1995 Impala SS - Oil Issues

LT1Silverhawk · #1 07-13-2009, 03:48 PM

Hi All,

I've recently noticed that my Impala has been having oil issues.

Only two weeks after the last oil change, the "Low Oil Level" light came on. I checked the dipstick and there was nothing on it - except after reving of course.

I did not see any tell-tale leak spots anywhere.

However, I do notice an oil-burning smell every time I gun it.

The headgaskets were redone about 3000 miles ago so I cant see the valves being an issue.

I guess it is important ot mention that the oil level seemed fine before the oil change.

Any ideas?

j cAT · #2 07-13-2009, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LT1Silverhawk

Hi All,

I've recently noticed that my Impala has been having oil issues.

Only two weeks after the last oil change, the "Low Oil Level" light came on. I checked the dipstick and there was nothing on it - except after reving of course.

I did not see any tell-tale leak spots anywhere.

However, I do notice an oil-burning smell every time I gun it.

The headgaskets were redone about 3000 miles ago so I cant see the valves being an issue.

I guess it is important ot mention that the oil level seemed fine before the oil change.

Any ideas?

did I ever tell you about my friend ED....
prior to driving to atlantic city he got an oil change...when in new york city, the engine light came on....when he checked the oil it was down 3.5qts.....

well it was never filled properly ,,and he foolishly did not check it before driving from the service center...

ED now checks the oil, when it is changed..

LT1Silverhawk · #3 07-14-2009, 11:33 AM

I'm glad 'ED' learned his lesson.

Strange that 'ED's car's oil light came in on new York City even though he was headed to Atlantic City.

I have started to do the same.

Ironically, after the oil change, I, too, took a long drive, like 'ED'.

No oil lights came on during that trip.

j cAT, you correctly assumed that the oil was changed by a 'service center'.

However, the oil change was done by a friend and his coworkers at a local Pep Boys, i.e. they wouldn't pull something like that.

But that is not to say it couldn't happen...

Right now, my main concern is the oil-burning smell when accelerating semi-heavy.

Any ideas?

j cAT · #4 07-14-2009, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LT1Silverhawk

I'm glad 'ED' learned his lesson.

Strange that 'ED's car's oil light came in on new York City even though he was headed to Atlantic City.

I have started to do the same.

Ironically, after the oil change, I, too, took a long drive, like 'ED'.

No oil lights came on during that trip.

j cAT, you correctly assumed that the oil was changed by a 'service center'.

However, the oil change was done by a friend and his coworkers at a local Pep Boys, i.e. they wouldn't pull something like that.

But that is not to say it couldn't happen...

Right now, my main concern is the oil-burning smell when accelerating semi-heavy.

Any ideas?

back in the 1980's the oil light would come on only when you basicly had very little oil....today most vehicles have a oil level sensor...

his check engine light came on,,,it was because the oil was not suffecient to properly cool/ lubricate the engine...

in your case I would say that this was an accident that they did not place the correct amount of oil in the crankcase.....this is quite common...not that this was done on purpose...to save the service center some profit..

how many miles on vehicle ? have you checked/replaced the PCV/hoses lately...this vehicle has some crankcase vent hoses that at this age need replacing...mine did last year 1996 impala...especially at the PCV 90deg hose bend...

with the crankcase vent inop.. this could be your smoke out the exhaust problem..

LT1Silverhawk · #5 07-14-2009, 02:28 PM

Yeah, I'd have to agree there is a possibility that they did not put in enough oil. But I don't see saving money/profit as the cause simply because This was a personal friend who took care of it.

My car is a '95. I recently purchased it from a mechanic shop about 3000 miles ago. The headgasket went out after only 25 miles of driving due to a clogged radiator (so I was told).

The car's engine was stroked to a 383 about 15-20,000 miles ago by the shop that sold it to me. The transmission and the rearend were also beefed up later on down the line. The car itself has 136,600 miles.

I have not checked nor replaced the PCV and hoses but I will look at them first chance I get. I did notice that the the valve cover have two piston-looking caps on one cover and just a billet one on another. I don't have that on my '96 LT1 Z28. When I went to add the oil, I didn't see the regulay oil pouring spout so I just removed the billet one and poured it in from there.

