5.3L cylinder head. Which side should be normal?
- Thread starter wazzabie
- Start date
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Scottydoggs
Full Access Member
pcv valve is on the driver side, might be why its darker.
are there at least some pools of oil in the pass side head? looks a bit dry.
are there at least some pools of oil in the pass side head? looks a bit dry.
strutaeng
Full Access Member
Looks pretty normal to me.
No noise and good oil pressure and no warning lights....should be good. Yes, pcv on left side. Please do not reuse the old v/c seals.
ivin74
05 NBS Nali
How long have you own the vehicle? Looks like one head has been replaced. The darker one looks like that head has at least 200k miles.
Look at the stamping on each head to see if they match.
rockola1971
Full Access Member
Im going to have to totally agree here. I have never seen an LS engine with considerable amount of miles on it not having matching patina on the valvetrain and tops of the cylinder heads. Drivers side head looks to have a fair amount of miles on it and from what I can see in the pic completely normal visually. That Passenger side head looks like it was either replaced or pulled, cleaned, likely rebuilt within the last 50k or less.
yes there are some pools of motor oil
unknown history till 44k miles. total miles is 190k
ivin74
05 NBS Nali
You might have the troubled 706 heads on that suv. To identify those heads look for the stamping shown on the pictures below.
Attachments
This was my first though when I saw your first post. The left side is just too clean. Before going any further with taking things apart, do a coolant pressure test with the valve covers off. This should show where the water is getting in.
If it were a small crack, you would see the cleaned portion just beside the crack. Mine was a very slow leak, and the area cleaned was small, just around the bolt head:
Latest oil change/ oil filters
I just got the oil analysis back today. There is good and bad news. The good news is that all the metals are normal for a Chevy engine. The bad news is they found evidence of a coolant leak. So, I guess I'll be doing head gaskets at least. The question remains whether I should just go in...
www.tahoeyukonforum.com
Was there any other unusual wear according to the report? I suspect the coolant leak is/was quite big, and may have caused other internal damage.
Heads are not the castech 706.
High levels of lead and copper. So the coolant is eating the lower bearings. This is just in trace amounts. I caught it early. I read the orange coolant does not become milk like shake in engine oil. I'm using high millage synthetic engine oil. The motor oil looks normal when I drain it. I did a coolant pressure check with the valve covers off and did not see any water near the head bolts pool.This was my first though when I saw your first post. The left side is just too clean. Before going any further with taking things apart, do a coolant pressure test with the valve covers off. This should show where the water is getting in.
If it were a small crack, you would see the cleaned portion just beside the crack. Mine was a very slow leak, and the area cleaned was small, just around the bolt head:
Latest oil change/ oil filters
I just got the oil analysis back today. There is good and bad news. The good news is that all the metals are normal for a Chevy engine. The bad news is they found evidence of a coolant leak. So, I guess I'll be doing head gaskets at least. The question remains whether I should just go in...
Was there any other unusual wear according to the report? I suspect the coolant leak is/was quite big, and may have caused other internal damage.
No noise, good oil pressure, no overheating, engine has never over heated on me, I do get low coolant light. The low coolant light is intermittent. The coolant usually stays about 1in below the reservoir line until I add more coolant. I replaced the coolant reservoir thinking it was the low coolant indicator switch but that was not an issue.
You need to pressure test the cooling system. If you have rear heat, you need to check the heater hose tees at the p/s firewall area and see if damp/wet and also check the weep hole on the water pump. Check the tank seals on the radiator.
solli5pack
Full Access Member
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Looks a lot like mine did when I had a bad p/s head gasket.
D/S
P/S
D/S
P/S
Did you end up replacing the head gasket?
rockola1971
Full Access Member
So far I have heard zero evidence of a blown head gasket. Im more inclined toward a leaking heater hose tee, water pump or radiator leak.
solli5pack
Full Access Member
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Yes. I took the opportunity to do a D.O.D. delete.
