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GM oil consumption

WXman

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I’ve been hearing for a long time now that the modern crop of V8 gas engines from GM are notorious for consuming large amounts of engine oil. Then I saw some videos on the 2.7LT I-4 HO gas engine going into the 2023 Colorado and allegedly there are some oil consumption issues with it also. And then last night I stumbled upon a video discussing the rampant issues with oil consumption on the new LZ0 Duramax 3.0L diesel engines. It seems like everything GM makes these days drinks oil as fast as fuel.

As far as why…it seems that they are using low tension piston rings to try and reduce friction and squeeze out another 0.2% more fuel economy on EPA testing. These low tension rings can’t effectively scrape oil off the cylinder walls, and so more oil is escaping into the combustion cycle.

One thing that really bothers me is when I have to carry oil with me so that I can top off every time I fuel up. I’m grateful that my 5.7L Hemi doesn’t have this issue. My 5.0L Coyote in the Mustang doesn’t seem to either. The news of these issues on GM engines is yet another reason I would never buy one (though I swore years ago there’d never be another GM product in my driveway ever again because they are junk). My goodness…these EPA regulations are killing reliability of vehicles.
 

Amazing93

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The 5.3 had oil consumption issues too. I think there were class action lawsuites. I had a 2007 avalanche with the 5.3 and it would go through a quart or more every 3k miles.
 

mikeru82

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The only GM trucks I'd have in my garage would be from 2007 (classic) or earlier. Nothing built after that interests me in the least. I only owned one with the 5.3, which was a 2002 1500 Quadrasteer. Never had an issue with that engine in the 14 years we owned it. I had a couple 1500's and one 2500 with the 6.0, and the only issue I ever saw was a slight coolant leak at the intake manifold gasket on one of them. Removing the intake manifold bolt in the front passenger side corner, coating with RTV, and reinstalling took care of that issue. The older trucks with 5.7's I owned were bullet proof from my experience.
 

Dewey

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I owned 6 brand new Chevy trucks from 1993-2013. None of them ever burned a drop of oil. Guess I got lucky. Maybe that’s more of an issue later.
 

HSKR R/T

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I’ve been hearing for a long time now that the modern crop of V8 gas engines from GM are notorious for consuming large amounts of engine oil. Then I saw some videos on the 2.7LT I-4 HO gas engine going into the 2023 Colorado and allegedly there are some oil consumption issues with it also. And then last night I stumbled upon a video discussing the rampant issues with oil consumption on the new LZ0 Duramax 3.0L diesel engines. It seems like everything GM makes these days drinks oil as fast as fuel.

As far as why…it seems that they are using low tension piston rings to try and reduce friction and squeeze out another 0.2% more fuel economy on EPA testing. These low tension rings can’t effectively scrape oil off the cylinder walls, and so more oil is escaping into the combustion cycle.

One thing that really bothers me is when I have to carry oil with me so that I can top off every time I fuel up. I’m grateful that my 5.7L Hemi doesn’t have this issue. My 5.0L Coyote in the Mustang doesn’t seem to either. The news of these issues on GM engines is yet another reason I would never buy one (though I swore years ago there’d never be another GM product in my driveway ever again because they are junk). My goodness…these EPA regulations are killing reliability of vehicles.
I feel the same way with Fords, and I will never own another one. They are junk. But every manufacturer has issues. The 2.4l tiger shark Dodge uses in the Darts, Jeeps, and Ram Promaster City vans have oil burning problems. There is even a TSB about it and a procedure to test oil consumption. If it fails the test they replace the whole engine. My company uses the ProMaster City's and about half our fleet has had to have engines replaced.
 

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