2.0L sunbird engine heavy bearing wear.

[Rick]

I just replaced my engine a few months ago because the bearing had worn so much that the rods were knocking. The rod bearing looked like someone took a knife to then and draged the knife across the bearing's. I do run the engine very hard (only once it is fully warmed up) these engines are already prone to head gasket failures, but thats ok. I'm so used to it now the it takes me 4-5 hours to change it

Well anyway now that I have another engine in it I don't want to go throught this again. So would it be better that in the summer I do 2 bottles of 20W-50 and 2 10w30 bottles. At the moment I'm trying Quaker State High Mileage 10w30 and the engine runs smooth and I get good oil pressure. Better then with Pennzoil 5w30.

 

[Rick]

Anyone?

 

[TomJones76]

What kind of car do you drive, Rick?
Also, you do realize that "fully warmed up" for the oil might be 10 minutes AFTER your car's temp. gauge, which registers COOLANT temperature, reads fully warmed up... right?

 

[tpi]

It sounds like you have frequent head gasket failures. Is coolant getting in the oil when gasket fails? When changing head gasket, could gasket scrapings wind up in oil pan, clogging screen?

 

[Rick]

Remember this is a new engine to me, Apperently It's original. These engines 99% of the time will burn the coolant before it appears in the oil. I also droped on oil pan last week and the pickup screen in this engine is mint

[ February 21, 2004, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Rick ]

 

[Motorbike]

Rick ,

If you are liking the Quaker State High Mileage oil and it appears you do , stick with it. Don't try to out engineer a formulated oil by mixing this and that . That High Mileage oil is plenty thick for this engine . Step up to the High Mileage 10/40 if and only if it's burning alot of oil in which it don't sound like this is a problem right now .

Hope this helps

[ February 21, 2004, 08:23 AM: Message edited by: Motorbike ]

 

[capt harry]

Rick,
The reason your bearings went bad was that when your head gaskets blew it allowed antifreeze to contaminat your oil and that ruined your oil. This would have happened with any oil.

 

[Rick]

Motorbike I haven't seen any High Mileage oil's around here other then 5w30 and 10w30.

 

[therion]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick:
Motorbike I haven't seen any High Mileage oil's around here other then 5w30 and 10w30.

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Valvoline makes a 10w30 and 10W-40 MaxLife.

 

[Pantdino]

Does your mechanic have anything to say about this? If the crank oil passageways and oil pump are not designed or funtioning well to allow the bearings to be well-oiled, they will fail again.

My wife's '79 Chevy Monza's bearings went kaputt at 50M. When I called the shop the owner said, "That's how long those engines last. I have two others in the shop now at the same mileage for rebuilds." Chevy had been making those engines with the same flaw since 1975, and I'll never be able to bring myself to buy another GM product as a result.

And you DO have to stop driving the car when it begins to blow coolant out the exhaust, as what gets into the combusion chamber gets into the oil.

If your car has an oil pressure gauge, you can use it to tell when the oil is warm. It should drop to a lower reading (about half) at idle compared to cruise speed. If it doesn't, the oil is still cold. (Well, at least with conventional oils... maybe synthetics don't care what the temp. is.

)

 

[Racerjk]

I have a Sunbird with the 2.0 liter. It has 143,000 miles on the original engine. It is a little noisy, but it still runs like new and doesn't smoke or use oil. Of course, it might fall apart tomorrow, but it has been a great car.

I have always used Quaker State 5w30, and I even ran Fram filters for several years. I just switched to Quaker State 5w30 high mileage.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by therion:

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick:
Motorbike I haven't seen any High Mileage oil's around here other then 5w30 and 10w30.

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Valvoline makes a 10w30 and 10W-40 MaxLife.

---

But in Ontario we don't get the High Mileage 10w40 oils though, they only seem to sell the High Mileage oils in the 5w30 and 10w30 versions only, both at Walmart and Canadian Tire.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by capt harry:
Rick,
The reason your bearings went bad was that when your head gaskets blew it allowed antifreeze to contaminat your oil and that ruined your oil. This would have happened with any oil.

---

Coolant is death to bearings. Probably didn't have anything to do with the oil. You should consider oil analysis to monitor the coolant in the oil.

 

[Rick]

Al unfortunatly right now I have to be very carefull how I spend my money. I am unable to afford spending money on uoa. Although I would like to, I just can't afford it. I was also told that this is the quality of these engines. They are made cheaply this way. Plus considering that I will usualy bring it close to redline, I'm not helping it eather.
So I guess when the bearing do go in the future I'll just have to change the rod bearings because they are the ones that fail. It's not a big deal. Quick drop of the pan.
Unfortunatly because of the hug problems I have had with this car. Reguardless if GM make better quality cars, my next purchase is going to be a toyota. My father had owned a carolla and camry, and he never had any major problems.

 

[Motorbike]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick:
Motorbike I haven't seen any High Mileage oil's around here other then 5w30 and 10w30.

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Well cross that bridge when you get there ...it's not burning unusual amounts of oil yet is it ?

Also , tell these guys about the total miles on the engine you replaced . It was way up there as I remember .

 

[Rick]

Yes the engine did have about 150,000 km on it I presume. I'm acutaly on my 3rd engine. This one I did get a good deal because I got it off a friend. It only had about 115,000km and I payed it 100 dollars. I also installed it myself and it took me a day and a half. So in total it costed me 100 dollars. Not a bad deal