By the way, the shop replaced the headgaskets when they went out. To cool down the coor even more, they took out the thermostat and wired the fans directly to the battery. The car was running super cold like you will not believe. But it was also shifting hard (which it still does, supposedly due to the performancy nature of the transmission, but not as hard). I placed in a stock temperature thermostat (195 degrees) and it now warms up some. I wonder if that may have something to do with it the oil burning.

Thanks for the tips and ideas, j cAT. I'm gonna check on what you mentioned and see what I find. I'll try to have someone follow me to see if they observe any smoke.

j cAT · #6 07-14-2009, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LT1Silverhawk

Yeah, I'd have to agree there is a possibility that they did not put in enough oil. But I don't see saving money/profit as the cause simply because This was a personal friend who took care of it.

My car is a '95. I recently purchased it from a mechanic shop about 3000 miles ago. The headgasket went out after only 25 miles of driving due to a clogged radiator (so I was told).

The car's engine was stroked to a 383 about 15-20,000 miles ago by the shop that sold it to me. The transmission and the rearend were also beefed up later on down the line. The car itself has 136,600 miles.

I have not checked nor replaced the PCV and hoses but I will look at them first chance I get. I did notice that the the valve cover have two piston-looking caps on one cover and just a billet one on another. I don't have that on my '96 LT1 Z28. When I went to add the oil, I didn't see the regulay oil pouring spout so I just removed the billet one and poured it in from there.

By the way, the shop replaced the headgaskets when they went out. To cool down the coor even more, they took out the thermostat and wired the fans directly to the battery. The car was running super cold like you will not believe. But it was also shifting hard (which it still does, supposedly due to the performancy nature of the transmission, but not as hard). I placed in a stock temperature thermostat (195 degrees) and it now warms up some. I wonder if that may have something to do with it the oil burning.

Thanks for the tips and ideas, j cAT. I'm gonna check on what you mentioned and see what I find. I'll try to have someone follow me to see if they observe any smoke.

I am only very familiar with the stock LT1 engine,,the engine you have has some differences...which I don't know much about..

the fans should never be on all the time,,,this was not designed to run all the time, and will burn out..

the pluged radiator was because they/previous owner used the wrong antifreeze or, mixed dexcool with silicone antifreeze...

my coolant systems never had these corroded, pluged problems as many have had,,,the dexcool with distilled water is how this is prevented,

also by removal of the knock sensors you can drain the complete coolant system,,about 4 gallons total with the heater core which needs to be back flushed because it has a habit of getting pluged with debis//very common..

since you just purchased this vehicle, hopefully you will not have any more expensive repairs...these vehicles will last a long time with few problems,,, but care must be taken to have the proper maintanence done at the correct time..

On the thermostat,,, my engine uses a 180deg F GM #12555290 a/c #131-100

LT1Silverhawk · #7 07-15-2009, 01:11 AM

Well it is a stock LT1 block stroked out to a 383 with forged internals and Edelbrock heads.

Yeah, I agree with you about the fans running all the time myself. I'm gonna go ahead and install the manual switch instead. Any experience with that?

About the clogged radiator, I think it may have something to do with the fact that the car had been sitting around for quite a few months. Could that clog up the radiator, or some other component of the cooling system? I'm not a big fan of DexCool and the shop actually put in the green coolant after the headgasket was replaced.

I did some research on the car itself before buying it was impressed with its looks, power, room and reliability. I figured the 383 pushing over 400 hp was a nice bonus. Hopefully no problems in the future. Its been getting me around reliably so far, albeit with some crappy gas mileage.

I am going to try the thermostat you mentioned, by the way. Acording to the shop, the ECU was programmed for the 160 degree thermostat so I was suprised to find no thermostat - nothing but the top part with the rubber seal to keep the water outlet from leaking. I think the previous owner kinda got carried away with odifying it and didn't kno what he was doing at times.

Also, it is running Denso iridium spark plugs. Any opinions?

Thanks again j cAT...

j cAT · #8 07-15-2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LT1Silverhawk

Well it is a stock LT1 block stroked out to a 383 with forged internals and Edelbrock heads.

