Thicker oil for high milage cars?

[VetteOwner]

Originally Posted by rGS

VetteOwner,

Do you know of anyone who's ever taken the "take the engine apart" option to solve oil burn problem?

a few people i know have but they were using excessive ammounts (liek half a qt or sometiems a qt every 1-2 weeks that and they were either mechanics themselves or thier dad is/was

but in the general sense, no. noone relaly does

[Gary Palmer]

RickyD: Short term, you can run a heavier oil to slow down the excessive burn rate. Hotter plugs will probably burn the gunk a little better. I wouldn't use the Seafoam to try to thin the oil out, it's for cleaning, not for running.

If it's using oil, their are a number of possibilities, depending on the mileage, condition of the engine and money. I have two Honda's which I have pulled apart and done a economy rebuild on. They both have about 240,000 miles on them and they don't use any oil to speak of. You could also purchase a used engine, imported from Japan and install that.

For my economy rebuild, because the engine was in good shape, I just had the head rebuilt, with new valve guides and seals. Then on the engine I pulled the pistons, honed the cylinder walls, put in new stock rings, new rod bearings, main bearings, water pump, timing belt, seals and gaskets. When I was done, I had 40psi of oil pressure, when it's warmed up and idling, no oil leaks and it doesn't burn any oil to speak of. All total it cost probably $300-$500.

You can do all of this with the engine in the car, but it is a lot easier to work on the engine when it's out of the car.

[GasSavers_RickyD]

Originally Posted by Gary Palmer

RickyD: Short term, you can run a heavier oil to slow down the excessive burn rate. Hotter plugs will probably burn the gunk a little better. I wouldn't use the Seafoam to try to thin the oil out, it's for cleaning, not for running.

If it's using oil, their are a number of possibilities, depending on the mileage, condition of the engine and money. I have two Honda's which I have pulled apart and done a economy rebuild on. They both have about 240,000 miles on them and they don't use any oil to speak of. You could also purchase a used engine, imported from Japan and install that.

For my economy rebuild, because the engine was in good shape, I just had the head rebuilt, with new valve guides and seals. Then on the engine I pulled the pistons, honed the cylinder walls, put in new stock rings, new rod bearings, main bearings, water pump, timing belt, seals and gaskets. When I was done, I had 40psi of oil pressure, when it's warmed up and idling, no oil leaks and it doesn't burn any oil to speak of. All total it cost probably $300-$500.

You can do all of this with the engine in the car, but it is a lot easier to work on the engine when it's out of the car.

Gary thanks for the great information..

I am a college student and I bought it for the gas mileage because it it 25 miles one way to school. I have a year left and hopefully I can baby it for that year. After that when I get a real job and real money I may have to upgrade to the latest hybrid technology

Or rebuild the crx

[cfg83]

Hello -

I think I just figured out something that is obvious to others. A few years ago, I was burning oil and thought I had tappy valves, so I switched to a thicker oil, from 5W30 to maybe 10W50 or someting. The burning oil problem went away. Later on I found out that I didn't have tappy valves after all, so over the course of a few oil changes I went from 10W50 -> 10W40 -> 5W30. Now, I just realized today I was low on oil, so here I am burning oil again.

Extra factors are that I am probably running the engine hotter as a GasSaver (higher temp thermostat), and we are hitting summer waeather, so that may contribute to the burning.

This jives with everything else that has been written. As Coyote X and Gary said, to protect my engine, I will use 10W40 next time.

CarloSW2

[ffvben]

old schoolers used to use the heavy oil on their race cars, the high compression needs thicker oil . as diesels use the 15w50 for the massive pressures. my own gas truck, i use what it calls for 5w30. some of the newer cars that require 5w20 need it thin to get to the close tolerance bearings to keep it cool/lubed. but if your burning oil, poss rings/seals are worn/old. thicker oil might be a temp fix. I've also seen Lucas oil treatment, its like honey(very sticky), it helps reduce wear on cold starts. i think its a good idea to make your Eng run for a long time. but I'm not sure if mpg will drop because of it.

[88HF]

I used that lucas oil or differential oil stuff in an 89 civic hatch I used to have. It seemed to work at first but it was probably too thick. That car used oil no matter what. I find that all my hondas have kinda leaked oil from all the seals. I really miss the hatch and my 94 accord too. The 89 hatch was a sweet little all purpose vehicle. Backseats were nice in both. Its easy for someone to say replace the rings, but if you don't have the money and don't feel comfortable under the hood all you can do is try the cheap additives and hope something works before you end up lost in a huge black cloud everywhere you go. An instructor I had at auto school told us this story about a buddy of his got a boat that would haul *** burn all the gas and shutoff, seemed like it was overheated. He kept bringing it to get checked out and nothing they suggested or did helped. Turns out they forgot to install the piston rings at the manufacturer.

[quadancer@bellsouth.net]

One old school trick (not that old, really) is to use single viscosity oil. It's getting harder to find, but it does help older engines in temperate climates. (I'm in Georgia) I'd use the STP oil treatment before Lucas, due to things I'd read. And only half a bottle at first; it may be all you need.
As was posted, if you need super viscosity to keep the oil in, you need a rebuild. Rebuild in a can is like fatburner pills. Yeah, good luck with that.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Forget the additives, use a decent brand name "High Milage" oil, in the recommended grade, Pennzoil seems best on mine, followed by Castrol, followed by MotoMaster followed by Valvoline Maxlife (Which seems to have an overabundance of cleaners and not so many seal conditioners. So if sticky rings are the issue, it might work better, but if leaky seals are then the others might do better)

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Uh, I know this is an old post, but....

Yes, I have taken the "take the engine apart" option. Worked like a champ after I put the engine back together again. That is the part that was left out of the question. Had a '65 Plymouth Fury that was getting 30 miles to the quart of oil (yet it passed smog!). Top rings had about a 1/4" gap. Tons of sludge in the valve train and in the oil pan. Fortunately the pistons, cylinder walls and crank were in good shape. New set of rings, bearings, seals, sent the heads to a machine shop to verify condition of valves, etc. Went from 30 to 1000 miles to the quart. If I had sent the block out to be reworked rather than just honing the cylinders, it might have even done better than that!

Did the same with a Corvair. Also with a '62 Rambler American. Others I waited until they smoked or didn't pass smog.

I have had several other friends who have done the same thing, only one was a mechanic.

Originally Posted by rGS

VetteOwner,

Do you know of anyone who's ever taken the "take the engine apart" option to solve oil burn problem?