Cdnturboz

I've got about 4000 km's on my 08 SS and am going to be changing the oil. I didn't get the supplement manual with my car so I'm wondering if I go right to using synthetic (mobil 1, etc) or do I need regular oil for the break in period?

any help would be great
thanks
steve

JimzSS

With the s/c cars synthetic.

Tomtwtwtw

It's prefilled with the Mobil1 - keep using that, or similar.

E-Town SS

If you have a SS/TC, it should be synthetic ONLY. Conventional motor oil should NOT go into that engine. It should have came with synthetic, so put it back in there.

I have a 2.4L SS and it only runs synthetic. I know some people on here are down on Mobil 1, but I still think it's good oil. It has to be better than conventional oil.

Really, the advantages of synthetic are many:

1. Stays viscous at low temps (you're from Winnipeg)
2. It's resistant to smoking at high temps
3. Bonds to engine parts for better protection at start-up
4. Lasts longer

Plus lots more reasons.

Cdnturboz

Thanks guys thats what I thought, picked up the mobil 1 just now!

edit: also it is a T/C

frank06silverss

Mine is an 08 tc and i already changed the oil at 1200 km !

I used good quality non-synthetic for the break-in.

I will be changing again at about 5-6000 km.

I havent reset the oil life.

When i get to 0%, witch should be after 10000km, I will switch to synthetic forever.

I did this on my srt4 and it is still running fine at 155000 km !

blackbird

While a lot of the newer conventional oils have decent additive packages and will stand up okay in turbocharged small displacement engines if you change it often, a quality full synthetic will stand up much better to things like extreme heat and pressure and provide outstanding protection compared to merely adequate protection of a conventional oil. Running a full synthetic is about the best thing you can do for your engine. It's what came in the car from the factory, what GM states should be used, and also what the oil life monitor is calibrated for. Tear down two high mileage engines, one that's been running conventional oil and one that has been running synthetic, and even if both were changed religiously the synthetic car will be much cleaner with less wear.

I'm not sure what supplement manual you're talking about but if you didn't get an owner's manual you should head back to your purchasing dealer. The manual for my '08 spells out exactly what oil GM recommends should be used on the SS Turbo. The factory fill is Mobil 1 and and this is what GM recommends as you can see by your oil filler cap and in the manual, but technically any 5w30 (the only viscosity range recommended for all climates on the LNF 2.0L) that meets GM Standard GM4718M can be used. That standard is usually met only by synthetic oils but not all synthetics are certified to it.

If you're really curious about oil, specifications, independent used oil testing, filters, etc., the oil forums has a ton of good info. They, like nearly any online community have people that are heavily opinionated, but you should still find a lot of good tech info over there if you can keep an objective and open mind.

Terminator2

I'll be using valvoline synpower full synthetic when I change my oil this week. It apparently resists wear 4 times better than mobil 1, but I dont know I have always liked valvoline, and I have known quite a few good mechanics that use and recommend it.

billwit

I'm thinking about using the mobil 1 drained out of my cobalt as "new" oil for my beater car. At over $6 a quart that stuff has got to be good, even used.

rat

Except for all of the dirt that falls in the pan under your car when you are draining it... It really isn't that expensive, you don't have to change it very often.

ls1fbody

you should reset the oil life timer everytime. it recalibrates the sensors to read the clean oil.

why wouldn't you?

no it's not good. oil breaks down, little particles, and carbon builduo from the motor end up in the oil. always use new oil.

i really should slap you for posting that.

blackbird

A synthetic oil's base shouldn't break down or "wear out" over time, but multi-viscosity oils can shear down and lose their multi-weight properties (while M1 5w30 is a good oil one thing I don't like as much is that it has shown in testing to shear down to near a 20w towards the end of service life). But if you keep the oil well filtered one thing that will happen and what normally limits service life is the additive package gets used up for things like neutralizing alkaline and other contaminant buildups, the friction modifying material gets used up/burnt off, etc. If you're changing the synthetic when the GM oil life monitor tells you to I wouldn't want to reuse the oil, but if you had a used oil analysis performed along with a TBN (total base number) measurement which is a test to show how much of the additive package is left, if it came back okay you could safely reuse the oil. The problem is those tests (which are good to do occasionally to see if your oil is protecting adequately and to watch for signs of wear or internal issues in higher mileage engines) will cost more than justing buying new synthetic and if you tried to reuse it you'd have to be very careful like mentioned about dirt and other contaminants getting into it while being drained.

