blanchard7684
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Along with what @jfoj has indicated with shifting programming unloading the 5.3 to a greater degree, I've also seen that the DFM system on 5.3 in my 24 Suburban doesn't spend much time engaged and when it does it is only going to 7 or 6 cylinders. Any slight incline or wind and it downshifts and knocks it out of DFM. It takes very little applied load to disengage DFM.In the lugging regime where many perils exist (high loading, pinging), lets say 1500~2000 RPM, the 6.2L isn't particularly any torque monster by usual big block standards nor is it that much of a delta over 5.3L... especially not if its not running on all cylinders.. I have plotted the torque curves below. Its just that the smart guys who thought DFM was even worth releasing didn't realize it is really BAD to be lugging and also be not operating on all cylinders. (Random guess - Some high up in the R&D team had this cool idea so it made it out..)
View attachment 455882
So imagine that load on fewer and fewer cylinders...
Here is a plot I made from a freeway run. I engage and disengage DFM via L10/L9. L9 rpm is about 1800 rpm and l10 rpm is about 1660 rpm. This is with cruise on. You can see some small hills the throttle opens alot. this is a good reference for load. From experience I can see that if the 5.3 is at a sustained throttle percentage of 55% for greater than a few seconds it comands a downshift. So these small hills were on verge of a downshift.
You can see the moderate hill got a downshift and hit 2300 rpm (L8). Also a huge spike in throttle. I've run the same route with a decent headwind and hit L7 (2600+ RPM).
The hills I'm talking about I don't have an inclinometer reference but they are laughably small probably to what most would consider a hill.
Similar plot I've seen from a 6.2 in similar vehicle look remarkably different. Downshifting is minimal to non existent which infers a high load at low rpm. If i'm not mistaken I recall repeated instances of 100% load with no downshifting in rpm ranges at or below 1600 rpm.
Essentially what I've learned is that although the 5.3 is a heavily laden engine in a huge vehicle like the Suburban, the load seems to be "better managed" than the 6.2.
Thus the 5.3 can "get away" with running a 0w20.
(also note how many instances of a sub 14.7 afr is being recorded at constant speed of 78 mph)