Ain't that the truth! I bought a brand spankin' new 2014 Silverado small block last year.
Of course, I'm not one to read the instructions, only as a last resort. Couldn't put the
rear seat back down a few weeks ago, so I had to get the owner’s manual out to tell me
what thing to pull on to get it to release.
I was aware that break-in oil was as Jerry put it, "a thing of the past," with the new cars,
so I wasn't too concerned about that first oil change. After all, being a smart little truck, it
was estimating the oil life all by itself by calculating the engine rpm, temperature and
miles driven, and the display was telling me I still had 90% Oil Service Life Remaining'.
I’d already bought six qts. of Mobile 1 synthetic and a Fram filter, which was sitting on
the shelf for the first change. Even though I'd had the truck since the end of last
summer, when the 2015's came out, I still only had less than 5k on it. The dealer must
have had his timer running and figured I'd put twice that many miles on it, so they called
dangling a carrot in front of me, "bring your truck in for a FREE oil change." Well I was
taught early on that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. I had this gut feeling that
this was some kind of a come-on to get the truck in the shop so they could tack on
some extras that weren't covered by the warrantee. So, apparently 15k on the breaking
oil seems to be ok by GM standards now a days, but I’d feel much better changing my
oil at 5k even though it’s extended life oil.
Now, to break in my 216 after the rebuild, I subscribed to old school philosophy in part,
and as Jerry posted, fresh oil after the first 500 miles to clear the cobs out. But, I didn’t
us a light breaking oil, which has always been thought to aid in lapping in the cylinders
to the new rings. I just used the same old 15w40 Shell Rotella-T that I use in the tractors
and that I’ve always run in the Stovebolt. I did ran it hard to break her in the first few
hundred miles. Must have worked out ok cuz I’m approaching 10k sometime this
summer and she doesn’t burn a drop of oil and in spite of the lack of an oil filter it stays
clean for the first couple thousand miles, which tells me there isn’t excessive blow by. I
do try to change out oil at about 3000 miles as its turning color by that point, which is
the indicator that I’ve been using in all my vehicles since 1956 and I’ve never had a
catastrophic engine failure, unless you count the midget engine.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
