LS1 Break In Questions

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My 98 Camaro SS is just about done getting it's engine rebuilt. The shop said they will fill it with break in oil, start it to check that everything is ok, let it come up to temp and then change the oil with Royal Purple.

How many miles should I go before I change it? Should I have that first change analyzed?

I plan on running Amsoil in it. (I had previously run M1, before I spun a rod bearing.) I drive the car about 100 miles a week or so. (I commute with it once a week 50 miles each way.) I also open track the car once or twice a month when the budget allows. (Not likely for a couple of months after paying for the rebuild.)

So which Amsoil should I run S2? 0W30 20W50?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Hi Mike,
I was just talking about your spun bearing in another thread. Be careful here. Some guys think this happened to you because GM is junk.
Also they hate Royal Purple. Glad you are mentioning Amsoil cause you will get nothing but criticism for Royal Purple here. Except from me. I think I'm the only guy using it with a positive testimonial.

Leo
 
Which thread? Mark thinks the bearing spun because of the torque to yield rod bolt streching over time and abuse. Mark it the one that likes the Royal Purple.

I just signed up as a Amsoil dealer so I will be giving it a go. Maybe I can write off some of my racing as a business expense now.
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Hi Mike,
Here you go!
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002553

Amsoil dealer. That's great! That oil is great for extended drains. Would you believe I still have the same oil I ran HPDE at Cal Speedway, and Holtville track day with you! I'm using Royal Purple 15w40. I've got almost 6000 miles on that oil already with a filter change only at 5000 miles.
Anyways it's a lot of fun here talking about oil. I have learned a lot since I began here.

Leo
 
I've been hanging out here a little bit lately and learning a ton. I'm hoping to learn what these great minds think about break in.
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Both Redline and Royal Purple reps told me to put 5000 miles on my rebuilt engine first before putting their oils in. They said it was so slick it wouldn't break in properly. So I did that with Chevron Delo 400 15w40. At first Morgan Motorsports had straight 30w dino for breakin and I changed that out at 500 miles. I ran it very hard during breakin in to seat everything. Then I changed to Royal Purple 15w40 and changed it out after I broke my valve spring at 1000 miles. Put the same in and now it's been in there for 6000 miles. It got a little dirty at 5000 miles. That's when I did a filter change using our stock GM PF44 filter. The oil cleaned right back up again like new. I going to go to 10000 miles before I change it out completely. I would have used Redline but that stuff is too expensive at $7.95/qt. Royal Purple sells at NAPA for $3.99/qt. It fully synthetic just like Amsoil and Redline.

Leo
 
Redline costs more cause its worth more. Probably there is another reason for a spun bering than the M1 oil . G.M. stuff IMO is crap but chevrolet type engines are what I would hotrod ,car or boat. Good prices on parts easy to work with and all the hotrodding tricks are well known.
 
I don't know that I would go sofar as to call the LS1 crap. I had 63,000 miles on my car and have treated it like a race car for the last year. Doing that on most any production engine is asking for trouble. Maybe you could getaway with it with a Porsche, but then again I can do several more rebuilds before I've spent what a Porsche would have cost.
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My mechanic feels that the rod bolt was the problem not the oil. I tend to agree with him. The new motor will have ARP fasteners, Carillo forged rods, JE forged pistons, Ti retainers, LS6 springs, LS6 cam and a ported LS6 oil pump. Basicly built like a power adder motor but I'll be keeping it NA.

I was always happy with the M1. I will be changing to Amsoil thou. New business plan to try to pay for my addiction to speed.
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Mike
 
GM cars definitely aren't crap. My LT1 Firebird has almost 87,000 miles on it now, but three weeks ago it ripped off a quarter mile time of 13.74 at 100mph, in bone stock trim. This car simply runs strong, better than new actually! So far it's been one of the most reliable cars I've owned too. The LS1 Firebird I had was extremely reliable (wish I still had it!), I didn't need to return to my dealer once in the 2.5 years I owned it (from April 98-Nov 00) And I made well over 250 quarter mile passes with that car too, so I was definitely pushing it hard!

GM as a company might be screwed up (killing off the Camaro/Firebird but keeping the Aztek???) but they do build good stuff for the most part.
 
