2001 silverado with 5.3. was changing the oil and when i pulled the drain plug, which has a magnet on it, there was like a metal sludge stuck to the magnet. the amount on the plug was about the size of the plug itself. wiped it off on a paper towel and using the plug i could pick the towel up so it is metal. im thinking it is cast metal because you cant see the particles. ive owned it for 2 years and every other oil change has been clean. so i drove it for 1000 miles and changed it again. same thing. cut filter open and ran a magnet through it. there is tiny tiny pieces of cast metal in it. so my question is does anyone know where it may be coming from? the dealership said theyve never had a 5.3 opened up so they didnt know anything. btw i run mobil 1 5-30 and wix filter. thanks for any help!

 

Wow that sound serious!! In my Saturn it was the crank. If its cast then it is coming from the block. Is it ticking or or misfiring at idle? It might be a bent rod.

 

yes it does tick a little bit when you first start it up. in winter time its got a really bad knock but ive been told that is piston slap. it doesnt miss at idle or nothin and i havent noticed a drop in power. im thinking about taking the valve covers off and seeing if the valves are loose. i talked to another dealer and they said they had replaced cam and lifters so im wonderin if my cam is goin out. is the cam made of cast on these engines?

 

The cam should be made of hardened steel. My guess is a rod is bent a little. If you get a cam there is a lot of options. You should check out this site LS1 trucks they can tell you what cam would be best for you. You mind as well upgrade wile you got the heads off. Also they might know more about were the shavings are coming from.

 

How often you change the oil and what kind do you use?

Piston slap is carbon buildup, not engine failure. You can clean that out with water and a spray bottle. Takes a couple of trys but it works. Also you can run high octane and run your engine up into the higher RPMs a couple of times and that helps too. I did both of these and I had no psiton slap for three months, so I figure it is something that needs done every season.

 

I have used Seafoam before and that seemed to work pretty well and it is sapposed to clean the valves too. After a week of seafoaming it, I noticed that I can tear tread off of a start pretty good. I have not been able to do that since I bought the truck back in '02. So I would say that that really helped and gave me back more power. (and fuel economy, I gained about 1-2 MPG's just from that)

The shavings are normally wear and tear, now that being said, if the truck is NOCKING then there is a serious issue with the lower end. But if it is tapping it is more than likely a top end issue or wear and tear. Like the piston slap or valve tap. If the valves are tapping you more than likely have a bent push rod. Mainly becouse of the hydrolic lifters take up the wear and tear as well as the heat expansion and contraction. Since you have an electronic timing and coil near plugand no distributor then you don't have to worry about timing. I would say to run seafoam through it and then do a compression test on all cylenders, then run a better quality fuel through it(at least run some octane booster through it).Then in a couple of weeks of normal driving see if that has helped the engines power and noise. Other than that, you will have to tear into it to see how much wear is on all the components. That's a big and expensive job!

Let us know what you come back with.

P.S. How to use seafoam to clean the pistons and valves; put a can in the fuel tank, then take a seperate can and take the brake booster line off of the booster. then pouring very carefully WITH the engine running, puor the whole thing in, but before it is all pouredout, pour it really fast so that it kills the engine. Then leave the truck to sit over night (at least 8 hours), the next morning or afternoon, start your truck, it may not want to start real easy at first. But once it starts keep it running and then take it for a drive. BTW it will smoke up the naborhood real good! The smoke will go away about 20 of driving, drive it mild at first while it warms up then drive it pretty hard for a little bit (to break up all the carbon that is in the exhaust system) then drive mild again. After a week or twoyou should notice that it drives with a bit more performance and fuel economy.

Good luck!

 

You poor Seafoam in the brake line booster? I am hearing alot about Seafoam. Does it really work that good? Has anyone else used Seafoam?

 

DO NOT POOR !!!! YOULL HYDROLOCK THE MOTOR !!! while the motor is running and the brake booster line is off ,slowly let the seafoam get sucked up by the booster hose just a little at a time.... do a cap full at a time..if the truck starts to die or studder too much ;stop and let it idle down.....as far as the sludge on the plug ...i agree with gpet669 its normal.....but if theres metal shavings that is bad ... also if the sludge is gold colored that is also bad ( possible bearing failure) but in my honest opion if your gonna try to clean your valves .. take it to a pro.... ive been a automotive tech ( fancy for mechanic ) for almost 9 years and the wost and most expensive jobs have been the do it your self ers. i think itll cost around 100 - 150 at the dealer ship.

 

The seafoam trick is to load up the seafoam in the intake and let it sit, if it doesn't die when you overload the motor with it ( which mine almost didn't) then turn it off right away. I have never heard of it hydro locking the motor with the seafoam addtitive by pooring it in throught the brake booster line. The whole purpose to pooring it in is to get it to spatter the entire inside of the intake manafold and run down to the valves and sit on top of the piston to clean it.
As far as having it professionally cleaned at the dealership, I wouldn't have it done unless it absolutally has to happen. I personnally don't care to have a guy sit and work on my vehicle when I am not there watching and making sure that it is done right, and everything is checked out the way it sapposed to. I have had bad experiences with GM and Ford shop mechanics, I also did an ROP class where I worked at the local dealers shop and helped them do work on other peoples cars. I am positive that other places may have good mechanics that do the right thing and check every thing that they are sapposed to do. But I am also sure that there are a lot of mechanics that don't do the right thing and just fix the problem at hand, not the problem leading up to another parts failure.

 

Ive been using Seafoam for years and I never heard of doing it like that but it dose sound good. The only thing is I have soaked parts in Seafoam and it did not remove the carbon by its self. I had to scrub but I did us it to scrub. Also I think you would want to change your oil right after you did it that way.