New engine <30k miles

Jacoby · August 1, 2019

I change mine every 5k miles and run 5w-30 full syn. The 0w20 imo is way to thin for the climate where I live. I rarely go WOT as I’m lifted with 35’s. Even with my 4.56 gears it’s still a lot of strain on the driveline. But I don’t baby it either.

Grumpy Bear · August 1, 2019

Bulk oil temperature should produce a viscosity of 10 cSt. That is the design number the OEM's use to chose a SAE viscosity grade. Car, truck, lawn mower, motorcycle...whatever. Viscosity is temperature dependent. Temperature of the bulk oil temperature is dependent on air and water temperature, load and rpm. A bit more produces drag and hurts efficiency. Less kills motors.

My 4.3 specifies 5W30 meaning my target sump temperatures would be 221 F. Problem is 220 F accelerates oxidation...allot. Worse she was running over 235 F at 55 mph on an average summer day...mid 80's (F). The 4.3 oil cooler is in the HOT tank not the cold tank like the 5.3/6.2's. Water thermostat being 207 F and about a 20 F approach temperature means the coldest tank temp I could ever hope for was 227F. Imagine what the temperatures were at 75/80 mph? I generated the charts for my application and modified to suit.

I run a 170 F water thermostat and 0W20 Red Line. Run 55 mph and the tank temps run 194F to 197 F on a 90 F day. At 5K OCI's the oil is just starting to darken and gets changed like my motors life depends on it. It does. As the OEM wished the oil was black by 2K and at $12 a quart that wasn't going to stand.

People hang their hats on the oils ability to 'handle the temperature' ( very foolish) and yes a polyol ester can take some heat before thermal oxidation kills it's CHEMISTY. But it is viscosity that keeps the parts apart and if it isn't 10 cSt minimum in the tank at your running conditions bad things WILL happen....in time.

Do you know your tank temperature?

Edited August 1, 2019 by Grumpy Bear

j-ten-ner · August 1, 2019

7 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Isn't it.

Hum, lubrication issue or poor heat treat and advice to run it WOT.

That is.....wellll….counter intuitive. (Kindest thing I could think of)

I think that newdude is separating the two issues He even spaced the two sentences.

Regardless whether your running the engine WOT or not, the heat treat and lubrication issue will occur anyway when there is a problem.

I'm running my engine WOT once in a while when I think it's necessary. Traffic situation or just for the fun of it.

I think it's called "Italian tune-up". I believe that there is some truth to it. Once in a while, I keep her at 3,000RPM and higher for a longer period of time and it feels good. Anyone who's driving his car with his butt can relate.

so long

j-ten-ner

Grumpy Bear · August 1, 2019

7 hours ago, j-ten-ner said:

I think that newdude is separating the two issues He even spaced the two sentences.

Regardless whether your running the engine WOT or not, the heat treat and lubrication issue will occur anyway when there is a problem.

I'm running my engine WOT once in a while when I think it's necessary. Traffic situation or just for the fun of it.

I think it's called "Italian tune-up". I believe that there is some truth to it. Once in a while, I keep her at 3,000RPM and higher for a longer period of time and it feels good. Anyone who's driving his car with his butt can relate.

so long

j-ten-ner

I pin Peppers ears back now and again so I'm not against WOT. Yes, called the Italian tune-up.

What I am against is running a race on a stress fracture of the tibia and advice that running such a race will cure a broken leg.

Get it healthy then beat it to death if you like.

You can't CURE or PREVENT spalling with WOT. What you can do is blow is up doing so.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Grumpy Bear

KARNUT · August 1, 2019

I’ve been tuning engines since the seventies. From changing two barrels carbs to 4 on Chevy trucks. Duel points to MSD ignition. Redline was a suggestion. If it said 5K I did 55. If it was pulling I was letting it rev. My yard stick was test and tune at the local track. The later trucks with tunes the 5.3 were still pulling at 6K. My lower gears were adjusted to that. I would lower the shift points in the higher gears. I still left the red line up for manual shifting. The Chevy small block has always been tough, almost indestructible. I never blew one up. If one goes boom. I’m betting manufacturers defect. Or something added that’s not supposed to be there.

