[MatthewAMEL]

Originally Posted by KingLT1

How is it Placebo if you log mileage vs OLM Percentage? My OLM % declines faster on E85 just like 70chevelles.

And it should be the opposite of what you said in your second paragraph. E85 makes more torque so you don't need to rev the engine out to move faster. I don't go WOT or rev the engine out anymore then I was on 93.

I guess what I meant is I notice I spent more time 'hooning' in my car in the six months after I went to E85 since it was so much fun, again...


If the 'Ask Al' thread was still alive, it would be a cool question to ask about how the OLM monitor works.

[MatthewAMEL]

Just found where Tadge (Corvette Chief Engineer) answered how the OLM works in the LT1.


Tadge answered:
Great question, Patman. This is one I bet a lot of people are curious about. Obviously, maintaining the quantity and quality of the oil in your engine is paramount for long term durability and performance. There are many things that work to deteriorate the quality of your oil and we make the oil life monitor (OLM) as accurate as we can to predict oil life in consideration of all of those variables. The simplest variable is the length of time the oil is in the engine. As you surmise in your question, this is an important variable. Oil ages sitting inside your engine differently than in a sealed container. It is exposed to more oxygen, humidity, various sealants and a variety of metals in your engine. Also, time causes things you might not expect to have an influence such as oxidation of your oil filter. To account for this variable there is an OLM clock that begins a year-long count down every time it is reset. So that is the best you can do…. Change your oil and filter once a year.

You also surmise that mileage should be a factor. We could use mileage, but it is more accurate to actually count combustion events. Every time the fuel and oxygen ignite in the cylinder a tiny quantity of contaminants slip past the piston rings and gets into your oil. Over time, these contaminants build up and hurt the oil’s lubrication capability. You can see this effect as the oil darkens over time.

OK, but all combustion events are not created equal, right? There is a big difference between cruising down the highway under light load and tearing it up on the track. On the highway, the coolant and oil stay relatively cool and there is little stress on the engine. On the track, when oil temps are high, oil molecules actually fracture and that hurts lubrication performance. We handle that buy adding a multiplier that compounds the number of combustion events that occur at higher temperatures. The hotter the oil, the more heavily we weight those events and the shorter the life prediction. On the other hand, running your engine at low temperatures stresses the oil as well. So we also have a multiplier that over-weights combustion events when it is cold. People who drive in cold climates and take relatively short trips are going to find they have shorter oil life. The display in the cluster is regularly updated to the lesser of the time-based or use-based metrics.

Lastly, to get to the first part of your question: No, the dry-sump cars do not use the same algorithm as the wet-sump. As you theorize, having more oil dilutes contamination and distributes thermal stress across a greater quantity of oil. Those are both true and, even though you get some life extension, it is not in direct proportion to the total quantity of oil in the system. Why not? Well the time-based degradation is very insensitive to oil quantity. And don’t forget the oil in dry-sump cars get more exposure to air and system metals (and other materials) because of the tank and plumbing. The extra oil quantity helps roughly in proportion to volume for contamination, but not quite in proportion when it comes to thermal stress. Since dry-sump cars are more likely to see track duty or hard street driving we tend to be a little conservative to make sure oil is changed before it falls below a performance level needed to assure perfect operation of your engine. Bottom line is that, depending how you use your car, the dry sump will have at least the life of wet sump, and probably somewhat more.