Z06sideshow

Sorry got a newbie question. I've read that 01 Z06's burn alot of oil. How low should I let my Z06 oil life go? Right now it's at 63% how low before I put some oil in?

Howoften would you guys suggest I change the oil?

ptindall

Burning oil lowers oil quantity, not life. If yours is burning it, just keep an eye on the dipstick. A "low oil level" will show up on the DIC when it gets about 1 quart low anyway. I go 5000k on my daily driver '01 Z using Mobil One synthetic only. That turns out to be around 55% for me. It depends on your driving conditions. The car calculates that.

sqeznbi

The oil cunsumption is due to the rings fluttering under low rpm high load driving. My personal thought is that they never seat right because during break in period the car was driven too mildly. going 65 in 6th gear at 1600 rpm and trying to accelerate constintly to keep up with traffic is not ideal for breaking in a motor. I got my z drove it moderatly for the first 500 miles fluxuating engine rpm like recommended with previous generation motors and i have no oil consumption issues at all and im blown. If you ever see that skip shift light your not driving it right. I saw it 2 times in traffic when i had the stereo cranked up and i couldnt hear the engine rpm and was in too high a gear.

BlackZ06

The engine oil life reading is a calculated value. It has nothing to do with the amount of oil in your engine. To check the oil level you need to use the dipstick. If the car is burning more than a quart in 1,000 miles (and it sounds like yours is not since you've used about 40 percent of the oil life and never added oil) then it is an "oil burner".

Change the oil at laest once per year (says so uin your Owner's Manual) regardless of remaining oil life. For street driving I would let the life get down to about 20 or 25 percent then change it. If you're going to be using the engine for drag racing or on a road course, I put a new filter and fresh oil in before I go if the oil life is at 80 percent or lower. For demanding work the engine should be running fresh (or darn close to fresh) oil in it.

The oil burning issue was only on 2001 LS6 engines made up through about the first 6 months of production. After that (approximately December of 2000) the new ring set was installed in the LS6 engines at the factory. Earlier LS6's were re-ringed under warranty (mine was done in about December of 2000, I took delivery of the car in August of 2000 ... a VERY early 2001 MY Z06) and the problem has pretty much gone away.


sqeznbi has it backward when he says "The oil cunsumption is due to the rings fluttering under low rpm high load driving" ... it is just the opposite ....

The oil burning was worst at low load high RPM conditions ... say cruising the freeway at 70 MPH in 3rd gear. In fact almost any high RPM condition caused oil burning ... I did a day at Laguna Seca before the new rings were installed and burned over a quart in about 200 miles !!!

Now that's an oil burner !!

HTH

bud miller

there are a ton of threads on the issue..check um out ...a good weekend worth of readin...
i watch my DIC-as mentioned above...add a qt when you get the message..it works like clockwork on mine...at about 1500-2000 miles .depending how hard i drive it , it will use a qt...i change the oil at 10%..don't worry you've changed with the qts ya added...just kidding..
anyway , i got 42k on my 01-and like i said i use a qt depending on driving conditions and how "spirited " i drive..so i add 3-4 qts a year ..no big deal...

03 Z-oh-6

I have an 02 with a February 02 build date. My car burns oil, not extremely bad, but I have to add 1/2 every so often. No oil leaks.

bobby777

Any car 01-02 using some oil is a sign of horsepower--loose=ponies

TurboTnZ06

My un-opened 01 runs fine, just ripped a 12.4 @ 115.4 a couple weeks ago with 71,000 miles. I ran a 12.4 @ 114.9 when it was brand new back in 01...

BigKitty

My 2001 Z runs just fine!I am the original owner.it has 10000 miles and does not burn oil.I believe that is was built in April 2001!

bobby777

MOST of the 01 burners were because they were driving around in 2nd gear wanting to race anything next to them--ring flutter caused by high RPM in 2nd and 3rd gear-

NerdsRule

my 01 speedway white has about 105,000 miles on it. It burns between 1 to 2 quarts between changes.

ajg1915

My 2001 SW Z06 does not burn oil since the former owner had the motor all re-done by Cartek.

Only 19K miles total and about 2K miles on rebuild.

I would check my oil level at each fill up to determine the average oil coonsumption and then you'll have an idea of what your usage is.

ETM

Same here. March build date. It uses a little.

pcbunn

I change my oil every 5k and/or at the end of the year whichever comes first.

blackmachdown

april 01 build date and no oil burning here (haven't had to add oil between changes & I've done to racing)

65vet396

My '02 has a build date of July '01, 21,000 miles and never an issue with oil, change annually.

bobby777

Back in 01 was your vette Bone Stock? What track and how was the air? thx

dieseldave56

Where did you 'hear' that the '01 Z06 had oil consumption issues?


As you can see from the early posts everyone has some sort of answer to why an '01 LS6 is the scape goat for all Gen 3 engines oil; consumption issues. Notice that no one will quote a reliable source.

