JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

Yesterday morning I drove a 1/2 mile to have my oil changed at a Mobil1 Lube Express. I provided my own 6qts of oil & filter. When done, they show me the level on the dipstick, approximately 3/8" over the top of the has. Pretty normal.

Later the same day I drive a total of 4 hours, with about 15 minutes split between two sessions of a practice road course. Checked the oil level multiple times this morning and now it's slightly above the 'Operating Range' phrase on the stick. That's about 2" too high.

WTH? Was the oil not thin enough to completely drain yesterday? Did they not let it drain long enough? Is there a mechanical issue giving a false reading?

The LS3 motor is obviously using a LS1 pan to fit my '98 Z28.

crainholio

iTrader: (2)

Pull the dipstick and smell the oil. Gasoline odor?

It's possible that the oil they filled with hadn't completely drained from the head and lifter gallery into the pan at the time they pulled the dipstick and showed you the level, but the diff you saw seems higher than I'd expect.

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

I think it smells a bit like fuel, but what the concentration would be I don't know. I guess I could try to light the oil on the dipstick with a match Oh, I changed the EVAP solenoid and tube going to the TB the night before the oil change, in case that could be related?

crainholio

iTrader: (2)

If there is any gasoline smell at all, it's too much.

I've seen one case where an injector was shorted at the driver wire, causing it to be open full-time. This washed the cylinder wall w/ gas, which seeped past the rings and into the crankcase.

edit to add: the engine ran surprisingly well despite this, the owner didn't notice the poor performance until it was corrected.

$6 noid light from the parts store would give you a good means of ruling that out, just connect it to each injector connector and start the engine.

Or just whip out your Ohm-meter and probe each connector's driver wire to ground...if you get infinity you found your culprit.

Once that's ruled out, time to lift the fuel rail w/ the injectors still seated and turn the key to RUN so the fuel pump will pressurize the rail. Any dribbles or sprays from the injectors is a sign of trouble.

A scan tool might give you an indication as well...compare LTFTs between the two banks and look for significant (>10%) variation.

Silver408z

iTrader: (1)

If you are smelling fuel then you might have a injector leaking and the fuel going by the rings into the oil. This thins the oil and keeps it from protecting bearings.

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

I think I may have an answer for this. I installed an Improved Racing oil pan baffle when the LS3 was built. The owner of IR happened to be at the same event, and I've been chatting with him about their oil cooling adapter and the oil level. He sent me this today:

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As far as the oil level, you brought up a good point. It takes a lot longer to drain the oil with our baffle installed. You should let it drain for about 20 minutes, until oil stops dripping out. Otherwise, there will still be some oil trapped inside the baffle. Maybe this is what happened with your last oil change. You may have ended up with around 7 or more quarts in there. That said, it is a good idea to overfill the sump by as much as 1 quart when you’re tracking your car, however. Also, when you have too much oil, you will typically see some blue smoke coming out of your exhaust as that excess oil gets burned off. I never saw any smoke coming from your car at the Gainesville road course, so even though you may have overfilled the sump, it was probably okay.
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This being the first time I was made aware of the slow drain with the baffle, I'm sure Mobile Lube Express didn't let it drain for 20 minutes before refilling it. I have some Redline 10W40 coming for my next oil change, I'll need to make sure I get all the old oil out this time. I'm not against changing my own oil, it's just tedious with only 3" of ground clearance at home.

LS1Z28-00

iTrader: (8)

ya id suggest changing it yourself, not sure why you would only have 3 inch of clearance to change it. What i do now to lift my car easily is buy some of those plastic ramps you just drive up on at autozone for like $30. That give you plenty of room to get under the car and you dont have to worry about supporting it with jackstands, just scotch the tire and your good to go.

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

The car is lowered. 3" clearance to the lowest point on the vehicle - the ARH collectors. Front factory ground effects have 5.5" of ground clearance. The ramps I find locally are too steep, hitting the ground effects before the tire touches the ramp. So to do anything under the front end I end up driving up on 2x4's, using the jack on the k-member, then use jackstands to support the vehicle. I'm also in an apartment so I need to be careful about making a mess in the parking lot but that didn't prevent me from replacing head gaskets one weekend years back. Don't have the space to build/store 2x10 custom wood ramps.

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

I think I like these for just changing tires:
http://www.raceramps.com/trak-jax.aspx

I don't see anything else at that site which seems to work without having a long extender which will clear the ground effects and getting the car high enough to drain the oil without using a jack. The long extender gets in the way for doing things from the side of the vehicle. The 2-piece ramp might work if the incline was lower, but it's costly.