How many miles do you guys put on your F-body between oil changes?

My Oil Change light came on this morning. It's been 3700 miles since the last oil change. I checked my oil and the the dipstick indicates the level is at about halfway. I'm currently running Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic 5W-30. I read that the oil change unit can't exactly detect oil quality, but runs on some sort of formula involving turns of the crankshaft.

Should I bother to even change the oil? Or should I just add another quart and call it a day? 3700 miles seems like such an awfully short period to have to change it, but at the same time I don't want to neglect it either assuming it really needs to be changed


(I don't drive my car hard either, just the occasional WOT, but city driving for the most part. Car in question is 2001 Z28)

 

Every 2,500 miles. Oil changes are too cheap not to.

Thats how you get a fully built stroker engine to last 173,000 miles......Keep it clean, its not about the brand or about synthetic vs conventional.

Oh, and I have never even considered using synthetic oil....Conventional off-the-shelf Castrol GTX cheap stuff. Its all these engines need. Synthetic oils do absolutely nothing that conventional oil can't do. And I have 50 friends with built motors since 1998 when I bought my WS6......nobody has yet to come close to 173,000 miles with a fully built, big power engine...they all use synthetic oils. Waste of money.

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Would it be bad for me to go from synthetic back to conventional?

 

Do you care about your car and do you want to hold on to your car? Also, do you want to save yourself the cost to put new head gaskets on your car, or if bad enough, the cost to rebuild or install a re-manufactured motor into your car?

I was duped into falling for the one-year oil change interval with synthetic motor oil. I would change my oil and it was black as black could be, but I was not the wiser because I didn't know any better. Well, between a faulty water pump, a cracked radiator, a very bad winter storm, and poor oil change maintenance on my factory LT1, my Trans Am was in rough shape come the spring with oil seeping out of every area on her motor, and dangerously low oil pressure. I couldn't find anyone willing to rebuild my motor if it just needed new gaskets, so I was forced to go the re-manufactured route.

The point of my story is, the motor they pulled out was dirty inside! I also learned that oil becomes more acidic and slowly eats away at gaskets the longer it goes unchanged. This is why they recommend 3-month to 3,000 mile oil change intervals, because otherwise the combination of unburned gasoline and emissions that mix with the oil change the chemistry and make it more acidic and corrosive to the motor gaskets. The master mechanic at the shop pointed that out to me and he wanted to know how often I changed the oil. He said part of the reason for why my motor suffered from all the oil leaks was due to my poor oil change maintenance. Had I not been so cheap with the oil changes, I might have saved myself a lot of money and problems by still driving with my factory block.

After this education I received, I have been **** on my car's maintenance, I change my oil every three months and I use the same high-quality motor oil for one-year intervals, but I change it every three months.

 

No, it shouldn't hurt anything. However, make sure you change your motor oil every 3-months or 3,000 miles, whichever comes first!

 

I have changed mine every 3,000 miles and with 314,000 miles she still idles at 30 psi and 60 on the highway (oil pressure.) Take care of your engine, and she'll take care of you!!

 

There's lots of science, hundreds of thousands of miles of testing, and hoards of engineers, behind the oil change light. I would trust this much more than random information off the internet or marketing guidelines barfed out at us by dealers.

Here's an article that explains more about it and what it does - http://machinerylubrication.com/Read...-of-oil-change

In a nutshell, from GM's experience and testing, when your oil change light goes off - you have reached a point where your operating conditions have likely started to break your oil down. Now is the time to do an oil change.

 

Absolutely.....go back and you will not regret it. Listen to Pheonix'97....he gets it man. The only thing anyone can do to these regular, nothing special, Chevy V8 engines is keep the oil clean.

Now, if you have someone like Alan Futral build you a purpose built, full rave engine, with crazy tight tolerances....then yes, you may require a certain type of synthetic oil.

Problem is: Everyone thinks our LSx engines are in that category, they are not. Not even close. They are basic, every day, V8 engines with no special needs whatsoever.

Do a complete flush of your crankcase/engine......and then put in conventional oil if you want to. It will be just fine. And it will also be MUCH better off if you choose to do that, and oil changes every 2,500-3,000 miles.......then if you use synthetic.

