Valvoline Restore & Protect experiment

[Fless]

Look at your driver's side door jamb sticker on the upper right hand top corner and it will show the build date. For example, mine is 11/10

Off the subject a little, when did we go back to using two-digit years? I would think after all the Y2K hysteria we'd be using 4 digits.

 

[opfor2]

Off the subject a little, when did we go back to using two-digit years? I would think after all the Y2K hysteria we'd be using 4 digits.

I'm quoting the door decal

 

[Fless]

I'm quoting the door decal

I know, it's not on you. Just an a-nal observation.

 

[j91z28d1]

Look at your driver's side door jamb sticker on the upper right hand top corner and it will show the build date. For example, mine is 11/10

4/11. so now I'm really not sure haha. could be either.

 

[opfor2]

4/11. so now I'm really not sure haha. could be either.

Your Tahoe was built on April 2011, you should have the new valve cover however, the only sure way to know is that you need to remove the driver side cover and look at it.

 

[rdezs]

There is one issue with using the revised valve cover on the earlier LS engines, such as the lq4. (I have one in a 2003 Hummer) Almost immediately started getting condensation in the bottom of the oil pan. The revised valve cover has a very small orifice. Tiny compared to the early style with the actual PCV valve. I doubled the size of the orifice, reinstalled the valve cover, and no more condensation. If you have adequate vacuum in the crankcase, you should be able to lift your dipstick up slightly and hear the idle change. Or the oil filter cap. That had no effect prior to enlarging the orifice. And even with the larger orifice, no oil consumption between oil changes at all. It doesn't affect the idle, as the ECM compensates.

 

[the blur]

The experiment is over. V R&P did absolutely nothing. and it's not even Dexos rated. So I'm done with it... I am still burning oil like crazy,...
Back to M1 or Pennzoil Platinum.
But a heavier weight. Maybe even the 0w-40 super car oil.

 

[j91z28d1]

that's a shame it didn't help. wonder if it didn't clean up the stuck rings, or if it's something else besides rings.


on a side note, I'm on my 2nd batch still. I have a long tow coming up in Sept. not a big camper like most here, just a light car on a trailer but thru the mountains. 2k ish mile round trip. I'm thinking I'll change out the 5w30 r&r for something more standard in a thicker 10w40. my truck doesn't have an oil cooler. so it will probably be working hard, or atleast turning a lot of rpm compared to its normal life

 

[Marky Dissod]

The experiment is over.

After an oil change of how many miles long?

 

[donjetman]

Valvoline says 4 normal oil change intervals.
I fixed my stuck rings in 1 weekend by doing piston/combustion chamber soak and
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2014/MC-10114272-9999.pdf
that was 7 yrs and 70k miles ago. No issue since.

 

[Tonyrodz]

I used that engine restore on my 89 Formula with the tuned port motor. That era of smal black Chevy was notorious for valve stem seals letting oil get by and smoking on start up. 1 can was all it took. Stopped smoking. I had that car 2-3 years. Never added another can, and never smoked on start up again.

 

[the blur]

I used that engine restore on my 89 Formula with the tuned port motor. That era of smal black Chevy was notorious for valve stem seals letting oil get by and smoking on start up. 1 can was all it took. Stopped smoking. I had that car 2-3 years. Never added another can, and never smoked on start up again.

My 89 Formula with the TPI motor had bad valve steam seals from the factory, but now it no longer smokes for some reason. Never did anything to the motor, or heads.

 

[Tonyrodz]

My 89 Formula with the TPI motor had bad valve steam seals from the factory, but now it no longer smokes for some reason. Never did anything to the motor, or heads.

Strange. They were known for valve seals. Imo you have the best year, 89. 1st year without that damn cold start injector. I LOVE the Formulas, especially with the 350 tpi motors. Got a pic?

 

[j91z28d1]

I had the 91 tpi. had plastic umbrella seals they called them. it smoked on startup around 50k miles, replaced the seals when I did a slp cam and springs. the old seals just fell apart. new ones and it never did it again.

miss that car, but have a 90 formula now. need to drive it more.

 

[TxVet33]

I'm also doing the science experiment, LOL on the neighbors 6.2 engine with 192000 miles. Going to help him with an AFM delete, so we'll see how clean the inside is. He's got about 1500 miles till we dump the second Valvoline oil change. First one came out really dark, so I'm thinking it's doing something.

