Thicker oil for high mileage cars?
 

I have been reading on the net that people use thicker oil or oil thickener for higher mileage cars with oil burn problems. My HF burns some oil (not sure how much yet) so I changed the oil and ran straight 60 weight racing oil by valvoline. It didnt seem to smoke as much but the acceleartion seemed more slugish. So after 150 miles I added 1/2 a can of seafoam to thin it out a bit thinking the 60 weight is a bit too thick.

What do you guys think?

uhh ya... way to thick...

oil burn is mosy likely worn piston rings or valve guides. how much does yours burn on regular oil? if its only liek a qt between changes leave it...

only way to solve oil burn is to accauly take the engine apart and fix it...you cant just dump some mystry oil stuff in and expect it to be solved. its about the same as saying dumping XXX product in my gas gets me double the mpg!

I would say run the thinnest oil you can get away with. If the engine requires 60w then it is probably about time to think of putting new rings in it. I would try maybe 20w40 and see how it responds.

As a general rule the thinnest oil you can get away with will get you the best mileage. If the thin oil makes it burn oil a lot that is also bad for your mileage and engine life because it greatly lowers the octane of the fuel in the combustion chamber. So give thinner oil a shot but if it starts burning it you are pretty much stuck running heavy oil till you get around to rebuilding it.

Thanks guys.. A mechanic guy I know said to run hotter plugs to help burn everything in the combustion chamber..

Does this make sense?

hmm kinda but its not gonna make it go away, ur oil is still gonan go down...

its like puttign a bandaid on a broken bone...kinda helps but in reality no...

VetteOwner,

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

Yeah I was thinking it was too thick too but I wanted to try and see what happened. So do you think the half a can of sea foam thinned it out enough.. That stuff is pretty thin. It seems much less slugish after I added it

Ummm.....seafoam is a solvent and can prematurely break down any motor oil. Yes, mixing it with a high viscosity oil will lower the overall viscosity, but it will also negate the oil's protective properties. The only safe way to lower an oil's viscosity is to mix a low viscosity oil with high viscosity oil.

And for the record.....I'm a long-time user of high mileage motor oil (Valvoline Maxlife) in my 250k mi. Volvo. My car burns up approx. 1qt of oil every 5k miles while using Maxlife. That figure had been much higher when I've tried conventional oils. I'm also a firm believer is HM oils seal conditioning benefits to help reduce oil leaks.

WOW! Running that thick of an oil in a Honda is just a way to mask what the real problem is. Every Honda I ever had recommended 5w30. If it smokes, either let it smoke or get it fixed. I wouldn't run that weight oil in that engine for long.

i will agree with this. in my chevette if i use regular castrol GTX it will leak a tiny bit. if i use the catrol GTX high milleage stuff (same weights) it doesnt use a drop:D