usraptor

@ CClive, just reading the container its saying improved gas milage(every little bit helps)[/QUOTE]

The car already gets almost 30MPG! How much better gas mileage do you need?

HOXXOH

OK, I guess I get to be the oddball. I'm 69 and qualify as an old-fart, but I'm not dead yet, nor am I stuck in the past.

I've been using 0W-30 for almost the last 15K miles. I did my last change 4K ago and made a slight change by using 1 qt of 0W-30 racing to 4.5 qts of regular 0W-30. I have no method to compare gas mileage, especially since I changed to a higher stall converter at the same time as the oil. The one difference is that it now revs to 7000 easily where before 6700-6800 was about the practical limit. The one qt of racing was added to increase the phosphorus/zinc content from the gov't mandated 800ppm to 963ppm.

The car, an '08 A6, currently has 71K showing and has never been below 1/2 qt low before oil changes. I have never changed oil before the DIC read 3%, nor later than 200 miles after 0%. 11K has been the smallest amount of miles between changes and 16K the most.
I'm presently running a full Z06 exhaust system, a Vararam CAI, a 3200 stall converter, and it's been tuned. I've made over 200 passes at the drags with a best of 11.49 @ 121.85. I live in Phoenix and although it gets hot here (111 today), it never gets very cold either. My oil temps range from 190 to 235 and H2O from 170 to 220 depending on traffic and time of the year regardless of which oil I used.

By now, most of the readers of this thread are puking at the way I've treated my car, but it's still MY car. I've already driven mine more miles than most original C6 owners ever will, so I have a good perspective on the durability.

LS WON

By using a 0W-30 won't the engine warm up faster and get better gas mileage?
However will this through off the OLM which is for 5w-30?

HOXXOH

I doubt it'd make much difference, but who cares because most Vette owners don't follow the OLM anyway.

BSSN

Mobil 1 0-30 is thicker at operating temperature than is Mobil 1 10-30 Extended Performance. But hey, facts suck. Lets pretend it's thinner because it's 0-30

Rule292

BITOG is quoted often enough as internet gospel. Would love to see some objective and scientific proof backing it up. Could simply be propaganda from an oil supplier/reformulator. Nobody knows.

The right answer.

Much of the oil requirements are based upon emissions, environmental (stretching out the oil change intervals to save oil and cut down on waste oil disposal) and CAFE requirements.

Impossible to determine what is required for the performance and reliability aspect of the engine other than in a scientifically proven menthod like a Blackstone oil analysis.

I'd do as HOXXOH did and then get a few Blackstone analyses to validate the results.

BSSN

BITOG has forums made up of users just like corvetteforum does. They send off their oil, and Blackstone analyzes it. A trend emerged long ago with the LSX engines that showed them favoring oils in the 12 cSt range at operating temp.

FloydSummerOf68

You can run it with absolutely no issues.

The people who follow the owners manual like the Bible must not quite understand how oil viscosity works.

haljensen

They are BOTH 30 weights at operating temp, the difference is that the 0W-30 viscosity is 0 weight when cold and the 10W-30 is 10 weight viscosity when cold.

Rich Mickol

I wouldn't touch this one with a 10 foot dip stick.

If it meets GM spec's, then I would also go for it. As far as gas savings, like the a previous poster said, your style of driving will probably save you more.

Me, I go by the book and the filler cap. Good Luck

j_digi454

and yes, that's what I've been using for 4 years.

richie15

Maybe a faster idle when cold

Gearhead Jim

Based on the last twenty years of field experience, involving hundreds of thousands of cars; I should expect that my Corvette engine will be worn out after only 200,000 - 300,000 miles if I stay with simple old Mobil1 5W-30.

This is a crisis that demands my immediate attention!

Not.

I did a lot of research and decided that although there are differences in oils, anything that meets the Owner Manual recommendations will work just fine.

Now, I get to spend my time and energy on other things in life.

lynxshooter

Mobil 5w-30 worked just fine in my C5, and I'm sure it will be alright in my C6.

I hear the Honda Insight gets 60 mpg in the city and 66 on the hwy. With its 1 liter engine, it would be a lot cheaper to replace it if the 0w smokes the motor.

I was told by a Chevy mechanic friend of mine, that a lot of the newer cars use the 0w but unless it is recommended, not to use it, as it serves no benefit.

BSSN

http://www.upmpg.com/tech_articles/motoroil_viscosity/

This will better explain SAE viscosity and Centistokes to you so you can better understand what you are seeing on the front of the oil-bottle. Here is a quick cut/paste that explains why SAE viscosity is worthless as a measurement compared to cSt.

"Basically to determine non-winter grade viscosity using a viscometer a measured amount of oil at 100° C is allowed to flow through an orifice and timed. Using a table they determine SAE viscosity based on different ranges. Thicker or heavy viscosity oils will take longer to flow through the orifice in the viscometer and end up in higher number ranges such as SAE 50 or SAE 60 for example. If an oil flows through faster being thinner/lighter then it will wind up in a low number range such as SAE 10 or SAE 20 for example. Occasionally it is possible for an oil to barely fall into one viscosity range. For example, an oil is barely an SAE 30 having a time that puts it on the very low side. Then another oil is timed to be an SAE 20 on the high side not quite breaking into the SAE 30 numbers. Technically speaking these oils will be close to the same viscosity even though one is an SAE 20 and the other an SAE 30. But you have to draw the line somewhere and that's how the SAE system is designed. Another system takes more accurate numbers into account known as cSt abbreviated for centistokes. You'll see these numbers used often for industrial lubricants such as compressor or hydraulic oils. The table at the right, SAE Viscosity Chart (High Temp), shows the equivalents for cSt and SAE viscosity numbers. You'll see the ranges for cSt compared to SAE numbers. An oil that is 9.2 cSt will be nearly the same viscosity as an oil that is 9.3 cSt, yet one is an SAE 20 and the other is an SAE 30. This is why the cSt centistokes numbers more accurately show oil viscosity."

BSSN

I agree that Mobil 1 5W-30 will protect your engine just as well as 0-30 GC. At least, as far as we are concerned about it in the real-world. However, in the real-world I hate having to buy/add a $7 quart of oil between changes. That is why I switched to 0-30GC. It saved me $7 and a few minutes of buying and pouring every oil-change interval.

Giving me more time, money and energy to spend on other things in life.

Tom Steele

So what we are looking for is 5-20w then...

orca1946

Unless it's sits out in _20 for a night 5-30 is fine.
It will read cold oil temp if it's really cold till it warms up.

vettedoogie

This is funny. Evidently, you forget that old men have seen more change than you have. Lemme guess, you are using ZMAX too!

I do not consider the opinion of any blogger who has no skin in the game to be more important than the engineers at GM. "bob" is not the one I have to go to if I have a warranty issue with my Vette. Maybe that isn't important to you though.

jpee

Could you please tell us "exactly" what "Improvements" you are looking for (not trying to be a wise azz) are you looking for better performance... if so.. you would have to make several runs down a 1/4 mile and get your ET and speed... then change to 0 30 oil and repeat the runs.. remember the weather has to be exactly the same... so you could make 4 runs with 5-30 then change to 0-30 and do 4 runs on the same day same track, this will tell you if you get any performance improvement..


IF its gas mileage you looking to improve on just fill it up two or three times and get an average.. then change the oil, and repeat to see if you get better gas mileage ?

I don't know where else you can look for "Improvement" with that oil change...