joejmata

Hey Everybody Had a quick question i have seen everyone give advice about changing your oil after getting your engine rebuilt but my question is should i use the break in additive every time i change the oil till i switch over to synthetic? i am planning to switch over to synthetic at 2,000 miles the engine mow has 101 miles on so i am thinking about changing the oil now at this mileage and then at 500 then at 1000 then at 1500 with regular conventional oil what.
1. What weight should i use, and should i use the break in additive every time till i switch over?
2. my engine builder said to change it at 500 then at 1500 miles is he correct? or a little off?

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

you need to use an oil with a High ZDDP content in it til its well broken in..
I prefer Joe Gibbs Break in oil...but any good break in oil will do and will have a high ZDDP content

do your first swap now....should have done it at like 30 miles...
do your next swap at 500, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000, then 3000, then every 3k after that

keep using Break in oil for the first 3000...then you can switch to regular oil...not synthetic...
I prefer to use non synthetic all the time.. you can switch to a synthetic if you want to after 12k miles...but I wouldnt...

and keep using a high zinc content oil for as long as you can...
Valvoline VR-1 10-30 is great for this.

joejmata

Sorry forgot to put what engine its a 99 ls1

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

Doesn't matter, break in is the same as I just mentioned for pretty much any rebuilt motor.

badazz81z28

iTrader: (6)

The high zinc content oil is for what?? An LS1 does not have a flat tappet camshaft...

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

It's for any new mating surface... Not just flat tappet cams

It's been well proven that it helps on more surfaces than just the cam lobes....

joejmata

You guys have clues why the engine builder told me differently?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

You are taking this break-in thing WAY to serious. There's two things a new engine needs:

1) The RINGS......MUST be broken in immediately, as in the first 2-3 miles. It has to see 3-4 hard runs/dyno pulls right out of the gate. The 4th-5th run being 100% WOT.
Thats all that gets broken-in....the RINGS.

2) The engine needs to be kept as clean as possible for the first 1,000 miles....which means a simple oil change (NO FRIGGIN ADDITIVES IN THE DAMN OIL) for the millionth time.
Just put NON-synthetic cheap *** oil in there and run it: Do oil changes at 50, 100, 150, 300, 500 and 1,000 miles. New engines shed tiny metal particles, you're just keeping that to a minimum when the engine is new when it sheds ALLOT........the engine will shed for its entire life though. But those frequent changes will keep that massive amount of "new engine" shedding to a minimum so you don't hammer your internal bearings to death.

I have no idea what your builder has said.....but that is what you need to do to your engine. And AGAIN....DO NOT put additives in your oil....EVER...period.

And if you want to....your choice......just use non-synthetic oil for the life of the engine. Synthetic oil will do NOTHING AT ALL for your engine that non-synthetic oil won't do. I've used cheap ***, off the shelf Castrol GTX 20w50 and my 427ci is humming right along still at 165,000 miles........people put too much into oil...its a joke.
These engines are absolutely NOTHING special....they are friggin Chevy V8's. They are nowhere near close to special or exotic.
When you have a purpose built engine made with special tolerances then you can consider using special oils.

This is how an engine is supposed to be broken in....btw....
http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

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soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

I agree with all of this except for the part in # 2 where you say to use cheap *** oil...
sorry.... that is wrong by any means...
use a decent oil all the time...
even your cheap *** castrol GTX is a decent oil...
cheap *** oil would be a non main brand oil with little or no label on it...

and zinc in the oil is good, but no need to add extra... I certainly wasnt suggesting that you add more to it.. Just use a good oil that already has it in it... (again I mention Joe Gibbs and Valvoline VR1....Petroleum based Non -Synthetic)

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Yea...thats what I mean, a cheap "money-wise" off the shelf oil like Castrol. Cheap meaning not $6.00 a quart synthetic. 5 quart jug of Castrol is $18.00, thats cheap oil....money-wise cheap.

And to be honest.....when my engine was passing about 145,000 miles, I stopped buying Castrol and started buying Walmart 20w50....a 5 quart jug for $12.00.

I'm over the oil issue. I've owned too many engines that outlast everyone of my friends engines for the last 15 years.....and they all use synthetic. They have no idea why they need rebuilds WAY before I do....I have no idea when they will realize its all about clean oil and 3,000 mile changes. They are using synthetics and have fallen into that trap of letting their oil go for 5,000 and 6,000 just because the manufacturer says its ok. Even when I do an oil change and they watch me take my oil pan plug off and I show them the powderized metal shavings on my plug....they just don't get it. Even my 165,000 mile engine still sheds metal shavings...I have them on my plug magnet every time I change my oil. Just think how much more metal shavings those people get letting it go for 5-6,000 miles. Its definitely worse. Why do it.......???
I want that **** out of there at 3,000....at most. People leaving oil in their engines for more than 3,000.......they are decreasing their engines life, period.

