[tomato lover]

Is a quart of oil/1200 miles of driving reasonable for a 2002 buick lesabre with 225000 miles. It still passes smog. This is my daily driver (weekly now being retired). I do about 60% highway miles. I have never done anything to the bottom end of the engine. thanks in advance. I use 10w-30 mobil 1.

 

[ZEN357]

In my opinion it's a little much. I had a 1988 Bonneville SE with the Series 1 3800 in it and I put 270,000 miles on it and it never used oil like that.

 

[mr goodwrench]

Lets start with the OIL. Have you been running MOBILE ONE for a long time or more recently?? Been in the auto repair industry for a long time.....and I have seen several cars/trucks that went to a synthetic oil at high mileage. At that point these vehicles developed oil consumption issues that would not stop even when going back to a conventional motor oil. Hopefully this is not your case.

If I were in your shoes, I would have a cylinder leak percentage test done to confirm the actual cylinder leakage is under 10%. If it's not, you may well have bad piston rings. A do it yourself test that can reveal this symptom of excess consumption is..... manually turn the engine over to get one cylinder at a time to TOP DEAD CENTER on the compression stroke. Then, using shop air pressure in the spark plug hole for each cylinder one at a time, pull the oil fill cap and putting you hand over the oil fill hole in the valve cover. If there's signifant air pressure coming out, that's a sign the piston rings are worn and not doing their job........ at 225000, this would not surprise me at all.......even on a 3800.

A cylinder leakage test is a very accurate test for this issue. You would need to have this done at a shop or someone who knows how to use a tester for this issue.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, have you checked the PCV valve and the O RING that seals around it??? If this is bad that may also be your problem.

Best of luck and get back with you findings...... Jake

 

[tomato lover]

Lets start with the OIL. Have you been running MOBILE ONE for a long time or more recently?? Been in the auto repair industry for a long time.....and I have seen several cars/trucks that went to a synthetic oil at high mileage. At that point these vehicles developed oil consumption issues that would not stop even when going back to a conventional motor oil. Hopefully this is not your case.

If I were in your shoes, I would have a cylinder leak percentage test done to confirm the actual cylinder leakage is under 10%. If it's not, you may well have bad piston rings. A do it yourself test that can reveal this symptom of excess consumption is..... manually turn the engine over to get one cylinder at a time to TOP DEAD CENTER on the compression stroke. Then, using shop air pressure in the spark plug hole for each cylinder one at a time, pull the oil fill cap and putting you hand over the oil fill hole in the valve cover. If there's signifant air pressure coming out, that's a sign the piston rings are worn and not doing their job........ at 225000, this would not surprise me at all.......even on a 3800.

A cylinder leakage test is a very accurate test for this issue. You would need to have this done at a shop or someone who knows how to use a tester for this issue.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, have you checked the PCV valve and the O RING that seals around it??? If this is bad that may also be your problem.

Best of luck and get back with you findings...... Jake

Thanks Jake. I have a otc leakdown tester that I have never used. Looks like a good time to try it. I am currious if a person decided to do an engine redo what are quality names for overhaul kits? I did start using mobil 1 at about 120-160K miles since it was on sale. Sounds like it was not a great move. It was using about 1 quart/3000 miles then.

 

[mr goodwrench]

Mobile 1 is an excellent oil but only if the engine has lower miles on it and wasn't brought up on conventional oils. I don't know why this occurs but I've seen this issue several times. A good friend of mine got talked into a synthetic oil. After that he needed to carry a case of oil in his work truck to keep the oil level where it needed to be..... I also had a guy with a mid eighties cadallic that had the same problem......right after he was talked into a synthetic.

Bottom line is, use it all the time or not at all. Last time I bought some, I payed 13$ at Walmart for a 5 gal container.....10w30..... does everything I wanted... Jake

 

[tomato lover]

Mobile 1 is an excellent oil but only if the engine has lower miles on it and wasn't brought up on conventional oils. I don't know why this occurs but I've seen this issue several times. A good friend of mine got talked into a synthetic oil. After that he needed to carry a case of oil in his work truck to keep the oil level where it needed to be..... I also had a guy with a mid eighties cadallic that had the same problem......right after he was talked into a synthetic.

