NHTSA opens preliminary probe into more than 870,000 GM vehicles

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jfoj

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8 mile, 15 minute drive. Ambient temp was 39F, start up oil temp was 43F probably due to some laten heat in the engine block because the outside temp had dropped. After 8 miles/15 minutes the engine oil had only reached 170F. So maybe some of what I have been saying about short drives and fuel contamination and not cooking off fuel out of the oil may make some sense?

I will have some other decent data in the next few days. Keep in mind the engine coolant temperature typically should hit 100F in the first mile. Guestimating it looks like the engine oil temp did not hit 100F until about mile 3 or 3.5?

Oil Temp From Cold Start 15 minutes 8 miles.jpg
 

jfoj

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As a follow up, this was another portion of the same trip. Almost 8 minutes for the oil temp to go from 185F to 201F! Oil temp still did not match or exceed engine coolant temperature at that point in time. I think the increase from the 170F to 185F was while I was in a drive thru line for some period of time. I killed the Logging because I did not want or need much idle time. Not sure if the stairstepping is accurate or a fucntion of the Logging Sample time, with Temperature often the sample times are not very fast. This should have been sampled at the same rate as the above graph, but the length of time is about 1/2 of the above graph. Not sure it really matters, but I am sure some will have problems with the data?
Engine Oil Temp from 185 to 201.jpg
 
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Antonm

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And none of that matters ,,,, because the issue with the whole warm-up or not to warm-up thing is not about the oil or bearing wear ,,,, its about piston ring wear ,,, and piston ring wear is more affected by coolant temperature than the oil temperature.

There are work trucks and police cars that get literally thousands of idle hours on them every year (including the police Tahoe's) its not the bottom end/ main bearings/ rod bearings in those that cause the engines to get replaced, its that they start smoking and burning oil because the upper compression ring gets worn and the oil control rings gets clogged.

The issue the 6.2 has that opened the NHTSA investigation (remember that, the topic of the thread) revolves around bearing failure, aka , not related to the whole warm-up or not to warm-up thing.

Yes extended warm-up is bad, but it isn't the freaking cause of, or even a contributing factor to, the issue the 6.2 has that's causing the NHTSA investigation.
...
 

jfoj

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23 mnutes, PLUS time not Logged idling in a Drive Thru! The oil went from 170F to 185F during this time.

Maybe my truck needs a new thermostat?? NOT!
 

jfoj

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And none of that matters ,,,, because the issue with the whole warm-up or not to warm-up thing is not about the oil or bearing wear ,,,, its about piston ring wear ,,, and piston ring wear is more affected by coolant temperature than the oil temperature.

There are work trucks and police cars that get literally thousands of idle hours on them every year (including the police Tahoe's) its not the bottom end/ main bearings/ rod bearings in those that cause the engines to get replaced, its that they start smoking and burning oil because the upper compression ring gets worn and the oil control rings gets clogged.

The issue the 6.2 has that opened the NHTSA investigation (remember that, the topic of the thread) revolves around bearing failure, aka , not related to the whole warm-up or not to warm-up thing.

Yes extended warm-up is bad, but it isn't the freaking cause of, or even a contributing factor to, the issue the 6.2 has that's causing the NHTSA investigation.
...
Warming up the engine without driving the vehicle adds to a pretty substantial increase in fuel dilution of the engine oil. Add this to the 0W20 engine oil, the fact that the 6.2l is running the 2 stage oil pump (the 5.3l L84 dropped the 2 stage pump) add in the High Torque/Low RPM operation, Auto Stop/Start, DFM and LSPI and oil consumption where these engines are being run chronically low on oil, this ALL has to do with premature bearing wear. My 6.2l operates about 28 PSI in gear at idle, this is also not with 0W20 oil, this is also not a Summer high temp long drive sitting in Metro rush hour traffic, what do you think the oil pressure might be if 0W20 was being used and was thinned out with fuel, it sure would nto be higher than 28 PSI. Even at 28 PSI, I can hear the front main and #1 rod bearing screaming.

