2.7 Turbo 4 Fan Club

newdude · August 5, 2025

21 minutes ago, 15 Z71 said:

Is it dexos approved??

No its not...BUT...don't overthink this, Dexos spec is not some sort of "Oil God" spec or some crap. Too many people fall for that ever since GM made it sound like your car would explode if you don't run an oil that is licensed Dexos. Which is all Dexos really is. A license. You pay GM some $$$ and you can put that label on the bottle.

All Dexos spec is, is just a slightly more stringent version of the API and ILSAC specs like ILSAC GF-6A, API SP, API SN with SN PLUS and API SN. Restore and Protect meets all of those I just listed, so it is 1000% acceptable to run in an engine that specs Dexos as R&P meets or exceeds the ILSAC and API which Dexos also does as well.

Why?

Restore and Protect was formulated for a purpose. To clean or attempt to clean deposits inside engines to improve or reduce or near eliminate oil consumption, and then protects the areas in the engine to prevent deposit formation. So yes, go ahead and run R&P if you've got an oil consumption issue and would like to try and eliminate it or reduce it.

Edited August 5, 2025 by newdude

silveradosid · August 6, 2025

mine started using oil at 30k, at 70k the fine oil oil separator failed and it used a quart every 1k miles. replaced the separator and it uses 1.5 quarts every 4k , at which time i just change the oil. even though it is still within gm specs, it didn't use oil until 30k. if the valvoline works i don't care if it meets gm spec at 100k

Grumpy Bear · August 6, 2025

57 minutes ago, silveradosid said:

mine started using oil at 30k, at 70k the fine oil oil separator failed and it used a quart every 1k miles. replaced the separator and it uses 1.5 quarts every 4k , at which time i just change the oil. even though it is still within gm specs, it didn't use oil until 30k. if the valvoline works i don't care if it meets gm spec at 100k

This is a common experience across multiple engine platforms. Didn't use any for tens of thousands of miles and now uses a bunch in under 80K miles. Your consumption rate at a quart in 2,667 miles is just above the point the OEM will do anything at all. :nonod: I've gone down this rabbit hole myself and it stinks.

Assemble this. If this were purely a design issue then why not use from the start and why take 30 to 80K miles to show itself? Because that is how long it takes for the internals to acquire enough deposits to interfere with normal operations. Dry DEXOS licensed oils will not and can not prevent this at OEM recommended OCI's. Not even at 2/3 the recommended intervals. Two to three thousand oil change intervals....maybe. Maybe.

Deposits high enough to cause consumption (rings) also interfere with proper operation and accelerate bore and ring and ring land wear. When the OEM does something, pistons and rings is the practice. Valvoline R&P may reverse this and it may not. It will clean it but it can't reverse wear issues. Time will tell and give it time. Perhaps as long as 40K to reap maximum reward. But improvement in consumption, if there is going to by any, should start to show itself in half that time. Be patient.

Polar oils could prevent this but are not DEXOS approved. Damage done, as many are experiencing, has happened by the time your warranty has expired. Often irreversible. Cost twice as much. Last twice as long. Net equal cost and they keep your motor clean.

RAVENOL (some product lines), Red Line HP and HP Euro. AMSOIL SS and Euro. Torco SR-5, Penrite (some product lines) even MPT30K for the year around hot weather areas. Depending on XOM's mood and product cycles there are at time even offerings from Mobil 1 with enough polarity to be useful.

YMMV.

customboss · August 6, 2025

3 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

This is a common experience across multiple engine platforms. Didn't use any for tens of thousands of miles and now uses a bunch in under 80K miles. Your consumption rate at a quart in 2,667 miles is just above the point the OEM will do anything at all. I've gone down this rabbit hole myself and it stinks.

Assemble this. If this were purely a design issue then why not use from the start and why take 30 to 80K miles to show itself? Because that is how long it takes for the internals to acquire enough deposits to interfere with normal operations. Dry DEXOS licensed oils will not and can not prevent this at OEM recommended OCI's. Not even at 2/3 the recommended intervals. Two to three thousand oil change intervals....maybe. Maybe.

Deposits high enough to cause consumption (rings) also interfere with proper operation and accelerate bore and ring and ring land wear. When the OEM does something, pistons and rings is the practice. Valvoline R&P may reverse this and it may not. It will clean it but it can't reverse wear issues. Time will tell and give it time. Perhaps as long as 40K to reap maximum reward. But improvement in consumption, if there is going to by any, should start to show itself in half that time. Be patient.

Polar oils could prevent this but are not DEXOS approved. Damage done, as many are experiencing, has happened by the time your warranty has expired. Often irreversible. Cost twice as much. Last twice as long. Net equal cost and they keep your motor clean.

RAVENOL (some product lines), Red Line HP and HP Euro. AMSOIL SS and Euro. Torco SR-5, Penrite (some product lines) even MPT30K for the year around hot weather areas. Depending on XOM's mood and product cycles there are at time even offerings from Mobil 1 with enough polarity to be useful.

YMMV.

Good synopsis Grumpy.

in the L3B and later development, Fuel dilution is the core issue to harm the oil enough to be consumed. R&P Valvoline can and will remove most of the gasoline and its additives being gasoline shellac and varnish which turns into DI engendered coking.

E15 can help ****** the process when used from day one like I did. Change air filter often enough to get optimum physical air flow helps to.

