Please forgive the long post…here goes.
Purchased 1992 Galant SOHC 2.0 4AT summer of 2004 with 104,000 miles for $1,400. car in GREAT shape outside and even better inside…P/W, AC, etc etc.
Oil/Engine History:
Engine has a tick, which I believe is the HLA. It is present regardless of engine or ambient air temp, oil viscosity, oil age, etc. It comes and goes as it pleases, you could stand there all day saying, “there it is….it’s gone….there it is again….and now it’s gone.” I read in the factory repair manual that the valve jet gets air trapped sometimes, so I performed the rev cycle and voila, it was gone!....and ….there it is again.
In addition, when cold, idles GREAT, but she seems as if she runs out of gas, pops, etc. if I floor it, it kicks down and I have all the power I need. When warm, runs great, idles great, but sometimes I get a surge and/or hesitation…fuel issue? Coolant sensor? Replaced it. Dirty MAF? Cleaned it. I hate pre-OBDII cars….
Various oils changed every 3-4k miles by me, JL and Wally World, usually 5W-30 ST dino, sometimes (maybe once or twice each) 5W-20 and/or 10W-30 (and the latest, 10W-40, which she hates). Trips were generally 30+ miles each way, daily, along with one 550 mile trip once a month. Was in storage 12/05-6/06, changed the oil and now driven once per week, sometimes sitting 3-7 days outside in the dark and cold of upstate NY. It smells like it always has a lot of condensation burning (does that make sense? Always water vapor/steam coming out of exhaust, yet I’ve never had to add coolant, nor has my coolant ever had any sign of oil and my oil never any sign of coolant…so it must be condensation for whatever reason, especially since my entire exhaust has rotted off at least twice).
December 2006: 136,512 miles I sucked in a full can of Seafoam via booster line, changed the PCV valve, plugs (NGK), wires, distributor cap and rotor cap.
January 2007: tranny shop drops pan and changes filter and fluid, says “looks good”
January and February: toyed around with MMO in the oil and tank as maintenance doses, using it to top off the oil.
Feb 21: Lucas UCL in tank (love it)
February: added one bottle of SLOB (don’t ask me why, it was at Big Lots) and approx 32 oz MMO at 6-9 oz per treatment to top off oil…I then had a breakdown and added 12 oz of Seafoam…YES, to the crankcase when I was ½ qt low. I drove 80 miles roundtrip, got nervous about all that in my oil, but I needed the car, so I drained 1.5 qts, topped off with 1qt of ST dino 20W-50 to thicken things up and ½ qt Maxlife 5W-30 since it was sitting around. Then, I drove 80 miles (roundtrip) five times.
March 4: 139,322 miles: replaced thermostat, radiator cap, oil pan and coolant temp sensor….boy does she hate 10W-40 Chevron. There was NO sludge in the oil pan and none in the lower end…nothing, I mean nada, zero. Slight varnish…should’ve taken pics, but I was SO happy there was no sludge, that I neglected to.
So now I’m taking the valve cover gasket off and performing compression tests due to the illness you’ve all created…it’s worth it for my own satisfaction and sanity….Let the ARX testing begin.
Let me say, I’ve never been additive happy until I got to this site and became a BITOG addict….I’ve never cared about oil, “dump it in, run it 3k, drain it out, repeat”
Now I can’t leave the house without hearing, “don’t buy anymore frigging oil!” and “I don’t care if Techron is on sale, you have enough.”
Update: on March 7th, I had enough of the ticking, so I decided to change back to 5W-30 ST dino, 139, 527 miles.
March 10th: added 8 oz ARX to the oil and 1 oz to the power steering. Took pictures of the valve train and valve cover…slight sludging with a lot of varnish. Plan of attack is below along with compression readings. Haynes says 192 is what my readings should be, but the factory manual I previously read said lower.
Also, I found out that the ticking was the oil splash shield attached (riveted) to the inside of the valve cover was hitting two of the lifters. You could shake the valve cover and hear it rattle. Since there’s no way to tighten or remove the splash guard, I used a flat punch to dent it in….NO MORE TICK! Can I just remove this or will it keep the oil from being splashed onto the cam/lifters like it should?
One of the easiest cars to work on IMO. Two bolts on the top of the cover and two holding the timing belt cover on, that's it.
Compression readings: cylinder/initial/after adding 2cc 5W-30 via sparkplug hole:
1/167/190
2/164/190
3/165/185
4/160/192
IMHO, those are great readings.
Here are the pics: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rsylvstr/album?.dir=/2555re2
Plan:
- change oil pan and oil/filter
- compression test
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Add 8 oz ARX to motor
- Add 1 oz ARX to PS Fluid
- Drive 500 miles
- Flush PS Fluid
- Drive 1,000 miles
- Change oil and filter
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 2,000 miles
- compression test (1st treatment cycle complete)
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Change oil and filter, add 8 oz ARX
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 1,500 miles
- Change oil and filter
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 2,000 miles
- compression test (2nd treatment cycle complete)
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Change oil and filter, add 3 oz ARX
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Perform 4k mile OCI’s with dino on hand
Purchased 1992 Galant SOHC 2.0 4AT summer of 2004 with 104,000 miles for $1,400. car in GREAT shape outside and even better inside…P/W, AC, etc etc.
