2002Z28Camaro

iTrader: (2)

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...MzMDAwLW9pbA--

needadvice

Changing oil every 3,000 in a regular family type car, not a modded stroker engine or street/strip type engine, is a waste of time, money and oil these days with the new cars. 7,000 miles is all you need to do, 10,000 is ok too.

Weezzer

I have my used oil analyzed by Blackstone, the analysis results are so good they've had me push my change intervals to 6500 miles.

SS101

iTrader: (2)

with regular mineral oil: 3000-4000 miles
sythetic/mineral blend: 5000-7000 miles
full sythetic: 8000-10,000

...

generally

yeller_xtc

iTrader: (7)

i notice after 3000 i have to add a half quart...i use mobil1 5w30 full sythetic..

2002_Z28_Six_Speed

iTrader: (19)

TRUE. 3000 miles is a service limit for vehicles that see fleet use. It says that right in the owners manual. How many cars actually sit in traffic 90% of the time though? Taxis, Cop cars, ect. They are why the 3K rule formed. To cover GM's ***.

I wouldn't change my oil until 8K due to my highway driving. What is the point of 3K oil changes if you don't see the same use the feet vehicles see?

Slvr00Bird

iTrader: (2)

When I change my oil at around 3k and it's black, I think that's enough to tell me to keep changing it at 3k..

Weezzer

"i use mobil1 5w30 full sythetic.. "

Thats why you loose half a quart, its not very good oil for an LS1.

VetteMan

That is the only reason I change my oil every 3000.

cool whip

iTrader: (1)

The oil in my truck is still bright and clean at 3,000 miles. A lot people who get their oil changed by someone else may not even realize they're dumping out good oil.

myk

iTrader: (4)

Exactly. At 3,000 miles, oil should be clean anyway. If it isn't, there's a problem somewhere...

SladeX

"dirty oil" is not a good guage to determine the quality of the oil. Test it and know for sure. It's also subjective, dirty can be black as night or can mean brown to some people over the normal golden color.

Mine has come out fairly dirty at 6k, but oil analysis has shown it was still doing it's job and could probably last to 8k with no issues. Unless you are testing, 3k is really too soon for most engines made in the last generation provided they are in sound mechanical order. Wasteful to change oil that soon unless it's 3k of intense hard high rpm driving...

chase3

iTrader: (1)

fully synthetic here and i dont see a reason to change it every 3k..i will go 7-10k EASY...fully synthetic is way to damn expensive to be changing every 3k unless u absolutely had to...i just add oil if needed through those miles..

chase3

iTrader: (1)

why would this not be a good oil for a LS1???

2001WS6Vert

I change all my cars at 3000 miles (2 with synthetic). The color is mostly gone and pretty damn dirty. I don't disagree that you can go longer but I like to keep some gold color.

ae13291

iTrader: (8)

lmao i dont think i should run my mobil 1 5w30 in the motor for more then 2,000 miles! oil breaks down and changes color, i dont understand how people run till 10,000 miles

Weezzer

Good question. This is my opinion, and you should research it. A good place to start is:
bobistheoilguy.com
You can find many examples of UOA (used oil analysis) on the LS1 engines there. You can also find the oil guru Patman and ask his opinion. Ask others about patman, he is the oil man.

That being said, lets start from the beginning. The original (i'll explain the term "original" in a moment) Mobil 1 synthetic was a full synthetic. Problem was it was barely a 30 weight. After a few thousand miles it would shear down into the 20 weight. When I first got my CETA this was all I used. I've had every oil change analyized and the mobil always came back terrible. I kept decreasing the mileage and decreasing the mileage and the last batch I dumped out at 1600 miles because my readings were so bad, and Blackstone Labs told me: "Congrats, you've finally found the best OCI (oil change interval) for this oil.

From then on I used GC 0W-30, my first analysis of the GC was 5000 miles and it had a better report than the report for the 1600 mile Mobile. GC is almost a 40 weight and very good.
A few years ago Congress changed a law and lowered the standards for oil that could be called fully synthetic. Mobil changed their formula almost from the get go. Now the 15000 mile long life oil they sell is what the regular formula Mobil one used to be. Its just not that good of an oil, and its no longer fully synthetic. Do some research, don't take my word for it. All I know is I am still using GC, still taking oil samples and having them tested, and Blackstone has me at 6500 mile oil changes with excellent results.

Hope this helps...

chase3

iTrader: (1)

thanks for the help...whats GC oil though???

Formula413

iTrader: (1)

German Castrol - Castrol Syntec 0W30 weight oil that is labeled "Made In Germany" on the back of the bottle.

And yes, the 3,000 mile oil change interval is a myth.

GXPPOWER

you also cannot go off the oil being black. if your enginer is just gunked up and such including the oil pan then you need to so a hardcore seafoam and such also. i noticed instantly my oil stayed cleaner more green 0w30 castrol ofcourse alot longer after i seafoamed it and poor about half the bottle in the crankcase and let it eat up some gunk before an oil change.

i mean mobil 1 has the 15k mile oil.... there is no difference in it and the normal 5w30. so that should tell you how often you actually need to change your oil.