Suburban 8.1 vs excursion v10
Wondering which of these would be a better tow vehicle? I currently have a 2003 X V10 with 4.30 gears. I tows our 10,500 lb TT just fine. Problem is that three weeks ago it rolled on its side. Th...
Forum Discussion
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Mike,
I have an Ex too. If it was only a couple of minutes, your engine is probably ok. Did the lifters/followers already start to hammer from lack of oil pressure? A short episode is harmless.
One of the first concerns in the distant past has been overhead cams. But I believe the V10 uses roller rocker/followers, not buckets, so that is not critical any more. The crank can take a lot, especially at idle. At high loaded speeds, oil bearing cooling may become important.
My neighbor forgot to put oil back in his mower the previous week once and he mowed his whole lawn before he realised it and filled it. The Briggs and Stratton seemed fine. My buddy's kid once tore a hole in the oil pan on his Ranchero (Cleveland V8) and then drove home, nearly ten miles. That one tended to use a little oil after, but the crank was still quiet. My guess is your pistons had plenty of oil yet anyway... to excess.
I drove my Ex a few blocks to NAPA one recent winter, and left it idle to finish warming up. I was inside for maybe 20 minutes. When I came out there was no oil pressure, I have no idea how long. This was a little different then, since something in my engine obviously already failed.
There is a two piece thrust bearing in the Triton engines that is known to fail from wear and just fall out. Oil pressure plummets. This was a possibility. Or maybe the Delco oil filter that my Chevy quick-change-service-center had some debris in it and plugged a port. Maybe the pressure relief valve just plain stuck wide open after relieving a thick, cold start and leaked away thinner oil pressure when warm. The oil was full and clean as a whistle from the change two weeks earlier. The truck had good pressure and again ran like a dream when I finally restarted it to deliver it for an engine replacement. I'll never know what happened... it cost too much to look.
My first inclination was to pay for dropping the pan and looking inside for the cause before I restarted it at all. Because the cowl is over the top of the engine, the intake, both engine mounts and tranny must be removed to lift the engine high enough to drop the pan. Just that part cost $2k... then plus diagnosis time. Add to that, there was a least one spark plug heli-coil and either another pending or broken exhaust manifold bolts (the popping hiss sounds similar), so I elected for a new engine installed for $8k. That is more than I paid for the truck, but the truck is essentially scrap metal without an engine. A used junkyard engine would have cost $4k to install. A suitable rugged winter replacement vehicle, for the same money, would unlikely feature a new engine. The new engine is substancially quieter, so the old one couldn't have been too great and I knew that from previous comparison to other V-10s. Mine also used some oil in hard towing and unworn V-10's don't usually do that. It had 118K on it, Lord only knows what sort of service.
Now that I may have scared you, if my truck were your truck, I would have trusted your engine much more than mine, especially if it were in good shape prior to tipping.
Good luck.
Wes
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Mike,
I have an Ex too. If it was only a couple of minutes, your engine is probably ok. Did the lifters/followers already start to hammer from lack of oil pressure? A short episode is harmless.
One of the first concerns in the distant past has been overhead cams. But I believe the V10 uses roller rocker/followers, not buckets, so that is not critical any more. The crank can take a lot, especially at idle. At high loaded speeds, oil bearing cooling may become important.
My neighbor forgot to put oil back in his mower the previous week once and he mowed his whole lawn before he realised it and filled it. The Briggs and Stratton seemed fine. My buddy's kid once tore a hole in the oil pan on his Ranchero (Cleveland V8) and then drove home, nearly ten miles. That one tended to use a little oil after, but the crank was still quiet. My guess is your pistons had plenty of oil yet anyway... to excess.
I drove my Ex a few blocks to NAPA one recent winter, and left it idle to finish warming up. I was inside for maybe 20 minutes. When I came out there was no oil pressure, I have no idea how long. This was a little different then, since something in my engine obviously already failed.
There is a two piece thrust bearing in the Triton engines that is known to fail from wear and just fall out. Oil pressure plummets. This was a possibility. Or maybe the Delco oil filter that my Chevy quick-change-service-center had some debris in it and plugged a port. Maybe the pressure relief valve just plain stuck wide open after relieving a thick, cold start and leaked away thinner oil pressure when warm. The oil was full and clean as a whistle from the change two weeks earlier. The truck had good pressure and again ran like a dream when I finally restarted it to deliver it for an engine replacement. I'll never know what happened... it cost too much to look.
My first inclination was to pay for dropping the pan and looking inside for the cause before I restarted it at all. Because the cowl is over the top of the engine, the intake, both engine mounts and tranny must be removed to lift the engine high enough to drop the pan. Just that part cost $2k... then plus diagnosis time. Add to that, there was a least one spark plug heli-coil and either another pending or broken exhaust manifold bolts (the popping hiss sounds similar), so I elected for a new engine installed for $8k. That is more than I paid for the truck, but the truck is essentially scrap metal without an engine. A used junkyard engine would have cost $4k to install. A suitable rugged winter replacement vehicle, for the same money, would unlikely feature a new engine. The new engine is substancially quieter, so the old one couldn't have been too great and I knew that from previous comparison to other V-10s. Mine also used some oil in hard towing and unworn V-10's don't usually do that. It had 118K on it, Lord only knows what sort of service.
Now that I may have scared you, if my truck were your truck, I would have trusted your engine much more than mine, especially if it were in good shape prior to tipping.
Good luck.
Wes
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