Subject Vehicle: New (630 miles) '03 ZO6

Question #1: As part of the purchase deal, I got the dealer to throw in a few "items". One of them is a bra which I was thinking to use on highways to prevent the paint damage from rocks, etc. on the nose of the car. Have heard that, inspite of the "soft" fabric on the underside of these things, that they still cause paint damage when used. Would like to hear about this from those with experience. (Yes, I have experience "removing" them...hehehe ; )

Question #2: I had planned on doing the first oil change at 3000 miles. Any real need to do the first one sooner? I know about the theory, "ya need to get all the "shavings" out of the engine but have also heard this isn't necessary anymore. Interested in some thoughts on this.

That's it for now folks. Thanks! :cheers:

 

Welcome to the forum, and congrat's on your purchase. I can't help with the bra question. Initial oil change is an often debated topic, I would say most, but by far not all, of us changed the oil the first time at or under 1K miles. Was it necessary? Probably not, but for me it gave me peace of mind, so I did it at 500 miles, secong change at 1500 miles and every 3K since then.

More important even than the initial change IMO is to get the stock POS filter off the car and go with a Mobil 1 or equiv. which traps more/smaller particulates than the stock unit.

Les

 

Hi there Roadfrog...... congrats on the new Z. I'll try to answer both questions.

1) The bra. I had a bra on a previous car. It left wear marks on the paint, thru the clearcoat, thru the paint and into the rubber bumper. It was the small fine particle sand/road dirt that got in there and rubbed. The rubbing was from the wind. The bra was custom fit and fit very tight on the bumper. I would not recommend ever using a bra. There is some kind of clear vinyl sheeting, similar to what the new cars come with, that you can purchase and apply to the front end for road trips. Either that, or just drive it as is. I've found the windshield gets tons more damage than the front bumper. Just keep a good following distance and avoid getting behind trucks.

2) Changing the oil daily won't hurt (anything but your pocketbook). That being said, there is no need to change the oil on the LS1/LS6 until the 1st proper interval. Its not specified in the manual or recommended by GM. Break-in oil is a thing of the past. These engines are ground to tight tolerances and there is very little crap that comes off the new engines. I'm on my 2nd C5 Corvette. I change my oil at 5000 mile intervals and have not had any oil burning issues. You do want to use the correct synthetic oil, a good quality oil filter like the PF44 or UPF44 and a magnetic drain plug so you can monitor any metal in your oil.

 

Congrats on the Z!

First, thumbs down on the bra idea....it will leave it's mark if you catch my drift.

On the changing of the oil, I concur with Les, 500, 1500, and every 3000 after that. As said before, go with a quality filter after your first change!

Enjoy the car....

 

I've used a bra in the past and will never use one again. As stated, the bra will rub your paint. You might want to check out one of those clear plastic types instead.

As far as the oil change goes, just follow what GM says and you can't go wrong. The filter should catch the metal particles. I feel early oil changes are overkill and a waste of money. I have NEVER had an oil related engine malfunction on any car I've owned. I used to always change my oil every 6000 miles. And that was with regular type oil. But again, do whatever the owners manual says and you should be fine. Todays engines aren't fragile machines, in fact they never were.

 

Yes, you will be wasting a lot of time and money changing mobil 1 every 3K miles.

Read this thread and then go read some of the analysis and decide for yourself if you need to change mobil 1 every 3K. We don't live in the dark ages of rich carburetors, loose piston rings, and dyno oils anymore, 3K will not hurt anything but neither will following the DIC. The DIC assumes you have the stock air-filter in place. I have a CAI with high flow filter and change oil around 25% left on the DIC, also, since I race and run hard I use oil and by the time I reach 25% I have added 4 to 6 quarts, so my oil is probably good and all I really need to do is change the filter, but I change everything.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=593070

 

I use a GM bra when we travel - no problems with wear marks. And we do not let the grass grow under our feet: typical average speed on our trips is 80+, and I have had it up to 140 once (forgot it was on there, or I probably wouldn't have done that....)

I don't sweat the oil changes until the remaining life gets down to around 10% - usually around 6K. Haven't had a problem with any of our C5's using oil.