Im not sure if the LS engines would like this combo, but I had a 12 ram hemi for 12 years. I bought it used so I had no clue what the previous owner used. I started with Mob 5 w 30 and good lord the hemi tick start upon start up. 57k at that point. I ran seafoam in the crank case and dumped it. I went with Castrol Edge and a Puraltor Boss filter. It never returned and the oil pressure was always excellent. I just sold it to my neighbor at 165k and that was a good option. Again I know Hemi vs LS, but I really liked that oil. My 19 Flex Eco. likes Mob and a motorcraft filter. The wifes Jeep Grand Cherokee L likes PUP and a Puralator Boss filter. I had a lot of dry starts with it and that combo solved that.

 

you can order off walmart dot com ....delivery to your door

 

I get stuff from them often. I never thought about having them deliver it. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Did you ever hear about the modern Hemi crowd using Lubegard Biotech to help combat the lifter ticks?

 

Yes, I used it often after 100k. It really did quiet the engine. I would recommend it for sure.

 

Thats the only thing anyone has to do and regardless of brand........they will get LONG LIFE.

 

Valvoline vr1 10w30 full synthetic.

 

Used if the level is low on the dipstick and it's all I can find.

 

I’m sure it’s been said, I rec the euro spec 0-40 and 5-40 Mobil 1. I did a lot of digging a while back about the same thing. When these cars came out I believe 5-30 was vastly different than what it is now due to EPA crackdowns etc. Oddly enough, euro grade has 3x the amount of zddp or whatever special abbreviation they use for zinc and wear additives..atleast it did a few years ago when I researched all this jazz. The 0-40 flows almost exactly like castrol 5-30 hot(since all oil weights have a range) Mobil 1 is on the thin side of the grading ranges(usually).

The Mobil euro 5-40 is actually nearly a full point thicker on the kinematic viscosity index than the euro0-40 when hot despite them both being graded as “40 weight”. This data, although hard to find, is avaliable through Mobil 1 PDF spf files. That being said, I change my oil every 1k-1500 miles and use 5-40 when it’s hot and transition to 0-40 in the later fall. Castrol always made my motor noisey compared to Mobil 1 when I was a small cam only deal.. But now my motor is so loud I can’t hear **** anyway. lol

 

Excluding FCA and the Hyundai Group
We have a Jeep.. And I knew better..

 

And old flat tappet stuff too. I know some folks want to believe that "oil is oil", and sometimes that is the case but not for every single street engine that's still in circulation. Some are indeed more sensitive to the differences between one brand and another, even at the same grade. The additive packages, etc., are not always the same. The zinc/phos (ZDDP) issue is always on the forefront for me, because I love my old dinosaurs. But I wouldn't worry about that for any roller cammed engine.

 

Know what’s funny to me? Auto and oil manufactures are suggesting longer oil change intervals than ever at a time when I think vehicles are as crappy as they’ve ever been. For example there are a slew of modern vehicles that have oil consumption problems that the auto manufactures call “normal.” I’ll be 42 this year so I grew up in a time when checking the oil between changes wasn’t really a thing because it was always full. Not that it shouldn’t have been a thing but the cars of the 90’s and early 2000’s at least in my experience, were fairly good about not “using” oil. But in the last ten years or so that has changed some. I wonder if it’s the direct injection and the thinner oil? Whatever it is I think it’s probably emissions related along with just crappier quality parts. We have a ‘22 Grand Cherokee that needed a new head and cams at 7k miles. Not even daily changes with a boutique oil would’ve helped that one. Welcome to the millennium.
Happy Easter.

 

Yes, Happy Easter!

