LOCKED UP BIG BLOCK 8.1L Silverado 2500 Vortec 8100 Engine Teardown!

I'd guess oil change but not refilled. On startup no oil to mains but oil in the crank gallery would feed rods for a few seconds. Main bearing debris isn't carried to rest of the engine, stays in mains & grinds them up. Engine locked before residual lube was exhausted.

For all those mentioning...it's got huge displacement and low power because that's good for longevity. Even Ford's new 7.3 godzilla engine makes 300hp/425tq in the heavy truck variant. That's how you get 500k miles out of them.

The oil cooler circuit goes from the oil pump directly out to the cooler, then back to the block before lubing the mains. You can see the oil cooler lines right next to the oil filter. The oil cooler lines have a tendency to suddenly pop leaks at the rubber section between the hard lines and the hard lines at the radiator. It's about 6-10 inches long of rubber for vibration damping betweeen the 2 sections.That vibration can cause the crimps to leak over time. If it was a sudden catastrophic leak it would run all the oil directly out the line and onto the ground, lubing nothing. If it was low rpm the mains would wipe before the rods, and fairly quickly. The centripetal force of the crank rotating would fling oil out to the rods to keep them lubed at lower rpm. Higher rpm oil starvation wipes rods first due to the same reason, flings it out faster and leaves metal to metal. I've replaced a few of the oil cooler lines on 8.1s over the decades and even almost had the catrastrophic failure on my own 8.1 burb. My wife saw it start pouring out within 2 seconds of start and I shut it down. She was walking up from the front door. Luckily after being married to a pro mechanic for 24 years she knows to look for leaks and yell out "kill it!" immediately. Of course it could also be the classic oil change, new filter, forget to fill it up and it died backing out of the shop/garage. You know, the standard lube shop stuff like not putting drain plugs back, putting twice the oil in, forgetting the oil entirely, putting the oil into the transmission, not tightening drain plugs, cold revs to the rev limiter, etc. I get quite a lot of engine replacements and repair jobs from lube shops.

When the crankshaft passages are full of oil and for some reason the engine loses pressure, the centrifugal force of the crank spinning pushes the oil out to the rod journals, so that the mains starve first. Notice the front main, farthest from the oil pump, was the worst bearing, and the rear bearing, the thrust bearing, was the best. Some one ran the engine out of oil and put a new filter with some oil in it (probably used oil by the look of the filter) and put some oil in the pan and tried to start it.

I think it was dry started after oil change. Filter might have been primed or wet from oil that was in the pump.

I hate to say I'm sitting here waiting for this weeks video but I'm sitting here waiting for this weeks video.

The bonus scene explains why Eric is always so chill

The scatter pattern of metal shavings in the oil pan seemed to indicate that the pan was dry when the shavings were scattered around the pan.

Another vehicle that could be powered by this engine is a school bus! I worked as a school bus mechanic back in 2007 and we had a whole fleet of the 8.1L gas motors powering 70 passenger school buses.

Well, that’s the nicest sounding Stock C5 I’ve ever heard

LT Tolman, built a turbo 8.1 from a junkyard motor and swapped it into a GMT800 1/2 ton 2WD. It put down over 1,000 ft lbs at the wheels and a 10.99 1/4 mile. He's building a new 572 out of an industrial block version of the 8.1. He's shooting for 1500hp on that one. I recommend his channel.

Best engine i have ever had.285000 miles .Towed 16000 lbs for over 7 years with only brakes tires and one crank sensor.I wish i had never sold it.😢

Why I like your videos. No long ass intros. Right to Eric and what he is doing. No loud ass music than drowns out life. Only the sounds of a man working and swearing and joking.

Classic : drained the oil, forgot to put more back in.

I had a 2003 2500 Avalanche with one of these. Best truck I’ve ever owned. I’ll never forget pulling a 31’ travel trailer cross country, with a canoe on the truck (I made a special rack to fit the Avalanche), up over the Rockies, AC on, in 100-degree heat, WHILE accelerating uphill! It was amazing!

I've owned my '03 Chevy Silverado 2500HD (1-ton, single rear wheels) since new. I bought the 8.1 as it was offered as an alternative to the Duramax at that time. While the diesel did offer another 65 lb./ft of torque, the 8.1 offered 40 more horsepower. The Duramax was also $5000 more dear. Max tow rating on the truck was actually 300 lbs. less on the diesel because of its added weight. As was comically said at the time, it could pass everything except a gas station! All around unladen driving would net little more than 8 mpg, while cruising down the highway at 60 mph might get you 13-14 mpg on a good day. But what a workhorse! Ours has been used most of the time pulling our 5th wheel trailers, a duty it's never balked at. I do have a little leak from the rear main seal, but other than that it's just been routine maintenance. I understand that a significant percentage of these were used in marine applications.

These big blocks definitely last a long time if you take care of them

Had this engine in a 2500 suburban and absolutely loved it. I regret selling it every day.

Had one in a 2001 2500 Silverado…you’re correct these engines are a beast! Hauled a trailer with my 3 horses and never broke a sweat…

Thankyou Eric for taking the time to enlighten us once again!