German Castrol>Engine Noise LT1

[97autoz28]

I have a 97 LT1 Z28 with 94k miles on it. I recently purchased the car this summer. The car had Pennzoil 5w30 used it in its whole life. At 89k when I got it I read some stuff on here about German Castrol 0w30. So I switched it over and now I'm getting some loud ticking in my engine.

At cold start up I hear some light ticking for probably 30 seconds. But after the car has been at operating temperature for 10-15 minutes thats when the loud ticking starts. My mechanic looked for cracks in the flexplate, metal shaving in the oil, and several other things.

He ended up telling me to dump the synthetic oil and put some regular 10w30 in it. I live in Indiana and the winters can be pretty cold here. So what do you guys think I should do?

Leave the German Castrol in?
Change synthetics to maybe something like Pennzoil Platinum 10w30?
Change back to Pennzoil Conventional oil 5w30?

Thanks.

 

[SLCraig]

Why not go back to its previous diet and see how it goes?

If it sounds better and runs fine on the Pennz, switch back, should not be any harm in doing so.

 

[hpichris]

Switch back and see what happens. No harm in switching it. I agree with Craig.

 

[Trav]

GC is not to thin for this engine it may even slightly thicker than the 5w30 you were running.It could be doing some serious cleaning,keep running it for a while it certainly cant do any harm.

 

[jigen]

I was in a similar situation as you but with an LS1 Z28. I read up on GC 0w30 and decided to use it. A lot of people have very good results with GC in LS1's (not sure about the LT1's) but I did not. Engine noise was much louder, not as quiet at idle... I ran it a full 6 months and changed it out with Pennzoil Platinum and I feel like the engine likes this oil much, much more. I had a lousy UOA using GC too but I wouldn't blame the oil since I had a few other factors to consider there.

It's a great oil, just not in my case.

If I were you personally, I would switch over Pennzoil Platinum.

 

[Geo_Prizm]

Saturn is a GM engine, anything can happen with that.Be careful.

 

[saberz]

The engine is fine, certain oils behave differently under different circumstances.

 

[cchase]

You're making me wonder about putting GC in my LS2...

 

[UNC017]

Before you dump all the oil, try changing just the filter and adding enough make-up GC to bring the level back to full. My hunch is that your filter has a bad anti-drainback valve and that the oil has nothing to do with it. This test will tell you whether its the oil or filter. If you just dump all the oil AND the filter and the sound goes away, you won't know which really fixed the issue- the oil or the filter.

 

[saberz]

Good advice 440Magnum! Helps being on a forum, what one forgets another will remember.

 

[[RT] ProjUltraZ]

you can try the filter tip, GC is good oil but check out the threads on MMO and Auto-Rx, i'd say with that mileage it could use some cleaning. i'm running Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 which is pretty thin like a 0w30 and no ticks

you can PM me if you want to hear other little things to do to get it tip top, i have the same car but 94

 

[sangyup81]

I wouldn't just jump to 10w30 like that. Try Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 since there's a nice $15 rebate for getting the 5 quart at Walmart for $20 =)

 

[97autoz28]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Before you dump all the oil, try changing just the filter and adding enough make-up GC to bring the level back to full. My hunch is that your filter has a bad anti-drainback valve and that the oil has nothing to do with it. This test will tell you whether its the oil or filter. If you just dump all the oil AND the filter and the sound goes away, you won't know which really fixed the issue- the oil or the filter.



Yeah I've thought about doing this. The oil filter on it is a Purolator Pure One. This is my second oil change with the GC. The first one I noticed the ticking at cold start. But now I hear this loud ticking/clatter noise at IDLE. I dont hear any strange noise when reving or accelerating. Its only at hot idle.

I wonder what about the GC or oil filter would make my engine make the clatter/tick at hot idle. The ticking at startup is much more minor and disappears after 30 seconds.

If the filter does not do the trick I think I will try Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 before switching back to conventional.

 

[97autoz28]

Anyone?

 

[mechanicx]

I thought the LT1, LS1 and all Chevy V8s had the filter mounted with the base up so the ADBV didn't matter. The ADBV wouldn't explain why you'd have lifter tick still after warmup. Maybe you have piston slap? It can sound a lot like a lifter tick.

