Thread: how quick can you develop rod knock?

lol newbs

A bran new rebuilt engine can knock if it has too much clearance, or its just time to rebuilt it.

To expand on the Rotella I run it in my track car. I run the T6 (synthetic) 5-40. It will last two full track days and then I change it. Honestly on a street car I don't see the need but it won't hurt anything.

The logic behind running "diesel"oil is that because it is designed for commercial use they are allowed to run higher concentration of certain additives (zinc being the main one) then passenger car oils. Up to a certain point this additive package will provide more protection and longer oil life.

Odds of a rebuilt engine knocking are slim to none, if the builder wasn't on crack, or drunk. There are a lot of other things that go on with a rebuilt engine (if it's BUILT, not just stock internals), that would have someone believe that it's "knock". Piston slap being one of those.

Secondly, you don't need to do a rebuild if you have rod knock. You can replace the rod bearings 9 times out of 10, and run it for another 100K.




Couldn't find any T6 in 1qt form, and didn't feel like buying two 1gal bottles, so I just used Castrol Syn. 10w30 in the Scooby. I think next time I'll just buy two gallons of T6 and then I'll have some left over for the following oil change.

T6 is 4 quarts in a bottle... Perfect amount with my oil cooler setup.

In case anyone is a dork like me, the rotella T6 is the replacement for the previous Rotella T synthetic. I was concerned it was a different additive package but according to Shell tech. it is identical. T6 is just a way to market it as their top of the line oil...

Scoobies take more than 4qts.

^+1 I run the Same Rotella 5W-40 in both my B13's, one with thousands of track miles and the motor is running strong, no oil consumption issues. I change out the oil before trips to the track, if more than one or two days then I'll change it maybe once in the same month (back to back trips, or 2-3 in the same month or so, I won't change it every time out). I run the same oil in my RAM 1500 HEMI, my G, and my U13.

Engines are subjected to extreme temps where I live, from subzero to very hot, so having an oil that works well in both conditions is very convenient. As for street cars, I see good reason for using it - truck gets used loaded up, cars sit in traffic in hot weather sometimes idling for longer than I'd like, A/C loading the motor in Summer, and at least for my B13, it's street use isn't all that different from the track, just a matter of degree

Btw used oil analysis backs up the long term use of Rotella, quite a few Z/G owners use it, and there's a great discussion of oil issues in general and specific to motors like my VQ here:

VQ Oil Analysis and Info - MY350Z.COM Forums

$20/gallon at Wal-mart, cheap for a good syn oil, too.

My RAM HEMI 5.7 liter takes over 7 quarts, almost two gallons. There, is mine even bigger?

Yeah, it's not an SR20 either, so if someone said OT or totally irrelevant, they'd probably be right.

Update:

Just passed one year with the motor with rod knock on #3, it has not gotten noticeably worse or started consuming oil, and still pulls strong for a USDM motor with bolt-ons.

12 months, closing in on 8k miles. So yeah, rod knock can take you down in a day...or not. I keep fresh T6 in this motor every 3k miles since I got it and poured out the watery gray M1 which tells me the damage was done. I had rod knock with less than 500 miles, full oil, just old bad oil.