Like I mentioned, I know NOT a single person with modded, big power, LSx stroker motors like I've had that got anywhere near 173,000 miles. More like 40,000 and trouble begins. They all use synthetic oils. Bearing failures, rods snapping, engine noise, etc.....

My 173,000 mile stroker engine lasted a long time and ran like a top until it finally gave up. But I was doing 150mph racing a motorcycle and one of my pistons got "cocked" in the cylinder on its way up and that snapped the rod. When I took my engine apart after 173,000 miles (and I have pictures of it) the inside of my engine, everywhere was shiny clean and looked brand new.

NO WAY have I ever seen that with any other engine after 40,000-50,000 miles from engines that left the oil in their for a year or for 5,000 miles for its lifetime. Oil CANNOT stay clean that long......PERIOD.

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To prove my failure.....here's some pictures. You can see how the piston got caught and stopped dead in the cylinder at 7,000 rpm. This was because my engine was built in 2002 by Agostino Racing Engines, the last of the great engines by Dave DiLuca. Back then the cylinder sleeves being put into these LSx blocks were shorter than the new Darton sleeves of today. So it really went far down the cylinder and partially out of the bottom of the sleeve. But ok as long as it was kept under 7300 rpm. Well after 173,000 miles and a hard race the wear on the bottom of the cylinder reached its "wear" limit. I was told by Agostino that it should be rebuilt at 50,000 miles if used just for a street car. Because this engine was one of 11 built......and Agostino was slamming there's with a 400 shot and running 8 second 1/4 miles. I just used it as a street car.







Look around the cam.....zero oil sludge or any kind of buildup of grime. Thats where it builds up as oil gets dirty and you leave it in there longer.



Clean engine....zero build-up on the main caps which always have sludge and grime. These look new.




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Speaking of the whole synthetic vs non synthetic debate, my engine builder actually recommended a 20w50 non synthetic oil for my specific build. Something to do with the looser tolerances in the motor and a thicker non synthetic based oil being more suitable to reaching all needed areas. I agree the synthetic oils have their place but it's way over hyped in general applications and certain types of builds

 

To me can't go wrong with 5w40 diesel oil in these turds. Never had lifter problems or any oil related issues. The LS isn't as sensitive as let's say the ford stuff that really need to stay 5w20. Looking at a bunch of used oil test the LS like a 30 weight on the thicker side and even in 40 weight category. Dead of winter I put 5w30 back in. Hell my DD driver just hit 300k and haven't done a thing to it and doesn't leak oil stupid thing just runs with the AC blowing cold!!

 

So I had that fully built stroker motor for about 9 years. About every 3rd or 4th oil change I did a complete flush. I would pour a can of GUNK engine flush into the old oil. Let it idle for 5 minutes. Leaving the old oil filter on. Then drain it all. Then refill with 4 qrts of cheap oil....$14.00 for the 4 qrts. I put that in there just to make sure I get all of the GUNK chemical out. Drain that.....then change the filter and put in 5 qrts of new oil.

Thats the key to keeping an engine 100% spotless inside. It also keeps all the oil passages clean and lines clean, which a lot people do not think about when they have oil pressure issues. They think its just the pump or a bad bearing. A lot of times its clogged up passage ways.....just like cholesterol. Keep them clean and you'll always have max flow.

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LOL....EXACTLY.......my builder of my 427ci and for my current 390ci both recommended 20w50. Its the only weight oil I use. As I mentioned....these LSx engines are absolutely nothing special, they have loose tolerances and do not need any special weight oils.

All basic LSx engines should be using 20w50. Even in cold places.....it heats up in 5 minutes and thins out.

Now...maybe not really really cold places.....

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Problem with 20w50 in stock engines you can get some higher oil temps. I prefer 40 weight still in these engines. Stroker and builder use what they recommend, I am talking stock stuff here.

 

All great advice. When it comes to something as simple as an oil change, there is just no reason not to do it regularly. The cost and work is minimal and worth it in the long to keep your car running great.

 

Mathematics don't support this statement. If one is changing their oil twice as often as they need to, taking in to account the time value of money, they can buy one or more brand new engines over the life of the car with the savings.

