[DC5]

Originally Posted by Tyestick

I’m in the process of doing a ‘Oil Consumption Test’ right now.

Dealership told me to come back after driving an additional 2,000 miles.

I can confirm this information is accurate. GM defines excessive oil consumption as more than 1 quart of oil per 2,000 miles. The oil consumption test involves having the oil level in your vehicle checked every 2,000 miles for 6,000 miles.

With that said, both my 2018 SS and 2019 SS have consumed no oil between oil changes.

[Elite Engineering]

Hi all,


To look deeper into the causes of oil usage on GDI engines, there are several causes. The most common being fuel dilution, which GM touches on in the TSB. As the fuel on GDI engines is introduced at 2000-3000 PSI directly into the cylinder, as much as 8-12 times the raw fuel is pushed past the rings washing down the cylinder walls and also diluting the already far to thin of viscosity oil specified, compared to the 45-55 PSI of the old port injection engines they replace. So that is one of the main reasons.


Next ring seating. As all newer engine are built with low tension piston rings, piston ring seating is more critical than ever. Combine low tension rings with the engine pre-filled with a synthetic blend from the factory, and if you follow the dealer or owners manual and drive easy for the first 1500 miles, odds are you will not see proper seating prior to the hard glaze setting in that covers the abrasive cross hatch. This generally means that brief window of the first few hundred mile has past, and only a tear down and re-hone can give them another shot at proper seating. The correct way to break in a new engine is available to GM techs and other DIY Auto techs as shown here:





This is NOT readily available to the average car buyer as most are considered not educated enough to follow these, and that is a liability to the automaker, but this works best and is done in the first 100-200 miles.


Next is gumming up of the rings and ringlands so the piston rings become stuck and cannot move freely to seal properly. This is from that oil your consuming.


So, how do you avoid this? break in the engine properly and get rings seated in that first few hundred miles and then get that debris filled oil OUT of the engine.


ONLY run a full synthetic, and a 5w20 or 0w20 is not enough viscosity to deal with the fuel dilution, so we run 5w40-50 in all GDI engines.


Install one of our E2-X dual valve systems to keep these fumes from causing deposits, and this also flushes and evacuated full time so these are flushed and removed before most has a chance to settle and accumulate.


And no engine needs to sit 2 hours for oil to drain back from the valvetrain. 5 minutes is generally all the time you need to get an accurate reading on the dipstick. And yes, 3 times to make sure oil has drained down the tube.


Want to see what is going on with your oil? An oil analysis is a great window into your engines wear.


As our E2 and E2-X systems separate app. 95% of the combustion byproducts, this keeps your oil clean longer for the best protection. It also eliminates fuel dilution as well. Study this oil analysis from a long-term field tester for our systems:





Watch for the 20k sample to show this is not a marginal improvement, but a dramatic reduction in the substances that cause more internal engine wear.


Hope most find this helpful.




Cheers!

[BlueinTN]

Originally Posted by Eldi Z

Your old man is perfectly right.
Never trust the first one you look at ;-)

Anyway, when you checked and identified the 3/4 down the stick, how many miles was that after the oil change?
Also, right after the oil change, was the level at the very top of the hash marks? Did you check?

Sorry re read this and realized I owed you a response.

My first oil change was at the 497 mile mark. I checked it at 2870 and it was down. so 2371 miles used a half quart maybe a little more. I receipt said oil used was 1235885 which the internets says is Mobil one 5w30. I topped it off with Mobil one 0w40 since all my other modern vehicles use this oil I have it on the shelf.

[Eldi Z]

Originally Posted by BlueinTN

Sorry re read this and realized I owed you a response.

My first oil change was at the 497 mile mark. I checked it at 2870 and it was down. so 2371 miles used a half quart maybe a little more. I receipt said oil used was 1235885 which the internets says is Mobil one 5w30. I topped it off with Mobil one 0w40 since all my other modern vehicles use this oil I have it on the shelf.

No problems. For 2371 Miles, something like half a quart should be perfectly normal expected as the correct amount of oil to be consumed, especially during the first 5000-7000 miles of a brand new engine.

[BlueinTN]

Yes,not worried about it but its was good you got me to check it.



I dont when I gas up since it ends up being 20 mins of strangers telling me nice car and what motors in it(they tell me) and they have one just like it at home with 3 turbos on it.

[Eldi Z]

Originally Posted by BlueinTN

I dont when I gas up since it ends up being 20 mins of strangers telling me nice car and what motors in it(they tell me) and they have one just like it at home with 3 turbos on it.

[JROC]

Originally Posted by s346k

my car was consuming quite a bit of oil until i switched from m1 5w30 to 0w40. it was around 10k miles, as well. i was adding a qt of 5w30 every 3k miles. i have 4500 miles on this 0w40 and haven’t added any. judging by the dipstick, i won’t have to add any before i change the oil again. it appears that the consumption has almost completely stopped. not sure if because oil weight, mileage on motor, or both.

I agree with this. Use a thicker oil if you're having trouble keeping it in the motor.

Still I know GM had M1 develop that special 0W40 for the LT1 recently, but wouldn't a 10W40 or even 15W40 do better for keeping oil in the motor? What I mean is I thought motors that burn a lot of oil off do so mostly when they are cool and not up to their normal operating temperatures? Kind of like the mindset for making an older LS motor that had trouble burning off oil to not burn so much of it off was to switch from 5W30 oil to a 10W30 oil. (Which I always found worked well for stopping large oil consumption BTW) The theory behind it as I always understood it was that you wanted to thicken up the oil while it was cool as that's when most of it is escaping, but run the same viscosity when the motor is up to temperature. Would that not be the same case with a newer LT series suffering from excessive oil consumption?