Just look at the modifications to the LS2; the machining tolerances of the cylinder bores




Lets start at the begining:



Now see what Gen 3 engines are on this GM document. Hummm not just the '01 LS6. Interesting. But yet the LS6 is the infamous oil 'burner'.

It all started with the 5300 mid sized utility block that the Gen3 is based. The cylinders on the 5300 are siamesed with a small 20mm slot at the top of the cylinders so the coolant passes thru. As the engine temp rises ( generally on the C5 manual transmission models, where aggressive driving is the norm) this area of cooling has a history of distorting the diameter of the cylinder bores due to 'hot spots'. Cylinder bores did not have a consistant temperature.

Add to this that the machining tolerances were to great for both cylinder diameter and cylinder bore taper. The 1999 LS1 OEM Napier piston rings are thin and ring tension is less than previous engines to reduce friction. The rings could not always seal off the cylinder ( particulary with the manual transmission when a high engine speed an low MAP (absolute manifold pressure) condition occured ( cruising in second gear thru town and not shift up to third, ect). Rings may not '"flutter " but its difficult to seal under those conditions.

The LS1 PCV system design contributed to the blow-by issue as the crankcase oil/moisture gases exited thru the valve cover and returned thru the throttle body.

But try as they may the GMPT engineers could not place the cause of this excess oil consumption .

Now come the 2001 LS6 in the Z06. A factory race engine. Again with the 5300 block and now with even more HP features including 1.5mm Napier scraper faced piston rings with 9 pounds of ring tension. Add the previous Gen 3 issues and Z06 aggressive style drivers and blow by was evident in a higher % ( greater % but less number of engines as the LS1) than GM was "comfortable" with. Even with the relocation of the PCV crankcase oil baffle/ seperator under the manifold valley cover .

The LS6es extremes ( higher operating RPM) ,thin , low tension piston rings made it evident to the GMPT engineers at last what the causes of the GEN 3 blow by were. So with the LS6 as the model , GMPT did a band aid fix with the replacement of the second piston compression ring with a more aggressive Napier scarper ring face and increased ring tension from 9 to 13 pounds. ( GMPT said that no hp was lost by the 'fix'). This was was done under #894549. GM handed the qualify of this band-aid to the dealers ( whole story in its self).

The new Napier ring pak did not go into production LS1 or LS6es till the next production year 2002 M/Y for the LS6 and a few weeks later into the 2002 M/Y production LS1 engines. NO REVISED RINGS WENT INTO ANY 2001 M/Y PRODUCTION LINE ENGINE. PERIOD !!!( John Juriga , Assistant Chief engineer for GEN 3 engines) This is all documented. The only revised rings went into owners cars under warranty that qualified as excessive oil consumption under dealer program.

FYI: in mid April 2001 a new piston was introduced to the production line engines ( both LS1 and LS6) under the issue of cold start piston slap complaints by previous year owners. This piston was larger in diameter so as to lessen the dimension between the piston and cylnder bore wall. The new piston also had a new polymer anti friction coating on the piston skirt ( a first for GM engines).

Since the GMPT engineers discovered the cause and the conditions that
'enhanced ' the oil blow by issue , GM told their C5 car owners to drive a little more conservatively i.e. shift sooner, drive not so aggressively and their oil issues would be greatly reduced . According to GM , that helped many owners bring oil blow by within reason. The C5 automatic transmission cars had the least complaints.

Look at the changes to the GEN 4 LS2 engine; coolant passages were changed, machining tolerances were tightened so as to produce a consistant cylinder diameter /taper and tmperature. The LS 2 piston rings use the same aggresive Napier scraper face but they are thinner (1.2mm) than the LS6es (1.5mm) and the combined piston ring tension on the LS2 is less than that of the '01 OEM LS6 (9 pounds).

The PCV system was again addressed on the GEN 4 LS2 with two redesigned crankcase oil baffles /oil separators . Plus two were incorporated, one on the inlet and one on the outlet. The location of the outlet oil separator is still under the valley cover as on the LS6.

Read anywhere , even the C6 Ls2 there are still complaints , granted far less about oil blow by.

Side note ; oil passing thru the combustion chambers is not good and over time and depending on just how much oil passes it will effect horse power as oil will mess up the air /fuel mixture ratio. Oil will foul O2 sensors, shorten the life of the Cats. Burned oil becomes carbon that builds on all surfaces of the piston , the ring lands, cylinder head, valves, ect.

FYI , my 2001 Z06 (prodcution date June 18th) 2001M/Y ended June 21st 2001

The information resources are Dave Hill , Chief Engineer . John Juriga Assistant Chief Engineer for GEN 3 passenger car engines, Jordan Lee GMPT engineer Gen 4 , Mark Damico GMPT Staff engineer.

fej

Diesel nice post man, probably posted many times elsewhere under these types of threads, but the first time I have read it.

My 01 did not have blowby issues, pretty sure it is a May 01 car, I am the second owner. 64k miles on it now, 0-62k were DD miles, last couple thousand have been track or Autox miles mainly.

Thanks
Fej

ztheusa

2001 Z06s did not "burn oil." Some of their juvenile minded drivers did, however.