4.3 Vortec OCI's and GM OLM

[Realtech214]

Hey guys. Whats a good OCI for a 4.3 chevy vortec (2003 silverado) when running castrol GTX?? Also the oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil? Just wondering. Also thinking about switching to synthetic and wondering if you could help me. Its got 80000 mi on it and has always ran conventional. Think there may be any problems with switching now?

 

[LeakySeals]

Dino OLM OCI's was too much for the GP in my sig IMO. Varnished up pretty good, early onset of sludge. Switch away. Check the GM V6 used oil analysis, you will find PP is a great match.

 

[fxrider]

Go with a dino High Mileage oil and change every 5000 miles .

 

[randomhero439]

I would say try 5000 miles on Dino and 7000-7500 on Synthetic

My calculator gets 4400 miles or 5 months on Castrol GTX.

 

[blackman777]

Originally Posted By: Realtech214
oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil?

Yes. Change the oil shortly after it reaches 50%. That's the MIL-spec standard... cut all estimates in half to allow a large margin for error. So just shy of 4000 miles.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: blackman777
Originally Posted By: Realtech214
oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil?

Yes. Change the oil shortly after it reaches 50%. That's the MIL-spec standard... cut all estimates in half to allow a large margin for error. So just shy of 4000 miles.


So, a month since you made this statement:

Originally Posted By: blackman777
Which should I use for a brand-new Chevy Equinox V6. Oh and it has an oil change indicator. Does tht thing actually monitor the oil quality? How does it do that? With a sensor? I'm inclined to ignore it and just do 7500 miles each time (like my old 1999 Chevy).

Oh and I've always used Pennzoil conventional oil, so I'm leaning that way.




You are now an expert on OLM's?

Interesting........

 

[asand1]

How many quarts does that system hold? I imagine that little motor has a pretty hard life moving that full size truck around.
7K would seem a whole lot on a 4.3 in a full size truck using less that 5qt of dino.
That said, I have heard that the GM OLM will have you change oil in as few as 2K depending on driving style.

 

[randomhero439]

Originally Posted By: asand1
How many quarts does that system hold? I imagine that little motor has a pretty hard life moving that full size truck around.
7K would seem a whole lot on a 4.3 in a full size truck using less that 5qt of conventional.
That said, I have heard that the GM OLM will have you change oil in as few as 2K depending on driving style.


4.5qt sump. Pretty small for 7k on conventional oil

 

[shell_user]

OVERKILL, he isnt a expert at all, he's just offering his "opinion"

 

[blackman777]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
You are now an expert on OLM's?

Interesting........

- A month ago I knew nothing about oil change calculators.
- And now I've had a month to review Bob's forum and http://startpage.com searches, and what I see is that a lot of engines are getting sludged because of these OLM things taking the oil waaaay too long.
- So now (in my opinion) the OLMs cannot be trusted, especially for conventional oils. Based upon my research I would not run the OLM lower than 50%. I would run to that point and then change the oil on the weekend. That is what I am doing with the new GM in my family.

 

[Realtech214]

I would say the GM OLM would be better suited for running full synthetic. I have always change mine at 3000 or so. Never seen it say "change engine oil" . I'll remember not to reset it next time to see how long it take to say change oil.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: blackman777
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
You are now an expert on OLM's?

Interesting........

- A month ago I knew nothing about oil change calculators.
- And now I've had a month to review Bob's forum and http://startpage.com searches, and what I see is that a lot of engines are getting sludged because of these OLM things taking the oil waaaay too long.
- So now (in my opinion) the OLMs cannot be trusted, especially for conventional oils. Based upon my research I would not run the OLM lower than 50%. I would run to that point and then change the oil on the weekend. That is what I am doing with the new GM in my family.







The only sludged engines I recall seeing on this site were either:

1. Not OLM equipped
2. Had coolant leaking into the oil
3. Were a Toyota "known sludger" or a Honda VCM engine

I don't recall seeing any pictures of mechanically healthy engines with the oil changed at the OLM interval full of sludge.

If you've got some examples of this, I'd love to see them!

