history first; I picked up a '95 LT1 with 7K on the clock, the problem was that the thing sat on a stand for 12 years after being removed from a wreck. When the LT was finaly put in a third gen, it was blowing bubbles. then enter myself into the picture, Last weekend I was finaly able to pull the motor down, the water jackets had 3 inches of black mud in them, and the far lower holes in the head gaskets (both ends) were plugged with rust/crap. the inside of the moter does not have an oil stain anywhere, not even on the alum heads. the thing didn't run long enough to blacken the oil. WOW!! oh the head bolts were not tight at all???? I am going to pull it down to a bear block for tanking, get new cam bearings installed.... basicly going to rebuild it. Get the rods a complete physical, mains checked, maybe line bored?

Ok now with the questions, those of you with experience with LLoyd Elliot's work, how does the head / cam treatment affect the MPG? Although, I can't imagine what the seat of the pants experience is like.

Have any of you watched your oil pressure to determine when the oil fails? If so? what brand and roughly how long did it last. I have experienced this phenomon on a High HP 400, is why I ask.

What is the best oil to run in a 400+ HP motor.

More as I remember them

 

What exactly do you mean by this? Wait for the oil pressure to drop before changing the oil?

 

this is what I meant;
when I built the 400 I started with Shell Fire and Ice 10W40 oil, after the 500 mile break in, oil change. At roughly 1000 miles into it, the oil pressure dropped from 100 to 40, a major drastic drop. This had me greatly concerned, the easiest first step was to change the oil, thus I* did and my oil pressure came back. once again at roughly 1000 miles it dropped drastically. it doesnt take a rocket scientist to do the math on this. switched to Trop-Artic with the same results. long story short, ended up with Castroil in it, and that managed to hang in there for 3000 miles. Fast forward to today, I will not run Castroil in any thing, as the last 3 motors that I have run it in looked like I had ran Pensoil in them, Personally I feel Castroil's quality is in a very steep dive down.

 

I've seen examples of sludged-up engines with Pennzoil and Castrol with documented regular oil changes. So, no surprises there. Personally, I've been all AMSOIL since 1983.