Challenges reading oil level after oil change

[70Firebird/TTA]

I have noticed in all my cars..that the TTA is the most difficult to guage the proper oil level after oil change... Is this a property of synthetic oil. I use Castrol Full Synthetic and K/N #HP-3002. The K/N is pretty large compared to stock...thus I add about 1/2 quart over what I would with the smaller oil filter.

Confusion: Its seems to get a correct reading is really difficult.. I fill it about 1/2 qrt short of full and let the engine warm up...then recheck and and top off after to the Full Mark-- till it reaches the full mark. What I am tripping on is when I take the car around the block on a short drive and let it sit for 5 minutes and recheck..the oil usually registers 1/4 to 1/3 qrt over the fill mark. Non of my other cars that I run the dino oil seem to do this disparity.. Getting different readings depending if I get the engine to full operating temp...vs just letting it warm up before rechecking the oil level...should that really change the reading by up to 1/3 qrt???? Is this a property of synthetic oil that it tends to creep up the dipstick LOL... Will it damage the LC-2 if it's a bit overfilled by about 1/4 of a quart???? I have been changing oil in my cars for years....but only the TTA get's the award for crawling under there and begrudgedly draining some out...after I thought it was topped off correctly. At $6.00/qrt..that stuff is gold. LOL

[Razor]

Why are you running synthetic?

Does your engine running a roller cam? If not.. you want to rethink your oil choices.

[70Firebird/TTA]

Razor
So your saying that you don't need to run synthetic on the LC-2. I have always heard that synthetic oil would be less prone to oil coaking on the turbo bearing and prolong the life of the turbo as well as better handle high heat of the turbo engine. Maybe I am wrong here. I am a big fan of Castrol GTX 10-30 (Dino oil)...as my 87 IROC daily driver has accumulated over 300,000 miles on stock engine and still runing smooth. Would this be the same with the TTA??? I am kinda leaning that it wouldn't...

I would be more then happy to drop the price of these oil changes to 1/2.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by 70Firebird/TTA

Razor
So your saying that you don't need to run synthetic on the LC-2. I have always heard that synthetic oil would be less prone to oil coaking on the turbo bearing and prolong the life of the turbo as well as better handle high heat of the turbo engine. Maybe I am wrong here. I am a big fan of Castrol GTX 10-30 (Dino oil)...as my 87 IROC daily driver has accumulated over 300,000 miles on stock engine and still runing smooth. Would this be the same with the TTA??? I am kinda leaning that it wouldn't...

I would be more then happy to drop the price of these oil changes to 1/2.

That is correct. The problem with synthetic oil is it can be very slippery. This can be a huge issue with a flat tappet camshaft. Remember the lifter has to spin in the bore. What spind the lifter is the cam going round and round. An oil that is too slippery can stall the lifter.. then from there you end up with a wiped cam/lifter.. and a mess.

The turbo wont have issue with clean oil. If you let the oil breakdown, turn black.. and then run it through the turbo.. you see where this is going.

The car from factory didnt come with synthetic. So use the recommended oil. Also search the following term "zddp". Lots of reading.

[70Firebird/TTA]

Originally Posted by Razor

That is correct. The problem with synthetic oil is it can be very slippery. This can be a huge issue with a flat tappet camshaft. Remember the lifter has to spin in the bore. What spind the lifter is the cam going round and round. An oil that is too slippery can stall the lifter.. then from there you end up with a wiped cam/lifter.. and a mess.

The turbo wont have issue with clean oil. If you let the oil breakdown, turn black.. and then run it through the turbo.. you see where this is going.

The car from factory didnt come with synthetic. So use the recommended oil. Also search the following term "zddp". Lots of reading.

Thanks for the advice RAZOR. I might just take this advice and go with straight Castrol GTX. There are a lot of supporters of Mobil 1 and Full Synthetics and it can get a bit confusing. Since I am pretty anal about oil changes..... I really don't see an issue changing over. Of course AT THE NEXT OIL CHANGE.

[Quiky One]

Originally Posted by 70Firebird/TTA

Thanks for the advice RAZOR. I might just take this advice and go with straight Castrol GTX. There are a lot of supporters of Mobil 1 and Full Synthetics and it can get a bit confusing. Since I am pretty anal about oil changes..... I really don't see an issue changing over. Of course AT THE NEXT OIL CHANGE.

This is all hearsay but I think that an oil change costs at most $30 and a motor costs atleast $5k.

$30...$5k...$30...$5k..

Need I say more?

Jason

[Razor]

If the car is still on the stock springs, it may not be such an issue as the spring pressure on 20 year old springs.. cant be that high.

My belief is that upgrading the springs(100PSI) and then mixing in the synthetic... is when we split atoms over developing an issue.