 

[the blur]

No need to watch a video. V R&P is not DEXOS rated. I stopped using it. It did nothing for me anyway.

 

[j91z28d1]

I wouldn't say it's worthless. I see a lot of varnash in my filter when I cut it open that I never saw with any other oils. it's definitely not going to clean an engine in 2 uses thou. I believe it's removing more than if I didn't use it.



I personally care nothing about dexos rating. it's a daily that doesn't abuse it's oil temp wise, I believe my pvc setup is keeping oil from the cats and I change it every 3k ish. I believe I could use decent conventional oil without any negative effects. this is atleast that good.

I'm personally going to keep using it as long as it stays cheap. Will see how it does over the next hopefully 50k to 100k I'm going to try and keep it on the road.


I would never expect it to fix a broken engine thou.

 

[kbuskill]

I wouldn't say it's worthless. I see a lot of varnash in my filter when I cut it open that I never saw with any other oils. it's definitely not going to clean an engine in 2 uses thou. I believe it's removing more than if I didn't use it.



I personally care nothing about dexos rating. it's a daily that doesn't abuse it's oil temp wise, I believe my pvc setup is keeping oil from the cats and I change it every 3k ish. I believe I could use decent conventional oil without any negative effects. this is atleast that good.

I'm personally going to keep using it as long as it stays cheap. Will see how it does over the next hopefully 50k to 100k I'm going to try and keep it on the road.


I would never expect it to fix a broken engine thou.

Just to add to this...

I have used Mobil one EP for years. My '08 Suburban has 350k+ miles and is extremely clean inside only having that light golden color under the valve covers.

I recently switched to the Valvoline R&P just to see what it might do and how the Burb might like it.

I did my first used oil analysis on the R&P at 7600 miles and Blackstone says I could run the next oil change out to 12k miles if I wanted to.

I will preface this by saying I have a larger capacity oil system with dual oversized filters as well as the factory oil cooler in the radiator and an additional aftermarket oil cooler out front so my capacity is around 10 quarts so about 4 extra quarts of capacity. Usually about 8 quarts get replaced at an oil change, the other 2 are what remain in both oil coolers and the associated lines running to the coolers and the remote mount dual oil filter setup. I believe the higher lead content previously was from the aftermarket, Chinesium, plate and fin style oil cooler leaching lead from the solder into the oil.

So far the Burb seems to like the R&P.

 

[TxVet33]

it is in no way a scam. it is 100 plus octane race gas at the local gas station for less than 93 piss water petrol.

the 6.2 engines love it, it also cleans the top of pistons. now gm didn't spend the money to install a physical sensor on these trucks and trys to do the math off the reg o2 sensors which is mostly a failure. but that's not e85's fault.


just because you don't own a car that can take full advantage of e85, I hate seeing people shit on it. anyone with boost and a flex fuel sensor it's a god send.now if we would. remove the tariff on it and just sell it at the price Brazil sells it to us we would be set.

No, for us old slow folks, once you guys slow down a little bit and explain to those people in the cheap seats about E 85 and the top of the piston. Are you saying E 85 will clean the intake and the top end of the engine. Thanks for any explanation.

 

[15burban]

@kbuskill what oil were you using on your 269k oil change? The one with the 14.63 cst @100? Looks like, and I could be wrong but the other previous ones were mobil 1 ep 5w30? Or at least a Xw30. Just curious why the last one was higher for the cst@100.

This spring I ran valvoline r&p 5w30 for 3 oci's in my 07 pontiac with the 2.2. I'd have to look back through my records but I want to say there was 270k when I started. Did a picture through the drain plug hole before I switched over and was surprised it looked really clean for that many miles.

April 11th


July 20th after the 3rd run of r&p roughly 12k miles total of r&p. First run I did 3k 2nd run was for 4k and the final run was 5k miles.


Not very scientific and it's hard trying to get a good picture but not much difference in the pictures. I know a better test would have been to pop the valve cover and oil pan off before and after but I don't have time for that. The dipstick has never been shinier. It wasn't dirty to begin with but she shines now. So I'm sure it did more cleaning then what my couple pics show. The 2.2 engine also has a canister type filter so you can see the pleats (don't have to cut it open). I didn't stretch out the pleats but the filters looked the same as they have for the last 13 years.

If r&p would come in a 5w40 I would have kept using it, but I switched to a 5w40 for the rest of the summer. Now that it's winter I switched back to pennzoil pup 5w30 that I also have been running in the 15 suburban.