[s346k]

my thought process was that the oil consumption isn’t through the motor specifically but through the pcv system. i presume thicker oil (when hot) is harder to pull. oil life shows 30%, roughly 5k miles on it now. level on the dipstick hasn’t budged from full. i don’t abuse the car but it frequently gets wot treatment.

[libis22]

I have a new to me 2017 Camaro ZL1 6MT which used 6.5 quarts (10W40 Mobil1 Supercar) of oil for 3319 miles I drove it- that's a quart for every 510 miles.. Car has 17552 miles now and I bought it from Carmax and I bought maxcare as well. I took it to Carmax under their 90 day warranty and both time they were like it is normal. I really didn't calculate the amount until recently and now I know it's an issue and may why the previous owner sold it to Carmax. I drive it most of the time around 2 to 4k RPM and haven't taken it to track, drag strip etc. So a mix of city plus spirited in 50% sport 20% track and 30% Touring... Car is 100% stock what I can see.. no clue about internals but I highly doubt it is touched..

I asked a local Chevy dealer and they told me they can do an oil consumption test. The person I talked said they would document the oil levels every 1000 miles. He also said to tow it to the dealership if oil light comes on and don't add oil as they want to document every additions.

Can someone shed some lights on their oil consumption tests and how it went? If they find it is not normal, do they fix it or replace the engine?

[dpevans]

One other question, are you positive it was full when you took delivery,

[cdb95z28]

What brand of fuel do you use? Is it Top Tier fuel? If you are not familiar with that term.....

toptiergas.com

The EPA mandates a minimum amount of detergent in fuel. Top Tier goes beyond that and it matters, especially with DI engines. YOU may wonder, How does the quality of fuel matter with oil consumption?


The entire video is excellent but the good stuff is at 9:30 on this first one:

https://youtu.be/CAGT5inQScE?si=JGxdZd6h2rgBD3Id


https://youtu.be/DAmEGI7xvBw?si=fKe3x-zVs6jZL7Qy


https://youtu.be/xPldTFflEVQ?si=VlKXhzTJXHkr_LwH


Beyond fuel quality, and even oil quality, which it should be correct for your car (DEXOS), if an engine was babied on break in, the rings are already behind in what they need for proper seal. I believe a hard but not abusive break in is better for the cylinder walls and rings.

[libis22]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

What brand of fuel do you use? Is it Top Tier fuel? If you are not familiar with that term.....

toptiergas.com

The EPA mandates a minimum amount of detergent in fuel. Top Tier goes beyond that and it matters, especially with DI engines. YOU may wonder, How does the quality of fuel matter with oil consumption?


The entire video is excellent but the good stuff is at 9:30 on this first one:

https://youtu.be/CAGT5inQScE?si=JGxdZd6h2rgBD3Id


https://youtu.be/DAmEGI7xvBw?si=fKe3x-zVs6jZL7Qy


https://youtu.be/xPldTFflEVQ?si=VlKXhzTJXHkr_LwH


Beyond fuel quality, and even oil quality, which it should be correct for your car (DEXOS), if an engine was babied on break in, the rings are already behind in what they need for proper seal. I believe a hard but not abusive break in is better for the cylinder walls and rings.

Thanks for the videos. I will check them out. Oil is Dexos R rated which is the highest rating Chevy asks for.. I normally fills from QT and they have listed that in the toptier gas site.. we have 93 Octane in GA.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by libis22

I have a new to me 2017 Camaro ZL1 6MT which used 6.5 quarts (10W40 Mobil1 Supercar) of oil for 3319 miles I drove it- that's a quart for every 510 miles.. Car has 17552 miles now and I bought it from Carmax and I bought maxcare as well. I took it to Carmax under their 90 day warranty and both time they were like it is normal. I really didn't calculate the amount until recently and now I know it's an issue and may why the previous owner sold it to Carmax. I drive it most of the time around 3 to 4k RPM and haven't taken it to track, drag strip etc. So a mix of city plus spirited in 50% sport 20% track and 30% Touring... Car is 100% stock what I can see.. no clue about internals but I highly doubt it is touched..

I asked a local Chevy dealer and they told me they can do an oil consumption test. The person I talked said they would document the oil levels every 1000 miles. He also said to tow it to the dealership if oil light comes on and don't add oil as they want to document every additions.

Can someone shed some lights on their oil consumption tests and how it went? If they find it is not normal, do they fix it or replace the engine?

What do you mean by you drive it around 3-4K most of the time? Like you’re cruising at that rpm or you’re only driving spirited? You shouldn’t be cruising at that rpm. If you are then I can see your car consuming a little more oil than usual. If your car was an automatic, you’d see it cursing just below 2k. Not saying you have to cruise at that low of an rpm but 3k-4K is high to just be cruising at.

Also, as the other guy said are you sure it was full when you bought it? I wouldn’t be surprised if carmax changed the oil before selling it and only added somewhere between 6-8 quarts.

[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

What do you mean by you drive it around 3-4K most of the time? Like you’re cruising at that rpm or you’re only driving spirited? You shouldn’t be cruising at that rpm.

There are 3 or 4 threads going by libis on this issue.
In another, he did say he keeps it in 5th gear for highway cruising. What about gear 6?
I agree with what you said above. You should not be tooling around with it revving 3-4K all the time.