Yeah, I agree with you about the fans running all the time myself. I'm gonna go ahead and install the manual switch instead. Any experience with that?

About the clogged radiator, I think it may have something to do with the fact that the car had been sitting around for quite a few months. Could that clog up the radiator, or some other component of the cooling system? I'm not a big fan of DexCool and the shop actually put in the green coolant after the headgasket was replaced.

I did some research on the car itself before buying it was impressed with its looks, power, room and reliability. I figured the 383 pushing over 400 hp was a nice bonus. Hopefully no problems in the future. Its been getting me around reliably so far, albeit with some crappy gas mileage.

I am going to try the thermostat you mentioned, by the way. Acording to the shop, the ECU was programmed for the 160 degree thermostat so I was suprised to find no thermostat - nothing but the top part with the rubber seal to keep the water outlet from leaking. I think the previous owner kinda got carried away with odifying it and didn't kno what he was doing at times.

Also, it is running Denso iridium spark plugs. Any opinions?

Thanks again j cAT...

the fans should be controlled by the pcm...examples of fan control would be a/c on primary fan comes on, a/c pressures too high secondary fan comes on..vehicle speed over 45 mph fans off..engine temp over 235 deg f approx. fans on...in addition to the fans wearing out this also stesses out the alternator,,,especially when hot out..

the fan relays are located in the under hood fuse box,passenger side.. I have the diagrams for this with the repair manuals for my 96 ss..with a private message give me you email address I can send you the info to aid in correcting this..

I would think that your modified engine requires the same thermostat design as the original..using a 160 deg. with the altered engine work/pcm programing may very well be good...but you must have a thermostat so the the coolant flows properly, with this reverse flow..

because the radiator was pluged you must completely drain the coolant system...as I described...then refill with the silicone antifreeze with distilled water...I say silicone because now this is in the engine metals rubber hoses etc..and switching back to the oem dexcool might cause problems...distillled water will keep the coolant from growing sludge and metal eating solutions.
using at least 50% of antifreeze,which would be 2 gallons minimum...I use 2.5 gallons when it time to replace coolant ..1.5 gallons of distilled water..

what would the a/c plug number be for this engine ? the same as original ? the irridium plugs have a hotter spark , and It is a good design ..I have not however used them..the metal tips resist heat damage and maintain a good spark over a longer time than platium..

you are using 93 octane in this ,,,? and is the MPG about 12..?

LT1Silverhawk · #9 07-15-2009, 12:35 PM

About the fans, see the head gasket went out about 25 miles after I picked it up. But here is another issue that's been bugging me: right after I bought the car, I left it at the shop fro them to repair an A/C hose that had burned up from too much heat from the passenger-side header. Apparently, either one of the fans was disconnected when the A/C hose burned up or it went bad, but I have a feeling that fan never came on because the temperature shot up after I turned the A/C on. I pulled over and then the smoke/steam came out the engine bay. The car still drove fine, however.

So I called the shop, told them what happened, and then dropped off the car. Couple of days later, I was told the head gaskets were bad and a bad radiator was to blame. Ironically, the owner admitted the fan had been disconnected at some point since the A/C was not being used due to the damaged hose. But he didn't remember if they ever reconnected it after I bought the car. It should've been a simple check. The shop kept the car for a few days, changed the gaskets, resurfaced the heads, installed a used fan and a new radiator. And apparently removed the thermostat and used the green coolant instead of Dexcool. I kid you not, the temperature gage was always at "C" from then on. I took the car for a long drive up north while going through ridiculous stop-and-go traffic and the the temp hardly moved.

So I called the shop again and told the owner how the car was running super-cold and the transmission was shifting too hard in first and second. He said it was good the car was running so cold because they always had a hard time keeping the temperature down on this car. As for the hard shifting, his explanation was that the transmission is a step below a racing transmission, so it shifts off full-line pressure.

I wasn't buying his explanation, so I bought a 195 degree thermostat to see what would happen. When I opened the thermostat housing, I was surprised to find just the top portion of the thermostat with the rubber seal. So now I don't know if the shop did this and never told me or if it was the previous owner. Anyways, the temperature now goes about 1/3 of the way up the gauge and the shifting is slightly softer.