All the fleet idling you are talking about is idling with fully warmed up oil, not part of the concern here, but it could still lead to some fuel dilution of the oil. But most fleets are smart enough they change the oil more frequently than a typical customer driving a daily.

Lets not forget the fact that we have all but abandoned the lifters and camshaft problems at this point. The roller bearings in the lifters are a weak spot when the oil gets thinned out as well. The tiny needle bearings inside the lifter rollers have a lot of loading put on them and the thin oil that is recommended is probaby borderline, fuel contaminated oil, well good luck.

You seem to be missing the POINT again, I am sure others are starting to follow along.

Bearing failures before the first oil change, I have no specific data on these problems, could be a parts or assembly problems, could be the lack of Preminum fuel and people getting too used to the remote start and warming up these vehicles, DFM fully operation and Auto Stop/Start fully operational. Hell has anyone even check the oil level is these engines that failed at under 7500 miles, they might be close to 2 quarts low on oil.

UNDERSTAND we have had a lot of recent complaints and what season are we in now, WINTER. We have had a number of Polar Vortexs hit areas that are not typically hit with the cold temps we have been seeing in much of the US. Some of these owners might have been caught off guard without ice scrapers would just start the truck with the remote and allow the engine to idle for 15-20 minutes, who would not want to get is a warm truck when it is 0F outside. If the ambient temps are 0F, what temp would the oil get up to after a 15 minute no load idle, not very high. Some of the failures happened before the WINTER temps hit, but cold weather is hell on the engine oil in these trucks on a good day.

Pay attention to or at least UNDERSTAND the OIL TEMPERATURE and how far it lags behind the coolant temperature. Forget the COOLANT TEMPERATURE, the coolant will heat up within the first few miles of driving, the oil will be lucky to be 10-15F above the ambient temperature after 3 minutes of starting the truck and driving. Oil temp may barely move if you start the engine and just allow it to idle.

All the bearing failures after the first oil change are not likely faulty components or assembly issues. Oil starvation and/or oil breakdown/fuel dilution, add LSPI and 2 quarts low on contaminated 0W20 which is lucky to be -10W10 by the time the crankcase is loaded with fuel, good luck!

Buy into what you want, cold engines under no load take longer to warm up than an engine that is driven, oil typically takes at 2+ times or longer to get up to a resonable temperature and may even take as long as 15+ minutes to even match the engine coolant temperature.

Go back and read my prediction for the outcome of the NHTSA "investigation", not holding out any hope there will be whole engine replacments, GM will try to pass most of the problem off to how the vehicle was driven and maintained, and in part they would be mostly correct.
 

Antonm

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Warming up the engine without driving the vehicle adds to a pretty substantial increase in fuel dilution of the engine oil. Add this to the 0W20 engine oil, the fact that the 6.2l is running the 2 stage oil pump (the 5.3l L84 dropped the 2 stage pump) add in the High Torque/Low RPM operation, Auto Stop/Start, DFM and LSPI and oil consumption where these engines are being run chronically low on oil, this ALL has to do with premature bearing wear. My 6.2l operates about 28 PSI in gear at idle, this is also not with 0W20 oil, this is also not a Summer high temp long drive sitting in Metro rush hour traffic, what do you think the oil pressure might be if 0W20 was being used and was thinned out with fuel, it sure would nto be higher than 28 PSI. Even at 28 PSI, I can hear the front main and #1 rod bearing screaming.

All the fleet idling you are talking about is idling with fully warmed up oil, not part of the concern here, but it could still lead to some fuel dilution of the oil. But most fleets are smart enough they change the oil more frequently than a typical customer driving a daily.

Lets not forget the fact that we have all but abandoned the lifters and camshaft problems at this point. The roller bearings in the lifters are a weak spot when the oil gets thinned out as well. The tiny needle bearings inside the lifter rollers have a lot of loading put on them and the thin oil that is recommended is probaby borderline, fuel contaminated oil, well good luck.

You seem to be missing the POINT again, I am sure others are starting to follow along.