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L86 All Terrain · August 1, 2019

12 hours ago, Jacoby said:

I change mine every 5k miles and run 5w-30 full syn. The 0w20 imo is way to thin for the climate where I live. I rarely go WOT as I’m lifted with 35’s. Even with my 4.56 gears it’s still a lot of strain on the driveline. But I don’t baby it either.

Viscosity has very little to do with oil performance. A good synthetic 0w20 provides just as much lubricity, shear resistance and breakdown performance as a comparable 5w30. The reason they use the lighter oil is because of the increased compression of the LT series engines over the LS engines. Ask any high compression, performance engine owner what they run in their drag or stock car. I bet none will tell you 5w-30 as it is too thick for anything over 11:1 and increases pressures on your rod bearings and piston rings. The piston rings are shot on my lawnmower, it calls for 5w30, so I put 15w40 diesel oil in it and it runs great with little to no smoke, all it does is pile the 5w30 on the piston and burns it into your face, cant even see let alone cut grass.

Edited August 1, 2019 by L86 All Terrain

Jacoby · August 1, 2019

6 minutes ago, L86 All Terrain said:

Viscosity has very little to do with oil performance. A good synthetic 0w20 provides just as much lubricity, shear resistance and breakdown performance as a comparable 5w30. The reason they use the lighter oil is because of the increased compression of the LT series engines over the LS engines. Ask any high compression, performance engine owner what they run in their drag or stock car. I bet none will tell you 5w-30 as it is too thick for anything over 11:1 and increases pressures on your rod bearings and piston rings. The piston rings are shot on my lawnmower, it calls for 5w30, so I put 15w40 diesel oil in it and it runs great with little to no smoke, all it does is pile the 5w30 on the piston and burns it into your face, cant even see let alone cut grass.

That’s bullshit. They use 20 weight to gain mpgs. I explained why I use what I use. Not gonna argue about it. You do u and I’ll do me.

mookdoc6 · August 1, 2019

9 minutes ago, Jacoby said:

That’s bullshit. They use 20 weight to gain mpgs. I explained why I use what I use. Not gonna argue about it. You do u and I’ll do me.

oh..strictly for MPG's? Oh..OK?

Jacoby · August 1, 2019

8 minutes ago, mookdoc6 said:

oh..strictly for MPG's? Oh..OK?

Every other motor in the lineup specs 30 weight except for the truck motor. Yes it’s for mpgs. Plenty of other threads on here for you to read that make perfect sense why you don’t have to run a 20 weight oil exclusively in these trucks.

In TX I don’t need to run an oil speced for use in the coldest of climates. That’s just dumb.

Stop ruining the ops thread and go somewhere else to argue

Grumpy Bear · August 2, 2019

Ever pour ice cold oil on a flat surface? Pretty thick. Hot oil? Really hot oil? While viscosity is a measure of a fluids internal resistance to flow it is also a proxy for film thickness. The films thickness and it's resistance to flow (viscosity) have little to do with it's film strength. That said....it matters little how strong the film is IF IT ISN'T THICK ENOUGH TO PREVENT METAL TO METAL CONTACT. The worst oil that meets manufactures API specs will satisfy the film thickness if the viscosity is 10 cSt at your bulk oil temperature.

18 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Bulk oil temperature should produce a viscosity of 10 cSt. That is the design number the OEM's use to chose a SAE viscosity grade. Car, truck, lawn mower, motorcycle...whatever. Viscosity is temperature dependent. Temperature of the bulk oil temperature is dependent on air and water temperature, load and rpm. A bit more produces drag and hurts efficiency. Less kills motors.

