I'll give amsoil one thing they ship incredibly fast only took two days for me to get it.
Printable View
I'll give amsoil one thing they ship incredibly fast only took two days for me to get it.
I would probably still stick with an annual oil change on the low mile cars and go 7,500 miles on the daily drivers with Amsoil. :dunno:
5W-30 Mobil 1
That's what I do Jeff. Much easier to keep track of, less oil changes needed. I have way too many "low mile" cars that are driven for pleasure. They get changed once a year in the spring and then I just don't have to worry about it all year.Quote:
Originally Posted by pajeff02
Only 2 driven daily at the moment. Right now I'm on 6,000 mile intervals with those, and an oil annalys coming up to see if I can extend them longer.
Even though the Amsoil appears more expensive, it's really not once you are a preferred customer. Also with the extended service times I'm doing now it's actually saving me quite a bit of money. The once a year change in the spring hits a little hard all at once with so many pleasure cars, but it's actually cheaper in the long run. The biggest reason I went with Amsoil was to use their high Zinc content oil, plus their thicker oils have better pour ratings than alot of the thinner stuff on the market.
Sean put the high zinc stuff in my car when he did the recent build. Gonna have to order some for myself now and do the changes in my garage.
factory recommended oil when bought new .. if I rebuild it straight rotella 30 for 6k miles .... every thing else gets 10w30 royal purple . sold 02 gmc 2500 8.1 bought new with 309k miles lastyr fac engine trans rearend
Generally speaking, zinc content is a requirement for old school flat tappet cams. As our cars are all equipped with roller cams, zinc is not generally a necessary additive. However, there is no harm in utilizing it from what I have read.Quote:
Originally Posted by Naaman
Still plan on using Pennzoil Platinum Plus. Don't really think using a grade IV oil will benefit me only going 1000-2000 miles roughly between oil changes.
That was my understanding, as well. But for now, until I have researched it to my own satisfaction, I'm gonna just trust the guy who did my build. He explained to me why he used that oil, but I forgot the explanation. It may have had something to do with the valve train... or maybe that the bottom end was still stock... but I can't remember for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by pajeff02
I also use the high zinc content in all the cars here, even the roller cam cars. You still have very high friction contact points in the engine that can benefit from the lubricity that zinc/phosphorous provides like piston skirts, rocker arms and pushrods also have alot of stress on them considering the spring rates required to control these roller cams.Quote:
Originally Posted by Naaman
So despite what some critics say, I still see a need for zinc in all engines. Extra lubricity is certainly not a bad thing. The only reason it has been depleted is because it's been found to coat cat converters to a point that they won't function properly, and to these people, emmissions is more important than the longevity of your engine.
That's also why zinc was drastically lowered in your diesel oils too, because starting in about 2004 or 2005 cat converters were mandated for the diesel trucks, consequently diesel oil zinc ppm count dropped making it no longer suitable for the "go to" oil for the classic car guys.
I can say however I've run high zinc content oil in a cat converter car for several years and never experienced any issues with the converters as far as drivability was concerned. I never had to put it on a sniffer though so I can't say if converter efficiency dropped, but it always ran like a top.
This is my first post after reading about 1/2 of the Oil thread started by Sarge. I bought an 04 GTO this past summer w/ 18k on the motor. The previous owner didnt know the specifics of the mods done to the motor but Ive found some things out. The head is a 706, 5.3 liter ported job with a "West Coast Racing Cylinder Heads" stamp on it. I contacted Richard Reyman at WCRCH and this was his explanation:
Wow! We did those heads over ten years ago! We haven’t run that CNC program since 2005. It’s a Stage 2 LS1 program we made to convert 5.3l heads to upgrade airflow and raise compression on a 5.7l engine. I think we made several hundred sets of them over a two year period. I wouldn’t have any record of what specific work was done to that pair however we typically set them up with 2.02”/1.57” valve sizes. The chambers with minimum surfacing ended up at 64cc. It usually resulted in a compression ratio increase of approx.. ½ a point. Additional milling could take the compression ratio to over 11:1. Sorry I can’t be of more help with this…….
