So I'm a super stoked today....
a few months ago my barber was talking to me about her 2000 Firebird 3.8L. It's at 139k right now. Not really been taken care of, at all. her dad did the maintenance on it, and very little at that.
So she asked me to look.
So some of the issues were, after 1 week, it would use up almost a gallon of dexcool, including the recovery bottle. That's a lot!
It also used a quart of oil every 3-4 days, her driving is roughly 30miles a day, weekends a bit more. That's where she got nailed at, very low on oil all the time. her b/f overfilled it by 4 quarts one time, somehow the car made it home, she got lectured by her dad.
So after that, I kinda took over maintenance.
Issues were quite a bit
excessive oil consumption 1 quart every few days
missing antifreeze, although NO leaks!
the oil cap was wet and had very milky oil on it.
I surmised, heavy sludge. I couldn't look down the filler tube, it has a rubber angled tube and I couldn't see the valve train.
So I figured her b/f was adding water and it was boiling off. So i put a 50/50 dexcool mix in, same issue. I tossed in 3 AC Delco cooling tabs and topped off again. I changed out the radiator cap too. a week later, I only had to add about 3oz of dexcool. the overflow resovoir was just a little lower than the fill mark. So I am sure I got that nipped.
I thought about a head gasket leak, but the temp didn't overheat, I used Torque to monitor the temperature, the fans kicked, the stat opened, so I ruled that out. There has been no indication of oil in the radiator. If there was a leak, I can't even say where it is/was.
But perhaps it was just the radiator cap that cured everything, there was no signs of anything leaking around it.
I checked the PCV valve, it was hidden under a panel in the plenum. it was plugged up bad.
caked with sludge & gunk. It also had the GM p/n on it, undoubtedly original and forgotten about. Put a new one of those in, that was 6 weeks or so ago and changed out the oil filter only. the oil consumption was still occurring, 3-4 days, another quart. the next week I topped off the oil, changed the filter with the longer version, and put a half quart of MMO in. I checked it next week, had to add a half quart of oil this time, the underside of the oil cap wasn't as wet or sludgy this time. I waited a week, had to add another half quart of oil, barber said when she started the engine in the morning it was RATTA-TAT-TAT for a few seconds then it would quiet down and it'd be fine, and would it again when the car sat for a long time. I was able to verify it. so I put another oil filter on, topped up with oil again. I was using the Wix 51036, fortunately these are located right where they can be easily reached!
So Today, I got the car. her b/f brought it by so I could look at it. I made him crawl under and change the oil. I supervised the whole time. I didn't get a sample, but little chunks of stuff came out. I have the first wix filter I put on and this one with 2 weeks of use. I'll cut them open & see if anything interesting is in them.
Last week though, I checked the oil level, it was exactly where I had left it. She didn't add anything! So today I checked first, it was on the full mark.
I was stoked!
So 5 quarts of mobil super 5000 10w30 went in along with a bottle of Lubegard Blue engine treatment. I have a bottle of Re-Seal AT205 waiting to go in too, but only if the oil consumption returns. I'll be checking the car once a week at least to see where it stands.
the b/f told me the last few days the engine started up and didn't make the ratta-tat-tat sound at all. So today, after the fillup, I fired the engine, watched oil pressure climb up and didn't hear anything. motor hummed like it was supposed to, was pretty quiet vs what I remembered. I let it idle for 10minutes and check the oil level, i overfilled it by a half quart. I'm not gonna stress over it. In fact I'm going to just leave it.
next week if it bugs me, I'll just install another oil filter, that should take care of the extra oil anyway.
BUT.. I'm hoping the MMO busted up enough sludge to make the motor happier again, although it wasn't in for an entire OCI, it was in there for about 1500 miles, and not an entire quart, just half a quart.
I opted to stick with 10w30 vs. 10w40. if the oil consumption has leveled off, it's better to stick with GM's recommendation for this weather. I didn't get to look at the a/freeze level, but I'm going see it tuesday. I'm going to hopefully say it's fine too.
a few months ago my barber was talking to me about her 2000 Firebird 3.8L. It's at 139k right now. Not really been taken care of, at all. her dad did the maintenance on it, and very little at that.
