F*%#N Oil Leak!!!!!!

[DaRosa218]

So apparently my Suburban decided to develop a oil leak at the driver side rear of the block. I shoved my phone back there to get some sort of a view and discovered that this has been going on for quite sometime. Apparently switching to Synthetic made it worse? It's now dumping down my Block and all over the underside of my truck rendering it "Out of Service" until I replace whatever is going on. Anyone else have this problem? If so, what was your discovery and fix?

Thanks

 

[ISU-152]

I lose about 2 dots a month if it makes you feel better...99

 

[YukonandtheHOE]

From what i see its either your Oil pressure sensor Blew the oring or your vally pan gasket, easy fix either way. As far as Dino to syn oil swap, Dino in some cases will kill rubber gaskets and top shelf synthetics have conditioners in it to keep rubber nice and hydrated

 

[DaRosa218]

Awesome, that's what I thought. Thanks Brother

 

[DaRosa218]

LMAO, My 2000 Cadillac Escalade hardly leaks at all as well. She's been sitting on the side of the house for the last month, havent driven her much since I bought the 'Burb.

 

[Jason_S]

It could be a valve cover, oil filter, or something else. The best way to figure it out is to clean it off as best you can and take it for a spin to see where it starts to build back up. An inspection mirror, or dental mirror will help.

Unless it's literally dumping oil, I see no reason to park it until you fix it. Just keep a quart or two in a bag in the back, and check the oil level when you fill the tank. If it's low add oil. This will also help you approximate how fast you are using/losing oil. If someone drives it who cant or wont check the oil, you are probably better off parking it.

As long as you are not someone who graciously shares his music with the entire neighborhood, you will be able to hear when the engine is telling you that it is time to add oil. However, this is not the recommended way for checking your oil level.

If it's a valve cover, you need to replace the gasket. On the driver's side it can be done fairly easily. If it's the oil filter, it could just be a tad too lose. Tighten it, preferably by hand, and keep an eye on it.

 

[DaRosa218]

It could be a valve cover, oil filter, or something else. The best way to figure it out is to clean it off as best you can and take it for a spin to see where it starts to build back up. An inspection mirror, or dental mirror will help.

Unless it's literally dumping oil, I see no reason to park it until you fix it. Just keep a quart or two in a bag in the back, and check the oil level when you fill the tank. If it's low add oil. This will also help you approximate how fast you are using/losing oil. If someone drives it who cant or wont check the oil, you are probably better off parking it.

As long as you are not someone who graciously shares his music with the entire neighborhood, you will be able to hear when the engine is telling you that it is time to add oil. However, this is not the recommended way for checking your oil level.

If it's a valve cover, you need to replace the gasket. On the driver's side it can be done fairly easily. If it's the oil filter, it could just be a tad too lose. Tighten it, preferably by hand, and keep an eye on it.

Thank you for your input, It's leaking pretty decent and did a bit more looking around with a buddies Borescope and it seems to be the valley pan. I just ordered the Mahle Top end Gasket kit and going to replace everything all in one shot just as preventive maintenance. What blows my mind is the Engine was rebuilt 30K ago! Oh, well at least I know it will be done right as I am very Mechanical inclined. Only reason why I posted this up was to see if anyone else had this very issue...

 

[DaRosa218]

This is the kit I just bought

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NZYNLS/ref=sr_ph_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484710472&sr=sr-1&keywords=MIS16340

 

[YukonandtheHOE]

Thank you for your input, It's leaking pretty decent and did a bit more looking around with a buddies Borescope and it seems to be the valley pan. I just ordered the Mahle Top end Gasket kit and going to replace everything all in one shot just as preventive maintenance. What blows my mind is the Engine was rebuilt 30K ago! Oh, well at least I know it will be done right as I am very Mechanical inclined. Only reason why I posted this up was to see if anyone else had this very issue...

Do you still have AFM after the rebuild?
Good time to put the updated valve cover on!

 

[DaRosa218]

Do you still have AFM after the rebuild?
Good time to put the updated valve cover on!

Yeah, I still have the AFM active as the Engine was rebuilt by previous owner. I am second owner, previous owner was an older couple and took extremely good care of the truck. I'm definitely going to replace the Valve Cover as I know they're also problems and get a BBP Tune to deactivate the AFM

 

[YukonandtheHOE]

You should buy yourself HPTuners, One time purchase and you can play with the ecm all you want.. down the road if you pull the heads to do a full AFM delete

 

[DaRosa218]

You should buy yourself HPTuners, One time purchase and you can play with the ecm all you want.. down the road if you pull the heads to do a full AFM delete

Sounds like a good idea! Thanks

 

[rv8pilot]

I had a pretty bad oil leak in my '01 Yuk which turned out to be the rear main seal although it looked to be coming from higher up on the engine. Later I did the valley cover gasket as part of replacing the knock sensors. Be sure to check them as they rust up and go T.U. There are several threads on this here.

 

[DaRosa218]

I had a pretty bad oil leak in my '01 Yuk which turned out to be the rear main seal although it looked to be coming from higher up on the engine. Later I did the valley cover gasket as part of replacing the knock sensors. Be sure to check them as they rust up and go T.U. There are several threads on this here.

I have the LC9 AFM 5.3L so my knock sensors don't sit in the Valley Pan as opposed to your '01, Thank God! I had a 2003 and 2005 Tahoe before so I had gone through this problem before with the oil leak and especially the Knock Sensors rusting as you mentioned.

It was definitely the Oil Valley Gasket and not the Rear Main seal as my Engine was just recently rebuilt. Looks like GM didn't tighten down the rear bolts of the valley pan to spec causing the oil leak. You can see where the oil was escaping.

Thanks for the heads up though

 

[YukonandtheHOE]

I have the LC9 AFM 5.3L so my knock sensors don't sit in the Valley Pan as opposed to your '01, Thank God! I had a 2003 and 2005 Tahoe before so I had gone through this problem before with the oil leak and especially the Knock Sensors rusting as you mentioned.

It was definitely the Oil Valley Gasket and not the Rear Main seal as my Engine was just recently rebuilt. Looks like GM didn't tighten down the rear bolts of the valley pan to spec causing the oil leak. You can see where the oil was escaping.

Thanks for the heads up though

Cool,so you got it figured out and fixed up!?

 

[DaRosa218]

Cool,so you got it figured out and fixed up!?

That I did