bump on this synthetic oil tech here...

What does '40% remaining' mean???

 

Don't know if C4s or earlier have them but C5's have an oil life remaining digital gauge. I'm assuming thats what he means, you hit a button on the DIC and it tells how much oil life remains before you need to change your oil.

PS........ USE ROYAL PURPLE SYNTHETIC OIL, best stuff on the market!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The oil companies are making huge profits off of the "gotta change oil every 3000 miles 10 minute drain-n-go campaign". Like any other business-advertising can make it or break it. When was the last time you heard of an oil related engine failure? The old school Chevy engines were the toughest built and could take alot of abuse in the lubrication system. Keep the oil level in the safe zone, use a good quality oil and filter, change these based on type of miles and driving environment and don't go to the 10 minute oil change, they don't even grease the vehicle unless you make an issue of it. Oh ya, as an afterthought, over the road diesel engines go 30,000+ miles between oil changes and 500,000 to 1,000,000 miles before rebuilding.

 

I know modern oils, particularly synthetics, deteriorate at a very slow rate compared to oils of even 20 years ago, and they have remarkable additives to counteract moisture retnetion and its effects, etc.

But oil seems cheap to me, even at $80 a change and the potential damage is considerable. I know that well-built Chevy engines are tough.But I have seen a LS1 trashed by what everyone pretty much agreed was oil related failure. The guy was using an okay grade of natural (non synthetic oil) and he ran the car hard and pushed the oil change limits and went about 12-15k miles between changes. He had some light mods and ran the car at the track alot.It came apart with what probably was a spun main bearing. When disassembled the engine shows lots of lubrication-related problems. Very worn cam bearings, a lot of gum on the rockers and two really worn lifter faces, etc.

Diesels go 30K+ miles between oil changes, and big marine diesels (large freight ships and oilers) go the equivalent of 200,000 miles orf more on an oil change. A lot of distributed power generators (small electric generators) in use today for on-site power at isolated location use a variant of the Chevy LT1 V8 and typicaly run for 2000-4000 hours on a single oil change (although they typically use about 20 quarts of oil, too) -- but regardless that's the equivalent of about 200000 miles between changes. But diesels, marine, and DG engines those engines are seldom shut down. If you run an engine continuously you can go far more distance or hours between oil changes. My 'vette and Camaro spend a lot of time in the garage and moisture can accumulate in the oil: not sure they run enough to really cook that moisture all out, so I change the oil about every 4000 miles -- once every 9-10 months. My Porsche is started from 2 to 6 times every day and often makes very short trips, so I change the oil in it every 4 months or 7500 miles, whichever comes first. I have some older cars that I drive very little and I change the oil in them once a year "whether they need it or not."

 

My water truck has 490,00 on it. I change the oil and filters every month, (about 2,000 miles)'cause I work it in very dusty conditions.