I drive both city and highway and I am pretty hard on the car. The most I've let the oil go is 5000 miles and that's maybe once or twice in the winter. Every other time it's 3000 miles.

After tearing apart the motor at 45k, there was ZERO sign of wear on bearins, cams and lifters - which is what I want. That was from using M1 5W30 and PU 5W30 and changing every 3000 miles. I asked about the 0W40 or the GC 0W30 because I found information that they are good for Turbo motors. I was hoping someone had experience with it and so far IamBroke said to stray away from the 0W30 because of the cam phasers.

After more reading last night and asking more questions on other forums, it has been said that Redline 0W30 is actually on the thicker side of a 30 weight and is very good in Turbo motors.

I'm just doing some research in oils since drag season is approaching.

 

Is it really necessary to change fully synthetic oil every 3k miles? On my old 2002 V6 Ford Mustang I used Mobil 1 and would change the filter every 3k but the actual oil I would let go 6k or 9k before changing it and I never had any problems with it.

 

Nope, not necessary at all. With today's oils in today's motors, drain intervals can go 5k+ no problem (depending on driving conditions).

I'm just **** about my oil and want to prepair myself to properly protect the engine while on the track this season. People say it's a waste of money- I think it's an insurance policy.

 

why not start getting your oil analyzed after every change, and then you can see how close or far it is from being worn out, and then maybe start doing 5k changes and have it analyzed after that as well to prove to yourself it is well within spec, I am curious as to what your O.L.M. says when you get to the point where you change it

 

Gremlin85 - You may also want to consider that the M1 0W-40 has a 1.3% ash content vs the M1 5W-30 only has a 0.8% ash content, here is a quote from(a performance engineer with GM) on another form about this subject "I personally like Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5W-40. it is a 5W40 oil but it has significantly lower ash content that the "regular" Mobile 1. Ash content can lead to pre-ignition and engine damage especially of you are using increased boost." If you are factory tuned then their are no worries, but if you are running higher boost then you may want to consider the ash content.

 

That is information I have not seen. Thank you for this!

The more I go 'round and 'round with oils, researching additive packages, looking up peoples OLM and trying to compare everything, I'm noticing that the Mobil 1 recommended is really probably the best overall to use with this motor for MOST driving conditions.

Tracking it regularly and racing it regularly will need something a little more robust, of course.

I've been getting myself twisted up in comparing M1 5W30 to Redline 0W30.

I'm dizzy.

 

My UOA at 5k miles on the oil, 40k on the 'balt (~38% oil life left) showed I had around 3k life left in it per Blackstone Labs. They recommended trying 7k and retesting. Castrol Syntec 5w-30 FWIW. I kept changing it at 5k as I flogged it a bit.

The OLM is pretty damn close me thinks.

 

5,000km is 60-70% oil life remaining. Depends on winter or summer but I don't drive that aggressive.

 

Seeing as that when taking a look at the motors bearings, cams and whatnot when it was torn down at 45k, there was almost Zero wear - I think if I continue to use M1 5W30 I'll be in good shape. It wouldn't hurt to TRY different oils, but hands on experience shows M1 does it's thing very very well.

I think the OLM is also pretty accurate as well.

 

So if you change your oil every 5000 miles how often do you typically change your filter? As I mentioned before I'd let my oil go 6 to 9k in my Mustang but I'd change the filter every 3k miles, but that was mostly just because that's what my dad taught me to do growing up. But I'm thinking that with a high performance vehicle it might be a different story.

 

If the oil is still good and holding up to the 6-9k changes with a filter change in the middle, that's fine. I see nothing wrong with changing a filter at 3k when going extended intervals on oil.

I always change my filter at every oil change, so every 3k miles.

Again, I see nothing wrong with changing the filter at 3k miles when running the oil up to 9k.