My 4.3 specifies 5W30 meaning my target sump temperatures would be 221 F. Problem is 220 F accelerates oxidation...allot. Worse she was running over 235 F at 55 mph on an average summer day...mid 80's (F). The 4.3 oil cooler is in the HOT tank not the cold tank like the 5.3/6.2's. Water thermostat being 207 F and about a 20 F approach temperature means the coldest tank temp I could ever hope for was 227F. Imagine what the temperatures were at 75/80 mph? I generated the charts for my application and modified to suit.

I run a 170 F water thermostat and 0W20 Red Line. Run 55 mph and the tank temps run 194F to 197 F on a 90 F day. At 5K OCI's the oil is just starting to darken and gets changed like my motors life depends on it. It does. As the OEM wished the oil was black by 2K and at $12 a quart that wasn't going to stand.

People hang their hats on the oils ability to 'handle the temperature' ( very foolish) and yes a polyol ester can take some heat before thermal oxidation kills it's CHEMISTY. But it is viscosity that keeps the parts apart and if it isn't 10 cSt minimum in the tank at your running conditions bad things WILL happen....in time.

Do you know your tank temperature?

What is your oil sump temperature?

What is your SAE grade?

What is the viscosity at that temperature?

EvaSiince92 · August 4, 2019

Thanks everybody. So when I get my truck back, how would I go about maintaining it from then on?

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diyer2 · August 4, 2019

Repeat what you were doing IMO.

Great oil Amsoil. I won't pay for it.

You just got a bad motor.

The BG 44k won't stop or help with the valve deposits due to the motor being direct injection.

Use top tier gas only? Can't hurt.

TXGREEK · August 4, 2019

Can anyone give me insight as to what's causing my engine to be replaced at such low mileage? Went to get warranty work done because truck would have a slight knocking sound close to rear of front tire (bellhousing area). A week before truck gets dropped off, CEL comes on. It threw a P0308 code. Two weeks later, truck is still being diagnosed. Then, they report back saying cylinder 8 test was all good, but it is still misfiring. Noise persists and they reccomend engine tear down. They find that lifters need to be replaced along with camshaft due to pitting. Then send in parts sheet which include all new lifters, seals, camshaft, actuator and gaskets. Most of which are backordered. 1 month goes by and engine now needs to be replaced, a lot of carbon deposit and buildup is found and #8 cylinder wall is scored up. Deposit was so bad they say there was also rust.
My question is how did this happen? This truck is babied, never has seen WOT or even 80+ mph. Maintenance has been on time. Amsoil signature every 4-5k miles, premium gas (one brand all its life), synthetic air filter, a can of BG44K every oil change. I'm just confused? Is it bad gas? Is it improper maintenance? Someone help me out.

I once used a shell station at the Port of Houston area for 95% of my fueling, turned out they had very dirty fuel and after three separate visits to the dealership for injector replacements I stopped going there and never again had that problem. Gas stations are mostly independently owned, many stations have been on the news for problems with dirty gas. You’re doing it right but not at all necessary to add any oil additive when using Amsoil. IMHO, BG is not required and doesn’t work well with Amsoil 100% synthetic and may be causing buildup. I’ve been using Amsoil Signature Series for over a year with excellent results on my 2018 6.2, change every 4K miles with noticeable smoother engine. Fuel and oil additives can be the culprit.

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EvaSiince92 · August 4, 2019

So no catch can either this time again? For being 3 yrs old, switching from M1 to amsoil was the biggest noticeable difference. I also switched gas from Hele (hawaii branded) top tier to Texaco. Added bg44k. Why is bg marketed for gdi engines if it wont help?

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TXGREEK · August 4, 2019

So no catch can either this time again? For being 3 yrs old, switching from M1 to amsoil was the biggest noticeable difference. I also switched gas from Hele (hawaii branded) top tier to Texaco. Added bg44k. Why is bg marketed for gdi engines if it wont help?

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Apparently, it’s a GM partnership, it’s all about profit margin, sorta like building and continuing to sell a transmission that was known to have issues prior to selling, profit margin. Some folks are into that snake oil, attributing their engine lasting many miles to it, pure luck of the draw. Use Amsoil without any additives and it alone is 75% more protection than dealership oil changes.

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