Castrol Edge 5w30, 3741 mi, 2010 Camaro SS LS3

[ducatisl]

Hi, long time reader, first time poster. Here's my contribution to the database for those searching for LS3 powered Camaros/Corvettes:

This is probably the 3rd or 4th oil change on my year old LS3 powered Camaro. Engine has aftermarket cam, valvetrain, cold air intake, long tube headers, no cats, 3inch x-piped Magnaflow exhaust, host of suspension pieces, dyno tuned, makes a bit more power than the factory 426hp rating, now somewhere between 550-560hp.

It's a daily driven car, even with all the mods, and I've always been a little concerned with the oil not getting hot enough during a 9 month stretch where my commute only got the oil up to about 180F. First oil changes where either M1 or RP. The lifters don't seem to care for either of those oils and my switch to Castrol Edge seems to have cured some of that lifter noise, but a switch to roller rockers and slightly longer pushrods has mostly rid the lifter noise.

Another concern was the possibility of some fuel making it into the oil, but I've since really nailed down the computer tuning and am pleased overall with the performance, health, etc., of this "old school" design, modern muscle car:
Code:


MI/HR on Oil 3,741 UNIVERSAL

MI/HR on Unit 21,280 AVERAGES

Sample Date 4/14/2011

Make Up Oil Added 0 qts



ALUMINUM 7 6

CHROMIUM 4 2

IRON 36 30

COPPER 94 85

LEAD 1 7

TIN 0 1

MOLYBDENUM 88 91

NICKEL 1 1

MANGANESE 2 2

SILVER 0 0

TITANIUM 0 0

POTASSIUM 2 2

BORON 26 66

SILICON 11 19

SODIUM 4 9

CALCIUM 2568 2506

MAGNESIUM 117 102

PHOSPHORUS 630 733

ZINC 677 871

BARIUM 0 0



SUS Viscosity @ 210°F 54.9

cSt Viscosity @ 100°C 8.73

Flashpoint in °F 355

Fuel % 0.5

Antifreeze % 0

Water % 0

Insolubles % 0.3

TBN 3.5

TAN

ISO Code

 

[Loobed]

Those GM motors sure produce wear metals, especially when new-ish.

Is the 100*C cst out of grade? looks like a 20W

 

[Steve S]

I like pushrod engines because they are compact in comparison to OHC.

 

[Torrid]

Your car should already have rollers. Mine is loud with M1 if I do not add ZDDP. I have considered Edge. If it helped your lifter noise I think I will try it in my GTO.

 

[ducatisl]

Sure, it has roller lifters, and the rockers have trunion bearings, but the tips are not, so I switched to Yella Terra full (trunion and tips) roller rockers.

I switched to an 0.025 longer pushrod to bring lifter preload up a little, to about 0.060 average as I recall.

At around a steady 2000 rpm, a little noise comes thru, but I think it's mainly the Patriot dual springs and heavy steel retainers which I'm swapping out this weekend for CompCams ovate beehive springs and much smaller/lighter titanium retainers. I think once those are in, all the valvetrain noise should go away .

 

[Torrid]

I still have stock cam and drivetrain so if that's all the noise you have it should quiet mine up.

 

[steve20]

I wouldn't concern myself with the wear metals-as said before the GM v8's put out a lot of wear emtals for prolly 40K miles, then quiet down.

I got 83 on the copper level on my LS6 with 14K miles on it-I'm not concerned as it's not even settled in yet

 

[Torrid]

Originally Posted By: Loobed


Those GM motors sure produce wear metals, especially when new-ish.

Is the 100*C cst out of grade? looks like a 20W



I was looking at the PDS for this oil and thought it was worth noting that the starting 210 degree viscosity is 9.7. The 10w30 on the other hand starts at 11.4.

 

[ducatisl]

Torrid, forgive my ignorance, but what are you implying regarding the 210F viscosity? That the 5w30 and 10w30 oils are close?

 

[steve20]

that they are not close...in this spec...you would have to get the HTHS data for each to really compare them