2010 Chevy Camaro and 2009 Nissan 370Z: Gas, Oil and Money

This can't possibly be a serious complaint about the cost of synthetic oil, can it? Like the extra $30 or so every 10K miles or so would ever possibly make a difference to anyone? Like Jordan isn't bad enough with his trollish posts...

Is the Camaro SS really a budget minded buyer's car? At $35K+ out the door, I don't think owners are going to sweat a few bucks on Mobil 1.

And let's be real: I bet almost every Z owner is going to go with synthetic at the next oil change.

Scott,
You have me intrigued on why the Chevy requires synthetic oil. It's a big, pushrod V8. I don't imagine the compression is that high nor is it highly stressed. It's not forced induction or generating unusual heat.

Is the syn requirement a marketing tie with Mobil 1?

I am curious why, when regular oil is so good nowadays, that they require synthetic?

Is the V8 prone to sludge or something?

The better question is - why does the 350Z not use synthetic oil? Lots of performance cars do, and heck, Ford's been putting a synthetic blend in their cars for years.

I would assume most Z owners would use synthetic anyway.

Premium is recommended for the LS3. Mileage and power will suffer without it even though it can run on regular. Is that why the car was so slow?

I'll second what 1487 says. According to the owner's manual, the LS3 in my G8 GXP prefers premium. 87 will work, but it's not recommended for the long term. I'm assuming the Camaro's the same way.

And some wonder why certain individuals question some of the nonsense posted by certain editors. The LS3 is optimized for premium gas. If the Vette runs on premium, why would anybody put regular in the Camaro? This probably explains the impossibly slow acceleration times listed under the track test last week. There is no way a properly running Camaro making full power can produce such lackluster acceleration. Regular gas is only allowed if premium is not available for some reason. Some engines that require premium have knock sensors flexible enough to allow you to burn regular by adjusting the spark/ignition. The LS3 is one of them.

Also, I wouldn't call a Camaro SS buyer "budget minded." If he/she was, they would surely pick the V6 instead.

You guys should head over to Camaro5.com, check out a thread one of our members had about a 'Slow' SS. It seems some of the ECUs get stuck on 87 octane mode even if you put in premium after. So that means they basically run slow unless you re-set the ECU. This can be accomplished by pulling out the #5 and #20 fuses and leaving them out overnight.

Of course if you are always running around with regular instead of premium, the thing is going to be WAY slower. Run out that swill you have in the tank right now, run another tank of premium through, then fill her up again and pull the fuses.

This has been confirmed as a working method through timeslips multiple times.

And being a 2010 SS owner, I am not concerned at all about what gas or oil changes are gonna cost me. I knew what I was getting into before I pulled the trigger. Next thing I know, you guys will be complaining that the tires it melts off cost $500 bucks each to replace.

Ooops, shouldn't have let that one out of the bag ;)

This is just my two cents, but i think the requirement for synthetic may be because Chevy knows that V8 buyers are going to be more aggressive (burn outs, repeated 0-60s, general hooliganism) and they want the best possible lubrication for these engines, so that they live to the customers expectations well out of warranty. Also, synthetic oil reduces internal friction slightly better than conventional oil, so it helps get better MPG. As for the premium fuel issue, RTFM. If it says you get better performance with premium, then use it, at least for testing.

The Long Term Camaro may have been run on regular gas since the time of testing, but from the minute we got the car, all through the break-in period and on the day of testing, this car was filled only with 91 octane, the best we can get here in California.

-mm

Thanks Mike.

The way you use your cars, you should be running synthetic, and on the thicker side.

You should also be running 91 in the Camaro as it'll adjust the timing to make use of it.

Still mystifies me when people pay premiums for performance cars but insist on going cheap with gas, tires, oil or brakes.

"1487 says:

12:31 PM, 10/ 9/09

Thanks Mike. "

This post made me nervous for a second, I had to check our logs to make sure.

There's a post coming up shortly, maybe today now that it's topical, comparing numbers of premium vs regular fuel.

-mm

Boxermike, i would still pull the 5 and 20 fuses. There are reports that the computer is being very safe and not going back to 91/93 fuel mapping once 87 has been put in. Pull those fuses and retest the car.

^

"from the minute we got the car, all through the break-in period and on the day of testing, this car was filled only with 91 octane" - mm

isellcars00, i understand that, but a person on camaro5 put something like 5000 miles on the car using 91 (premium fuel) from day one and the computer never switched back to the premium fuel mapping. The reason being that somewhere at factory or dealer a little bit of 87 was put in. Once he pulled 5 and 20 fuses car went back to 91 fuel mapping and car was a lot faster.

Pulling the fuses are not going to hurt anything, so to make some of us happy they should do it.

There are two problems here. 1st one others have pointed out, if low octane has ever been put in, you have to do the fuse reset to get back to the hi-octane tables. This was directly from the Camaro engineers that investigated the low performance complaints. 2nd one is the Mobil 1 requirement. The LS based engines have always been that way and have been designed for that. The oil life monitor is programmed for these cars to have been used with synthetic and the oil change intervals are greatly increased because if that, thus reducing costs while providing extra protection. So even with abuse you actually don't spend much extra at all on synthetic. The last oil change on my Trailblazer SS was just under 12k miles. I checked twice w/the dealer & w/Chev and they both advised that's normal for the cars w/the oil life monitors & synthetic.

I don't know about everyone else, but I use synthetic oil and premium fuel in all my vehicles regardless of if they're performance oriented or not.

It is not good to use premium fuel on a vehicle that doesnt require it. If the car specifies to run on 87 then you should run on 87.