[fast400]

Why does the manufactor (who's done extensive testing!!) recommend synthetic oil? I've heard a bunch of neat stories in my time, but oil being too slippery??
If you do a poll, you'll find at least 99% of the folks on this forum use synthetic oil. It has better heat resistance, breakdown resistance, flow properties, cleaning properties, etc,etc,etc.

[Razor]

Call Reed cams in Georgia. They make the 210/205 for our engines.

Use the synthetic... as the old saying.. let us know how it goes


Roller cam and flat tappet are two different animals. As is our 3.8 with the "special" offset on the #3 exhuast lifter bore. .. Type the word "wiped cam" and read read read

[70Firebird/TTA]

Originally Posted by Razor

Call Reed cams in Georgia. They make the 210/205 for our engines.

Use the synthetic... as the old saying.. let us know how it goes


Roller cam and flat tappet are two different animals. As is our 3.8 with the "special" offset on the #3 exhuast lifter bore. .. Type the word "wiped cam" and read read read

It's not my intention to turn this into a Synthetic vs Dino Oil arguement..but at least in terms of brand ...I do know that there are some of our LS1 brothers that swear issues with using Mobil 1 and oil pump failure... at least that is what I read on the LS2 board. Full synthetic oil might not be advantageous in every setup and configuration.

[fast400]

...guess the manufactor's and GM testing folks don't know anything

[Scott89TTA]

Not an issue with cars running roller cams...synthetic is the preference. It was the preference for all years ago but the oil company's have been forced to remove the high levels of Zinc and Phosphorous to avoid cat failure within it's 100,000 mile warranty. The zinc and phosphorous is what lubricates the cam and lifters and avoids damage and wiped cams. You will only get the high amounts of these in "Off Road Use Only" Racing oils and some diesel oils but this is going away as well since diesel's are going to start using cats as well and thus diesel oil will no longer have the zinc and phosphorous as well. So if your running a roller use your choice of synthetic, if running a high performance flat tappet you can still use synthetic but should add a zinc/phosphorous additive such as GM EOS or run a good quality Racing Oil and like RAZOR said keep it clean and change regularly...I switched to Valvoline VR1 10w30

http://www.valvoline.com/downloads/2008-003a.pdf

Lifters

Here's one that's interesting from Car Bibles : The Engine Oil Bible

The question of phosphorus.
Phosphorus is the key component for valve train protection in an engine, and 1600ppm (parts per million) used to be the standard for phosphorus in engine oil. In 1996 that was dropped to 800ppm and then more recently to 400ppm - a quarter of the original spec. Valvetrains and their components are not especially cheap to replace and this drop in phosphorus content has been a problem for many engines. So why was the level dropped? Money. Next to lead, it's the second most destructive substance to shove through a catalytic converter. The US government mandated a 150,000 mile liftime on catalytic converters and the quickest way to do that was to drop phosphorous levels and bugger the valvetrain problem. Literally.
In the US, Mobil 1 originally came out with the 0W40 as a 'European Formula' as it was always above 1000 ppm. This initially got them out of the 1996 800ppm jam and knowledgeable consumers sought it out for obvious reasons. Their 15W50 has also maintained a very high level of phosphorus and all of the extended life Mobil synthetics now have at least 1000ppm. How do they get away with this? They're not classified as energy/fuel conserving oils and thus do not interfere with the precious government CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) ratings. (See my section on the EPA and fuel economy in the Fuel and Engine Bible for more info on this). This also means that they don't get the coveted ratings of other oils but they do protect your valvetrain.


Lots of threads about this...search.

[Razor]

I say eveyone go Royal Purple at 8 bucks a quart.

I'm buying stocks this morning

[fast400]

What I've gathered so far is that for break-in the "high vitamin" conventional oils are better, but after 2-3000 miles the synthetics are the better choice...

[83ttypecooled]

Hi,
That's wrong. They might be having issues, but every Corvette from the LT1 and up has used synthetic oil as OE.So, to blame synthetic oil for a pump failure seems a bit far fetched.

[Quiky One]

Originally Posted by 83ttypecooled

Hi,
That's wrong. They might be having issues, but every Corvette from the LT1 and up has used synthetic oil as OE.So, to blame synthetic oil for a pump failure seems a bit far fetched.

No one blamed synthetic for an oil pump failure anywhere in this thead?

I use synthetic in my truck. I believe in the stuff for certain uses. When I rebuild with a roller cam I'll go back to synthetic. Until then, I'll change my oil after a weekend of racing.

Jason

[70Firebird/TTA]

Actually it was from my LS-1 buddy that mentioned that some LS-1 owners are wary about using Mobil-1 Synthetic (only) and that they have experienced some oil pump failures. He works on his own car(s) and is pretty knowledgable. His position is that it may or may not be the fualt of Mobil-1...but at this stage.. it's not worth the chance for him to run it on his engine when there are other brands of synthetics on the market- (his and some LS-1 owners descretion).