Bottom line is, use it all the time or not at all. Last time I bought some, I payed 13$ at Walmart for a 5 gal container.....10w30..... does everything I wanted... Jake

Scotty Kilmer said the same thing: for whatever reason you can't introduce synthetic engine oils late in engine life. Some guys say they put synthetic transmission oil late in life and their automatics do fine. Did you mean $130 for 5 gal or $13 for 5 quarts (after rebate).

 

[mr goodwrench]

OPPS, I ment $13.00 for a 5 quart container...... Sorry bout that...Jake

 

[gtx500hp]

Good Analysis from Mr Goodwrench. I haven't heard of talk of that air pressure test in many years. Brings back memories from street race car days.......

Very good point about synthetic oil change. Mobil 1 is very well known for detergent abilities.

Cheers

 

[ZEN357]

You know I was never big on Synthetic oil until my Father convince me to run it. But after reading this, I'm not sure I'm going to run it in my Challenger. It only have 1,100 miles on it, so I haven't even done the first oil change yet. I think I may stick to conventional oil. What about the synthetic/conventional blends? Any issue running those?

 

[mr goodwrench]

Staying with a conventional oil is ok as long as you maintain regular intervals. BUT, at that low milage you mentioned, it should'n matter any way. There is a GREAT conventional oil called BRAD PENN. This is Top Shelve stuff also. But it is expensive. Personally, I use MOBILE ONE for it's great cleaning abilities and lubrication. Bottom line is any GOOD oil will work good as long as you maintain frequent change intervals. My hot rod sees 1000 to 1500 mile oil changes. Got to take care of my TOY! Jake

PS, my car only sees 1000 to 1500 miles a year........... It looks like brand new if you peek inside the oil fill hole......... CLEAN IS GOOD....... Dam, my car is all dusty from being in the garage all winter......... Got to go and wash it! before it gets stained...... Can you tell I'm a bit on the picky side.....

 

[ZEN357]

Staying with a conventional oil is ok as long as you maintain regular intervals. BUT, at that low milage you mentioned, it should'n matter any way. There is a GREAT conventional oil called BRAD PENN. This is Top Shelve stuff also. But it is expensive. Personally, I use MOBILE ONE for it's great cleaning abilities and lubrication. Bottom line is any GOOD oil will work good as long as you maintain frequent change intervals. My hot rod sees 1000 to 1500 mile oil changes. Got to take care of my TOY! Jake

PS, my car only sees 1000 to 1500 miles a year........... It looks like brand new if you peek inside the oil fill hole......... CLEAN IS GOOD....... Dam, my car is all dusty from being in the garage all winter......... Got to go and wash it! before it gets stained...... Can you tell I'm a bit on the picky side.....

My 2016 Challenger only sees 1000 to 2000 miles per year as well. I think I will stick to conventional and maybe try that BRAD PENN oil you talked about. My daily driver gets it's oil changed every 3000 like clock work. A late mechanic friend of mine always told me the best thing you can do for an engine is change the oil every 3000 miles no matter what, whether it's conventional or synthetic.

 

[shades67]

oil consumption

I would try running some engine flush oil through it. our oil rep gave me some that is a gallon jug that gets put in after draining oil with a new filter and you run it for 20 minutes and then drain it. he says its heavily detergent oil, I was shocked with what came out of engine when it was drained. I have also done the seafoam through the intake vacuum hose and into the oil and have had good luck with that when an engine is sucking oil.
of course there is always rotella t 15w40. what more could an engine want????

 

[mr goodwrench]

About that "flushing oil"...... I days gone by, I've had a few cars show up at out shop that had oil pressure issues. The ones I'm referring to came to us after having an OIL CHANGE CHAIN STORE PERFORM A CRANKCASE FLUSH. From my experience, crankcase flushing can turn out VERY BAD.

I say this because heavy internal engine cleaning can be BAD....or worse. I say this because there have been some cars come in with oil pressure problems that had a "crankcase cleaning". When one does this, the process breaks loose internal sludge and this will get circulated throughout the engine. This crankcase debris can and will plug up things like oil pump pick-up screens.....this can cause severe internal damage! I first ran across this issue years ago when there were some oil change stores that started selling this to their customers. Needless to say, this didn't end well and the oil change franchises stopped this practice. I'm pretty sure there were a few ENGINE REPAIR CLAIMS from this flushing process.