 

[DirtRacer53]

Originally Posted By: Realtech214
Hey guys. Whats a good OCI for a 4.3 chevy vortec (2003 silverado) when running castrol GTX?? Also the oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil? Just wondering. Also thinking about switching to synthetic and wondering if you could help me. Its got 80000 mi on it and has always ran conventional. Think there may be any problems with switching now?

The oil life monitors on the 4.3 are very accurate. If you were running conventional the OLM would have gone off long before 7k miles, more closer to 4500 miles. I switched from conventional to synthetic at around 50,000 miles on my engine. And since then, my oil consumption went down considerably. These 4.3's in my opinion, run better on sythetic than conventional. If your not leaking oil, I wouldn't bother with High millage oil unless you are, or stick with conventional. If you do switch to syntetic, consider going to a oil filter with a silicone ADBV. Just follow your Oil life monitor and change when it says too. And check your fluids regularly.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: DirtRacer53
Originally Posted By: Realtech214
Hey guys. Whats a good OCI for a 4.3 chevy vortec (2003 silverado) when running castrol GTX?? Also the oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil? Just wondering. Also thinking about switching to synthetic and wondering if you could help me. Its got 80000 mi on it and has always ran conventional. Think there may be any problems with switching now?

The oil life monitors on the 4.3 are very accurate. If you were running conventional the OLM would have gone off long before 7k miles, more closer to 4500 miles. I switched from conventional to synthetic at around 50,000 miles on my engine. And since then, my oil consumption went down considerably. These 4.3's in my opinion, run better on sythetic than conventional. If your not leaking oil, I wouldn't bother with High millage oil. If you do switch to syntetic, consider going to a oil filter with a silicone ADBV. Just follow your Oil life monitor and change when it says too.


The OLM has no idea you are running conventional or synthetic. It assumes you are running an oil that meets whatever spec's GM requires for the application, that's it.

 

[DirtRacer53]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: DirtRacer53
Originally Posted By: Realtech214
Hey guys. Whats a good OCI for a 4.3 chevy vortec (2003 silverado) when running castrol GTX?? Also the oil life monitor goes off at about 7K miles right? Does not that sound like a little much on conventional oil? Just wondering. Also thinking about switching to synthetic and wondering if you could help me. Its got 80000 mi on it and has always ran conventional. Think there may be any problems with switching now?

The oil life monitors on the 4.3 are very accurate. If you were running conventional the OLM would have gone off long before 7k miles, more closer to 4500 miles. I switched from conventional to synthetic at around 50,000 miles on my engine. And since then, my oil consumption went down considerably. These 4.3's in my opinion, run better on sythetic than conventional. If your not leaking oil, I wouldn't bother with High millage oil. If you do switch to syntetic, consider going to a oil filter with a silicone ADBV. Just follow your Oil life monitor and change when it says too.


The OLM has no idea you are running conventional or synthetic. It assumes you are running an oil that meets whatever spec's GM requires for the application, that's it.


Still, I would follow the OLM and change the oil when it says it's time, conventional or synthetic.

 

[Realtech214]

I will probably switch to Pennzoil Platinum 10W30 at my next change. Just changed with GTX and a Delco filter two weeks ago so Ittle be a while. Im not going to use High milage unless I need to. I dont have any leaks now.

 

[Zaedock]

I have used mostly Supertech with a few Quaker State, Mobil, or Valvoline conventional changes in our Malibu, to an average of 10% of the OLM, and it is perfectly clean inside.

 

[tiger862]

4.3 engines are the easiest on oil. Worked at dealer and ran bulk oil in all service trucks which were dogged and changed when light came on and all got 400k. I won't run OLM in my own cause it takes over a year and mine is 2.2 GM with over head cams.

 

[bigdawg74]

Originally Posted By: DirtRacer53

If you were running dino the OLM would have gone off long before 7k miles, more closer to 4500 miles.


Depending on driving patterns, it may not have. I changed the oil in my old 2006 Silverado 1500 at one year after 6800 miles on the OCI with no mention of the OLM to change it.

 

[bigdawg74]

Originally Posted By: blackman777
Based upon my research I would not run the OLM lower than 50%. I would run to that point and then change the oil on the weekend.

The older General Motors OLM did not allow you to check what % was left of the oil. It ran "in the background" and when it was time, a "change oil now" message came up on the driver's information center.