Vortec 5.7l oil consumption.

[Supercharged111]

I've thought about doing it, but I'm terrible at changing oil. I do it a few times, and then I let it go way too long, or forget when I did it last. Right now, I can't recall when I last changed my oil in the truck.... of course I haven't been driving it much either.

My 1500 is easy. It's usually twice a year every 5k on the 0s and 5s, so 270k, 275k, 280k, etc. The 3500 is usually once a year as it just doesn't see the miles. Wife's Envoy is easy, I just do it when I'm told to by the DIC. I also keep notebooks in the cars to track oil changes by date and mileage.

 

[Supercharged111]

I've thought about doing it, but I'm terrible at changing oil. I do it a few times, and then I let it go way too long, or forget when I did it last. Right now, I can't recall when I last changed my oil in the truck.... of course I haven't been driving it much either.

My 1500 is easy. It's usually twice a year every 5k on the 0s and 5s, so 270k, 275k, 280k, etc. The 3500 is usually once a year as it just doesn't see the miles. Wife's Envoy is easy, I just do it when I'm told to by the DIC. I also keep notebooks in the cars to track oil changes by date and mileage.

 

[Nad_Yvalhosert]

I just change my oil every 3 thousand miles, and never waste money on some so-called scientist playing in my old oil.
If one waits that long to change the oil, and then you need a lab coat to justify your procrastination, you're missing precious time with family, a GMT400 vehicle, and a good time. Whether its plowing a driveway, pulling a trailer of ATV's, or taking the kids to see Grandma and Grandpa. I'd rather drive my truck, not play with the old fluids...

 

[Supercharged111]

I just change my oil every 3 thousand miles, and never waste money on some so-called scientist playing in my old oil.
If one waits that long to change the oil, and then you need a lab coat to justify your procrastination, you're missing precious time with family, a GMT400 vehicle, and a good time. Whether its plowing a driveway, pulling a trailer of ATV's, or taking the kids to see Grandma and Grandpa. I'd rather drive my truck, not play with the old fluids...

That has got to be the dumbest line of logic you could have come up with to defend your anti-used oil analysis position. Wanna hear mine? I'm not against it, I'm just lazy.

 

[Nad_Yvalhosert]

That has got to be the dumbest line of logic you could have come up with to defend your anti-used oil analysis position. Wanna hear mine? I'm not against it, I'm just lazy.

I could've used that earlier, I'm just not lazy enough

 

[Supercharged111]

I could've used that earlier, I'm just not lazy enough

I know. You change your oil every 3,000 and I change mine every 5,000.

 

[Hipster]

The hell with an oil analysis. I just wait for a rod to window the block so I can look in and see what's going on. LOL

Wal-Mart 10w40 for 10+ years on my old tired flat tappet 290k engine. No noticeable oil loss changing at 3-3.5k miles.

 

[df2x4]

"Playing with the old fluids" has saved me thousands of dollars in engine repairs by catching small issues before they become serious. Determining optimal oil change intervals is only a tiny portion of what an oil analysis can do for you.

Blackstone has told me that I can easily go 5K+ miles between oil changes in both of my trucks but I change it every 3K anyway. I'm not concerned about stretching my dollar there. What I am concerned about is catching trace amounts of anything that's not supposed to be in there, like coolant or fuel. Every 3-4 oil changes I send a sample off to Blackstone from all of my vehicles. It takes less than five minutes to package up the sample and literally adds zero time to your normal oil change procedure.

 

[454cid]

"Playing with the old fluids" has saved me thousands of dollars in engine repairs by catching small issues before they become serious. Determining optimal oil change intervals is only a tiny portion of what an oil analysis can do for you.

Blackstone has told me that I can easily go 5K+ miles between oil changes in both of my trucks but I change it every 3K anyway. I'm not concerned about stretching my dollar there. What I am concerned about is catching trace amounts of anything that's not supposed to be in there, like coolant or fuel. Every 3-4 oil changes I send a sample off to Blackstone from all of my vehicles. It takes less than five minutes to package up the sample and literally adds zero time to your normal oil change procedure.

Let's say the oil contains a bit of coolant or fuel..... how do you even begin to start to track the problem down if it's such a small amount that it's not observable without the lab? Oil life aside, I always thought it was more about predicting engine condition, by finding stuff like metal from bearings.

 

[df2x4]

Let's say the oil contains a bit of coolant or fuel..... how do you even begin to start to track the problem down if it's such a small amount that it's not observable without the lab? Oil life aside, I always thought it was more about predicting engine condition, by finding stuff like metal from bearings.

It's definitely going to be harder to do if you don't have some other direction or intuition. The case I mentioned was a tiny hairline crack in one head that got missed during a rebuild. There was a tiny amount of coolant in the oil but it never showed low. We knew that one piston was cracked when it was last taken apart so we pulled that head and had it checked out. Sure enough, the machine shop found the crack.

 

[Ehall8702]

My stance on it is, change it every 3k and run the piss out of it. Mines 23 years old! If it was 2-3 years old I might send off for analysis or if it was a 10k built race motor same thing. It's and old truck, here they say "it's just an old camp truck" that's the excuse to run it with as little maintenance as possible, don't wanna use beer money for oil and such inconveniences lol