I'm not sure how synthetic oil 0w30 could cause more noise than 5w30 conventional. Why not go back to 5w30 that was working before?

What's this German Castrol? How is it any different from Syntec or Edge?

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: sangyup81
I wouldn't just jump to 10w30 like that. Try Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 since there's a nice $15 rebate for getting the 5 quart at Walmart for $20 =)


there is? 5 qt bottle or on 5 one qt. bottles?

 

[97autoz28]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I thought the LT1, LS1 and all Chevy V8s had the filter mounted with the base up so the ADBV didn't matter. The ADBV wouldn't explain why you'd have lifter tick still after warmup. Maybe you have piston slap? It can sound a lot like a lifter tick.

I'm not sure how synthetic oil 0w30 could cause more noise than 5w30 conventional. Why not go back to 5w30 that was working before?

What's this German Castrol? How is it any different from Syntec or Edge?


Yeah they are mounted with the base up. At least mine is. Yeah I wondered about the piston slap myself. But the real noise comes after its been at operating temperature for 10-15 minutes. I only hear it at idle. Im not sure how the oil would either, I figured if anyone would know you guys would. From what I know the German Castrol is a thicker 30weight thats closer to a 40weight when hot. I wanted to go with synthetic but heard mobil was on the thin side.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: 97autoz28
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I thought the LT1, LS1 and all Chevy V8s had the filter mounted with the base up so the ADBV didn't matter. The ADBV wouldn't explain why you'd have lifter tick still after warmup. Maybe you have piston slap? It can sound a lot like a lifter tick.

I'm not sure how synthetic oil 0w30 could cause more noise than 5w30 conventional. Why not go back to 5w30 that was working before?

What's this German Castrol? How is it any different from Syntec or Edge?


Yeah they are mounted with the base up. At least mine is. Yeah I wondered about the piston slap myself. But the real noise comes after its been at operating temperature for 10-15 minutes. I only hear it at idle. Im not sure how the oil would either, I figured if anyone would know you guys would. From what I know the German Castrol is a thicker 30weight thats closer to a 40weight when hot. I wanted to go with synthetic but heard mobil was on the thin side.


This is leading me to believe that it might be piston slap. Perhaps the heavy weight when hot with the GC doesn't splash lube the pistons, cylinders or rings as well so the piston can slap more? On the other hand a hot engine usually quiets down piston slap, and valvetrain noise too for that matter. Another theory could be that the lifters are letting the hot oil bleed out faster than they are being filled with oil due to a feed restriction from maybe a contanimate. I'm not a big oil supplement believer but if it is valvetrain noise MMO can clean it out.

Is it sort of a fast, random clicking or knocking noise?

 

[mechanicx]

I wanted to add if you determine it is the lifter causing the noise and not pistons, on an LT1 you can easily check/readjust the lifter preload with the valve cover(s) off. Sometimes they get out of adjustment and it has nothing to do with the oil. You might want to use a new interference nut on any pushrods that had came loose. You'd probably want to change the oil and maybe try MMO, before doing that work though.

I don't know that engine oil or an oil additive like MMO can fix piston slap but you never know

. How's your oil consumption been? Might be a long shot but hows your pcv system?

 

[97autoz28]

Thanks for the advice. I figured it wasnt piston slap since it gets louder when the engine warms up. But I'm a noob when it comes to engine noises. I noticed the noise when I changed my oil the last time. As soon as I cranked it up it had this weird ticking/clatter noise for maybe 10 seconds(which scared the [censored] out of me) Then the oil pressure guage shot up and it went away until warm.

The oil consumption has been great and no noticed loss of oil at all. The pcv valve was replaced about 3 months ago when I bought the car. My oil change history goes like this:

8/04/09 Changed 5w30 pennzoil to GC - very minor tick at cold start.

10/27/09 Changed oil and filter GC used Pure One filter- noise when first cranking it up after oil change- then loud tick when warm.

I've put 600 miles on it since I last changed it on the 27th of October. It seems to run very strong other than this weird noise.

Noise sounds like its coming from bottom end of engine area. Did the usual flexplate crack check, torque converter bolts, looked for metal shavings in old oil. One shop says wrist pin, other says change oil back to conventional and get new motor mounts. I'm having a real time with this car lol.