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I recently bought a 02 SOM Camaro from a member here. I don't want to waste anyone's time so I'll keep it short. PO bought it with 15,900 miles. He did H/C swap with some supporting mods, Car made roughly 420whp. He put a 150 shot to it and ran it a dozen or so times down the strip in the 11's. It only had 17,944 miles when I bought it.
I did its first oil change after 300 miles, wish I did it sooner. The oil filter had a date: 6-5-2015 with visible rust appearing on the filter housing. The drain plug had considerable metal shavings built up on it, I should of snapped a photo but I didn't. The drain pan had metal shavings suspended in the oil. I replaced It with mobil 1 full synthetic + napa platinum filter. I drove it around for roughly 50 miles and added a can of seafoam to the crankcase. I allowed it to idle for a 1 hour then did another oil change. This time I took some pictures.
It might still be "rinsing out" shavings that were there from before. How is the oil pressure, cold and warm?
BTW, what does SOM mean?
It has 50ish psi on cold Idle then drops to 30ish on warm idle. Motor doesn't make any bad noises but I haven't used a stethoscope. Just let my ears do the listening.
Sounds like a sweet low mile Sunset Orange Metallic (SOM) 4th Gen.
Metal shavings are always undesirable. Probably worth cutting that oil filter open and unrolling the element to see what else was trapped. To get a better understanding of what's going on.
Fwiw- I'm not a fan of Seafoam added to oil. The Seafoam dilutes the oil and puts the engine at greater overall risk.
What's the oil pressure look like at idle?
Any excessive valve train or lifters noise?
Last edited by 99 Black Bird T/A; 06-06-2019 at 03:10 PM.
It has 50ish psi on cold Idle then drops to 30ish on warm idle. Motor doesn't make any bad noises but I haven't used a stethoscope. Just let my ears do the listening.
Sunset Orange Metallic.
OK, looks like pressure is good. Yeah, keep your eye, I mean EAR, on it!
VERY nice color! I can see why you mention it!
Sounds like a sweet low mile Sunset Orange Metallic (SOM) 4th Gen.
Metal shavings are always undesirable. Probably worth cutting that oil filter open and unrolling the element to see what else was trapped. To get a better understanding of what's going on.
Fwiw- I'm not a fan of Seafoam added to oil. The Seafoam dilutes the oil and puts the engine at greater overall risk.
What's the oil pressure look like at idle?
Any excessive valve train or lifters noise?
Lucky for me I saved the oil and filter this time around so I can cut it open in the morning.
Agreed on the seafoam. That's why I only idled the motor with fresh oil + seafoam but you got me thinking. Perhaps not the best idea on a LS1, next time I'll use trans fluid.
50+ at cold idle
30+ at hot idle
I haven't run it at WOT yet so I'm not sure what kind of pressure it gets there.
Since it attracted to the magnet, that means it's a ferrous metal. It's most likely iron (rings). I suggest taking a sample of that oil and send it in for analysis. I recommend Oil Analyzers / Amsoil for the analysis.
06-06-2019, 01:26 PM
metal shavings - how much is to much? 
