Truck Engine Thread: Cylinder Deactivation, Start/Stop, Direct Injection

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Mike Mercury

direct injection has changed things; low rpm torque can now be achieved without needing 6, 8, cylinders. Now... talking daily drivers here and not racing.

Here is the engineer covering this 2.7:

https://youtu.be/JLxeBzrhOHQ

skip to 8:15 for internal details.

I plan on ordering a 2024 Canyon Denali (which will have this engine at the 310hp 430lb/ft level) and I have no fears.

This is true. But we'll see if this is running in 20 years when my now 62 year old Corvette will still be. New cars are appliances. The more complex, the less fixable. They will run 100-400,000 miles and then they are a throw-away, like a TV set or microwave.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by GTOguy

I used to have to 'fix' those. The fix was eliminating the feature and returning it to a full time V8. That didn't help those cars much, though, as they were crap, just like every Cadillac built after 1979.

Heard a guy on the radio the other day complaining about the starter failing on his new 'start/stop' car and how it was $$$ to have replaced. Said he is in a stop and go commute and his starter has to start the car over a hundred times each way to work. Can you imagine? His starter gets more wear and tear in a single day than mine does in 2 years of driving. Like ethanol fuel and wind power, and EV's, it's a big lie that can't be supported by facts and physics.

An old friend of mine was a mechanic at Lindsay Cadillac in Alexandria, VA. Every once in a while I would go down there to have lunch with him. We would grab one of the Caddy's sitting around and we would flog it to and from the restaurant. He hated Cadillacs with an unholy passion. This would have been around '86 to '89. He drove a '69 Chevelle with a four speed - which was smart. No computers, no gimmicks, no bullshit.

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Tikiman

An old friend of mine was a mechanic at Lindsay Cadillac in Alexandria, VA. Every once in a while I would go down there to have lunch with him. We would grab one of the Caddy's sitting around and we would flog it to and from the restaurant. He hated Cadillacs with an unholy passion. This would have been around '86 to '89. He drove a '69 Chevelle with a four speed - which was smart. No computers, no gimmicks, no bullshit.

In 1985 4 of us took my inherited 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 from the SF Bay Area to the Grand Canyon and beyond. My dad had bought the car used in 1966 with about 10k miles on it. 352 4v, AC, 3:00 rear gear, Cruise-O-Matic. Car was anvil reliable. On the way to Las Vegas, in the July heat through the Mojave Desert, we cruised at 80 mph in tomb-like silence with the windows up and the Select-Aire AC blowing ice cubes. We must have passed 3 1984-85 of the front drive Cadillac DeVille's with the 4100 V8's on the side of the road with their hoods up, with blown head gaskets and intakes. Those cars had a sticker on the core support to use GM stop leak pellets at each coolant change, and were equpped with stop leak in their factory fill. Seriously. Blowing by them in a 21 year old car at speed and in comfort. I remember working on those Caddys in that era....transverse aluminum-based v8's that had a water pump the size of Texas that always went out and intake and head gasket issues always. Terrible cars.

[MidLifeinMI]

A friend bought a 2.7L EcoBoost F150, and planned to use it to tow a smallish (4.5K lb) camper. Since I was towing a slightly bigger trailer with my 5.0L (N/A with auto start/stop, yay), I was a bit skeptical and questioned him on it. After insisting his 2.7L was "fine" for his camper, he quietly traded the EB F150 for a 3/4 ton GMC a few months later.

[Torqaholic]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

I assume that plugs into the OBDII port like a tuner? Does it stay in place, or do you plug it in, it does it's work, then you remove it?

Stays in place on my 2012 Silverado. It's nice, the blue lights brighten up the floorboard so if I drop something in the dark it's easy to find. The light isn't distracting, you'd have to imitate a pretzel to see them while driving.

My kid clued me in on this thing shortly after I bought the truck. Don't know if it's true but he said the deactivation causes lubrication problems for the dead cylinders. Ta hell with that noise. Cost back then was a tad more than $100. Compared to a trashed engine that's small potatoes.

Few years ago I read GM downloaded a software update through satellite reception and that screwed these modules up. Heard the company was patching the module through mail returns to get it working properly. Haven't noticed any performance problem with mine but then I don't do OnStar. It's got less than 21K miles and the check engine light has been on since about the time GM updated that software. May be related? Don't know but as long as everything continues to work as intended WGAF.