Another thing is the L-87 had a compression ratio of either 11.3 or 11.7 and I recall an owners manual suggesting 93 octane gasoline. I wonder how many people used 93. A bit of detonation could always load pistons, connecting rods and bearings. Just another something to consider. I had a friend who always ran 87 and didn’t know about the 93. Did it detune the engine automatically? I guess the knock sensor could have taken care of it but who knows.
GM aborting move to 0w-40
- Thread starter dbias
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Premium is recommend and while the PCM can detect knock and compensate for it to allow running on 87, that doesn't mean knock still can't occur and damage the engine. There is a separate set of table for low and high octane spark advance in the tune, if it detects enough knock it will switch to the low octane tables. Same thing as just about every car that recommends premium. My 89 and 94 Camaros have the same thing and those are old OBD1 cars.
I always run a mix of E85 and 87 octane or 92+ premium in my 2018 Sierra 6.2L. I see no reason to cheap out to save a few cents on gas, if you don't want to buy premium, get a 5.3L instead. I also have been using 5w30 since I bought the truck as well, none of the other 6.2L engines call for 0w20 in the Camaro or Corvette. CAFE standards running 0W20 on truck engines seems like a bad idea to me.
holy smoke
I'm going to say unlikely would have made any difference. I don't think this is an oil related issue and I'll be surprised if the 0w40 stops it from happening.
Most likely some concern with class action lawsuit on mpg drop or EPA want them to pay back carbon credit on the mpg drop and emission increase.
CLEARANCE, CLEARANCE, CLEARANCE !!! Free After Rebate would also be acceptable.
Put 0w20, or better yet 0w16 instead of 5w30 in your 3.6L if you believe that.
During testing for GM, LSJr stated that they had to reduce engine oil viscosity to increase bearing wear.
Thin around and find out.
Out of warranty I would. Well there seems to be two schools of thought here - 1. low viscosity exacerbated the problem. 2. Surface manufacturing defect.
Maybe it's both?
ka9mnx
JoinedMay 21, 2018Messages4,270LocationSouth CarolinaAs I said earlier in this post, this is a lower rod bearing failure. Although I'm not a xw-20 fanboy. this is a very rare issue HTHS will not fix.
2005 Ranger 3.0 - Mobil1 FS Euro 0w-40/SuperTech
2000 4Runner 3.4 - QS FS Euro 5w-40/Toyota
buster, I missed the above post, do the Corvettes and Camaros have the same lower rod bearing failure? I am guessing that the Corvettes and Camaros did not have 0W-20 in the Owner's Manual?
after 13 years of ownership ( and total 22 years for the car), I just now realized that 5W20 ( or recently changed 0W20) might not be helping with engine wear. My mechanic told me last week that Cam lobe is wearing out on my Honda accord 2003 2.4L engine.
I should have switched to 0W30 or 5W30 much earlier if I knew this would happen. Car only has 236K kms on it.
I should have switched to 0W30 or 5W30 much earlier if I knew this would happen. Car only has 236K kms on it.
So once your 3.6L is out of warranty you’re going to put 0w16 (or 0w20?) in it?
Next question; Why would you?
Lake’s video should hit a million views today. And he is not the only content provider on the topic.
This should explain the run on 0w40 engine oil. Anyone who watched any of the videos and has a shred of common sense drained the 0w20 the next day.
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Everything went downhill after that thing that circulated around the world.
I'm never buying new again. Yer rollin' the dice. Buy a used car with a platform/engine that has a proven history. You also don't have to go through all the inevitable warranty/recall work that comes with a new car/platform. A used car comes delivered with all those good times addressed already... typically 
Pay 1/4 the cost of new, drive it for the other 50% of its useful life and have fun maintaining it.
Pay 1/4 the cost of new, drive it for the other 50% of its useful life and have fun maintaining it.
No I'm not going to but I would just to test it. However a UOA may not show or pick up on the wear if it was occurring.
My point was I don't know if it is an oil viscosity related issue. GM seems to think so...
You can test your theory by ditching the 5w30 and running 0w20.
If the engine doesn’t squeak to a stop, move down in viscosity to 0w16 then 0w8.
Are UOAs a reliable indicator of engine wear?
engine wear, no. engine (component) failure, yes.
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Right? Who knew thinner oil could increase engine wear? If only this had been explained by people sooner!
Yes. My 1997 F150 4.6 V8 could advance timing based on higher octave via knock sensor input.
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I don't think I'm keeping this car past the 60k/5 year period, but even if I did I'm not interested in testing ultra-low viscosity oils in it. I'm not advocating for thin oils or even entertaining the viscosity debate. I just am skeptical it is a viscosity issue. Maybe it is though.
wemay
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