They dumped all the $$ for the F-body platform into the powertrain and drivetrain, what would you expect?
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quote:

Originally posted by Megabit:
I don't know that I would go sofar as to call the LS1 crap. I had 63,000 miles on my car and have treated it like a race car for the last year. Doing that on most any production engine is asking for trouble. ...

Well if the bolt was the cause, that is pretty lame. More classic GM cost engineering if you ask me...
My car has over 177k miles now. I've had it over 3yrs and almost 60k miles and I have beat the crap out of it every day. It runs stronger and better than when I bought it!
 
In your case I would be far more concerned in how the motor was broken in as opposed to the small diferences in oil types etc.

I personally would start the engine and run it continiously for at least half an hour and during this time I would NOT allow the motor to drop below 1000rpm. Should you have to stop for some reason, do not let the motor idle.

Now your cam will have started to bed in.

After half an hour I would drain oil and replace filter.

This will get rid of some contamination that is a natural side effect of the rebuild.

Then I would drive the car carefully for 1500 miles gradually increasing engine load and RPM. No freeway driving at constant rpm for miles and miles. Thats how I have done it for many ,many years.
 
LS 1 has a roller cam, yes? Drive it as it warms up gas it a little ,not to high rpm, let it coast down do it again just a little more rpm let it coast down you,need the pressure on the rings to break it in be gentile but work up to the max rpms in the higher gears but do not hold high rpms . yes I still think G.M. sucks but its the only car- or boat- motor I'd hotrod . But then I think all car mfgs. suck some more than others.

[ June 20, 2003, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: Steve S ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jason Troxell:

quote:

Originally posted by Megabit:
I don't know that I would go sofar as to call the LS1 crap. I had 63,000 miles on my car and have treated it like a race car for the last year. Doing that on most any production engine is asking for trouble. ...

Well if the bolt was the cause, that is pretty lame. More classic GM cost engineering if you ask me...
My car has over 177k miles now. I've had it over 3yrs and almost 60k miles and I have beat the crap out of it every day. It runs stronger and better than when I bought it!


You don't mention what kind of car it is? Beating the crap out of a car on the street is nothing like driving 9/10 - 10/10 on a race track. If you think it is, you have obviously never driven on a road race course at speed.
 
I know what road racing is...
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But cool video nonetheless.

The car is a '89 BMW 325is

No I haven't done any track racing. Unfortunately I can't afford any at this point. But you can be rest assured if I did, it would be "at speed". I got scolded my first auto-x for driving at the limit too much... I was like ***...its a RACE? But I proceded to be near the top of my class despite all-season tires. Then later in season would have had FTD(not counting the two people that were sharing dedicated racing rain tires) in rain except the old ABS systems suck in wet and I couldn't stop inside box(automatic DNF).For some reason my driving earned compliments that time.
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I guess I did go off course on my first event...
Haven't even done any Auto-x yet this year, money and now a family puts a damper on such events
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And finally yes obviously comparing directly point to point, hard street driving is not same as road racing (duh ). But overall I think it averages not that far off.
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Unless you are doing extremely long events every single weekend. But if you drive like a grandma on street it may still average...
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In my experience, GM is a great engine/drivetrain manufacturer. As for the rest of a GM car... well... it's wrapped around a **** fine engine!!
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Cheers,
3M-letsnottalkabouttheQuad4okay-P
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jason Troxell:

The car is a '89 BMW 325is

No I haven't done any track racing.


So that would be a E30 right? Nice cars. I think the LS1 is a remarkable engine if you consider all factors (cost, output, overall reliablity). I likely put 6,000 track miles on my car in the last year. I think that on a 63,000 mile engine is pretty good. I don't think you will see many pro race teams running that long without rebuilding.

I expect that the new engine will go much farther as it will be built for this kind of abuse.
 
Yeah it's the E30.
I would agree that the overall package is not bad. I haven't driven one but I sure wouldn't mind having a Vette, especially a Z06. Although I don't like the hardtop, they should offer the Z06 in hatchback. If they want the rigidity can't they just get rid of the T tops? Hatch version is more aerodynamic too.
The L67 motor isn't bad either. I like the drivetrain on our GTP. The rest of the car well...what 3MP said.
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6k track miles ain't bad either! I wish I could that kind of time in.
 
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