5.3 in 05 SIlverado--top end refresh??

[lawdog]

OK, Last summer the water pump went out and I heated this truck up pretty good. I have a bad cloud of smoke when I start the truck after its sat for a while. It doesn't last long, but it looks horrible and smells horrible. Its using some oil. I'm pretty sure I must have a valve seal problem. The truck has about 120,000 miles on it. Wondering if it would be worth it to have the heads pulled and a rebuild done? Valve job, new springs, seals etc. We used to do this to race engines all the time to keep them fresh. Wondering if this is a cost effective repair for this truck. Its paid for, been a decent ride and I don't see me having the cha-ching around to be replacing it anytime real soon...

[Macgyver55]

It depends on how hot it got as to what needs to be done. If it still runs good and only burns oil on startup it could possibly be just a valve seal problem. A compression test would be a good place to start. If the compression is still good and its consistent on all cylinders I'd replace the seals and see if that gets it back to an acceptable level of oil use and cures the smoke on start up.

Its possible to replace the valve seals (and springs if you feel you want them) without removing the heads, and the parts are not very expensive. Even if the valve guides are somewhat loose new seals should make an appreciable difference.

If it were mine, I'd give that a try before pulling the heads.

[harvey lee]

Hey dog, how bout you put one of the kids mod motors in that truck?

Bit more on the power end but mileage could go down.

Upside, you will get where you are going faster.

[lawdog]

Harv I can't hardly afford the gas it uses now, let alone having to burn the good stuff with a mod motor!!!

Mac, how much you think it would cost to just have the valve seals replaced?