SB

I had an oil analysis done by titan checkup and they said that the only problem was the copper content which they gave a B rating- everything else was an A rating or acceptable.

What typically could cause those problems with copper?? I really don't beat on the car too much

My mods are in the sig.

thanks,
steve

2001CamaroGuy

iTrader: (6)

I think that's a heads up on bearings......

StevieZ

iTrader: (3)

Wrong. Main bearings would show high numbers in the lead. Copper can be cam bearings but LS1s are known for high copper #s when doing oil analysis. My copper was 233 ppm in my 1st oil analysis of my new motor at 5K miles.

Patman

Steve is right, LS1s have very high copper, but it's harmless. When the engine is new you'll often see 100 to 200ppm of copper in there for a 3k interval, but if you look at the iron and lead numbers, they don't suffer, so this copper just floats around harmlessly. The levels will come down as the engine gets older, but it typically takes until about 40 or 50k until you'll see the copper numbers come down below 10ppm (in a 3k interval)

In other words, it's nothing to worry about, just concern yourself with the iron and lead numbers.

If you don't mind, could you post the wear numbers here? What oil and viscosity were you running?

BamaJohn

I got high Copper readings on my Blackstone analysis (19,000 miles on the engine, 5000 miles on the oil), and the notes tell me that's normal for large LS1's. I've heard the oil cooler tubing can be one source of elevated copper levels.

Fulton 1

iTrader: (9)

Yup, elevated copper seems normal for semi-low mileage LS1's. I've done three analyses on mine since new (~13k miles now) and all have been over 200ppm on Cu with no other wear metals showing unusual.

Hey, Patman, I thought Terry had a theory on this at one point. Anything ever come of that?

Patman

Terry was trying to figure out exactly where the copper was coming from but I'm not sure if he ever got to the bottom of it or not. He's in Germany right now but when he returns I'll ask him if he ever figured it out or not.

2001CamaroGuy

iTrader: (6)

lead?.....I thought bearings were iron or a alloy of iron with copper coatings over them? Am I confused?




ok...so its not comming from the bearings, but where does all the copper come from?

it just doesn't float into the engine with air......

NHRATA01

iTrader: (10)

I've noticed several cases of people (including myself) having cam bearings showing copper when doing cam installs (I only had 10k miles on the car at the time). I wonder if this is a regular occurance with LS1s, and could perhaps be the source of the high copper levels?

SB

Patman, I was running a combination of 10w30(4 qts) and 15w50 (2qts) of mobil 1 with no discernable extra oil usage.

One thing to note was this was the first oil change since the addition of the heads which was about 2000 miles ago.

steve

Patman

Steve, please post the full report, I'm very interested in seeing how that mixture of Mobil 1 works out, since so many LS1 owners use it, and as of yet nobody has posted oil analysis results on it. I'm especially interested to see what the final viscosity ended up being. And very curious as to the iron, lead and aluminum levels too.

SB

Patman, will do.

steve