2011 5.3 Engine Long Drive Issues

[xckyle]

For the last couple of years (~15,000 miles), whenever i would go on a long road trip i would get quite a bit of smoke when starting up after the truck got cold for the next 1 or 2 starts.  On a trip this winter i could hear a bad lifter tick at the end of a road trip.  It sounded like when it came out of 4 cylinder mode the lifter didnt come all the way back.  The next startup the lifter tick went away after a few seconds and the puff of normal smoke was there but all seemed fine again.  So just to be safe i pulled the covers off removed the lifters checked to make sure none were collapsed and replaced the valve seals thinking this may be the cause of the smoke, bought a DOD plug in delete from Range AFM since I didnt want to buy HPT.  This weekend we went on another road trip and I still got the usual smoke on startup, but also this time 2 different times after starting up cold the engine bounced around a lot for about 15 seconds having trouble idling.  Bouncing from 300-1200 rpm, then settling and driving normal like there was no issues.  No codes or anything were thrown.

 

Any idea what i should be looking for?

[diyer2]

I'm curious.

Could you please provide your oil change info?

Brand of oil and change intervals.

Truck mileage?

Edited July 11, 2019 by diyer2

[newdude]

Do you have any oil consumption? 

[xckyle]

Always mobil 1 full synthetic 5w-30 since i purchased it 10 months old and 10,000 miles.  Change interval never lower then 20% on the oil reminder, but typically 4000-5000 miles.  More frequent recently ~3500.  I attached a blackstone report i got a couple years back.  I am at about 89000 miles now and I performed the lifter check, valve change at about 87,000 miles.  I have not done an oil sample since the most frequent one on the report.

2011 SIERRA truck oil report.pdf

[xckyle]

Very low oil consumption if any that I can tell.  I have never added oil between changes. No coolant consumption either.

[Colossus]

Right before your next oil change, run this stuff and see if it helps clear some things up.  My shop is using this and it is proving to work very well with direct injection engines.  You add it to the oil about 10-20 min prior to an oil change and drive it around a bit.  Don't let it stay in there long term.  It significantly quieted down some noisy stuff in my mother's POS Hyundai and it idles and runs much smoother.  This stuff is legit and is NOT snake oil like the Slick 50 of years gone by. 

 

BG EPR

https://www.bgprod.com/catalog/engine/bg-epr-engine-performance-restoration/

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by Colossus