Ozzstar

After posting the oil change video on my YouTube channel I decided to film a separate video and cut open the factory oil filter at the 500 mile mark and take a peek inside. It is most definitely worth doing the oil change on time if your Corvette has the dry sump system. Enjoy the video, hope it helps someone out! Let me know what your thoughts are.

Thanks -Ozz

nytrorcr

Not as much debris as I thought there would be, glad to see that. good vid.

geraldschumann

Cheap insurance! I changed my wet sump 2016 1LT A8 coupe at 500 miles simply because through my whole life I have always changed the oil in my new vehicles at 500 miles. Motorcycles and cars. I am a big believer in the little things making a big difference. And at least some pride in something done well!

eboggs_jkvl

Only Dry sump is 500 mile oil change. Is there a 500 requirement on the non dry sump oil systems?

Here's why:

The gasket material used in the engines is reacting with the anti-foaming additives in the oil. This allows the oil to aerate and foam. In the dry sump system, there is a line from the oil reservoir to the intake. The foam is traveling down the line into the intake, where it "un-foams" and becomes a liquid. When this happens from circumstances that cause a lot of the foam to get into the air intake plumbing, oil can be pulled past the throttle body into the intake manifold in quantities that can get down into the cylinders on the top of the pistons. LIQUID in the cylinder as the compression cycle of the piston comes up can damage engine parts. Pistons, rings, piston rods, valves and I'm sure more, can be broken or bent and that is not a good thing for the engine.
To a lesser extent, the oil can simply drip out the intake plumbing (air filter, hose connections) and make one big mess on your garage floor and engine bay.
The 500 mile oil change removes the degraded oil and replaces it with new oil that contains fresh anti foaming ingredients. GM has concluded that the 500 miles is the magic number to get out the bad oil as the reaction to the gasket material has abated and the gasket material will not degrade the new oil's ability to keep from foaming up and contaminating the intake side of the motor.

Ok, that's what I understand is the reason for the 500 mile oil change. I'm sure some gear head can explain it better and will correct me for my ignorance!


The video and what it showed is fine. The reason given for the 500 mile oil change in the dry sump was incorrect.

Elmer

walleyejack

i changed my wet sump at 500 miles, why not, sure won t do any harm. get the crap flushed out possibly. as GERALDSCHUMANN stated.

dfettero

RTFM Read the "fine" manual.

eboggs_jkvl

I'm not disputing that it may be a good thing to change the oil at the 500 mile mark on the engines, I was pointing out the fact that actually caused GM to call a mulligan on the Owner's manuals and toss the oil change in "free" and say "mea culpa" to the world and insert the mandatory oil change on the dry sump engines.

Elmer

Foosh

Elmer is 100% correct.

The 500-mile requirement is only for the dry sump LT1 (all LT4s are dry sump), and the reason given for the requirement is incorrect in the video. It is nothing to do with concerns about the oil pump in dry sump engines. It is because the curing of silicon seals in a new engine can degrade the anti-foaming additives in the oil.

Why is this significant only for dry sumps you ask? It is because of the location of the oil tank at the top of the engine and the vent lines from the tank to the air intake. Foaming oil in the tank, could burp into those vent lines and into the air intake contaminating the air filter and possibly even the MAF sensor.

That's why the requirement only pertains to the dry sump LT1s. The same degradation of oil foaming agents occurs in wet sump LT1s, but it's not a concern because it's can't cause the same issues that it can cause in dry sumps.

When the C7 went on sale in 2013, there was no 500-mile requirement for dry sumps. Z51s started showing up at dealerships with oil-contaminated air intakes, and the requirement was instituted later in the 14 MY.

JerryU

Good video, Thanks BUT! GM does NOT say you are changing the oil in a Dry Sump because of the extra scavenge oil pump that pulls all oil and lots of air from the pan to the Dry Sump tank!

These are the key words in the GM doc that came out 13 months after I got my September 2013 built C7 Z51:

GM Bulletin issues 11/24/2014
Dry sumps engines may experience oil leaking from air cleaner---This condition may be caused by running the engine continuously at sustained high speeds with the first factory fill---resulting in silicone sealant gaskets degrading the antifoam agents……
(Note Red is my addition!)

That is why it is NOT required, or paid for by GM, in a Wet Sump! No scavenge pump and no air (and perhaps oil foam) having air venting from the Dry Sump Tank to the air intake (or wherever in newer dry sumps!)