If you're paying $6 a quart that's probably the price at an auto parts store. Wal-Mart carries the five quart jugs in most parts of the country for a little over $4/quart and most of the larger auto part chain stores also have periodic specials on synthetic. If you have a beater car but plan to keep it for a long time and/or put a ton of miles on it, you might be best off buying Wal-Mart's house brand Super Tech full synthetic 5 quart jug of oil for ~$15-16. That's only a few bucks a quart for brand new oil and it's probably made by Warren Oil or one of the other big refiner/producers that makes synthetic oils and base stock for other synthetic manufacturers.

PinaSS

Mobil 1 FTW

blackbird

That's their current advertising campaign but I'd take it with a grain of salt without knowing what specific test they're using. It's all too easy to single out a specific test that may or may not even be applicable to an automotive engine and indicative of real world wear characteristics in said engine. For example a lot of those load/ball bearing oil or oil additive tests you might see in late night infomercials have little bearing on how well an oil will protect the different bearing surfaces in your engine. Also I could use bleach in some tests instead of motor oil and it would appear to lubricate better than even the best synthetic but you wouldn't want to run that in your engine.

After saying that there's probably nothing wrong with using nearly any full synthetic currently on the market. To maintain warranty though you'd want to make sure it meets GM's GM4718M standard. If you're curious how it does in actual engines and real world used oil analysis I bet you can find some info on the oil forums I linked to a couple posts back.

steddy2112

iTrader: (1)

It comes pre-broken in from the factory, and is factory filled with mobil 1


says it RIGHT ON THE OIL FILL CAP

.

lecznar1

use mobil 1 chevy uses it right from the factory so why switch? me and all my friends use mobil 1 on all our cars and it is great!

RobertoSS

I only have a 710 cap.....

gatekeeper

I love Mobil 1, but am gonna try the Pennsoil Platinum (full synth) 5w-30 at my 1st change. It meets the GM4718M spec, and cost $19 for a 5qt container at Wally World. Plus I've heard good things about it on the various other forums I frequent.

FYI, I'm at 2800 miles and have 71% oil life remaining. Prolly change it at 50% for my first, and then at 20-30% thereafter.

blackbird

From everything I've read over the last few years the Pennzoil Platinum is a great oil choice in a lot of the smaller displacement boosted engines. The only way to tell for certain how well it will do in the LNF is to have an analysis done but I think it would probably come back as good or better than Mobil 1. There's probably not going to be anything wrong with using M1 5w30 but like I mentioned earlier, a lot of testing has shown it shears down and loses quite a bit of it's multi-viscosity characteristics near the end of its service life.

I've got a large stockpile of synthetics for my other turbo Dodges and other cars, mostly to include M1 0w-40 and 5w40 (Turbo Diesel Truck) depending on the time of year/temps as well as a large amount of Castrol Syntec 0w30 (i.e. "German Castrol"). I'm going to have a factory fill M1 sample sent in for analysis and am running the Castrol in the Cobalt right now. It's on the upper end of the viscosity range for a 30-weight when hot and has tested great in many other applications. I'll probably do a sample of it at 33 or 25% oil life remaining just to make sure, but with a Purolator PureOne filter I'm expecting testing to show it's performing as well and probably better than the M1.

gatekeeper

Where do you send your oil for analysis? I've heard Amsoil customers get this testing for free, but other than that...

blackbird

As far as I know Amsoil the corporation does not provide free oil analysis. It wouldn't surprise me if one of their independent dealer/resellers in your area offered something like that to their larger customers but Amsoil itself doesn't.

There's quite a few independent testing/analysis companies on the market now but I usually recommend Blackstone Labs. There's a couple other places that are a little cheaper but I think you get a little better feedback including comments from their technicians and not just an automated printout (which you also get with Blackstone). If you plan to do a few analyses over time you can save some money by pre-paying for a batch of tests.

If you want to verify how much service life the oil has left in the additive package you'll also want to have a TBN test* performed. Combined with the basic analysis they'll be able to tell you how well it is protecting in your application/use and you can compare how the measured/tested analysis compares to what the oil life monitors says you can run the oil for.


*- a note on the total base number (TBN) test is that it will provide you with the results of your oil at the time you send in a sample but doesn't tell what it starts out at unless you also test a sample of new oil. You don't really need to do that though because a lot of other people have already had new oil analyzed and I'm sure you could find a report for the Pennzoil Platinum over on the oil forums with the starting TBN count. There's a lot of opinionated people over there but also quite a few who are engineers or who have methodically tested different oils in different applications. Just like any forum you sometimes have to read through the fluff but you can find a bunch of great info over there if you put in the effort.

Gestapo007

iTrader: (2)

^what about Amsoil full synthetic. What I used in my LT and what I plan on using in my TC.