Wrong -- https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...-test-wrap-up/

A guy in our club also blew his relatively new engine (2014 as well). Sad story though. We were at NJMP. He was not really pushing it, but it went on him during the second session. He had never read the fine print about the 10-50 or whatever it was. He got a very small credit on the replacement motor. Lesson learned for all other guys with C7's. Recommended oil update makes life much easier for the once-a-year track dabbler...

 

What actually happened from the article YOU referenced, NOTHING to do with the oil, read bro, read.

"It took the dealer two weeks to replace the engine under warranty, and GM engineers provided a full tear-down and analysis of the mishap. A connecting-rod bearing had failed, sending debris through the LT1’s belly and chewing up more internals. In related news, GM acknowledged that the engine manufacturing plant had experienced some difficulty ridding the inside of the block of machining burrs.As luck would have it, its oil-filter manufacturer had a similar problem; some filters had a thread shard that could come loose and contaminate the lubrication system.The only good part of this story is that our engine was replaced at no charge."

NO MODERN ENGINE WITH clean oil has EVER failed due to oil not being "good enuf", sorry waxer geezers, it is what it is! Spend your $120 for an oil change, the next owner of your "as new" cream puff with <3,000 miles a year will thank you, that is FOR SURE.

 

Using manufacturer recommended oil is just good insurance if there is ever an engine problem. If I couldn't afford good oil AND good booze, I probably wouldn't own a Corvette to begin with.

 

No point in wasting any $$. Even with deep 8 to 10 figure net worths...When is the last time, ANYBODY heard of an engine failing due to the oil?? any engine with clean oil? Use synthetic, change it every 5-7K and it'll be fine. The $25 WallyWorld 0-40 Euro is more than excellent. Much ado about nothing for the tres time!

Pissing away $$ is just that, no point in doing it and if ya think M1 synthetic 0-40 Euro will cause an engine failure then God Bless Ya!!!!

 

You will spend extra money for better booze and cheep out on the correct oil for the car? ID 10t.

 

"When is the last time you heard of a blown stock engine on a modern Corvette, uhhhhhh, never? correct!"

I did read the C&D article. I was merely trashing your incorrect quote reproduced verbatim just above. You never specified a reason. Plus, the story about my friend was true and interesting. Well, true at least.

 

Agree with several posts - I have no doubt Mobil 1 0-40 European Formula would work without any issues. I use it in my R8 and 2 BMW's - but for the C8 I'm going to use the Mobil 1 ESP factory recommended oil. Yes I know its mostly marketing BS but its under warranty and the extra cost is really not significant.

 

Poor advice noob. The bottom line is the car needs approved oil if you want to mitigate risk to the warranty. If you don’t care about the warranty, then you can roll the dice with plenty of quality alternatives that are not dexos2 certified. Perhaps if you were around here for more than a month you would know that stock engines can have issues, like the LS7. So let’s say the engine fails for an unrelated issue, GM elects to conduct an oil analysis, and they see you aren’t using approved oil. Do you want to eat $12,000 for an unrelated valve or rod bolt failure?

If you want to disregard your warranty, fine. Don’t pass out crap advice and setup others for failure.

 

Costco now sells its own brand of oil including 5w-30 'full synthetic' dexos 2 certified oil for about $29 for 10 quarts in 2 5 qt. containers.

 

GM specs the M1 0W-40 ESP because of the low zinc and phosphorus content. It mat not harm the engine but GM has been specifying low Phosphorus and Zinc oils in Corvettes since the C6 to make it easier for their catalytic converters to last the requires years. Admittedly, several of the Euro car makers don't have a problem spec'ing the 0W-40 Euro formula and still making their cats last.

 

The C8 takes 0W-40 Dexos 2 not 5W-30

 

Aeroshell rocks!

 

MUST be DEXOS 2 spec'd oil due to converter/emissions protection. Those of you saying dump any 0w40 that is NOT DEXOS 2 should never own a C8 Corvette. Or a 2019 C7 either.

 

Good point on the CATS! Especially the new two in one! Why use anything other than what GM recommends?

 

Any oil that meets the minimum SAE specs will do just fine. Having said that. If your like most folks, you'll be changing your oil once no more than twice a year. Sure, there are some on the road again and DD commuter types that will log 50K+ miles a year. But far more in town trips and sunny day cars. Especially in cold weather country where zero miles in Nov/Feb is likely. So why worry about a $10 deal? Buy properly labeled name (any) brand oil from a trusted source. You'll have other fish to fry that are far more significant. Like explaining why Lil' Johnny can't borrow the car for his prom night.

 

I want to know more about removing the cats for track use. Is it because of the type of oil you are recommending or for some other reason.

Its funny though....every car community that I have been apart of (SRT, Porsche , BMW, Subaru) none can agree on Oil. As an avid track guy, i'm sticking with the warranty recommendations until the warranty's up, In the past, I have always leaned toward A40 Porsche approved oils.

 

The reason GM has a Dexos oil is for emission system life. Not using Dexos approved oil probably won't have any effect on the engine but it could cause your cats to die an early death.

fwiw, I've been using Pennzoil Ultra Platinum(not Dexos approved) in my LS3 with no issues.

 

So the real question.... should i use the COSTCO toilet paper or the Charmin?

 

As long as there have been cars this oil
conversation has been going on. I remember
back in organic oil (oil that was pumped out of the
ground) days, everybody swore that the oil they
were useing was the best. Nothing has changed
but the model of the car.
I have never seen a mechanical failure in a engine
brought on, by oil. Its always something else. A
failure of parts, debrie in the crankcase or lack of
oil,or too much oil.
The qustion goes on "whats the best oil"

 

Dexos2 was developed in part to solve a supply chain issue with Euro specs. In the EU, there are a lot of light duty car diesel engines, along with gas engines. The gas engine must past a Low Speed Pre-Ignition test(LSPI), and the diesel engine must be able to pass the strict DPF contamination tests. Dexos(or Dexos1) would not comply with both. The additive pkg for Dexos2 is now supported for all GM/Opal/Taunus gas/diesel engines so that ExMob EU only stocks and retails the one oil spec.

LSPI has become an increasing issue for gas engines as viscosity has fallen, and engine running temps have increased from around 176-182F in the bad old days up to around 202F in the modern engines(I don't know what the C8 thermo is set for). Of course, the DPF problems in truck engines have been well documented.

>> Speculation here: I would suppose that Dexos1, without the DPF control additive would be ok, as long as it meets the API SN grade. I have not done an in-depth look at the C8 oil requirement, but I would be surprised if it is other than API SN with nominal change interval. The SP oil standard is in review now, and may be introduced to the mfgs some time in 2022, however if GM is making an engine which does NOT comply with API SN - I would like to know this from someone inside GM/Chevy.

Edit: I had to go look it up. API SP grading will be released on May 1 2020(next month) and cars requiring the SP grade might be hitting the floor in Sept 2020, maybe.