Im currently running M1 5-30 synthetic and have read enough to know that its not optimal. I dont drive the car in the winters in NY, too much salt on the roads, come spring I plan to switch to PP 10-30, as opposed to a 0-30, primarily because discussions Ive had with a gearhead friend of mine have centered around the idea that 10-30 provides better coating of engine parts between driving, despite the higher viscosity at startup compared to a 0-30 such as Amsoil. And I plan to do a UOA after I switch over to the PP 10-30.
I guess I have two questions. The first, I have not been able to verify that there was a cam swap done in conjunction with the Stage 2 port mentioned above, would a cam swap be a necessary upgrade for a Stage 2 port mod? Or is it conceivable that the stock cam is still running? Im a novice in the area of heads and cams and thus Im looking for info in that regard.
Second question which I guess I already have the answer for is my above described plan for the oil change in the spring and my plan to determine whether the PP 10-30 will end up being optimal for my driving habits, environment etc? Ive read enough of the thread to know you gotta test to find the right solution so Im really more interested in getting answers to my first question.
One other thing, being I have a lack of knowledge about what was previously done to the engine, do people recommend a tune for this engine to get optimal A/F mixture? I am not a track guy, I like to drive fast but Im not looking to race this car. Also I have read the Srage's Catch/Can, PCV thread and am wondering if venting the crank the way he describes is appropriate for all GTO's or only t6hose GTO's that are up the horsepower ladder moreso than me, Im guessing that Im running somewhere in the 400-425 HP range.
Thanks for the help fellas....great forum.
Couple things,
Since you plan to do a UOA that will answer all the questions you need about the oil you're using and tell you when to change it. Then you can make an educated decision from there and decide the direction you want to go.
On the tune, I would suspect someone has tuned the car since they went through the trouble to install ported heads. But that doesn't mean it's tuned, just a good guess on my part. It would be odd to dig that deep into the engine and not have it tuned when done in my opinion, but people do strange things.
However that extensive of a change would require tuning in my book to optimize the combo, whether it has a cam swap or not.
Seems that they would have installed a cam as well with all the work required to swap out the heads. I agree that it most likely has been tuned, but as FBJ mentioned, hard to tell. People do a lot of weird things when they work on cars. Investing in a good set of gauges - including a wideband A/F, fuel pressure, and whatever else you desire, is a good idea. The wideband would then give you a good idea of what your A/F is doing throughout the engine's load range.
This being said, an old school check is simply to pull a couple of spark plugs and see what they look like. You want to see a light tan color on the electrode and such. Generally speaking, black is rich, white or white with speckling is lean, and oily is something amiss. On installation, the plugs only get twisted to about 11 lb.ft., so don't overdo it. It is also a good idea to squirt a dab of dielectric grease into the boots before re-installing them.
I'm using Amsoil brand synthetics.
Can't go wrong there. :thumbup:
Have you checked the oil level?
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Could try checking the plug that goes into the pan I suppose. It's a cheap fix if it's broke. My starter caught the wires ones and ripped them out of the plug.Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshuaMah
Hey guys....hope everyone is doing well.
Just wanted to update a little here on my "oil experiences".
The GTO has 17K on her now. Pristine. Runs like a top and is shining like a diamond in a goats ass.
Still run 2 stroke oil in the gas and Kendall GT1 5-30 full synthetic.
Been using that oil for awhile now. UOA's are absolutely perfect as I think I can get.
My Silverado finally had some lifter issues @ 195K miles. So I am having Allen Nelson put a new cam/lifters et al in.
Not a big deal. Only other issue I have had with that truck was the oil pump. Replaced it and timing chain etc. few thousand miles ago. Same thing in the truck. Kendall GT1. 2Stroke oil in the gas. On the gas note I left the NGK plugs in for over 100K and when I replaced them they still were in good shape. Still has the original fuel pump and injectors.
Thought about a rebuilt motor or a 6.0L but this motor burns no oil and is smooth. So we decided just to do the cam/lifters etc. and keep the 5.3L. Bottom end looks and sounds excellent even after almost 200K miles.
Been using Fram Ultras for the filters for awhile now.
Hope everyone stays healthy and have a great year guys.
Good to have Sarge back on the forum. How are things on the Goat farm, Sarge?
All good here. More gray hair. Had to loosen my belt another notch. I dont care. More lap for them Grandbabies :)