Bought the car in 2/01. weather was mild so I was able to drive it in March and 1st part of April. It came of course with Mobil 1 5W30.
April 2001/1,000 mi. first oil change to Mobil 1 10W30
Street driving in April.
May 2001 - topped off oil with rest of oil to 7qts for 2 local AutoX's in May then Regional event at end of May on Saturday, hot day ran hard, noticed oil pressure dropping after runs with hot engine/hot H20/Hot oil. Oil level OK, no consumption problem, probably reduced viscosity. Added 1qt of Mobil 10W30 for 1qt overfill (8qt) to keep pressure up. Sunday Regional event, ran hard and hot, no problems, pressure OK. Monday Ran Solo I at Nelson Ledges Ran hard and hot all day No Problems. mileage just over 4,000
June 2001, Oil change #2, 7 qts Mobil 1 15W50 expecting hot summer competition and driving. Ran hard in June, July, August.
10 local Auto X, 2 Pro Solo events, 1 Regional championship, 2 Solo I events at Glen. 2 long trips for buisness (800 mi) on hot summer days.
September 2001 mileage at just over 7,000 mi, no consumption problems whatsoever. Will not change oil until after National Championships. September 9, will not go to National championships, September 12, mileage 7,400, Oil change #3 to Mobil 1 10W30 for Fall driving and drop in outside temps. September, October, 1st half November, city driving, daily comute, stop and go driving.
November 15, 2001, 10,500 miles, engine broken in, no consunption problems, will add 1/2 qt PTFE to coat engine for Winter storage. Run PTFE for 500 miles
December 1, 2001. Change oil #4 for Winter storage to Mobil1 0W30 and to remove excess PTFE. 11,000 miles. Up on blocks for Winter storage. Pre heat car, then run car once a week for 5 minutes at idle then F1 warm up procedure, H20 temp over 170 then 5 minutes at 4,000 RPM with fan and open hood, fans off then F1 shut down procedure to burn off excess fuel in cylinders.
February 1 2002, will change to Mobil1 15W50 for Evo School, ProSolo opener and National Tour Opener in mid February in Florida.
Not anal at all.
I like the looks of my Corvette; I wash it a lot, I keep it in a garage, I use a car cover. I look at an oil change as washing the inside. I like the looks of a clean engine on the outside as well as the inside. If I didn't use the car for competition I probably would not change the oil quite as much.
I bleed my brakes before and after each event. Anal? I don't think so. It keeps me off the ARMCO!!
I decided to tear down and rebuild my '90 Callaway. 11 years old, 110,000 miles, cylinder leak downs were as tight as the day I bought it, valve train and bearings showed minimal wear. I will use the same program on the Z06.
BTW my '88 Astro has 210,000 miles on it.
NOTE: I am running a Moroso Race Oil Filter which allows a higher oil flow rate but requires more frequent changing every 3,000 miles. If not I would probably stretch the Mobil1 to 4,000 - 5,000 mile intervals. This filter does not offer the resistance that a Mobil Synthetic or UPF44 Gold Filter would.
I do not use any commercial PTFE crap like Slick50, Pro Long or Dura Lube. My cousin who is a Polymer Chemist (ex Pennzoil and Quaker State) makes the special PTFE treatment for me. He also supplies this to our second cousin in England who uses it in his F1 program.
The F1 warm up for storage or dissuse is:
NOTE: Check all fluid levels BEFORE start up
1. idle for 1-5 minutes until H20 AND oil temps come up to 100 degrees
2. then "blipping" the RPM from idle to 3,000 RPM until the H20 is over 170 degrees.
3. Then a constant 3,000 to 4,000 RPM run to get oil temps up to and over 200 degrees for 5 minutes. It is critical that the oil reaches this temp and stays there for 5 minutes or more whether or not the oil is conventional or synthetic.
4. Fans should be used if the H20 temps climb during this part of the procedure.
5. Follow shut down Procedure.
F1 Shut down procedure (prevents shock cooling)
If oil pressure is nominal:
1. Idle for 1 minute or until H20 temps begin to fall
2. Fans OFF
3. Quickly rev engine from idle to max RPM in 1000 RPM intervals.
ie. Idle-1,000-I-2,000-I-3,000-I-4,000-I-5,000-I-6,000
4. Last 2 "throttle blips" should take RPM to max RPM and ignition OFF at last PEAK RPM.
5. Let engine cool naturally. DO NOT externally cool engine. Make sure Fans and Facility AC OFF.
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I always go by the owner's manual.