GOOD NEWS the L3B is built so tough that it can handle the oil loss from these deposits without excess wear. The steel rings and cylinders and valve guide seals are tough and once cleaned should slow significantly oil consumption or stop it all together. Remember it’s fuel chemistries that coke. Not the oil.

Edited August 6, 2025 by customboss

silveradosid · August 7, 2025

i am not due for an oil change for another 2k miles, but i thought the 2.7 oil consumption was due to a poorly designed pcv system. correct me if i am wrong

customboss · August 7, 2025

1 hour ago, silveradosid said:

i am not due for an oil change for another 2k miles, but i thought the 2.7 oil consumption was due to a poorly designed pcv system. correct me if i am wrong

No. The deposits that form from fuels dilution can restrict the separator screen but that’s from ring seal degradation. Fuel deposits are the issue. Oil usage a symptom.

With mine it attempted to consume but I fought back early.

15 Z71 · August 7, 2025

1 hour ago, customboss said:

No. The deposits that form from fuels dilution can restrict the separator screen but that’s from ring seal degradation. Fuel deposits are the issue. Oil usage a symptom.

With mine it attempted to consume but I fought back early.

What did you do?

customboss · August 7, 2025

Roll back up into the thread here and read up.

Grumpy Bear · August 7, 2025

8 hours ago, silveradosid said:

i am not due for an oil change for another 2k miles, but i thought the 2.7 oil consumption was due to a poorly designed pcv system. correct me if i am wrong

Fuel dilution. GDI motors have a ridiculous amount of fuel dilution. Hyper rich cold start mixtures to burn fuel in the cats to get them up to heat is one. Another is GDI doesn't vaporize, it atomizes fuel and only vapor burns. Now shortly after injection it vaporizes but not before flooding the top ring land and washing the oil off. Some say, like Total Seal that the top ring area dilution rate is upwards of 15%!

Oil is what makes the seal. Not the ring. No seal, liquid fuel gets into the crankcase where it is hot enough to put it into vapor and the hope was PCV systems would evacuate it but at 2 to 4% no system is large enough. On cool down the fuel condenses and form deposits IF it isn't held in solution in the oil. Non-polar oils will hold a small fraction of this in solution IF the OCI is very short and the more polar the oil the more it holds. That doesn't mean in a GDI that if it's four times more polar you can lengthen the OCI by four because the oil is already two to three times behind in solvency.

Back to those fuel deposits. After cooling on the rings and in the lands on the next heat cycle they COOK to a hard carbonaceous gook. What is left over in the oil attacks the oil, breaking it down for a second go around at more deposits.

Solvency and dilution. Those are the tools you have. Drivers who never turn a key for under a hundred miles of open road driving get away with more than the short hauler whose oil never gets hot enough long enough to be effective.

If boutiques are not your cup of tea there are some branded labels with 25% or more organic ester (estolides) content. Here's a rabbit out of the hat for those that demand a DEXOS1Gen3 license GM DEXOS License # D335BMDI089

https://cglapps.chevron.com/sdspds/PDSDetailPage.aspx?docDataId=653419&docFormat=PDF

RLI is a boutique that is similar. No license but more estolide content. (more polar)

Neither will FIX a hurt motor but both are good at keeping it clean once you have that managed. And 5W30 is on the menu. Don't expect them to run as long in service as a high ester content oil but they are polar enough to be a big improvement. Start 3 to 4K and get some labs...or don't....

Edited August 7, 2025 by Grumpy Bear

customboss · August 7, 2025

1 hour ago, 15 Z71 said:

What did you do?

You using E15? You asked me what is was a while back. That extra 5% of ethanol adds helpful solvency to solve what @Grumpy Bear speaks to so wisely.

customboss · August 8, 2025

On 8/7/2025 at 11:20 AM, Grumpy Bear said:

RLI is a boutique that is similar. No license but more estolide content. (more polar)

Just a key side note; Renewable Lubricants contain no estolides. Only HOBS high oleic base oils that are NOT synthesized but oxidatively controlled by the synthetic base oils they are mixed with ( usually CHV/Phillips PAO’s) . It’s about as close to god made lubricants one might find.

Estolides are synthesized base oils.

Grumpy Bear · August 9, 2025

Yes I peeked. Sue me. Solid point BTW.

PunchT37 · August 9, 2025

Being able to run high compression with 87 octane in a GDI engine should back up Grumpy and Custom`s points here. The GDI cools the chamber more than carb or port injection so, one can get by with low octane and a careful tune. The cooling cuts down on detonation. But, how is it cooling the chamber? By liquid gas washing down the cyl wall.

Grumpy Bear · August 9, 2025

8 hours ago, PunchT37 said:

Being able to run high compression with 87 octane in a GDI engine should back up Grumpy and Custom`s points here. The GDI cools the chamber more than carb or port injection so, one can get by with low octane and a careful tune. The cooling cuts down on detonation. But, how is it cooling the chamber? By liquid gas washing down the cyl wall.

It's also an injection timing and duration thing that prevents detonation. Very close to TDC to a few degrees. Can't boom if it isn't there.

PunchT37 · August 9, 2025

1 hour ago, Grumpy Bear said:

It's also an injection timing and duration thing that prevents detonation. Very close to TDC to a few degrees. Can't boom if it isn't there.

Correct. That`s why GDI is here to stay. Catch cans or not.