Bearing failures before the first oil change, I have no specific data on these problems, could be a parts or assembly problems, could be the lack of Preminum fuel and people getting too used to the remote start and warming up these vehicles, DFM fully operation and Auto Stop/Start fully operational. Hell has anyone even check the oil level is these engines that failed at under 7500 miles, they might be close to 2 quarts low on oil.

UNDERSTAND we have had a lot of recent complaints and what season are we in now, WINTER. We have had a number of Polar Vortexs hit areas that are not typically hit with the cold temps we have been seeing in much of the US. Some of these owners might have been caught off guard without ice scrapers would just start the truck with the remote and allow the engine to idle for 15-20 minutes, who would not want to get is a warm truck when it is 0F outside. If the ambient temps are 0F, what temp would the oil get up to after a 15 minute no load idle, not very high. Some of the failures happened before the WINTER temps hit, but cold weather is hell on the engine oil in these trucks on a good day.

Pay attention to or at least UNDERSTAND the OIL TEMPERATURE and how far it lags behind the coolant temperature. Forget the COOLANT TEMPERATURE, the coolant will heat up within the first few miles of driving, the oil will be lucky to be 10-15F above the ambient temperature after 3 minutes of starting the truck and driving. Oil temp may barely move if you start the engine and just allow it to idle.

All the bearing failures after the first oil change are not likely faulty components or assembly issues. Oil starvation and/or oil breakdown/fuel dilution, add LSPI and 2 quarts low on contaminated 0W20 which is lucky to be -10W10 by the time the crankcase is loaded with fuel, good luck!

Buy into what you want, cold engines under no load take longer to warm up than an engine that is driven, oil typically takes at 2+ times or longer to get up to a resonable temperature and may even take as long as 15+ minutes to even match the engine coolant temperature.

Go back and read my prediction for the outcome of the NHTSA "investigation", not holding out any hope there will be whole engine replacments, GM will try to pass most of the problem off to how the vehicle was driven and maintained, and in part they would be mostly correct.

You sure like to type a lot and not really say much.

There are a few grains truth that you're parroting, but you're failing to grasp the orders of magnitude differences.

Excessive warmup is bad, but its not the cause, or a real contributing factor, to the issue of the NHTSA investigation.

Yes, fuel dilution is happening (excessive warm-up absolutely makes that worse), and that is a bad thing, but that's a chronic condition,,, the bearing failure issue that's going on is an acute condition.

What you're saying is like if a doctor was treating a gunshot wound of a smoker that got shot in the chest with 12 ga shotgun, yeah the cigarette smoking didn't help his health much, but maybe the doctor should focus more on the shotgun wound before going off on the dangers of cigarette smoking.

Likewise, GM needs to fix the low oil pressure/ bearing fault issue before going off on fuel dilution. Because while oil fuel dilation is bad, it doesn't cause low milage bearing failures ( go do a oil analysis on pretty much anything carbureted, any old car or tuck, even your lawn mower, I'll bet you'll be astonished by the amount of fuel in the oil).
...
 
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Vladimir2306

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Warming up the engine without driving the vehicle adds to a pretty substantial increase in fuel dilution of the engine oil. Add this to the 0W20 engine oil, the fact that the 6.2l is running the 2 stage oil pump (the 5.3l L84 dropped the 2 stage pump) add in the High Torque/Low RPM operation, Auto Stop/Start, DFM and LSPI and oil consumption where these engines are being run chronically low on oil, this ALL has to do with premature bearing wear. My 6.2l operates about 28 PSI in gear at idle, this is also not with 0W20 oil, this is also not a Summer high temp long drive sitting in Metro rush hour traffic, what do you think the oil pressure might be if 0W20 was being used and was thinned out with fuel, it sure would nto be higher than 28 PSI. Even at 28 PSI, I can hear the front main and #1 rod bearing screaming.

All the fleet idling you are talking about is idling with fully warmed up oil, not part of the concern here, but it could still lead to some fuel dilution of the oil. But most fleets are smart enough they change the oil more frequently than a typical customer driving a daily.