So she asked me to look.
So some of the issues were, after 1 week, it would use up almost a gallon of dexcool, including the recovery bottle. That's a lot!
It also used a quart of oil every 3-4 days, her driving is roughly 30miles a day, weekends a bit more. That's where she got nailed at, very low on oil all the time. her b/f overfilled it by 4 quarts one time, somehow the car made it home, she got lectured by her dad.
So after that, I kinda took over maintenance.
Issues were quite a bit
excessive oil consumption 1 quart every few days
missing antifreeze, although NO leaks!
the oil cap was wet and had very milky oil on it.
I surmised, heavy sludge. I couldn't look down the filler tube, it has a rubber angled tube and I couldn't see the valve train.
So I figured her b/f was adding water and it was boiling off. So i put a 50/50 dexcool mix in, same issue. I tossed in 3 AC Delco cooling tabs and topped off again. I changed out the radiator cap too. a week later, I only had to add about 3oz of dexcool. the overflow resovoir was just a little lower than the fill mark. So I am sure I got that nipped.
I thought about a head gasket leak, but the temp didn't overheat, I used Torque to monitor the temperature, the fans kicked, the stat opened, so I ruled that out. There has been no indication of oil in the radiator. If there was a leak, I can't even say where it is/was.
But perhaps it was just the radiator cap that cured everything, there was no signs of anything leaking around it.
I checked the PCV valve, it was hidden under a panel in the plenum. it was plugged up bad.
caked with sludge & gunk. It also had the GM p/n on it, undoubtedly original and forgotten about. Put a new one of those in, that was 6 weeks or so ago and changed out the oil filter only. the oil consumption was still occurring, 3-4 days, another quart. the next week I topped off the oil, changed the filter with the longer version, and put a half quart of MMO in. I checked it next week, had to add a half quart of oil this time, the underside of the oil cap wasn't as wet or sludgy this time. I waited a week, had to add another half quart of oil, barber said when she started the engine in the morning it was RATTA-TAT-TAT for a few seconds then it would quiet down and it'd be fine, and would it again when the car sat for a long time. I was able to verify it. so I put another oil filter on, topped up with oil again. I was using the Wix 51036, fortunately these are located right where they can be easily reached!
So Today, I got the car. her b/f brought it by so I could look at it. I made him crawl under and change the oil. I supervised the whole time. I didn't get a sample, but little chunks of stuff came out. I have the first wix filter I put on and this one with 2 weeks of use. I'll cut them open & see if anything interesting is in them.
Last week though, I checked the oil level, it was exactly where I had left it. She didn't add anything! So today I checked first, it was on the full mark.
I was stoked!
So 5 quarts of mobil super 5000 10w30 went in along with a bottle of Lubegard Blue engine treatment. I have a bottle of Re-Seal AT205 waiting to go in too, but only if the oil consumption returns. I'll be checking the car once a week at least to see where it stands.
the b/f told me the last few days the engine started up and didn't make the ratta-tat-tat sound at all. So today, after the fillup, I fired the engine, watched oil pressure climb up and didn't hear anything. motor hummed like it was supposed to, was pretty quiet vs what I remembered. I let it idle for 10minutes and check the oil level, i overfilled it by a half quart. I'm not gonna stress over it. In fact I'm going to just leave it.
next week if it bugs me, I'll just install another oil filter, that should take care of the extra oil anyway.
BUT.. I'm hoping the MMO busted up enough sludge to make the motor happier again, although it wasn't in for an entire OCI, it was in there for about 1500 miles, and not an entire quart, just half a quart.
I opted to stick with 10w30 vs. 10w40. if the oil consumption has leveled off, it's better to stick with GM's recommendation for this weather. I didn't get to look at the a/freeze level, but I'm going see it tuesday. I'm going to hopefully say it's fine too.
