jstatham

Hello everyone. I have a 2002 Tahoe 4x4 with 160k miles. I have been fighting an oil leak for about a year. Here is what I have done. I kept seeing oil on the Oil Filter seeping down from the oil cooler block off. I replaced the oil cooler block off gasket and it still leaked. I then used my iphone and recorded a video around the oil pan gasket since you cannot easily see above the oil cooler block off. I then discovered that the oil pan gasket was leaking right above the block off. I replaced it and the oil pan gasket is no longer leaking on the filter. I am now getting oil dripping from the inside starter bolt. I took off the peep hole shield from the transmission but I could not see oil on the fly wheel. Although I did not get a good light and shine up there well. From everything I have read I think my rear main seal or rear engine cover are leaking. I am losing about 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles. I am not really seeing any oil on the driveway but the starter bolt are always wet. The best I can tell it is the rear main and not the intake since I cannot see anything dripping down the block. I am going to do a little more inspecting this weekend but I am losing a lot of oil and want to get this fixed. I drove from Atlanta to Orlando and back and lost a quart. Also on my way home from Orlando the low coolant light came on. I did add coolant last night and did not see any leaks. I did replace water pump around 100k. I did see a tsb about coolant leaking. Any help/comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have some time off near Christmas and want to have everything ready to fix during the break.

73shark

Welcome to the forum.

I suspect that you are burning oil because if you were losing a quart every thousand miles, the undercarriage would be wet also due to the blowback.

jstatham

Is there anything I can do or test to tell if I am burning that much oil. It does not smoke. I am going to check the under carriage tonight.

73shark

A quart/1,000 won't smoke. Does it smoke on start up?

jstatham

I am not sure at startup but I will check it out.
I looked it over lastnight and checked it out the best I could. I took of the plastic plate between the start and tranny as well as thepeep hole at the bottom and did not see oil anywhere on the flywheel. I am suspecting the rear engine cover. I am thinking of removing the starter so Ican get a better look this weekend and see it I can see anything. I also found a TSB 01-06-01-029B on the PCV valve andmine does have the old style because I replaced it last night with the same one. It did not look to oily but I am going to getthe new style and see what happens. I also checked the Fuel Pressure sensor andit looked clean as well. As far as thecoolant I could not see a drop anywhere. I also read a TSB about certain heads were cast wrong and caused it toburn coolant. I also thought aboutputting in some oil dye and see what happens. Any other suggestions? I do agree I am burning it because it is not wet enough underneath to be losing a quart.