Lets not forget the fact that we have all but abandoned the lifters and camshaft problems at this point. The roller bearings in the lifters are a weak spot when the oil gets thinned out as well. The tiny needle bearings inside the lifter rollers have a lot of loading put on them and the thin oil that is recommended is probaby borderline, fuel contaminated oil, well good luck.

You seem to be missing the POINT again, I am sure others are starting to follow along.

Bearing failures before the first oil change, I have no specific data on these problems, could be a parts or assembly problems, could be the lack of Preminum fuel and people getting too used to the remote start and warming up these vehicles, DFM fully operation and Auto Stop/Start fully operational. Hell has anyone even check the oil level is these engines that failed at under 7500 miles, they might be close to 2 quarts low on oil.

UNDERSTAND we have had a lot of recent complaints and what season are we in now, WINTER. We have had a number of Polar Vortexs hit areas that are not typically hit with the cold temps we have been seeing in much of the US. Some of these owners might have been caught off guard without ice scrapers would just start the truck with the remote and allow the engine to idle for 15-20 minutes, who would not want to get is a warm truck when it is 0F outside. If the ambient temps are 0F, what temp would the oil get up to after a 15 minute no load idle, not very high. Some of the failures happened before the WINTER temps hit, but cold weather is hell on the engine oil in these trucks on a good day.

Pay attention to or at least UNDERSTAND the OIL TEMPERATURE and how far it lags behind the coolant temperature. Forget the COOLANT TEMPERATURE, the coolant will heat up within the first few miles of driving, the oil will be lucky to be 10-15F above the ambient temperature after 3 minutes of starting the truck and driving. Oil temp may barely move if you start the engine and just allow it to idle.

All the bearing failures after the first oil change are not likely faulty components or assembly issues. Oil starvation and/or oil breakdown/fuel dilution, add LSPI and 2 quarts low on contaminated 0W20 which is lucky to be -10W10 by the time the crankcase is loaded with fuel, good luck!

Buy into what you want, cold engines under no load take longer to warm up than an engine that is driven, oil typically takes at 2+ times or longer to get up to a resonable temperature and may even take as long as 15+ minutes to even match the engine coolant temperature.

Go back and read my prediction for the outcome of the NHTSA "investigation", not holding out any hope there will be whole engine replacments, GM will try to pass most of the problem off to how the vehicle was driven and maintained, and in part they would be mostly correct.
You're going the wrong way again. I wrote earlier. Engines come out of the box from the factory with smaller clearances than they should be according to regulations. They jam when cold, when it lies in the box the pistons do not pass without effort. And when you warm up the engine, the gap becomes even smaller, and the liners and crankshaft begin to experience monstrous resistance pushing the pistons in a narrow cylinder.
I showed a video of the engine out of the box. And this is not just one engine. These engines all come from the GM plant. That’s why in our service center the new engine is disassembled and sharpened. The new engine shows no signs of cold running in; when the engine is cold, the pistons jam.
What you write about fuel and idling, yes, all of this wears out the engine, but like any engine work it wears out... but this is not the reason for engine failure at 100-1000 miles.
 

blanchard7684

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I think an accurate analogy for what Jfoj is saying would be:

A guy has a massive heart attack.

Doctor finds

High stress lifestyle or occupation ( load on bearings high)
Smoker ( oil dilution with fuel)
Family history of heart issues ( di engine’s propensity for oil dilution and lspi)
Age ( long oil change intervals)
High cholesterol ( 0w20 )
Other factors like recent surgery, or recent drug issue , change in prescriptions ( two stage oil pump)
Etc etc…
 

Stonefort

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I can’t wrap my head around the idea of not letting the truck warm up before driving it, especially when it’s cold out. My father insisted back in the ‘80s that I always let the car warm up, and that’s what I’ve always done.

I agree. Plus... I am more than willing to accept the wear (if there is any) to not suffer driving my ass in a frozen vehicle for even 10 seconds. Just No.
 

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