Oil of choice for my Cavalier

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i've gotta oil question for the gurus here....

i found out about this forum when i had my '95 lt1 wagon and started using m1 0w40. seemed to do well in it.

so when i got my 60k '00 cavalier 2.2L, i used some m1 5w40 tdt thinking it was closer to a standard 5w30 spec. but after much reading i found that the m1 tdt is very robust.

since my cavalier a daily driver, i'm thinking that i don't need something that thick. (i don't have any uoa's yet just asked to receive a test kit)

would i benefit going to something thinner like m1 0w40 or gc 0w30? thanks for the help.
 
If you're in a climate that 'allows it'; I would run 10W-30 year round in your 2.2. I have an '02 Cavalier, and for me 10W-30 seems to reduce consumption and 'piston slap' a bit.

That being said, the 2.2 OHV engine in a very low-po, low-revving 4-cyl., and you're not going to notice much difference running a 40-weight over a 30-weight, so if you 'prefer' that grade, go for it. As I said, if you have bad piston slap or consumption, it might reduce it w/o hurting performance.
 
5w-30 would be my choice. Can't beat the price of Pennzoil or Valvoline. I think Pep Boys still has their Pennzoil sale going on: 5 quarts of yellow bottle Pennzoil and a Purolator for $10.
 
i don't have any probs at all with the m1 5w40. no valve train noise or consumption. just was thinking that maybe a thinner oil would get me better mpg (not that 25mpg is bad).
 
I bought my wife a new 99 Cavalier with the 2.2L engine in december of 1998. I babied it home from the dealer and while the engine was still hot, I drained whatever the factory fill was and filled it with Mobil 1 15W-50. I removed the AC oil filter and replaced it with a NAPA Gold filter. I have changed the oil and filter every 3000-3500 miles ever since. The car now has 201,000 miles and is driven every day. The engine is perfectly quiet, doesn't use a drop of oil between changes, never had a problem of any kind, gets 26-28 MPG around home, gets 30-32 MPG on long trips. I like the heavier oils and have never used anything else in 48 years. I would not hesitate to use the 5W-40 TDT. I went to engineering school in Dayton, Ohio(O so many years ago) I never had winter starting problems with a straight 40 in the winter and a straight 50 in the summer. Todays oils are many times over better than the old Kendal and Castrol of the 1960's :^)
 
I agree that if I wanted a 'heavy oil' for year-round use, I'd use M1 5W-50 that is fairly easy to get up here (no 15W-50)...Mobil seems to be able to make a thick oil that is also excellent in the cold...may try that someday....
 
I think 25mpg is kind of low for that car. When I had my '96 2.4 Cavalier LS even I got 30mpg. I used only 30-grade oil in it. I personally don't believe you need 40-grade for either the LT1 or the 2.2. We always used 30-grade Valvoline Maxlife in my sister's LT1 as well, it ran perfectly fine with it. Stopped a small leak it had, too. As for the ignition system, that was another story.
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I agree that the speced 30-weight 'works' fine on these cars...but sometimes, you just want to see if you can get the pistong slap to GO AWAY!

:p
 
in my 96 cavalier i use castrol high milage 5-30 winter and 10-30 summer. It burns the 5-30 but it cuts it in half with the 10-30. i think 10-40 or any 40 wt. would be to thick.
 
some of the cavaliers get bad mpg because of GM's STUPID 3 speed auto. My gf's 01 cavalier has the 3spd, and usually only achieves about 27mpg.

If you do a UOA search, I run Mobil Clean 5000 10w30 (doesn't have the high sodium issue as the other grades) in her cavalier. 2.2L OHV of course. UOAs show the oil does just fine at 6000-6500 miles. If the gf still drove 90% highway, I was going to extend her OCI to 8K miles, and wouldn't worry abit about it.


I used to use M1 0w40 in my LT1, but it didn't seem to like it based on UOAs, so I've gone to GC. I'm waiting to put some miles on it to see how it does.
 
sorry i've been slow to respond. my net was out the last 24. i appreciate all the comments.

i think i'm going to try going down to the m1 0w40 or gc 0w30. i'm still undecided on which. any opinions?

i know both are thinner than the m1 tdt. i just want to run a good synthetic. any other options?
 
You can't go wrong with either, they are both somewhat similar - the M1 starts out at about 14.3cst; and will shear down to somewhere around 12-12.5 cst. The GC is 12.1 cst, and is very shear-stable, so it will stay close to that thickness for an entire OCI. So you end up with the same result, just different ways of getting there........
 
i wouldn't mind using m1 5w30 but i've read that it's not a true synthetic. now i don't know a whole lot about the hoopla, but i don't want to pay for something that it isn't, that my deal.

i don't have any real loyalty as far as oils go. that's why i've been looking at m1 0w40 or gc 0w30. they're the 2 that are readily available to me. and the 2 that i've read that get top marks.
 
mostly pennzoil or QS for 99 cavalier ...i sold it to a buddy and car has 175 k on it and we put in pennzoil platinum last time...always 5-30...engines burns minimal oil and still sounds good
 
well i changed the oil today and i used gc 0w30. before i did the change i ran a can of berryman's b12 with the old m1 5w40 tdt.

after the fresh oil was in all i can say is wow! i dunno if it was the gc or the b12, but in the 10,000mi i've had the car, and 2 prior oil changes with the m1 tdt, the car had never sound better. it's so much smoother and quieter.

i'll have to see over the next few weeks is it the oil or just the fresh clean. i'm also gonna get a uoa on the m1 tdt that came out @ ~4500mi.
 
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