 

That's far too broad of a statement as you seem to be only narrowly thinking about street cars and strait line racing. Id like to see convention oil hold up as well as synthetic in real racing environments, like road racing, not 10 second WOT runs, then lots of cool down time or a single sprint to top speed. Im talking 30+ minutes straight of high RPMS, heat and pressure.

In the OPs case, yea sure conventional is fine, but to say that conventional is truly equal to synthetic is not really true.

 

Doesn't conventional oil lead to some sort of gunk build up over time? I mean I don't mind paying more for synthetic, but if synthetic is truly better it would be best to stick with it right? My engine has only basic bolts on like headers/exhaust/intake manifold/ CAI; so my power level isn't that far from stock

 

A lot of questionable advice and oil change myths in this thread. I suggest you do your own due diligence for the type of driving you do. Do pay attention for the Oil Life Monitor as it's better for deciphering short tripping which is a killer for your oil. How and when you drive your car is really the bulk of how often you should do oil changes. Just sitting in the crank case is nowhere near as detrimental as failing to fully heat up your oil during short winter drives.

I put 1200 miles per year on my LS1. I'm certainly not going to change the engine oil every 3 months at 400 miles. Thousands of UOA's out there to show you how good or not good your oil is at any particular mileage based on usage. My daily driver gets 3K to 4K oil changes twice per year. My LS1 gets an annual oil change with M1 0w-40 and that's probably throwing away perfectly good oil too. I'm due for an annual oil change this month and the oil is still honey gold colored.

As far as $14 being cheap for 4 qts of conventional oil? That's not cheap. That's darn expensive. Cheap conventional SN oil is more like $1 to $1.50 per quart...assuming you can buy it on one of the frequent sales during the year. I don't pay more than $2.00-$2.50/qt EVER for synthetics like PP, PU SRT, M1, MSS, QSUD, Castrol Edge, Synpower, etc. And many of these are good EURO spec A3/B4 oils. I loaded up with 3 - 5 qt jugs of Castrol Edge 0w-40 in December for $30 total. In many cases the synthetics are cheaper on sale than the same brand conventionals. And the conventionals are not usually placed on sale....don't ask me why.

A lot of people I know got free synthetic PP oils this past December when they bought them at $2/qt then got a $2 mfg rebate to boot. Anyone who does a bit of looking knows that synthetics are routinely very cheap during the year. I have to chuckle when I read about all the excessive "cost" savings for conventional vs. synthetic. My oil changes with PP/M1/Edge run me under $20 total which includes a $6 Fram Ultra filter. If decent conventional oil were actually cheaper than synthetics (like PYB being cheaper than PP) than I use the conventionals. But, I've yet to be able to buy PYB cheaper than PP after rebates/discounts are included. I can't find GTX cheaper than Edge. And I can't find Mobil 5K cheaper than Mobil 1....rebates included of course. My findings that name brand conventionals, tend to be expensive, and often price higher than the same brand synthetics. If you want to know what oils are on sale when, check the Bitog Rebate/sale Forum from time to time.

Fwiw you can buy Mobil 1 for $2.60/qt for the rest of May with mfg rebate. Pennz Plat and QSUD are on sale the rest of the year for $2.50-$2.75/qt with rebates. Why pay $3.50 for a conventional? Even NAPA synthetic (a Synpower clone) goes on sale often for $3.29 or $2.99/qt. Not a great deal for a synthetic but better than a $3.50 NAPA conventional. Even Walmart's SuperTech synthetic runs around $3.50/qt....which isn't really that cheap since it's considerably more than M1/PP after rebates. No rebates on Walmart SuperTech. Fwiw, I'm not aware of anything that conventional oil does better than a quality synthetic. And it's common knowledge synthetics handle high end oils temps better and they flow better at cold temps even with the same 5/10/15/20w ratings. There are other benefits as well. But for the same or less money than conventionals....along with better performance, it makes no sense to use conventionals unless you're buying them for $1-$1.50/qt or less.

 

I've probably spent 1800.00 on oil changes over the life of my TA (18 years).