2012 Silverado 5.3L AFM LC9 engine, Mobil 1 and Seafoam

[TonyMazz]

Wondering as an effort to keep my engine / rings clean, if it is a good practice to pour some seafoam into crankcase during the last few hundred miles prior to an oil change ?

 

Would this alter the operation of the 1, 4, 6, 7 lifter operation for the AFM at all ?

 

I run mobil 1 5W-30 as an oil vs the dexos synblend in my new used vehicle which is a 2012 Silverado LT crew cab with the 5.3L LC9 engine.

 

I purchased vehicle with 32k on it and noticed that installing Mobil 1, the oil is getting pretty brown after 3k...my assumption that previous owner did alot of city driving / idling with the truck....and I do mostly highway and it appears that oil is washing the engine inside....

 

Now am wondering as a preventative measure to dump a few oz's of seafoam into just before my 5k oil change to further aid in cleaning things up.....not sure I'd have to do this all the time, but....

 

My consumption, has been during this oil change about 1/2 - 3/4 quart in 3200 miles....but I have no idea how this engine was managed....the only thing I know for sure is that it had oil changes every 5k and had 1012 hours on it with only 32k miles on it....which equates to about 32 miles an hour....slow.....

 

Thoughts ?

 

Thanks

 

T

[Jsdirt]

I've never been a big fan of "mechanic in a can" products, no matter how good everyone says they are. If it were mine, I might give it one more oil change at 2,500 miles and call it a day. Run the rest to 5k.

 

Usually when oil gets dirty fast, it tells me that the previous owner neglected oil changes - at least that's been my experience, although on much higher mileage vehicles.

[RedBeard109]

Why did you opt for the 5W30 non dexos blend? I just bought Mobil 1 5W30 with dexos and its full syn? just curious

[newdude]

Why did you opt for the 5W30 non dexos blend? I just bought Mobil 1 5W30 with dexos and its full syn? just curious

 

He runs Mobil 1 vs factory oil (5w30 ACDelco Dexos syn. blend). All Mobil 1 are Dexos certified to my knowledge.

[Duelin]

The only Mobile 1 that are certified Dexos are 0w20, 0w30, 5w20 and 5w30 weighs. At least the last time I check the certification list. That could have change but for the fact that GM wants you to use a good light weight oil.

[TonyMazz]

Why did you opt for the 5W30 non dexos blend? I just bought Mobil 1 5W30 with dexos and its full syn? just curious

I switched because I have had good luck with full synth. on other trucks...approx 750k miles......are there better products maybe....but when I see synth blend I don't know if its 5% synth 95% regular or what...I go with 100% synth.

 

I live in the country in western Wisconsin where my lowest outside temp was -38 F... I want steady viscosity at startup....pumping ability.....good detergent level.....

 

This truck has had the dexos syn-blend it's whole life....engine had 1000 hrs engine time with 32k miles on it when I bought it....that's an avg of 32 miles / hour.....aka city driving....or lots if idling.....so...when I bought it I switched to mobil 1....and after first oil change and 3k miles the oil was dark near black....I pulled oil out and recharged again with mobil 1 and after 1000 miles the oil is new looking on this oil change....I now have 37k on truck ...we'll see how this goes.....

[ic3man5]

Watch this Pertaining to seafoam:

 

 

Oil naturally turns dark and can't be used to determine if its bad, only way you can determine that is with an oil analyst test.

 

That average sounds really fast for city driving. If there was a lot of idling and city driving it would be lower (around 15-25MPH more than likely). If you drive 45 MPH for a mile and then sit at a traffic light for 1 minute your average just dropped to 22.5MPH.

[TonyMazz]

Correct...oil does turn dark as it collects combustion by-products, dirt, debris etc. I am not stating that the oil needed changing, I am suggesting that as a result of it cleaning and working it's way through the VLOM and oil gallerys, it pulled an debris with it. I elected to pull the oil early, as I did a visual inspection of the color and determined that while it was not expired, did what I expected and performed a cleaning....

 

The next oil change looks like new after 2000 miles, and oil pressure remains near 40psi at idle...and runs perfectly smooth, and no noise...

 

The seafoam idea was not related to the combustion side of things, but infact the crankcase side of things. I believe I have accomplished the initial desired result and possibly cleaned lifter ports, ring landings, etc.... there is nothing wrong with the dealer based dino/syn blend....I just like the mobil 1 ....

[ic3man5]

I've put the seafoam in the fuel, crankcase, and intake. Intake was a huge difference while I didn't really notice a difference with the fuel and crank. I can tell you I've ran AMSOIL for 25K miles and the internals of the engine were spotless and looked brand new even though the oil was black (I ended up blowing up the engine with sucking water through the intake and flooring it - yea I know wasn't smart at the time).

 

Oil color is (from what I understand) mostly from temperature, rich mixture, and blow-by.

 

From my experience oil pressure is generally a characteristic of the oil filter, use a different filter and you'll probably see that change also. A thinner oil will probably decrease pressure also.

 

One thing I'll do to maintain fresh color for longer is when I'm changing the oil I'll wait for all of it to drain and then take a quart of random new oil and put it in while the plug is still off and let that drain through essentially pushing out the old stuff 100%.

 

But at the end of the day it all comes down to if you feel comfortable/happy with the results!