DerekTheGreat
Forum Regular
I'm not that worried about it. It's more along the lines of something I noticed and the analyst in me wants to try a few things and compare notes to get a definitive answer. I'm one lazy SOB, so definitely not going to install a filter relocation kit. The valvetrain might indeed need looked at, but I'm not ready to fire that canon. It runs well enough for me to justify farming that service out, if indeed the case.
My soon to be wife's 2002 Tahoe and it's 5.3 had all kinds of valvetrain noise on start-up. Would go away once warm. It had about 260k miles on it and so I deduced it was just worn out. Oil pressure gauge also never read more than 45psi and when hot it read just under 20 and fluttered around. "Hmm, probably a bad sending unit." I thought. Took a road trip with it to pick up some speakers that were about 1,500 miles away. On the return trip the thing would start ticking above 2,000 rpm. Hmm, that's all she wrote, I guess. So many people and even the shop I trusted told me the engine was no good. Hmm, ~$6,000 for a "new" engine wasn't in our budget. Stumbled upon articles about dudes replacing some o-ring in the oil pump's pick-up tube. Despite all the input I received directing us to replace the engine, we spent the ~$700 to replace that o-ring. Whaddya know? No more ticking on start-up, gauge in the truck reads nearly 60psi at cold start and it never dips below 35psi when hot now. 20k miles later and going strong.
My soon to be wife's 2002 Tahoe and it's 5.3 had all kinds of valvetrain noise on start-up. Would go away once warm. It had about 260k miles on it and so I deduced it was just worn out. Oil pressure gauge also never read more than 45psi and when hot it read just under 20 and fluttered around. "Hmm, probably a bad sending unit." I thought. Took a road trip with it to pick up some speakers that were about 1,500 miles away. On the return trip the thing would start ticking above 2,000 rpm. Hmm, that's all she wrote, I guess. So many people and even the shop I trusted told me the engine was no good. Hmm, ~$6,000 for a "new" engine wasn't in our budget. Stumbled upon articles about dudes replacing some o-ring in the oil pump's pick-up tube. Despite all the input I received directing us to replace the engine, we spent the ~$700 to replace that o-ring. Whaddya know? No more ticking on start-up, gauge in the truck reads nearly 60psi at cold start and it never dips below 35psi when hot now. 20k miles later and going strong.