The best way to try an INTERNAL CLEANING is by doing several oil changes and filters to loosen and catch this dirty sludge. When we used to run into these dirty crankcases, we did an oil and filter change and ran the engine at moderate speeds. Then shut it down, drained the crankcase and replaced the filter. Then repeated this process 2/3 times doing a filter and new oil each time. YES, it's time consuming... new oil has an excellent detergent action that is not too intense which will not cut thru heavy internal sludge and cause internal oil restrictions.......like a plugged up oil pump screen.....which is just about the same as very low oil pressure. Remember the old days of oil changes every 3000 miles....... this was to eliminate the issues just described.

If one simply does regular oil intervals, this won't happen. BOTTOM line is, do not do a chemical internal flush........ Jake

 

[shades67]

topic- Heavy oil usage after using synthetic.

From what I'm reading from the original post, He is trying to reduce the oil consumption after using synthetic oil - which is one of the highest detergent content oils. Yes it would be preferable to try the multiple oil change at short interval if it was a case of neglected oil changes. but I don't believe that it will get rid of the synthetic oil use issue of burn off.

 

[mr goodwrench]

That is correct....once you give the engine a bath with synthetic oil, many times there's no turning back.....sorry to say. Jake

 

[ZEN357]

So with a high mileage car it is not a good idea to run/change to synthetic, but what about a brand new car? After reading all this, I would be afraid to run synthetic.

 

[mr goodwrench]

If you have a new or newer car with LOW miles on it , no harm will come as a result of synthetic oils. My GTP kind of grew up on MOTOR CRAFT SUPERDUTY motor oil. I did switch to mobile one with no problems. HOWEVER, my oil change intervals were always done at very low milage......1500 or so. My car has very low miles on it....peeking inside the valve cover....it still looks brand new. Jake

PS......now that I'm getting older and older, I would kind of like to see the car go to a diligent owner so they too can have FUN and SCARY SPEED!

 

[ZEN357]

Don't let your age slow you down. I'm 46 with a few health issues, but I still live like I'm 28 when it comes to vehicles. I rarely drink anymore and go to the gym daily for a 30 minute workout. Thanks for your advice on the oil.

 

[WyrTwister]

So with a high mileage car it is not a good idea to run/change to synthetic, but what about a brand new car? After reading all this, I would be afraid to run synthetic.

As far as I know , all the newer GM cars require one version or another of DEXOS specification oil . Our 2015 Sonic does .

In 2015 , all the DEXOS oil found was at least a blend . I have always used full synthetic .

Our 2006 Buick 3.8l does not mention DEXOS in the owners manual . So , it gets conventional oil .

Wyr
God bless

 

[ZEN357]

About that "flushing oil"...... I days gone by, I've had a few cars show up at out shop that had oil pressure issues. The ones I'm referring to came to us after having an OIL CHANGE CHAIN STORE PERFORM A CRANKCASE FLUSH. From my experience, crankcase flushing can turn out VERY BAD.

I say this because heavy internal engine cleaning can be BAD....or worse. I say this because there have been some cars come in with oil pressure problems that had a "crankcase cleaning". When one does this, the process breaks loose internal sludge and this will get circulated throughout the engine. This crankcase debris can and will plug up things like oil pump pick-up screens.....this can cause severe internal damage! I first ran across this issue years ago when there were some oil change stores that started selling this to their customers. Needless to say, this didn't end well and the oil change franchises stopped this practice. I'm pretty sure there were a few ENGINE REPAIR CLAIMS from this flushing process.

The best way to try an INTERNAL CLEANING is by doing several oil changes and filters to loosen and catch this dirty sludge. When we used to run into these dirty crankcases, we did an oil and filter change and ran the engine at moderate speeds. Then shut it down, drained the crankcase and replaced the filter. Then repeated this process 2/3 times doing a filter and new oil each time. YES, it's time consuming... new oil has an excellent detergent action that is not too intense which will not cut thru heavy internal sludge and cause internal oil restrictions.......like a plugged up oil pump screen.....which is just about the same as very low oil pressure. Remember the old days of oil changes every 3000 miles....... this was to eliminate the issues just described.

If one simply does regular oil intervals, this won't happen. BOTTOM line is, do not do a chemical internal flush........ Jake

A late friend of my family who was a mechanic said to NEVER use any additives, flushes, etc.... to your engine. He said the best thing for your engine was to change the oil and filter every 3000 miles. I was 12 years old when he said this to my father and I. I was standing in his garage where he had just taken the valve cover of an engine that the owner had put slick 50 in and it was a complete mess. The whole engine was ruined and it looked like someone literally took a crap on the valve train.