2nd time using a synthetic

[mjoekingz28]

Thinking back kind of scares me away. I had a 97 Z28 and used Mobil 1 for an oil change and at some point had a rear main seal leak and got it repaired for $750, but I had gotten the warranty, so Im kind of glad it went out to justify the grand spent on the warranty, and also had window motors go out, buy anyway...

My saturn had 12x,000 and will probably see synthetic for the first time in its life at 130k or so. I got the PP because at $5 I could not pass it up with all the praise it gets on BoB. I got a two part question

1) If the PP does clean really good and opens up a leak can I go back to dino and make the leak 'reseal'. Its a Saturn SC2 and a known oil burner, so I dont want to have a leaker and a burner.

2)also, since this will be the first synthetic and it promises to do a lot of cleaning, can I go extended drain interval or will all the crud need to come out at a regular interval THEN go extended on the next fill.

Thanks for your time

 

[JohnBrowning]

First seals get dry rotted from over extended conventional drain intervals. As the conventional oil oxidizes it leaves a waxy film behind. This film stops the oil from getting to the seal so the seal conditionersint he oil cannot do their job either. So after they get dry rotted from the long use of conventional and have some deposits plugging the cracked and dry rotted seal you go and put a synthetic in. The synthetic slowly loosen that film from the seals and removes the varnish plugging the cracks. So now all of a sudden you get a seal leak but the damage was done years ago by the Dino the synthetic had nothing to do with the seals failure it just revealed it. It would be like blaming the X-Ray machine at the Hospital for breaking your rips when it had nothing to do with the bones breaking it just revealed the damage that was already done.

Now Ihave had seals that never had any damage from conventional at all not just because I did 3000 mile or less oil changes but also because the OEM had used high quality seal materials. For instance my 1986 Toyota 4Runner had a front main seal made from Viton.....It took most companies another 20 years to make the switch to Viton on anything other then the most high end of car's. Same thing for Neoprene and Teflon.GM's High content V6 is the first one to use Teflon main seals front and rear it only took them over 20+ years to catch up with other manufactures....Nissian did some really stupid things in some markets as well with reguard to sub-standard seal materials for the types of fluids in common use. So their is more at play here then just will synthetic cause my mains to leak??? It really depends on what quality of materials where used by the OEM and how long your OCI's where on conventional. On a positive note since few synthetics sold over the counter in N. America are true synthetics you should not have much of a problem.

If it where me I would pick up a can of B-12 Chemtool and I would add the entire can to a cold engine. I would then start it up and let it run at fast idle of about 1200rpm's for 15-30minutes. I would then drain the oil and replace the filter and refill with fresh oil. This will clean out a lot of junk left intheir from the 130,000 miles of conventional oil. It will suffiecnetly clean it out so that you can run the synthetic oil out to a decent milage. If you do not flush like this first your first run with synthetic will have to be rather short because the synthetic will use itself up trying to clean the engine. An oil can either clean or lubricate but it will not do both well. So by flushing first you give the synthetic a leg up!

Flushing will never hurt a healthy engine ever. Sea Foam is too weak to do any serious flushing. Another alternative to solvent based flush's which are not bad as long as they are not abused is Auto-Rx. It would clean that engine out but you would ideally need to run two Dino OCI's one to clean and one to release the junk. The really positive thing about Auto-Rx is that it will revitalize dry seals that are other wise not badly damaged ie no cracks or chunks missing etc....

As to oil burning that is a design issue with a lot of GM engines and has nothing to do with maintenance or oil type used.

How extended did you have in mind? What milage or time frame? DO youhave reason to believe that this engine is a sludge beast?

 

[SuperDave456]

I personally would not use B-12 in the oil. Solvents and oil dont do nice things to each other and just about anything rubber will be dissolved by B-12.

I do reccommend it in the gas tank, it seems to dissolve and clean things up there. But my opinion is that it is too harsh for the crank case.

I would prefer Auto RX in the Crankcase and B-12 in the gastank. Or if you want to go nuts disregard the above two and just put 1 pind of Marvel Mystery oil (MMO) in your gas tank, and another pint in your crank case and change out the oil in 1000 miles.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Sounds like I should take the synthetic back. Because even if it is a false seal, its still a seal and not leaking. It runs fine and does not leak and I dont want to change that.

I was thinking north of 6k but south of 10k. And no, its not a sludger, just a burner. But I did just use a wire wheel on the dipstick since it was discolored (looked like burnt oil) so I can read it more accurately.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Sounds like I should take the synthetic back. Because even if it is a false seal, its still a seal and not leaking. It runs fine and does not leak and I dont want to change that.

That is exactly what I would do!

 

[sunfire]

false seals are a temporary fix and they can go at anytime. There are synthetic High Mileage oils that make seals swell.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Can someone please answer my first question?

If going to synthetic causes a leak, will going back to dino end the leak?

thanks

 

[Petrou]

no leaks are caused by holes, cracks, and worn seals, oil does not cause leaks, dont let anyone tell you different, now you can put a heavier oil in and it may slow down, or lots of lucas thats a pretty good oil leak stopper. any way, if there are no leaks then there will no problem. if you get a leak by coincidence when you put this oil in then you got a bad seal or gasket, not an oil problem

 

[OVERKILL]

When I switched my Mustang (with stock cork valve cover gaskets) to M1 after I bought it, a couple weeks later, both covers were POURING oil.

The oil didn't CREATE the leaks, but it removed whatever gunk was blocking them.

Valve cover gaskets on a 302 are not a long, or tedious job. I imagine on some engines, this would have been a nightmare.

On a more modern engine with better gaskets, I would not expect such an issue.

 

[daves87rs]

In a Saturn, I'd still with High Mileage oils.


I've seen a Saturn that didn't do well with Synthetic.....