The GM part number for the UPF44 Ultraguard Oil Filter is 25329389, and if you want to change over to a magnetic oil drain pan plug, the GM p.n. is 88891787.
Sorry DJ, that's anal! Like I have said, I have had a lot of cars, I changed oil around 3000 miles for non synthetic oil and well over 5000 miles for synthetic oil. Always run the same viscosity all year round. Never had an engine failure, except my drag cars. This is my 6th C5, never had an oil consumption problem except for my vega before I put a 454 in it. To each his own though.
After reading your edited short story, I'm sorry to say that if you don't consider THAT anal, I sure would like to know what anal means to you. I've owned many many cars in my lifetime and have treated them all with love and respect. I've never owned a car with mega-miles on the odometer, my current Camry clocks in at 185,000 and runs like the day I brought it home, so I can't comment on your F1 warm up and F1 cool down procedures and how they relate to engine performance and longevity. I'll bet you a nickel that those F1 procedures have absolutely NO bearing on the way your small block perceives or reacts to how it was put to rest for the winter months.
I too rely on the General as far as maintenance procedures go with respect to my Corvettes. He has been building them longer than I've owned them and, his scientists, designers and engineers probably have a good handle on the required procedures for maintaining them. No, I don't race them in sanctioned events, so again I am loath to comment on that aspect of ownership. However, I would speculate that using 4 different viscosities, ranging from 0 to 50, a specially, personally formulated concoction of PTFE, in conjunction with and in addition to, Mobil Oil's best lubricant ever IS ANAL!
DJ, I don't want to get into a long winded argument here. I salute you and respect your right to do as you see fit with your vehicles. I also respect you for investing the time and effort into doing what you believe to be the best for your cars. I have no argument with that. My point is that FOR ME it sure seems like a lot of wasted time, effort and money. I just can't bring myself to believe that all of what you do is in any way beneficial in the ownership and maintenance of an assembly line production vehicle. The end just doesn't seem to justify the means.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. Please don't perceive any of this as a personal attack. It's not. Would you at least say that you are a little anal...just a little tiny bit...huh...would ya
Keep up the good work. Drive safe and best of luck with your racing endeavors.
.... that I also check the oil use monitor and if you run the car like I do in the summer; hard and hot on the track and in auto X events at the Pro and national level and drive it on the street in stop and go driving the "Change OIL" light will come on at about 3,500 miles.
Again the reason I went to the 15W50 in the summer was because of the hot and hard competition. The 10W30 was loosing pressure when hot. I had to overfill to 8 qts. with the 10W30 to keep the pressure up. This was OK on flat AutoX courses but when I got into some long sweeping and banked high speed turns I was afraid at what might happen in the overfill condition.
It is well documented that the reason the LS-6 block is pressure relieved with windows in the bottom of the cylinder skirts and has an up dated PCV valve is because of the experiences of the LS-1's in those situations. They were turning into hand grenades and blowing holes out of the side of the block near #7 & #8 While in high speed high banked turns while being high revved. The engines weren't coming apart they were actually being blown apart when the oil got trapped below the descending piston and had no where to go! I didn't really want to experience this. I felt it was much cheaper to switch to the 15W50 for the racing conditions and run the level at 7qts. Besides I was sure I was loosing HP due to windage in the overfill with 10W30.
Then what do you do in September when the weather gets colder, you have 3,400 miles on the oil, its been raced hard and hot and the Change Oil lite flickers. Since your not going to race until next Spring ypou change the oil back to the 10W30. No need to run the 15W50 now. in fact it may be harmful in a cold startup on a 34 degree morning.
That's not anal, its just logical and a learned response.
Even if it is anal what would you think the dealer would say when I brought the car in on a race trailer with a hole in the side of the block.
"No way we're going to fix that under warranty! TSK TSK You probably should have been more anal about your oil."
In all fairness if I wasn't competing with the car I would go the 5,000 between oil changes and stick with one weight, and I'm sure the "Change Oil" light wouldn't be telling me to do so.
