I have heard from various sources to over fill my LS1 by 1 quart on the racetrack. Is there any drawback for running a quart over all the time? What about 1.5 quarts over?

Sam

 

No, I dont know of anyone that drains the extra qt of oil after a DE but I am sure someone out their does. No drawback IMO. 1.5 qts I dont know about and sure someone else with more experiance will chime in.

 

I had the Dealer Put 8 quarts in my car before the winter....I took it out last week, and got on it a bit, and Puff a Big cloud of smoke, and Oil Sprayed all over the Rear end of my car!!! I guess its no big deal but I don't see any real advantage of putting an extra 1.5 quarts in....

 

ONE

 

I put in an extra 1/2 qt for track days.

 

I have read two articles that seem relevant to this issue. The first one was so far back that I can't remember where I saw it. However, quite some time back I read a publication that talked about research that had been done on windage trays in wet sump oiling systems. It was a study specific to small block Chevy engines. It said that at high engine speeds the counter weights on the crank began to whip up the oil in the pan. It said that the oil eventually began to form marble sized ***** that slammed into the rotating mass and in fact, slowed its rotation slightly. The addition of a windage try greatly reduced this phenomenon.

Another article is the one titled "The Millennium Motor." It can be found on the IdaVette site. In part it discusses how, during the development of the LS1, the test team lost about 6 engines in rapid succession during track testing. The cause turned out to be two fold.

First, the crank shaft was whipping up the oil and turning it into foam. This reduced the amount of oil in the bottom of the pan. Second, lateral G force in the turns was moving the remaining oil to one side of the pan. The result of these two factors was that the oil pump pickup was being uncovered in the turns and starving the engine for oil.

They solved the problem by creating that odd looking winged oil pan we have under our cars with an elaborate baffling system within it.

I have read that the LS2 does away with this pan and that the oil pickup system has been changed. Apparently they found a better way to solve the problem. In the LS7 they solved the problem with a dry sump system.

For myself, considering what I have read over the years I would not overfill the crankcase. There are better ways to protect the engine. On top of all this splashing extra oil around in the engine throws more oil on the cylinder walls than the piston rings can control. That's probably what 3XBlack6spd got the puff of white smoke.

 

Why not just go with an accusump and be done with it, it's not like they cost alot of money.

 

1.5 qts seems like a lot of extra oil. when i picked up my new 2000 coupe from the dealer, i checked the oil, and it was about an inch above the full mark on the dipstick (so much for dealer prep). it kinda bothered me, so i changed the oil and it took 6.75 qts to get it to the full mark. i'm thinking i had somewhere around 8 qts in th crankcase. on my 04 zo6, it also takes 6.75 qts to get to full, but i top it off using a full 7 qts.

 

No worries now.

 

In the past I have heard of rear main bearing seal failure caused by overfilling causing that pool on the garage floor. I do not know if this would affect a LS1. I do know it affected the old small blocks.

 

ive compared the ls1 and ls6? dipsticks side by side, in the tubes, off the motor, the ls6 runs about 1/4" more oil. (maybe 1 qt?)

thatd be part 12563817 tube and 12574889 stick compared to my tube and stick from my 99 ls1

 

To the best of my knowledge, the LS6 and LS1 have the same capacities. The dip stick comparison you made was a pre-01 LS1 stick. The new cast exhaust manifolds on the 01 and later engines necessitated a change in the dipstick tube and the dipstick.

zo6vettepilot

 

i had to update my tube and stick for a set of headers.
i laid them both on the bench with the sticks fully seated and the difference from the tube seat to the bottom of the stick was about 1/4". so if they were installed the later runs more oil.
thats all i know.