My 2000 Corvette LS1 is a garage queen.It is driven approx. 3,500 miles per year in central Texas and seldom in traffic and only on dry days.It is always driven to full operating temperature and never any shorter distances than 25 miles.Every 12 months I use a full dose of Techron with the Chevron Premium fuel that I use exclusively prior to a 10/30 Mobil 1 oil change.Every fill-up it gets a small maintenance dose of Redline S1 fuel additive.It is a 6 speed so it is not lugged around at very low revs.Like most LS1's it used to use approx. 1/2 qt.of the old TRISYN formula every every 1500 miles or so.I switched to the new supersyn brew and now it seems to consume only 1/2 qt. every 3K.I monitor my oil temp closely and it is usually in the 200 to 210 range except in slow summer driving where 225 may be briefly seen.remember,only 3,500 miles per year and the car is driven on average one time per week except during inclement weather where it will remain garaged and unused for 2 weeks max.My question is this:Am I throwing away perfectly good oil every 12 months? Is this OCI too long (timewise)-too short?
time vs. miles- C5 Corvette ?
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I do the same thing with mine, but according to the service manual this is required. I guess I view it as little cost on an annual basis but I realize that the oil getting dumped is likely perfectly good oil.
I think that changing at the schedule you are doing is what I would do.
Hal, A fine piece of machinery like your's deserves an annual UOA to track condition of the engine. If your UOA says the oil is in good shape after a year, then it seems like there is no reason to not run it longer.
Your oil temps and driving profile should support at least a 7k mile OCI which would be two years if backed up by good UOAs.
There is always plan B, which I think is much better. Drive the car more
Your oil temps and driving profile should support at least a 7k mile OCI which would be two years if backed up by good UOAs.
There is always plan B, which I think is much better. Drive the car more
The only problem I see is that the car needs to be driven more. Since I am near your area, I will offer my services to drive it 2-3 times per week...............
Seriously, seems like an excellent strategy to me.
Seriously, seems like an excellent strategy to me.
In contrast, I have a 2001 Corvette Z06, with app 67,000 miles. It has seen 15,000 mile oil (Mobil One 5w30) and filter (AC Delco PF-44)changes. Normally, this would convert to 4 total oil changes. However at the 1600 mile market, I did the old school gig and changed out the oem factory fill "break in" oil. This oem factory fill was Mobil One 5w30.
Because I haven't always been able to chose the weather conditions during long distance touring, it has been driven in rain, snow, cold, humidity, dry hot desert heat.(12 western states and Vancover BC) CA/NV deserts Mojave, Las Vegas Nv, mountains etc.
To me you are throwing away good oil, but in lieu of a 15 dollar oil analysis, you must determine if it is worth the 15 dollars to know the analysis information and take appropriate analysis action or just change out the oil as a policy.
I have changed out the tires at 56,000 miles from the OEM GY E F1 SC's to the Toyo Proxes T-1' s. The only thing that has gone wrong (fixed under warranty and when out of warranty fixed as customer good will) has been the (common)leaking rear differential seals problem.
[ December 08, 2004, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]
Because I haven't always been able to chose the weather conditions during long distance touring, it has been driven in rain, snow, cold, humidity, dry hot desert heat.(12 western states and Vancover BC) CA/NV deserts Mojave, Las Vegas Nv, mountains etc.
To me you are throwing away good oil, but in lieu of a 15 dollar oil analysis, you must determine if it is worth the 15 dollars to know the analysis information and take appropriate analysis action or just change out the oil as a policy.
I have changed out the tires at 56,000 miles from the OEM GY E F1 SC's to the Toyo Proxes T-1' s. The only thing that has gone wrong (fixed under warranty and when out of warranty fixed as customer good will) has been the (common)leaking rear differential seals problem.
[ December 08, 2004, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]
Patman
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The one way to know for sure is to get a used oil analysis done at the end of one year, and it might just tell you that it could go a lot longer.
I agree you should drive it more though.
I bought a 1998 Corvette on August 7th this summer and it had 31,862 miles on it at the time, and right now it's got 40,112 miles on it! It's my daily driver and I'm having tons of fun with it. It's even been through an inch of snow over the last couple of days (and it went through it just fine, even with the OEM runflats still on the back)
I'm running German Castrol Syntec 0w30 in mine, along with a K&N oil filter. I ran the first interval of that to 5000 miles, which took me only 2 months. I will be doing another 5k interval, then a 6k interval. This will bring me to around May 2005. At that point my plan is to reset the oil life monitor and then run that batch of oil right until the monitor says 0%. I predict that will be somewhere around 8000 miles of driving. I'm confident that the oil will still be in good shape. From that point on I will most likely just continue doing oil changes according to that monitor. Mine is calibrated slightly different than the 2001-newer ones, since they call for a one year/15k maximum, while the 97-00s used a one year/10k maximum. So if anything, the OLM on our cars is much more conservative, so even when it says 0%, the oil still has lots of life left in it. (they didn't change anything oil related in 2001 to account for the new intervals, GM just decided to make the intervals longer)
I agree you should drive it more though.
I bought a 1998 Corvette on August 7th this summer and it had 31,862 miles on it at the time, and right now it's got 40,112 miles on it! It's my daily driver and I'm having tons of fun with it. It's even been through an inch of snow over the last couple of days (and it went through it just fine, even with the OEM runflats still on the back)
I'm running German Castrol Syntec 0w30 in mine, along with a K&N oil filter. I ran the first interval of that to 5000 miles, which took me only 2 months. I will be doing another 5k interval, then a 6k interval. This will bring me to around May 2005. At that point my plan is to reset the oil life monitor and then run that batch of oil right until the monitor says 0%. I predict that will be somewhere around 8000 miles of driving. I'm confident that the oil will still be in good shape. From that point on I will most likely just continue doing oil changes according to that monitor. Mine is calibrated slightly different than the 2001-newer ones, since they call for a one year/15k maximum, while the 97-00s used a one year/10k maximum. So if anything, the OLM on our cars is much more conservative, so even when it says 0%, the oil still has lots of life left in it. (they didn't change anything oil related in 2001 to account for the new intervals, GM just decided to make the intervals longer)
Thanks for all the great information guys!You are gonna hate me,but the reason my Vette does not get driven much is that between my wife and I we have 4 cars and 3 motorcycles,one of which is HER 01 Corvette automatic with only 10 K on it.Lately I have been stocking up big time on Mobil 1 at Pepboys for only around $2.67 a qt.-that includes a buck for the calendar!I think I am up to around 50 qts.by now as I run this stuff in just about everything.I suppose that I will stay on the same schedule-I just like knowing that my lube is squeaky clean.I used to have a VW restoration business and I will NEVER forget what the insides of those fried little mills looked like-Barf!!!
I ran a 1970 VW Beetle app 250,000 miles. I changed the clutch at app 110k but it could have gone far longer. I wish back then we had the oil we have now! Oil changes of 1500 miles was almost too long in winter and 3,000 miles was like almost time for panic. So to me doing INXS of 84 plus oil changes vs 17 oil changes would be an absolute no brainer. Plus, I hated undoing all those nuts! I would like to say that oil change procedures are fun, but I am at least 1 million miles past that notion!
That sure brings back memories.Those cheap little studs would strip off or even pull out waaaay too easily.No oil filter except for that pathetic little steel mesh screen to catch the big chunks!How many times did you have to pull the motor in 250K?
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