nostromo

My 2002 camaro LS1 is using 1 quart every 2000 miles. I have several questions about this. For the purpose of these questions just assume I'm your average driver. I don't race and I use this car for my daily transportation, etc... I can furnish actual driving habits if you're interested, but they are pretty boring for the most part. Most of my miles are highway using cruise control.

Questions:

1) Why is it using this much oil? I've been told it may be the piston rings.

2) Is this normal? By normal, I mean do a large percentage (like at least 25%) of LS1 engines use this much oil?

3) Can it be fixed?

4) Approximately how much would it cost me to fix it if it wasn't under warranty? (The car is under warranty. I'm just curious how much it would cost.)

5) Once fixed, approx how much oil will it use?

6) If its not fixed, will it get worse?

7) If not fixed, will it lower the resale value if I have to sell it?

8) Over the life of the car, will flushing so much oil out the car damage the valves, exhaust ports, cats or other parts of the exhaust?

9) Will this make passing emmisions a problem now or in the future?

10) Will adding a turbo (heh) make it worse? I may never add one, but I enjoy dreaming about it.

11) Should I just deal with it?

btw, the dealer told me my oil consumption was normal and not to worry about it.

--Mark

Trevor @ Texas Speed & Perf.

iTrader: (3)

It's not uncommon for LS1's to consume some oil. How many miles do you have on the engine? There is a TSB on the rings and pistons. They have a different set of rings that will help a lot with the oil consumption, and the new teflon-coated pistons are for the piston slap problems on cold start-up. The rings have been found to flutter at 3,500-4k, and this is what GM is blaming it on. I don't know if it will stop your oil consumption altogether, but it should greatly reduce it.
FWIW, mine doesn't use a lot of oil, but the piston slap is bad enough that it does sound like a set of forged pistons on start-up.

LS1derfull

Nostromo, my 2001 uses about this much oil, ring flutter is under hi rpm hi vacuum driving cxondition(rare situation)Like driving around in a low gear until you hit 4000rpm part throttle. Who does this? New rings increase radial tension, i wont have them done because that will add friction and hurt horsepower.I believe PCV system is causing oil consumption and i would pursue this first(i allready have). My explanation for this is, PCV system has hi air delivery to pcv valve and this carries oil with it to be burned.
Internal motor oil control is chaotic and this whipping from crank,etc suspends oil droplets in vapor being drawn into vacuum of pcv system. Oil needs to be separated from vapors better, either thru better baffling in valve covers or externally between valve covers and vacuum source.New pcv valve with lower flow rate seems to be helping oil consumption. No dealer warranty repairs should be costing you any thing(rental maybe?)Oil getting on back of valves will hurt performance eventually, and its not good for cats, if you could get consumption down to 1quart every 3000 miles that would be harmless in my opinion. Im trying some things that i will post when ihave results. Good luck <img src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" border="0">

nostromo

I've got over 11,000 miles. I drive it a lot on the highway in 6th gear at 80mph. This is around 1800-1900 rpm, which is why I'm surprised its using this much oil.

From what I've been able to gather if I drove it hard it might use a lot more oil.

I've read the TSB but apparently the dealer hasn't. They are saying 1 quart per 1000 miles is excessive.

Trevor @ Texas Speed & Perf.

iTrader: (3)

I'd recommend asking them to do an oil consumption test. They'll check your oil level once a week. I'd drive the hell out of it to see just how much you can get it to burn. <img src="gr_stretch.gif" border="0">

LS1derfull

Nostromo, did you read my reply? It doesnt look like it to me.

nostromo

I've read about the PCV valve fix but from what I understand its not warranted by GM. I wouldnt want to void my warranty trying to fix the problem myself. I'm doing the oil consumption test right now so when I go back in I'll ask them about it.

btw, here's an interesting oil consumption article someone posted at www.ls1.com: http://www.c5registry.com/2k2z06/page5.htm

Psycho Dave

Ive got an 00 with 23k on it and im around 2k miles on oil and i used about 1/4-1/2 qt. My car is 6spd and sees some decent rpm everytime I drive it so I dont figure that is too bad. Im running mobil 1 10/30..

-Dave