil pressure sensor i plan to stick a brush and some compressed air in the hole to make sure it doesn't have sludge blocking it causing the readings to be off. More than likely that is not the case but im trying to cover all bases before trying an oil pump.

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[GrumpyGhost 26]

I plan to tackle the exhaust manifold gaskets this weekend. Got them off Amazon mahle brand for $19. Im probably going to write a whole book about all the crap going on with grumpy.

Driveway is still dry but i crawled under and found oil after an extended drive today.

Also my front turn lamp was full of water as i found out when i tried to change a bad turn signal bulb. the bulb sockets are completely trash and broke apart. I rigged it back together so i could drive safely but it felt like grumpy is getting a real crap personality and is now really pissed at me and just said (F you!)
Basically i feel like i may be sinking lots of money into this soon. Why stop now?

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[GrumpyGhost 26]

GREAT NEWS! In this case i can literally say third times the charm! This is the third oil pressure sensor i have put in this truck. I guess I didn't know my own strength and broke the previous 2 senors on install.

First off it took me 20 mins to do this and that was with me stopping, cleaning my hands and then taking photos. I did cut my arm on a fuel line but its a tight squeeze and i don't even care because i have great oil pressure!

The first time i changed this sensor i remember it being dead of winter, i was outside and it took me like 3 hours of cussing. Only reason this one came out so quickly was because i used my earthquake braappp braappp ratchet.

I took of the electrical connector, then i slid my oil pressure sensor socket on the oil pressure sensor and it immediately fell over. Then i pulled it off and out came the top half of the sensor with the socket. To clarify i did not put any pressure on the sensor, just put the socket on and then let go and it fell over.

After the top of the sensor came off, i reached in with the socket again and got it to latch on the bottom half of the sensor still in the block. Then i proceeded with adding and universal joint and 2 extensions onto my brapp brappp. I hit the switch and the bottom half of the sensor came out easily, i actually lost it on top of the transmission so hopefully it falls out.

So to reiterate that i didn't put tons of force on the sensor when i installed it, my earthquake ratchet cannot break a bolt over 25 foot pounds. Now 25 foot pounds is a lot, but this is also through a sharp angled universal bit and extensions. So i don't feel that i overtightened the old senors by much but just enough to crack and leak and over time it lead to failure.

I hand tightened the new sensor as much as possible then i ever so gently tightened it with the socket and regular ratchet. Plugged in the sensor and start grumpy and BINGO! OVER 40PSI OIL PRESSURE!!!!

As i was tackling this i was looking for extra oil leaks and found my pcv hose has oil all around it, and behind the oil pressure sensor i stuck a finger down there and found my oil leak that is coming down to the bottom and making it so my rear main looks like it is the culprit.

I will keep monitoring the oil leaks but next project is Sunday for my exhaust gaskets which i can now confirm is leaking and causing the excess ticking noise that brought me on this whole operation in the first place.

I feel relieved, i was starting to feel like i couldn't rely on grumpy as a daily driver anymore and my future plans for grumpyghost were in jeopardy if i couldn't find oil pressure i felt comfortable with. Now im thinking i should get some long tube headers and delete the stock original cats and do a mild tone dual exhaust like i once had on grumpy.

Oh and maybe a cam swap and HP tuners by the end of this year if all goes well.

I had a dad day at work, but after i got done working i somehow got a 2nd wind and decided to tackle this project and now im happy as can be!!!

Hope yalls day goes well!



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[GrumpyGhost 26]

The most important photo didn't upload! Geeze! Check out the oil pressure guage now!

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[Grumpy Bear 3,711]

Perfect!! Glad that is sorted out. 

[GrumpyGhost 26]

Now that my trust in Grumpy has been restored with the oil pressure issue fixed. I have been driving grumpy normally and i have 45 psi at idle and then during normal driving it rises to 60 psi. Basically anything over 1500 rpm and it sits around 60psi. Honestly a huge relief.

As for my exhaust gaskets, I have not found time to change them yet as I had planned. I did go through and tighten all of the manifold bolts and found 2 loose ones and the truck has quieted down. Its still noisy and leaking as some of the exhaust gasket is actually blown out and nonexistent.

Its time to finally finish upgrading the brakes. These are the 13" front rotor and bigger front brakes from a 2008 and newer truck. I upgraded the rear to dual piston 13" rotors almost a year ago now! Wow! (We made it through 2020)
To run these brake calipers a 17" rim is needed.

I got the rear brake calipers at a junkyard and I think I'm going to order some news ones just to be safe. I did go through one of them but the remanufactured brake on the rear driver side has always given me problems and now its sticks sometimes. Anyhow I hate doing brakes, it's like my one pet peeve that I'll pay whatever price for someone else to fix it. However I'm going to tackle it once more.

Anyhow I'm going to either do exhaust gaskets or my transmission oil filter and fresh trans fluid this weekend hopefully!

Also my passenger window motor died! I may leave it as The bottoms of my doors are rotted. I may have found some doors off of a part out truck on Facebook marketplace and I'm sure those windows are fine or at least working. No rust being from Florida, but I don't plan to paint my truck until march or April but honestly it might be later than that (times are wild). I also don't have the room to store 3 doors so I'd need to swap them immediately and a mismatched truck will drive me nuts!

I don't know if I should spring on them now or just wait as I have seen a lot of these trucks getting parted out because of the LS engine craze. New doors off of a newer year truck is the best option instead of welding patch panels because my passenger door has a nice dent, my driver door almost got ripped off backwards, and the rear passenger door is just plain easy to swap. A 2x4 and a hammer and the new door hinge pin kit will make the new doors line up perfectly.

So much stuff to do, so little time to do it!
I have to finish the big maintenance stuff before I get back to sanding the 20" rims. Gotta have the good bones to rock the flashy big rims and tires. Honestly though these rims are pitted and I'm going to paint them to match the truck. They are nice rims but also dirt cheap so if I Curb one I won't die a little inside like some of these guys rocking forces for $15,000. Respect to those guys because I just can't do it.

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[GrumpyGhost 26]

I cant upload any more photos this month because tapatalk wants me to pay for vip to upload large and unlimited photos and I guess their is a cap per month now.

New brakes calipers came in today and I'm super impressed for the price I payed.
They were remanufactured this year so these are fresh rebuilds and not some sitting on a self for years.

Came with a fresh new silver paint job and honestly I think im going to leave the color alone and order the rear calipers to match the fronts. I already ordered the rears from the same Callahan supplier.

Again these are an upgrade over my current factory brakes with 13" rotors and bigger front calipers. They are from a 2008 and newer truck.

Im going to do my brakes this weekend and update in February when I can upload photos again.

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