Don’t EVER drop anything in the engine bay! What a day I had!

[strych9]

I'm reading through this thread wondering why so many are changing the oil so soon. Totally unnecessary and wasteful. This oil will go 8500 miles without a second thought. I'm @ 4k now, and might be @ 5k when I put the Camaro in storage for the winter. Come spring, it gets changed anyway, regardless of mileage. My Porsche came factory with Mobil-1 installed, and has a recommended 15k mile change interval.

Save your oil change money, and put it in your mod fund!

As for the OP, as a former tech I feel your pain in chasing down the dropped tools. I spent more time than it was worth doing just that.

[StormWarning]

Thanks for the words of encouragement and suggestions for getting that lost screwdriver out of the engine bay! My fallback plan was the air box removal, but first this morning I decided on the "duct tape/mega magnet on a stick approach" for starters, and after 5 minutes it worked! I got it out and with no scratches!

It was all good! I found out out these Race Ramps 67 in., 2-piece XT ramps really work slick; we got new Mobil 1 oil and a K & N HP oil filter (BTW-the filter replaced was a dealer-installed AC Delco oil filter I was charged $4.00 for!); plus we hand-washed, waxed, and "Back to Blacked" where needed the entire underneath of the car, and cleaned the Belly Pan all up – so it now looks better than new, and it’s all waxed and protected to boot! And we just turned over 2,400 miles. So it turned out to be productive after all – thanks to that slippery screwdriver!

P.S. I knew those buggered plastic belly pan clips were too good to be true! I'll keep listening for the flapping - thankfully we haven't heard it in a while!

[StormWarning]

Originally Posted by sammyv

Sorry about your luck! When you change your oil using the raceramps how do you get the oil level correct with you car at an angle? Thanks!

Sammy - I was surprised how level the engine was on top of the Race Ramps 67" XT's. Here's a pic - I put an arrow toward the oil filter. The ZL1 front suspension is so low that the drain plug sits about level on these ramps. It all seemed to work OK for me. Oh, and we installed a Dorman Magnetic drain plug Dorman/Oiltite # 65372.

[sycraft]

Why would you change the drainplug, personaly I would never let anything made by Dorman on my vehicle.....

[Rock-It Man]

Originally Posted by strych9

I'm reading through this thread wondering why so many are changing the oil so soon. Totally unnecessary and wasteful. This oil will go 8500 miles without a second thought. I'm @ 4k now, and might be @ 5k when I put the Camaro in storage for the winter. Come spring, it gets changed anyway, regardless of mileage. My Porsche came factory with Mobil-1 installed, and has a recommended 15k mile change interval.

Save your oil change money, and put it in your mod fund!

As for the OP, as a former tech I feel your pain in chasing down the dropped tools. I spent more time than it was worth doing just that.

I'm sure your approach will work, but some of us just can't wrap our heads around the idea of not changing the oil after break in. That first load of oil does does come out looking more cloudy than subsequent oil changes. It may not hurt anything, but still...

BTW, most people change the oil right before, not right after storage, so that contaminants don't spend the winter in the engine.

[fbodfather]

a word about the 'flapping' noise......

my 2012 CTF was making a 'flapping' noise one evening - to the point where I called in a report.....

Funny thing - I could not get it to duplicate.

about a week later, I heard it again -- and realized that it was happening on the same road --

Turns out that the road is concrete -- and that the expansion strips are just far enough apart at speed to cause what appears to be a 'flapping' noise --

the performance tires on the ZL1 coupled with the expansion strips were causing what sounded like a playing card in bicycle spokes (never did it as a kid, but friends did.....)

Fast forward to this summer when I rec'd my '13 CTF convert -- driving down the same road - and sure enough - the flapping noise.

I can't say for sure that this is what you heard with your car - but thought I'd mention.

(...oh - by the way - same thing happened on a road in Indianapolis and one in Pittsburgh....)

[Happy_Dan]

Looks great! Nice work!

[strych9]

Originally Posted by Rock-It Man

I'm sure your approach will work, but some of us just can't wrap our heads around the idea of not changing the oil after break in. That first load of oil does does come out looking more cloudy than subsequent oil changes. It may not hurt anything, but still...

BTW, most people change the oil right before, not right after storage, so that contaminants don't spend the winter in the engine.

Moisture that accumulates in the oil over winter is more harmful than the contaminants. I wouldn't want to contaminate my fresh oil with moisture. Therefore, oil change gets done the day it comes out of the garage in spring.

[StormWarning]

Originally Posted by sycraft

Why would you change the drainplug, personaly I would never let anything made by Dorman on my vehicle.....

Uh, well, those magnetic drain plugs are a nice extra litlle insurance. They attract metal that may be floating in the oil and hold it until you drain it. And I'm not too worried about Dorman's quality control on a drain plug - it's not leaking! Hope this helps.

[Happy_Dan]

Originally Posted by strych9

Moisture that accumulates in the oil over winter is more harmful than the contaminants. I wouldn't want to contaminate my fresh oil with moisture. Therefore, oil change gets done the day it comes out of the garage in spring.

+1

I change my oil every 3000 miles just because it makes me feel better, but always change it before first time out in the spring.

[sycraft]

Its all good, i like the magnetic plugs too. Just had some bad luck with dorman products.. Awesome ride you have..

[StormWarning]

Originally Posted by fbodfather

a word about the 'flapping' noise......

my 2012 CTF was making a 'flapping' noise one evening - to the point where I called in a report.....

Funny thing - I could not get it to duplicate.

about a week later, I heard it again -- and realized that it was happening on the same road --

Turns out that the road is concrete -- and that the expansion strips are just far enough apart at speed to cause what appears to be a 'flapping' noise --

the performance tires on the ZL1 coupled with the expansion strips were causing what sounded like a playing card in bicycle spokes (never did it as a kid, but friends did.....)

Fast forward to this summer when I rec'd my '13 CTF convert -- driving down the same road - and sure enough - the flapping noise.

I can't say for sure that this is what you heard with your car - but thought I'd mention.

(...oh - by the way - same thing happened on a road in Indianapolis and one in Pittsburgh....)

fbodfather, I can't thank you enough for that post! I've seen a few other theories floating around here but this one seems the most plausible! Now that you mention it, we too only experienced the noise over certain roadways, but we weren't able to duplicate it under any conditions anywhere else. I thought maybe a weird cross-wind was shooting across the Interstate!

It was really no big deal, just a little un-nerving! But my wife and I want to tell you and the entire Camaro Team how absolutely In Love we are with our 2012! We just enjoying jumping in and going - anywhere! It's really great to be driving the Icon of General Motors!

Thanks again for the flapping info.

[stardok]

Stormwarning, no blocks under back wheels when on ramps?

[old muscle car guy]

What is the part number for you race ramps, I have a set of race ramps, they work on my corvette , but not the zl1