Crapiest engine in the Chevy line-up?

[TooCool5]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

She said both of them! LLT & LFX.

service bulletin for stretched timing chains is for 2009 - 2012 LLT & LFX motors so apparently not much was improved upon.

I'm at 26.5K and still running like a top.
I have said this before, a majority of the failures are from going by GM's OiL Monitor for
oil changes, some leaving the oil in there for 10,000 miles.
Old school oil changes should solve a lot of these problems.

[PieNsky]

I went 117,000 miles using the monitor.

[cntryman77]

Originally Posted by KMPrenger

There are a couple threads active right now in both the LLT and LFX sections asking at what mileage the timing chains have gone out. In the LFX thread someone there mentioned that his tech told him that they noticed the timing chain issue happens mostly to drivers who tend to do lots of short trips in the car. I asked him about it and he said that to me. Here is what he originally said:

Agreed. Furthermore, my understanding is that the timing chain issue was related to people who only drive their cars for short bursts and don't let the engine oil get to operating temperature. The LLT direct injected engines leak gas into the engine oil but the engineers thought it was OK because as soon as the engine oil gets to operating temp the gas is burned off. Well, in the case of people who are only traveling short distances on a regular basis the engine oil doesn't warm up hot enough to burn the gas off, the gas accumulates, and the timing chains and/or bearings start failing. I was told this was only with the LLT, the issues were corrected in the LFX.

This scares me a little bit I bought my car in March of 2010, so it's an earlier build. I have almost 68,000 on it. I just moved at the beginning of October and my daily comute to work went from 17 miles to less than 2 miles one way. This means a lot more short trips on my engine.

[RubyCamaro]

Let the engine run & warm up a bit before leaving? I know this is somewhat of a pain but might be best in the long run if you can manage to do it.

[AlohaBR]

Originally Posted by PieNsky

I went 117,000 miles using the monitor.

Still driving at 124K+ miles! No issues, using the DIC.

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

Let the engine run & warm up a bit before leaving? I know this is somewhat of a pain but might be best in the long run if you can manage to do it.

Have always let it go through the warm-up until it idles down, about 30-45 seconds of waiting.

[stevey_frac]

Originally Posted by AlohaBR

Still driving at 124K+ miles! No issues, using the DIC.



Have always let it go through the warm-up until it idles down, about 30-45 seconds of waiting.

That warm up is just to light off the cats. The issue with a 2 mile commute is that the oil will never warm up, and will never burn off the condensate that forms in the oil from blow-by. Change you're oil often with a 2 mile commute!

[RubyCamaro]

I was talking about letting it warm up longer than that.

[stevey_frac]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

I was talking about letting it warm up longer than that.

Just to give you an idea, I drive about 30 minutes to work every day, covering about 20 miles.

It takes a little less than 5 minutes for the water temp to come up, and get heat into the car. It takes about 20 minutes for the oil to get near 90 Celsius.

You'd have to idle quite a while to get the car actually 'warmed up' to ideal operating temperatures. That's why I suggest simply changing the oil more. The oil is designed to deal with some moisture, so it's not the end of the world. Just don't trust the OLM under these circumstances. The OLM is based on ZDDP depletion, which doesn't help you if your total acid number, or total based number goes first! (Or, fuel dilution, etc...)

[RubyCamaro]

It sounds like your drive is at least long enough to get up to operating temp then. I was just thinking if your drive was like 15 min then warming it for 5 min would get you there.

[stevey_frac]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

It sounds like your drive is at least long enough to get up to operating temp then. I was just thinking if your drive was like 15 min then warming it for 5 min would get you there.

Yup, I'm fine. I was responding directly to the fellow with the 2 mile commute.

--Steve

[SS_Killer]

I sold the Silver-6 with 105,000 trouble-free miles. My daily commute was 50 miles each way to work. Easy does it then? Well let's not forget the 400 sub-minute Autocross runs at 100 percent acceleration, cornering, and braking. Also, most of these runs began with a 4,500-rpm clutch drop. Wheel-spin starts always seemed to begin my best times and were fun besides. Apparently the clutch isn't weak.

At most, this LLT needed 1/2-quart of oil between just two of her 8,000-mile oil changes. Otherwise, never needed to add a drop. The only unscheduled "engine" work was replacement of the exhaust manifold to CAT gasket at 100,000 miles. There was a minor exhaust leak. Cost me about $150 bucks. The car was mechanically perfect after 105,000 miles and still had 50%+ of her brakes left. The LS/LLT is one insanely tough little car IMHO.

[RubyCamaro]

Thank You! That does help me feel better.

[AlohaBR]

Originally Posted by stevey_frac

That warm up is just to light off the cats. The issue with a 2 mile commute is that the oil will never warm up, and will never burn off the condensate that forms in the oil from blow-by. Change you're oil often with a 2 mile commute!

2 mile commute? Mine is appx 60 miles each way 6 days a week. Has plenty of warm up time.
65% hiway, 33% backroads(45-55mph zones, no traffic lights), 2% actual city driving.

[stevey_frac]

Sorry guys, apparently it was clear as mud that the 2 mile commute though was directed at cntryman77