Hey whats up guys, I just thought I would post up to see if anyone has the similar problem, so here's how it is. We have a new kid at work he just bought a silverado an 04 5.3 about 96,000 miles on it for a couple of months he has been complaining about his truck overheating and missing fluid, no leak noted anywhere so I kept on asking him about the engine oil he said it was good no signs of blown head gasket, He found a small leak on the bottom of radiator driver side, it is the 28" manual fan so we bought a new one and changed it last night, oh also has valvetrain noise as well probably lifter, got done working on last night I decided to check oil and it was about 3-4" high and milky hell I even saw the steam off from it, the service manual says change head not gasket. Is there anything else I could of overlooked or if anyone has had the similar situation let me know, I told him with the miles on the engine I would just swap a low mileage engine in there could be cracked block.

 

Honestly tell him to go get a low mileage 5.3 for $500-1000 and be done. I know money like that aint easy but considering the down time of fixing the problem and the cost involved, he would be better off just swapping the whole thing. At the least the gasket is blown, aluminum heads so the heads is possibly shot. Block is also a possibility.

 

Yeah he decided to change the oil for what ever reason and its nasty again and he used mobil 1 full synthetic!

 

My guess is that he has Castech 706 heads and one or both have a crack. I am going through the same thing right now. MANY others have had this happen. Google "Castech heads". But dont worry, the stealership will take care of you for 3-4k.

I have a thread going about this right now in this forum.

https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...hlight=castech

this is the TSB:
http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/Bl...t_loss_5.3.pdf

and another thread:
http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/inde...d%20head&st=30

 

Thanks for the responses I am pretty sure it is exactly what I thought it was, it sucks for him just bought the truck six months ago he is a brand new Airman just got here and he was going to drive home for Christmas I would have to say I am disapointed in the silverado right now!