Early in my driving life I had an '86 Cutlass with an Olds 307 V8. Some of these engines had oil burning problems, they weren't the same quality as the older stuff that Oldsmobile used to put out (like the Olds 350, which was a super solid engine - the one in my current '74 has never even been rebuilt and it's still free from oil burning or any other internal engine problems). I lost the engine in that '86 Cutlass because I didn't check the oil often enough, I just hadn't realized how bad the consumption had become. Never really saw it burning much out the exhaust, but I guess it must've. Shortly after, I had an '89 Formula 350 with an iron headed version of the same L98 that C4 Corvettes got in that era. The engine was solid, but valve seals were always an issue with that era of SBC heads. So it smoked a bunch on every cold start when it got older. I never did replace the valve seals because, somehow, even with all the smoke it was never really low on oil between changes (the smoke was only on start-up). I still don't know how that Olds 307 burned through so much oil without me seeing any smoke (no significant leaks either).

Anyway, all these years later I now have another "oil user"; it's my wife's 2012 Malibu. It's a 2.4L Ecotec (NOT the flex-fuel version). Funny thing is, I have the exact same engine in my daily driver (2010 Malibu) and mine has never burned a drop of oil between changes, but hers will use about 1 quart in 3k miles. Not horrible, but mine doesn't burn any at all. We've owned both of them since nearly new, same care and maintenance, same grade and brand of oil, and they are both at nearly the same mileage. So even in modern times, assembly line consistency can still leave something to be desired.

As for the new stuff with DI, I know there have been some growing pains with that. I have several friends who are dealer techs and they've been telling me stories about the DI engine concerns going back about 10 years. Not sure if the latest generations are any better.

But that's crazy that your 2 year old car with 7k miles would need a major engine overhaul. What ended up being the issue? Just a fluke with this car or is there a bigger (known) problem with that particular engine platform?

 

It’s a known issue with the Pentastar 3.6 V6. They eat up lifters and sometimes cams I guess. I think the issue is with VVT and a wide cam lobe. I think the lobe gets wiped out. Ours would misfire a redline and it’d continue to miss until you turned it off and back on again. We bought it in ‘23 with 6k miles on it. We only had it a few months before this happened. We got a drivers side head and cam under warranty. If the passenger side is going to go I hope it does before 36k. You know what, when I took it in for warranty work it didn’t have the recommended brand of oil and they didn’t ask.

 

this work on Ls engines too since the lifters are almost identical?

 

I’ve used it in a Jeep V6 and a Nissan V8 for the first time this past oil change. Maybe there’s an improvement and maybe not. It’s a 0w16 or so weight oil and it’s made from canola I do believe. I wouldn’t substitute any amount of oil for the additive. I’d just over fill it with oil plus additive if you were going to use it.

 

That is how I treated it after doing a lot of research. I was an early person that figured out one of the ways to kill the tick. I got lucky with mine.

 

My DD A4 Formula has been an oil guzzler since I bought it at 33k. Then it would get 1200-1500 miles to a quart. Now at 210k, it gets 800-1000k. And it really guzzles it on long distance freeway trips. I'm currently using M1 5w-40 for some extra viscosity, but have used a wide variety over the years - GC 0w-30 when it was all the rage on here, TropArtic 5w-30 syn blend for a few years when it was $2.00 a quart at Sam's Club, M1 0w-40, etc.

Conversely, my M6 Formula and G8's have never used a drop. So there's your inconsistency factor. M1 5w-40 in the G8 and Valvoline high mileage 10w-30 syn blend in the Formula.

 

Unfortunately, some amount of oil consumption seems to be relatively common for the LS1s. My '02 Z28 started to use a little bit when it got over ~100k or so, but nothing serious. The only LS1 I've owned that ever burned significant oil was my '00 WS6, and that wasn't until after the cam swap. Not sure if this had to do with cylinder pressure changes or higher rpm upshifts after the cam, or some combination of both, but it was using about as much oil as your 210k mile car - except that it only had about 10k miles on it at the time (was using about 1/2 quart every ~500 miles or so from what I remember).

 

Anybody use the aftermarket additives such as STP, Lucas, Z-Max, Seafoam, etc... or is that for another thread? Years ago I used STP oil treatment in my 1990 GMC and it did nothing as far as I could tell. Waste of money. I bought a high mileage HHR (155k) and poured a half bottle of Seafoam in the oil 2 days before I changed the oil. Never used any additives in it since ( 218k now)