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Originally Posted by Daschicken
First of all, you seem to care about your car a lot, but letting it idle for 15 minutes is not doing your car any good. When you idle, ESPECIALLY when it is cold out, you are diluting the oil with fuel, which destroys the capability of the oil to lubricate. Get a block heater, plug it in a few hours ahead of time, unplug, start engine and start driving. I have a block heater that I use any time I drive the car when I have at least half an hour of warning. It is truly awesome to start your car in 30 degree weather and already have the coolant at 80 degrees. I even use my block heater when its 80+ degrees out. Coolant temps start out around 110-120, and the engine idles smooth and at 700rpm instead of 1000.
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I do care about my car, but my ever improving maintenance has been the result of learning from mistakes with poor maintenance. So, with regards to my anal three month oil change interval, well, there is a reason for it!
I have thought about a block heater for my LT1 come the day I get the motor and entire car overhauled to like new. The problem is, I won't be able to hook up a plug to the car where I park, and I certainly can't run an overly long extension cord when we get deep snow! Furthermore, at work, I can't ask the company for an overly long extension cord to be able to use the block heater on my car while it sits for eight or ten hours in the frigid cold! So, this is where the block heater idea won't be so useful for my situation! This is why I am using Amsoil motor oil and changing the oil every three months! Just because the motor oil can last a year before requiring a change doesn't mean you should wait that long, and once the oil turns dark brown, you have to change it, high quality expensive motor oil or generic motor oil!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daschicken
There is no reason to change your oil out every 3 months unless you are doing an F-ton of short trips, especially using Amsoil's signature series. Oil does not deteriorate over that short of time. I did an oil change after 10K miles and 19 months on my accord using Penzoil Platinum 0W-20, here are the results.
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Even so, when I saw how black my motor oil was after literally waiting a year to change it using Amsoil Signature Series, it was disturbing! Furthermore, I was using 0W-30 motor oil when my motor called for 5W-30. I am not sure if I was doing harm to the motor or not by using a motor oil much more thin than was called for. Suffice it to say, one bad winter later, having a cracked radiator and overheating the engine, possibly destroying the head gaskets, I had lost oil pressure and I needed to replace the motor with a remanufactured version. So,
BELIEVE ME I am going to be anal on maintenance and I put my order in for tire chains so that I don't have worry none about trying to drive uphill in snow that my car loses traction and momentum in!
Now, I just need to figure out if a tow version of my LT1 camshaft with a lobe separation of 111 will be alright for my application. They say lobe separations of 117 are better for fuel mileage but the tow cam version is spec'd to perform the same as my LT1 with lobe separation of 117, it just produces the torque sooner rather than later in the RPM band.