Oil is oil.....if it has the basic stamp that it meets industry standards....thats all we can do for our engines....that and 3,000 mile changes.

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LS6427

iTrader: (2)

The only thing that wears an engine out, meaning the bearings mainly, is metal shavings. Reducing the time and amount of metal shavings that are circulating through and engine via a free ride by the oil......is to change it frequently. And there's no way synthetic oil can do anything better than non-synthetic.....for our basic Chevy V8 engines anyway, with basic tolerances and specs.

So it only makes sense to use non-synth and change it every 3,000........

NO????

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soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

correct...like I said earlier.. I prefer a non synthetic oil...
and a synthetic oil will also stop the break in procedure too early and cause improper ring seal which leads to more blowby and more oil consumption...

I too am a big advocate for oil changes more often... every 3k no matter what...sometimes sooner depending on use...(daily drive no more than 3k...race it at the track and I change it the next day when I get home..)

Bilster

iTrader: (21)

Just a little clarification......Your new engine parts have sharp microscopic edges that will break off and enter the oiling system very quickly once the motor is started. You want to get these out as soon as possible as many will be smaller than the micron capacity of your filter. That's why the quick oil change at only 30 miles or so. I do it even sooner. So you need a quality filter but as cheap an oil you can find that meets manufacturers spec. for the initial fire-up.

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

^^^ as Just stated... A GOOD Filter is extremely important....and not just at first start up..

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Just for comparison sake, here's what I did to break in my engine back in August (rebuilt lq4).

Put in a standard oil that was on sale at autozone, 10w-30. Started her up and let it get to operating temp. Then brought up the rpms to about 5,500 3-4 times for a span of 6-10 seconds.

After that I changed the oil/filter with regular oil that was on sale at autozone. Then I immediately took it out for a drive and put a load on the engine/rings. I had a 6 speed so it was easy to bring the rpms up to about 5.5k at about 1/2 throttle. Brought it back and notice no more blow by like on original startup. And again, changed the oil.

Put new oil again (same on sale oil), and made a couple drives for the next few days just to move the car around. Then went to dyno with only 50 miles on rebuild. Dyno'ed 399 whp, then changed the oil again when I got back.

Been driving and racing since then. Changed the oil at 500 miles and 1,000 miles. So about 5 oil changes so far. I don't have blow by and no oil consumption between oil changes. I'm a little over 1,000 miles but it's been down for a couple of months doing a 4l80e swap. I'll be waiting til 2000 miles to change oil and then switching to synthetic.

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

I would strongly suggest you reconsider your switching to synthetic idea...

even though the initial break in of your engine happens right away
it still continues to break in for quite some time...
2000 miles and 5 oil changes is not enough to see if you are having blowby...especially seeing how you excessive blowby and consumption is considered half a quart or more over 3000-5000 miles...so 500 miles between changes is not enough to see if you are having blowby or oil consumption or not..
thats like saying 2-3 oz every 500 miles...good luck measuring that on your oil dipstick...

the synthetic oil is so slick it stops the break in process before it is complete..

do not switch to synthetic at 2000 miles...

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Not being sarcastic as I'd like to know...but why is more than half a quart at 3k-5k miles not acceptable, but it is acceptable for most OEM engines to lose about a quart every 3k miles?

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

even if you go by the 1 qt rule....
4 oz is not something you can measure on your dipstick in 500 miles...

black00ssFL

iTrader: (24)

Agreed, but on another note...is losing only 4 oz every 500 miles (basically no OBVIOUS noticeable loss of oil) a sign of rings not seating? I've seen cases of rings not seating and people will lose a quart between 300-500 miles. I'd think no noticeable loss of oil in a span of 500 miles means that the rings have pretty much seated, and the loss could be attributed to things like the pcv, etc.

It could also mean that the rings haven't seated completely as well....but at that point they've seated well enough to only allow a quart every 3,000 miles....which is not enough for me to pull the engine back out for a hone/rering. Granted, that may not be the case for other people.

After 2,000 miles is there still enough "rough" material on the cylinder wall to still seat the rings? I was under the impression that 80% of ring seating happens in the first couple of starts of the engine. And by 1,000-2,000 if your rings haven't seated completely, they never will without a rebuild. Is that not correct?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

When my engine was 100% stock......every time I did an oil change I warmed the engine up to operating temp, then dumped the oil so I could get allot more of the old oil out.

I would also put the car in my driveway so the drivers side front of the car is the lowest point....again, so I will get most of the oil out. I let it drip for an hour until no more oil is dripping out at all.

When I would put the new oil in I would use those 5 empty quart jugs to pour the old oil into. I would always fill up almost 5 quart jugs to the top with old oil (I'd say 4 3/4 qrts of old oil). Thats amazing after 3,000 miles of driving, considering there's still a little bit of oil remaining in the engine, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 qrt.

So it burned about 1/2 qrt in 3,000 miles.

Regardless of what GM says.......I was very happy burning only 1/2 qrt in 3,000 miles.

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