It's funny, before Mobil went with synthetic and every other producer followed suit; anybody who used Amsoil synthetic in the 60's and 70's was anal and radical. Except of course those racers that used Redline, they were just smart!
A quote from API: I asked where to do research on the viscosity question and some of the claims and comments I've seen here.
"I'm not sure where to direct you. You are correct that 5W-30 oils provide better pumpability at low temperatures. Since most engine wear occurs at start-up, an oil that gets to moving parts faster in cold temperatures would provide better protection. At operating temperatures, the 5W-30 provides the same protection as the 10W-30.
The real question here is why are Corvette owners willing to risk a warranty violation using 10W-30 oils. I suspect most use 10W 30 because it's close to the 10W-40 their fathers used."
BTW, I've heard 0-50 is coming. Also heard of some new Fords calling for 5-20???
I worked for Valvoline in the early '70's (clerical). This subject was alive then and will probably never die. It's called product differentiation.
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02 TR/Blk Z06, '04 shocks, CAGS Defeat, JETTCO Cup Holder
Support our troops; bring them home.
The real question here is why are Corvette owners willing to risk a warranty violation using 10W-30 oils. I suspect most use 10W 30 because it's close to the 10W-40 their fathers used."
There is no warranty violation. In the warm climes (Texas asphalt gets mighty hot) you have less additives to break down with 10W-30. The Smog Gestapo are are the ones who want you to use 5W-30 or 5W-20 (Ford).
...in that 10W30 IS NOT a "warranty violation". The General advises the use of 5W30 but 10W30 is also listed as acceptable. I would venture to say that, if the statement that 5W and 10W provide the same protection at operating temperatures, 10W would be the viscosity of choice as it contains less viscosity enhancers.
<shrug>...to paraphrase ROSSO Z, the debate will rage on and on and on:o
This question just begs to be asked, and I don't mean to offend DJ, but where do you think all the oil in a Chevy engine is at high RPM. Ever since the small block Chevy came out it has always put the oil up into the top of the engine at high RPM. I would suspect that the LS1 and LS6 do the same thing.
The PCV was placed in the V to get it away from the valve cover area where the oil has a tendency to pool at high RPM and high lateral "G" loads. If the LS1 engine was blowing on long sweeping turns at high RPM I would suspect either sudden loss of oil pressure to bearings due to foaming of the oil from crankshaft whipping or the high volume of air being displaced by the piston downtravel at high RPM. Either way, I find it difficult to think all that oil was stagnant in the lower block area ready to produce hyrostatic damage.
Just MHO, everybody has one.
I have to really imagine hard that there is really enough viscosity enhancer difference between 5W-30 and 10W-30 to make a major difference between oil changes ... mostly if your changing oil well before the oil life monitor tells you too. Remember that GM supposedly designed the oil life monitor to tell you when the oil is degraged fully. Its algorithms base the oil life degrade rate based on oil temp and engine RPMs. Most people change the oil way before the oil life monitor tells them to. I've determined that you would have to basically drive the Zee like a race car 90% of the time for the oil life monitor to say "0% Life Remaining" at about 2500~3000 miles. So, apparently the Mobil 1 survives alot better than normal oil anyway.
Looking in the 2002 Owner's Manual (page 6-14), the chart recommends 5W-30 for basically any ambient temp range, and 10W-30 for amb temps above 0 deg F. Those are the only two oil viscosities the OM recommends.
If indeed the 10W-30 did have better "viscosity breakdown" resistance, then that seems to be the only advantage of using it. At engine operating temps, the 5W-30 and 10W-30 will have the same viscosity.
To me, it seems to make more sense to run 5W-30 because it provides a little better cold startup protection because it will pump easier when the engine is started cold ... mostly in cold weather near 0 deg F or below. Supposedly, the LS1/LS6 engines are setup with pretty tight tolerances on all engine parts, so thinner cold oil will help lube these tighter parts better.
__________________ I don't need no stinkin' signature !!
since my new z has 900 miles on it...and i'm in SoCal....i LOVE reading this.....(and trying to decide what oil/filter to use when i change it this upcoming week
thanks for all the posts guys...keep those opinions coming!!!
To each his own though.
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