Granted there is an extra scavenge pump in a Dry Sump engine but GM not said that is a debris issue. I protect my dry sump with quality magnetic drain plugs. One came with the 502/502 Chevy Crate engine I built for my Street Rod so why not! I do get that fine metal residual but it's probably more like belts and suspenders.

Patman

Even though GM doesn't mention doing an early oil change on the wet sump cars, I still went ahead and did mine at 1100 miles and I'm glad that I did. My oil analysis report showed 2% fuel dilution which caused the oil to thin out to 5w20 already. It also showed a high amount of silicon (which is normal during break in and is mostly from assembly lube and the new gaskets, and is not harmful silicon from dirt, but I still don't like that much contamination in there) Iron and copper were also higher from the break in process too. Because of this fuel dilution, I also want to drain this fill of oil sooner than the oil life monitor tells me to, so I will probably drain it after going about 3000 miles. Hopefully the fuel dilution will be 0, as I suspect it was a bit high on the first fill because the rings weren't fully seated for the first few cold startups. There were probably a lot of cold startups and shutdowns on the new engine during the transporting process from the factory and probably a lot of idling too (which also contributes to fuel dilution)

TEXHAWK0

All are correct.
Changing at 500 miles has nothing to do with excess wear anywhere in the engine. Never heard about any concern with the oil pump???

Also, you find small particles in the oil filter, so what?
If they are in the filter that means they did not make it back to the engine where they could cause more damage. Looks like good documentation on why you do NOT have to change the oil and filter at 500 miles on the wet sump engines.
I did end up changing oil on my 2014 Stingray WS early, but waited until around 2500 miles...

juanvaldez

Good practice to do an oil and filter change on a new engine after initial start up and again after 100 miles or so. What he found was typical.

I recently bought a oil filter cutter opener to use on the airplane. I plan on cutting open the Corvette filters from now on as well.

JerryU

I’ll just look at the two 1/4 inch long super magnets in my high quality machined drain plugs and catch significant pieces that won’t go though the scenes in the scavenge pump intake that will never get to the dry sump tank. Some parts that do get to the tank may not get to the oil pump and engine filter!

Frankly if I found anything of significant size, would not be very happy! Expect as I did in my 2014 Z51 all I will find is a small amount of magnetic powder! However it is not messy and easy to do. Whatever is caught in the filter will go to th local recycle center along with the old oil!

orca1946

Do I need to do 55 mile change on my new 2019 GS dry sump?

JerryU

Assume you mean 500 miles. The answer is yes and GM will pay for it. You have a Dry Sump, read the Owner’s Manual and follow the instructions exactly on how to check oil level. Don’t ever over fill, I and many others keep it between min and max.

juanvaldez

I have Gold Plugs and they both have a little fuzz at oil changes. I certainly doesn't hurt to be a little ****. Most of the crap come at the initial oil change from stuff from that first break in and stuff that is left over from casting and such. Normally when I buy a new car the first thing I do when I get it home is change oil and filter. On the '16 Z51 I waited 'til 500 miles because it was a museum deliver, to much of a hassle. It did get the Motoman break-in and was on the track at Bowling Green before it had 100 miles on it.

walleyejack

i changed my wet sump at 500 miles for free by GM and the next 3 also were Free

Avanti

I passed on ALL my free GM oil changes... doing it myself is more important to me than an arbitrary specific mileage number that no one agrees upon (not counting the fully accepted 500 mile change for the dry-sump system).

I disregard the built-in "meter" and do more often on my own schedule. I've been doing my own changes in this manner for over a half century and I've never had an engine issue, oil related or otherwise. I hardly expect that to change with today's far better metallurgy, machining, and lubricants. GM may have built it but I'll maintain it.

owc6

Just curious, but which sump do you have, and what arbitrary number of miles do you use?

JerryU

Yep my early 2014 Z51 got 4 free "in two years max." It was built in September 2103 14 months BEFORE GM announced a change was needed in dry sumps at 500 miles!

Dealers can offer free oil changes for life and some do as a purchase incentive. Not really that costly to them and they will typically find other things that "you need to have done" they can charge for!

Recently there have been posts where the service manager said wet sumps get the 500 mile change as well. Folks have quoted the misworded comment on one page of the 2016 Owner's Manual and deceptive info on the Chevy Customer Service page (which I repeated as a Forum Moderator said "it was true and was done by GM to eliminate confusion"-NOT!)

My current understanding is from GM, you get 3 changes IF you have a dry sump, one at 500 miles because of dry sump issues. Wet sumps get two free. That is what the dealer gets reimbursed for from GM! Anything other can always be offered by the Dealer for whatever reason on their dime!