Oil/Engine History:
Engine has a tick, which I believe is the HLA. It is present regardless of engine or ambient air temp, oil viscosity, oil age, etc. It comes and goes as it pleases, you could stand there all day saying, “there it is….it’s gone….there it is again….and now it’s gone.” I read in the factory repair manual that the valve jet gets air trapped sometimes, so I performed the rev cycle and voila, it was gone!....and ….there it is again.
In addition, when cold, idles GREAT, but she seems as if she runs out of gas, pops, etc. if I floor it, it kicks down and I have all the power I need. When warm, runs great, idles great, but sometimes I get a surge and/or hesitation…fuel issue? Coolant sensor? Replaced it. Dirty MAF? Cleaned it. I hate pre-OBDII cars….
Various oils changed every 3-4k miles by me, JL and Wally World, usually 5W-30 ST dino, sometimes (maybe once or twice each) 5W-20 and/or 10W-30 (and the latest, 10W-40, which she hates). Trips were generally 30+ miles each way, daily, along with one 550 mile trip once a month. Was in storage 12/05-6/06, changed the oil and now driven once per week, sometimes sitting 3-7 days outside in the dark and cold of upstate NY. It smells like it always has a lot of condensation burning (does that make sense? Always water vapor/steam coming out of exhaust, yet I’ve never had to add coolant, nor has my coolant ever had any sign of oil and my oil never any sign of coolant…so it must be condensation for whatever reason, especially since my entire exhaust has rotted off at least twice).
December 2006: 136,512 miles I sucked in a full can of Seafoam via booster line, changed the PCV valve, plugs (NGK), wires, distributor cap and rotor cap.
January 2007: tranny shop drops pan and changes filter and fluid, says “looks good”
January and February: toyed around with MMO in the oil and tank as maintenance doses, using it to top off the oil.
Feb 21: Lucas UCL in tank (love it)
February: added one bottle of SLOB (don’t ask me why, it was at Big Lots) and approx 32 oz MMO at 6-9 oz per treatment to top off oil…I then had a breakdown and added 12 oz of Seafoam…YES, to the crankcase when I was ½ qt low. I drove 80 miles roundtrip, got nervous about all that in my oil, but I needed the car, so I drained 1.5 qts, topped off with 1qt of ST dino 20W-50 to thicken things up and ½ qt Maxlife 5W-30 since it was sitting around. Then, I drove 80 miles (roundtrip) five times.
March 4: 139,322 miles: replaced thermostat, radiator cap, oil pan and coolant temp sensor….boy does she hate 10W-40 Chevron. There was NO sludge in the oil pan and none in the lower end…nothing, I mean nada, zero. Slight varnish…should’ve taken pics, but I was SO happy there was no sludge, that I neglected to.
So now I’m taking the valve cover gasket off and performing compression tests due to the illness you’ve all created…it’s worth it for my own satisfaction and sanity….Let the ARX testing begin.
Let me say, I’ve never been additive happy until I got to this site and became a BITOG addict….I’ve never cared about oil, “dump it in, run it 3k, drain it out, repeat”
Now I can’t leave the house without hearing, “don’t buy anymore frigging oil!” and “I don’t care if Techron is on sale, you have enough.”
Update: on March 7th, I had enough of the ticking, so I decided to change back to 5W-30 ST dino, 139, 527 miles.
March 10th: added 8 oz ARX to the oil and 1 oz to the power steering. Took pictures of the valve train and valve cover…slight sludging with a lot of varnish. Plan of attack is below along with compression readings. Haynes says 192 is what my readings should be, but the factory manual I previously read said lower.
Also, I found out that the ticking was the oil splash shield attached (riveted) to the inside of the valve cover was hitting two of the lifters. You could shake the valve cover and hear it rattle. Since there’s no way to tighten or remove the splash guard, I used a flat punch to dent it in….NO MORE TICK! Can I just remove this or will it keep the oil from being splashed onto the cam/lifters like it should?
One of the easiest cars to work on IMO. Two bolts on the top of the cover and two holding the timing belt cover on, that's it.
Compression readings: cylinder/initial/after adding 2cc 5W-30 via sparkplug hole:
1/167/190
2/164/190
3/165/185
4/160/192
IMHO, those are great readings.
Here are the pics: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rsylvstr/album?.dir=/2555re2
Plan:
- change oil pan and oil/filter
- compression test
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Add 8 oz ARX to motor
- Add 1 oz ARX to PS Fluid
- Drive 500 miles
- Flush PS Fluid
- Drive 1,000 miles
- Change oil and filter
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 2,000 miles
- compression test (1st treatment cycle complete)
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Change oil and filter, add 8 oz ARX
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 1,500 miles
- Change oil and filter
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Drive 2,000 miles
- compression test (2nd treatment cycle complete)
- remove valve cover
- take pics
- Black RTV
- Change oil and filter, add 3 oz ARX
- cut filter open, take pics
- take pics of oil
- Perform 4k mile OCI’s with dino on hand
