Glitter in 6.2L oil ... please help

[georgerenner]

Well, that's just under a little for what I paid for the car.

I guess you get what you pay for. Just has me wondering if the dealership knew about the issues.

I have never posted a comment before but I wanted you to know its a bummer the dealer sold you the car. They may have known there were issues when they changed the oil. Hard to tell! I have had two Denali's and a Burb and my kid has an Escalade. I absolutely love the engines. Not the DOD! When I began having the oil tube o ring issue on my first 07 Denali I didn't fix it promptly and messed up that engine. Funny enough it still runs but it does not have DOD. My son didn't change the oil when he first bought the Escalade and one wild ride at night one of the Lifters collapsed. Not a pretty sound. We drained the oil and replaced it with Valvoline Restore and my personal favorite Dura Lube Engine Treatment. I don't remember if we used transmission fluid also but it unstuck and there has been no problems since. OK the flakes are a bad sign and I can't speak for the proper course of action to take regarding them. I have read threads here where there is a serious problem with these DOD lifters. I am not sure anyone even knows at this point what brand to trust. They could have replaced the lifters, and not the trays, with poor quality knock offs. I suspect your flakes could come from there. Having the oil anaylyzed with the particles is an excellent idea to delve deeper into the problem. I would recommend replacing the o ring seal, using a Range Disabler, and adding Dura Lube to the engine. If you baby it you may get by for a while. When I damaged my 07 in 2022 afterwards I replaced the o ring and my son put tons of miles on it anyway. God bless!

 

[thefrey]

View attachment 456037

So this is what the Melling kit comes with. It’s their solenoid, but they label it as solenoid/actuator.

And then what you are saying as the solenoid is what companies are labeling as the camshaft adjuster magnet.

So just to be sure, you’re saying the Melling actuator in the pic is OK to use but for the camshaft adjuster magnet / solenoid, use GM only? Or should I use GM for the actuator and the solenoid? If I buy the kit from Melling with everything I don’t know if I should void the actuator in the pic.

 

[thefrey]

I have never posted a comment before but I wanted you to know it’s a bummer the dealer sold you the car. They may have known there were issues when they changed the oil. Hard to tell! I have had two Denali's and a Burb and my kid has an Escalade. I absolutely love the engines. Not the DOD! When I began having the oil tube o ring issue on my first 07 Denali I didn't fix it promptly and messed up that engine. Funny enough it still runs but it does not have DOD. My son didn't change the oil when he first bought the Escalade and one wild ride at night one of the Lifters collapsed. Not a pretty sound. We drained the oil and replaced it with Valvoline Restore and my personal favorite Dura Lube Engine Treatment. I don't remember if we used transmission fluid also but it unstuck and there has been no problems since. OK the flakes are a bad sign and I can't speak for the proper course of action to take regarding them. I have read threads here where there is a serious problem with these DOD lifters. I am not sure anyone even knows at this point what brand to trust. They could have replaced the lifters, and not the trays, with poor quality knock offs. I suspect your flakes could come from there. Having the oil anaylyzed with the particles is an excellent idea to delve deeper into the problem. I would recommend replacing the o ring seal, using a Range Disabler, and adding Dura Lube to the engine. If you baby it you may get by for a while. When I damaged my 07 in 2022 afterwards I replaced the o ring and my son put tons of miles on it anyway. God bless!

I appreciate the comment. And it sounds like you dealt with something similar and kept the engine running for awhile.

The current consensus is that much of the flakes that were seen were some form of carbon that was inside the engine and the combination of oil color and oil additives were making it appear as a gold flake. When I touched a lot of the larger flakes, they would disintegrate. Quite odd really. And when I fully drained the oil, there was not a crazy amount of fleck in the oil to warrant a panic. But I’m also not a mechanic by any means. I also cut open the filter and looked at the pleats and didn’t see really anything.

After the o-ring install, I got another 5psi on a cold start and my cruising 70mph psi went from 22 to between 28-35psi. And my idle psi went up about 3-5psi.

So at the end of the day, I’m going to ride it out because it sounds like a rebuild is more expensive than a donor engine. Probably will do an oil analysis in the future to check on wear metals.

And who knows if the dealer knew about the issues or not. Hard to tell. But apart from an intermittent random slight valve train tick (which got a little better with the new o-ring), she’s still purring and has lots of power with no strange noises. God bless to you as well!

 

[rdezs]

I would stay with genuine GM or AC Delco on both parts. Don't have any experience with the Melling brand on those. But as a general rule, I would say make sure they're both the same brand. I've heard of issues when you mix and match between the two.

I wouldn't worry so much about Melling.... I've never had a problem with their timing sets or push rods. Just avoid the real cheap ones available online sourced from China.

 

[thefrey]

I would stay with genuine GM or AC Delco on both parts. Don't have any experience with the Melling brand on those. But as a general rule, I would say make sure they're both the same brand. I've heard of issues when you mix and match between the two.

I wouldn't worry so much about Melling.... I've never had a problem with their timing sets or push rods. Just avoid the real cheap ones available online sourced from China.

Gotcha. I appreciate it.

Not sure if Melling sells a solenoid so I’ll have to do some research on them

 

[rdezs]

The actuator that threads into the end of the camshaft has no electric solenoid to it, but yeah I know.... Many places listed as a solenoid actuator. Whereas the actual electric solenoid, and electromagnet is what attaches a three bolts to the timing cover. It's possible that when Melling says their kid includes a solenoid/actuator, perhaps it includes both parts? Might be worth a phone call

 

[rdezs]

And that solenoid that attaches to the timing cover, actually presses the little button on the actuator to control the variable valve timing based on what the ECM wants it to do.

 

[rdezs]

As they work in unison, I would definitely want to keep them both the same brand.

The downside to using the aftermarket is if something funky occurs, the first question you'll be asked here is, "did you use genuine GM or AC Delco?"

That really applies 100% to sensors.... And as something as intricate and important as the VVT mechanism, I would lean that way. Hoses, belts, your battery, I don't worry so much about being OEM.

 

[thefrey]

And that solenoid that attaches to the timing cover, actually presses the little button on the actuator to control the variable valve timing based on what the ECM wants it to do.

Gotcha. Yeah I’ll try to figure it out.

Is it necessary to install a new timing cover on? I see some people who do a new cover whenever they take the old one off. Not exactly sure why

 

[rdezs]

I did on the last one I did for the neighbor. That's because they're not expensive, and it saves me the hassle of cleaning it