Well I am close to my first oil change. I used Royal Purple 10w30 and it seems that I am now about a quart low. Is this normal for a motor with 38,000? Also how many of you guys wait for the change oil light?

 

93.000 miles on my ls1 and it doesnt use any between oil changes, mobil one and castrol syntec used since new

 

I have 17,000 on my terribly loud piston slapping motor and use about 1qt M1 10-30.

 

guess i got lucky with mine, no oil usage and no piston slap and my miles are getting up there and this car runs strong

 

OK, well the weird thing is that it still reads the normal operating range but as far as the level. But it is only on half the stick. Oh well I am sure it's normal. Do you wait for the change oil light? I have no piston slap either.

 

If I was using $8 a qt oil I darn sure would. I change every 3k with Mobil 1

 

You really shouldn't depend on the oil life monitor to alert you to change the oil. 3,000 miles is the norm for a car's engine oil to be changed. Sometimes people wait until 5,000 or 7,000, but 3,000 is usually when oil is dirty. After you change your oil, put the key in the ignition and turn it to the "run" position without starting it and hold down the trip odometer reset button until the orange oil change light flashes twice. After this occurs the computer reads 100% oil life and system is reset.

In my opinion, I think the oil life monitor is a dummy gauge to alert people who don't change their own oil that it's time to have it changed.

 

There's too much heat in the topic of oil change intervals.

I personally agree with people like psychocabbage that say you can easily go 7K without a change. The basis for this is basically: oil is better engineered than it used to. It's lubricant ability is great, so just because it's "dirty" doesn't mean it doesn't do it's job. And on a side note, certain BMWs can go 15K on a single change. It's not just in the oil, but also in the engineering of the engine.

With that said, I change mine every 5K. Recently I've been having a consumption problem though. I'm adding about 2 qts between changes This is even more reason for me to go 5K, since I'm constantly adding fresh fluid. BTW, I use Mobil 1.

 

How hard is it to paint those side slots on the fender? Do you have to take them out? Your car looks sweet!

 

Well I thought my car burned about 1-1.5 quarts every 3k, but it turns out that's not the case. Before I used to check it right after I shut the engine off like I did with my other cars I had. The last 2 times I've checked it, I've waited about 5 minutes before checking it. The level was full. So for this 3k oil interval, I haven't actually burned any, and I use Mobil 1 0W40. I don't know why these engines are like this. Maybe it's because of the shape of the oil pan which is alot different than Gen I and II smallblocks.

Jason

 

I'm pretty shure they sell inserts for those. How do you guys detrmine hoe much oil you use?? I drain the filter and oil pan into a large drain pan then use my old 5qt jug of M1 to use as a measuring gauge to see roughly how much oil came out vs what I put in.

 

Yeah, you definately want to take them out. It's a piece of cake, so no worries. Just get a little hook-tool of some sort and pop them out. Then make sure they're nice and clean and spray them with 2-3 coats of whatever color you want.

And thanks

 

Cool man, thanks!

 

for 25,000 miles now having 55,000 on a '98 Z28 I have used ONLY M1 5w30 and never once added a drop of oil between each 3000 mile interval change. am I the only one who uses 5w30 as per GM specifications? I thought this was important to use only 5w30 only. No piston slap ever on my '98 Z and I do know what it sounds like cause my 5.3L silverado has it somethin fierce...

 

[QUOTE=cdmelcher]for 25,000 miles now having 55,000 on a '98 Z28 I have used ONLY M1 5w30 and never once added a drop of oil between each 3000 mile interval change. am I the only one who uses 5w30 as per GM specifications/QUOTE]

i used to use 5w30 and had oil consumption issues, as well. i started lurking over at http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ and did a bit of research there. from used oil analysis, it seems that the ls1 likes a bit thicker oil than 5w30 or even 10w30 m1. the general opinion is that the german castrol syntec 0w30 and the mobil 0w40 do best in the ls1. i changed to the german castrol and haven't had any oil consumption since. oh, and i use a k&n oil filter and change the oil when the oil light tells me to, which is usually between 5k and 6k miles.