Z28_1991_Camaro

I have a new rebuilt engine in my car and on the warranty card it says,
"do not use high detergent oil for the first 6,000km (4,000 miles)"
How do I tell if my oil is a "high detergent" oil. Ive been reading about it online, and from what ive read it appears to me that just about all oil these days has these "detergent" properties.
I did not have this warranty information at the time I filled my engine up. I currently have castrol syntec in my engine right now and have driven about 80km on it so far, but have to change my oil again after 800km as part of the break in process. Is castrol syntec a high detergent oil? I was planning on putting Mobil 1 in, but again im concerned, is mobil 1 considered a high detergent oil?

Also, I need to adjust my timing again. The installation instructions that came with my engine said to adjust the timing while at 1500rpm, so thats what I did. I went for an emissions test and passed, but I was at the limit in the HC category. The guy told me to adjust my timing and that should fix things. These same installation instructions also told me to prime my oil pump by spinning it counter-clockwise but that accomplished nothing, it needed to be spun in a clockwise direction. So Im hesitant to believe that is correct.
In my Chiltons repair manual it says to "refer to the instructions on the emissions control label" however, i dont have that label in my car as it was on the original radiator and it is no longer in the vehicle. I have a 91 z28, 5.7L tpi. What information is on that label that i need to know?

TransAM Joe

iTrader: (6)

you are correct, almost all 4 cycle motor oils today have some detergent properties to them. The one I have found to have the least is valvoline vr1 racing oil. I use there 10w30. If an oil is non-detergent it is nothing more than TCW-III which is 2 cycle oil used in outboard motors, lawn mower, etc, DO NOT PUT THESE IN YOUR ENGINE, VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Word of advice is to use regular oil for break in and not a sythetic like I think you have in it right now. High detergent oils have been linked in studies done by valvoline to cause failures of bearings, distributor gears and excessive cam lobe wear, so it's good to use low detergent oil everytime.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Still an L98, right? A factory-like rebuilt replacement engine?

The warranty instructions sound generic and "old school". A couple of things there:
1) If still roller lifters (you never know with some of these rebuild outfits - they'll give you most anything), the synthetic oil probably isn't hurting anything. "Break-in", whatever there is, has already occurred. If, however, it is a flat tappet cam, you'll probably wipe it out soon.

2) L98 timing is set with the EST wire disconnected and at idle. 1500 is all wrong.

In general, Syntec is a bad joke on the consumer. Overpriced, underperforming. But, it says "synthetic" on the bottle, so it must be good, right? WRONG! Dump the stuff, and don't get sucked into their marketing half-truths ever again. Synthetic is a good thing, but get a "real" one like Mobil 1, AMSOIL, Red Line, or Royal Purple. (I'm still trying to figure out if the Lucas synthetics are worth considering - I know their stabilizers are not.)

Stealthy-One

My experiances with Lucas have all been bad. I would avoid that crap like the plague.

Z28_1991_Camaro

yes it is a factory like rebuilt replacement.
If im not mistaken i have roller lifters in the engine, is there any way to tell now that the engine is all assembled?
What is the est wire? Im relatively new to all of this, Im not down with a lot of the tecnical terms.
The only reason I used the syntec was because I had some in my garage and none of the other cars in my househould use synthetic oil so they will never need it and i was planning on putting mobil 1 in, but since i need to do an oil change after 800 km anyhow, i didnt see much harm in the syntec for such a short period of time. Am I wrong to believe syntec is still better than non synthetic oils?