97 RedSS

I used to use Mobile 1 10w-30 but for my purpose it was a lil to thin..I would see small fluctuations in oil pressure which I didnt like..I swapped to a thicker oil 10w-40 Castrol and it solved my issues..Patman is correct..Mobile 1 is very thin..

Cody

JZ 97 SS 1500

I've taken a few LT1's apart over the years, and I've noticed that some of the rear bearings tend to get a bit starved for oil. I re-confirmed it when we re-built my 383 that had about 6-7K miles on it. The rear bearings looked a little more worn then the front. I had been using Mobil1 5-30, and it looks like the film strength with these thin oils just isn't enough. I'm going to run 10-40 on my new setup and see how that plays out. I also had the oil holes on the front of the block opened up a little more plus the mains. That is just what I've seen on a few LT1, but take it for what its worth.

Jose

BigJustinZ28

I forgot to mention that , wait until the cars temp gauge is up above 160 before ya start hammering the hell out of it . I think thats another reason my 84 camaro has never been rebuilt internally is because I have always babied it till it was up to a good temp . 190,000 miles on the stock motor with untouched internals and she still runs PERFECT !!!

Patman

Why not take it one step further and go with a 0w30 then? The German made Castrol 0w30 I'm using is going to give you exceptional flow on a cold start when it's cold out, but it's got a thicker viscosity at 100C, and is almost a 40wt oil. In my oil analysis with it, it did not thin out at all either, something which a lot of people think would happen with an oil with such a large spread in the numbers.

I really love this oil, it's working out so incredibly well for me, and in all the cars I've seen oil analysis results with. I've got a 6900 mile sample at the lab right now from my sister's car which is finished up and I will have the results waiting for me in my email when I get home. Her first run with this oil looked great, and I expect similar or better results on the second go round.

JPSartre12

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Patman
[B]Why not take it one step further and go with a 0w30 then? The German made Castrol 0w30 I'm using is going to give you exceptional flow on a cold start when it's cold out, but it's got a thicker viscosity at 100C, and is almost a 40wt oil. In my oil analysis with it, it did not thin out at all either, something which a lot of people think would happen with an oil with such a large spread in the numbers.

Do you know what they use as Viscosity Improvers? Polybutenes?

LPE Z convt

Royal Purple Race#41 10w40.............

ZBLKHELLRZR

Yes my car is here. No such thing a cruisin the autobahn well not for me anyways. Flat out on the unrestricted. Been clocked at over 180mph once too chasing a Rentech 911 turbo.

Thanks for all the replies fellas. More than likely I'll just call ARE back and see what they recommended. But for now I'll stick w/ a 10-30 weight dino oil.

Patman. That oil you are talking about runs 21 bucks a qt here. It's expensive on the local economy to buy oil gas as well. We just stick w/ our aafes supplier for the most part.

Patman

I'm honestly not sure what Castrol 0w30 uses, this oil is very mysterious since Castrol USA won't reveal any details on it other than they get it from Germany.

My guess is that they use very little if any viscosity index improvers, which is why it's viscosity doesn't change very much over the interval. In my 3100 mile run it stayed exactly at 12.2 cst at 100c, and in my sister's most recent 6900 mile run it only went down to 11.9 cst. So it's extremely shear stable, especially for a 0w30! I was very impressed with my sister's wear numbers with this oil too. In 6900 miles she got the following wear numbers:

Iron-15
Lead-2.2
Aluminum-2.1
Copper-1.8
Silicon-11
Chromium-0.6
Nickel-0
Titanium-0
Silver-0.2
Tin-0
Sodium-0
Potassium-0
Boron-5.6
Barium-0
Moly-2.3
Magnesium-153
Calcium-3277
Phosphorus-900
Zinc-979
Manganese-232
Vanadium-0
Fuel-0
Water-0
Glycol-0
Oxidation-0% (has to be lab error)
Nitration-49%
VI-184
Viscosity at 40C-64.1 (virgin is 67.6)
Viscosity at 100C-11.9 (virgin is 12.2)
TBN-6.80 (virgin is 9.39)


Note, early batches of this oil showed up to 9ppm of iron in it already, so it makes the final iron numbers look higher than reality. In the later batch i sent in for virgin analysis, it only showed 3ppm of iron. This can come from rusty pipes in the distribution of the oil. This extra iron doesn't cause further wear though, it just makes the used oil analysis show higher iron.

rskrause

Did you catch him?

Rich Krause

ZBLKHELLRZR

rkrause. I caught him but couldn't pass him. He just had a little too much for me I'm suspecting he was modded slightly above the Rentech job already done to it. But then maybe not and I just flat out lost.

Chris'SS #2152

Me too. I ran 10-30 for break but run 20-50 now. Will drop down to 10-30 for storage becuase of winter but the engine builder recommened my oil weight.