General Question From A New Guy

[Lebrond]

Hi everyone, I came across this forum a lot while skimming and scanning for other stuff and finally decided to join I have a 1999 Chevy Tahoe 5.7 w/ 100,000 miles on my replaced engine and Ive been running Castrol GTX/GTX HM with Lucas for a year (Never running Lucas anymore after doing some reading),and I wanted to try something new or whatever's the best.It just seems like the Castrol Burns off alot. Thanks

 

[addyguy]

Try the new Quaker State 'Defy' 10W-30.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Valvoline MaxLife (either regular or NextGen version) is an excellent oil at a cheap price. Buy the MaxLife NextGen at Advance Auto Parts and they'll send you a $20 debit card (Visa or MC, I forget). Great deal for great oil.

 

[Thax]

Welcome !! Give us some more info , what viscosity of GTX are you using and how long is your OCI (oil change interval) the more info we can get the better the responses.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Lebrond
Hi everyone, I came across this forum a lot while skimming and scanning for other stuff and finally decided to join I have a 1999 Chevy Tahoe 5.7 w/ 100,000 miles on my replaced engine and Ive been running Castrol GTX/GTX HM with Lucas for a year (Never running Lucas anymore after doing some reading),and I wanted to try something new or whatever's the best.It just seems like the Castrol Burns off alot. Thanks


Fist off:

to the forum!

"Best" is hard to define and depends a lot on the specific engine. Tell us a bit about your rebuild- stock? Slightly modified? Heavily modified? How fast is your burn-off rate with the Castrol? Quart per thousand miles, quart per 3000? What grade are you running, 10w30? 5w30? Any smoke on startup?

If I were you, I'd experiment gradually. Stay with the same grade, but try a different brand, maybe Pennzoil yellow bottle, or either Pennzoil or Mobil 1 if you want to try a synthetic. And good call on losing the Lucas Mucus

 

[danthaman1980]

Try Pennzoil. IMHO, you'll be hard pressed to find a better conventional motor oil. Quaker State is also supposed to be very good.

 

[larryn]

I have used castrol gtx 5w30/10w30 in mt 99 tahoe 5.7l for 130k miles. It runs like new, cmopression exl.oil use ,almost none. Hauled an rv trailer 90kk of those miles.More than pleased with GTX.

 

[NHGUY]

Gee what changed your mind about Lucas? lol

I'm no Castrol fan,but now that they partially sponsor the website,you may not want to discount them entirely.
(personally,BP is not on my Christmas list...).

 

[JHZR2]

I was under the impression that castrol was one of the least volatile PCMOs out there. IMO you really need to get to the bottom of your oil loss first - is it truly consumption, or is it leakage? May be tough to track.

If it is really consuming, your best bet is to move to an HDEO (15w-40) for a few ocis and see if it changes. There may not be a real solution to your consumption.

If its really actually leaking from a vc or the oil pan or main seal, you just have to fix it if HM oils aren't swelling it.

Good luck and welcome!

 

[Lebrond]

Me and my dad were talking a bit and I told him some of you guys thoughts......I think the burning issue is a small leak in the oil cooler line,and I have extra weight (26 inch rims) and I also burn my air sometimes so im kinda thinking that motor is just doing alot so im thinking about going with a Mobil oil 5w30 or 10w30..dont really care for Penzoil or Quaker state and Ive never ran Valvoline

 

[JHZR2]

Oil cooler lines in the 4.3 are prone to weeping out oil. The 4.3 is the same as the 5.7, so I'd guess the lines are the same.

Track down your leaks, no oil is going to stop consumption if it is dropping out.