best oil for the LS1 engine?
9 Second Club
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 314
Likes: 0
From: Michigan
I use Mobil 1 just cause thats what I prefer. I do agree the most oils have to meet a sae standard. So that being said, most of the oils meet these requirements. Just use the one kind that make you that its not going to let you down.
TECH Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 475
Likes: 0
From: Orlaanndoooo
Mobil 1 tends to be on the thin end of the tolerances for a 5W-30. According to the UOA my LS1 hated the stuff when NA. Switched to a brand that the UOA said worked well in my engine. I've been slowly increasing my change intervals as the analysis flat out said it wasn't needed yet.
Everybody drives differently, and in different conditions. If you really want to know if your engine likes a particular oil and when to change it get the oil analyzed. Otherwise you are just guessing.
Everybody drives differently, and in different conditions. If you really want to know if your engine likes a particular oil and when to change it get the oil analyzed. Otherwise you are just guessing.
On The Tree
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 156
Likes: 0
Use whatever oil that blows your skirt up and make sure the level is in spec and you change it according to your driving habits/habitat. If your internals are aftermarket then you should run an oil with a zinc additive like everyone else said......don't know why threads like this litter ls1tech?
Last edited by blknSS; Jun 4, 2013 at 04:45 PM.
Staging Lane
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 94
Likes: 0
From: Austin, TX
Castol GTX 10w-30, or sometimes 5w-30, every 3-4K miles for the last 260K miles now and counting. The valve covers or throttle body have NEVER even been off this engine lol.
Last edited by darkvader0; Jun 4, 2013 at 04:04 PM.
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On The Tree
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 110
Likes: 1
From: Lancaster, CA
I've tried both royal purple and redline oil's and my 5.3 didn't care for them much, put M1 10w40 in there and made a world of difference. Some motors are just plain picky imo.
What have you noticed? I have never been consistent with brand of oil I use...never seen a "change" in engine behavior simply by oil
Running Castrol Edge Titanium 5W30 as I have been running it in my BMW for a long time with no issues. Also running wix oil and air filters. Going to do the trans and diff this weekend with Redline D4 ATF and Redline 75W-90 w/ GM additive as I also had some bottles left over from the bimmer so I only needed to buy a couple.
On The Tree
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 110
Likes: 1
From: Lancaster, CA
My 5.3 seemed like it had a bit more power with the M1 10w40 over the other two believe it or not. When I was using the royal purple and mashed on it during a hot summers day, it would bog a bit and smoke at rpms above 5k. Redline made a ton of valve train noise on start but soon quieted down after the motor got above 80F but it also went through about 2 qts between oil changes, about 5-8k between changes. Now that I'm running the M1 15k 10w40 oil, I had noticed that the valve noise is no longer there on a cold start, the motor doesn't smoke at high rpm, and it only goes through about 1/2 a qt between oil changes (about 10k on this stuff). I may go back and use the RP and RL oil's just to do a compression check and see what I come out with, I may get a bit more with the 15k M1 oil through I'll have to do a bit more checking to see what the real difference is. I also use the 6.0 filter on the this, I've used fram, purolator, K&N, and M1's own filter and I find that the M1 filter (go figure) has a bit more element than even the tough guard fram filter did. Of course, I do use a set of rare earth magnets on the outside of the filter just to catch all the little extra goodies that go through it.
