Royal Purple 5w30, 5600mi, LS1 Camaro

[Patman]

I found this report on LS1Tech.com:

Just got my oil report from Blackstone Laboratories today. This is the Royal Purple 5W30, I ran it too long at 5,600 miles. Overall I'm not happy with it. After my heads/cam get installed I will run some other oil and get another report and make sure cooper and iron are down!

Aluminum: 6
Chromium: 3
Iron: 33
Copper: 80
Lead: 7
Tin: 3
Molybdenum: 108
Nickel:1
Manganese: 4
Silver: 0
Titanium: 0
Potassium: 0
Boron: 13
Silicon: 15
Sodium: 661
Calcium: 1415
Magnesium: 814
Phosphorus: 773
Zinc: 998
Barium: 0
SUS Viscosity @ 210F: 57.7
Flashpoint: 400F
Fuel %: Antifreeze: 0
Water: 0
Insolubles: < 0.5

We are not sure what additives Royal Purple 5W/30, uses but we strongly suspect the copper and sodium are from the oil. Certainly molybdenum and the elements from calcium on down the list are additives. Sodium is an element common to ethylene glycol. Since we see no other signs of contamination problem, we will go with sodium being an oil additive for now. All metals other than copper read at normal levels. Iron was a little higher than expected but was not up in the problem range after 5,600 miles oil use. Air and oil firtration are okay.

[ August 01, 2002, 06:18 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[Al]

Those numbers seem OK to me, considering you probably drive pretty hard

I believe some GM Engines show some high Copper numbers when newer. My son's 01 GrandAm posted a 97 Copper after 6200 miles of fairly easy driving (Its his wife's car) Iron was 41 and Lead 9. Also your viscosity is still (although barely) in grade.

 

[Patman]

I believe the LS1 always shows high copper, especially when new. This isn't my car, it's someone from LS1Tech.com, but rest assured he probably drives it hard too.

[ January 24, 2003, 06:35 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[jjbula]

you LS1 types always seems to have more iron
in the analysis as well.
This guy may be surprised that he won't be able
to improve upon iron numbers much

 

[2533a]

Does the LS1 have iron cylinder liners?

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by 2533a:
Does the LS1 have iron cylinder liners?

---

Yes. The LS1 also has a lot of problems with oil burning and piston slap as well. My 98 LS1 Firebird didn't have these problems, but a lot of guys in my f-body club do. Especially 2001 and 2002 owners for some reason (you'd think the older ones would be less reliable)

 

[2533a]

Patman,

Do the Chevy and GMC truck engines that are based on the LS1 have the piston slap and oil consumption problems as well? Just speculating that maybe those cast iron cylinder liners may be part of the equation as I believe the truck engines are all cast iron blocks. How about a guess that the tooling is getting worn out and causing some problems with the later LS1s?

At any rate the problems are a shame as that is one sweet engine otherwise! Put one in a mid $20K priced sedan with a six speed manual and I'd get out my checkbook. The upcoming GTO won't cut it for me with kids and what I'm guessing will be a north of $30K price.

 

[Patman]

No, I don't believe the iron block versions of the LS1, that go into the trucks, have these same problems. A lot of the heavy hitters in the LS1 drag racing world switch to those iron blocks by the way. They have a lot more strength.

The trucks will be getting an all aluminum LS1 in the near future too though, so hopefully the problems will be sorted out by then. My cousin is the engine test engineer at the LS1/LS6 assembly plant as a matter of fact, and he says they are very close to getting the problems sorted out on these engines. He's obviously not happy with the piston slap and oil consumption issues.

 

[Patman]

Here is more info about Al's car and driving habits:

quote:

---

2000 Z28 with about 30,600 miles when this sample was taken. Most of my driving is a 40 mile round trip on rural type highways. I have around a dozen 1/4 passes. At least once or twice a week I do a short WOT blast if traffic allows

---