Please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject but what is silicone antifreeze? Any particular brands you recommend?

You know, the AC Delco plug number is a good question. I would assume it is the same. I guess the shop stayed with the stock heat range. I know the iridiums have a more precise spark due to their fine tips and the materials last longer than platinum but had my suspicions since I heard a few guys says they would last much in an American V8. I posted the same question on this forum and one guy says that the Delco iridium is best.

Right now, I use 91 gas and average about 16 mpg in the everyday driving.

NOVAZ27 · #10 07-15-2009, 01:27 PM

WHAT BRAND, WEIGHT ETC. OF OIL WAS USED AT THE OIL CHANGE? The answers to this question may solve the oil usage issues. Most of the "modern" API SL rated oils have a very low ZDDP content as dictated by the EPA. They also seem to be thinner in content IMO than earlier oil ratings API SJ/SM. If your engine was built with FORGED internals the engine may have been built LOOSE. Forged PISTONS expand at a diffrent rate than CAST. Being built loose coupled with a thinner oil may have contributed to the excessive oil usage. There may be other threads I am sure that address these concerns. I know ZDDP has a few.

HOPE THIS HELPS NOT HINDER

j cAT · #11 07-15-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LT1Silverhawk

About the fans, see the head gasket went out about 25 miles after I picked it up. But here is another issue that's been bugging me: right after I bought the car, I left it at the shop fro them to repair an A/C hose that had burned up from too much heat from the passenger-side header. Apparently, either one of the fans was disconnected when the A/C hose burned up or it went bad, but I have a feeling that fan never came on because the temperature shot up after I turned the A/C on. I pulled over and then the smoke/steam came out the engine bay. The car still drove fine, however.

So I called the shop, told them what happened, and then dropped off the car. Couple of days later, I was told the head gaskets were bad and a bad radiator was to blame. Ironically, the owner admitted the fan had been disconnected at some point since the A/C was not being used due to the damaged hose. But he didn't remember if they ever reconnected it after I bought the car. It should've been a simple check. The shop kept the car for a few days, changed the gaskets, resurfaced the heads, installed a used fan and a new radiator. And apparently removed the thermostat and used the green coolant instead of Dexcool. I kid you not, the temperature gage was always at "C" from then on. I took the car for a long drive up north while going through ridiculous stop-and-go traffic and the the temp hardly moved.

So I called the shop again and told the owner how the car was running super-cold and the transmission was shifting too hard in first and second. He said it was good the car was running so cold because they always had a hard time keeping the temperature down on this car. As for the hard shifting, his explanation was that the transmission is a step below a racing transmission, so it shifts off full-line pressure.

I wasn't buying his explanation, so I bought a 195 degree thermostat to see what would happen. When I opened the thermostat housing, I was surprised to find just the top portion of the thermostat with the rubber seal. So now I don't know if the shop did this and never told me or if it was the previous owner. Anyways, the temperature now goes about 1/3 of the way up the gauge and the shifting is slightly softer.

Please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject but what is silicone antifreeze? Any particular brands you recommend?

You know, the AC Delco plug number is a good question. I would assume it is the same. I guess the shop stayed with the stock heat range. I know the iridiums have a more precise spark due to their fine tips and the materials last longer than platinum but had my suspicions since I heard a few guys says they would last much in an American V8. I posted the same question on this forum and one guy says that the Delco iridium is best.

Right now, I use 91 gas and average about 16 mpg in the everyday driving.

the headers should be covered with insulation,,,this will reduce back pressure and remove excessive heat from the engine bay..

the oem a/c lines in the exhaust manifold area have insulation rapped around them...

they installed only the top portion of the thermostat to provide a gasket seal mounting surface...

replace the 195 thermostat with a 160/ or 180 deg. F

MPG is 16 which is pretty good and 91 octane keeps it from pre-ignition..

the fan problem is what I suspected the fan burn't out from running continuosly and then it blew out the head gasket///

silicone based anti freeze is the green stuff which is what they put in...because of this you should not go back to dexcool...

my vehicle since nov 1995 coolant guage goes up 1/3,,,

LT1Silverhawk · #12 07-15-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote: