My goodness. You guys are incredible. I just found this place and I'm a bit overwhelmed. I've already spent a few hours going through zillions of posts and I'm pretty confused. I *thought* I knew my oil pretty well, but now I have to ask a question specific to one car that serves a specific purpose:
I have a Volvo 740 made in 1992, with 140,000 miles. It containes the venerable old B230F 2.4L 4cyl engine. It is *not* my daily driver. I keep it in mint condition and use it for one thing only: long distance driving for vacations, with good gas milage at high speed (26mpg@100mph). The car otherwise sits around most of its life.
When I *do* drive it though, I usually warm it up carefully, drive it gently for maybe 70 miles until I'm out of town and on the open road, and gradually end up getting the speed up to about 90-100mph sustained, for several hours (I'm not driving like a maniac, I'm getting blown away by old ladies in minivans!). At that speed, my engine is turning 4500rpm, which is high, but normal for this year of Volvo. The engine is in excellent shape considering the miles, and the valves are recently adjusted. The engine used to have slight #1 piston slap when cold, which went away in less than 1 minute after starting -- again pretty typical for the breed. Since I switched to synthetic 30,000 miles ago, in the last 10,000 miles, the slap seems to have disappeared.
I've been using Mobil1 10w30 most of the time, sometimes 5w30 if it was all I could find, and a Mann filter, or a Mobil1 filter if I was in a bind. Change interval has been 6 months, or 3-5,000 miles. The M1 0w40 just popped up in my local auto store, so I was planning to switch to that.
Here are my problems:
1. After about one solid hour of high speed running, my engine becomes noticeably louder. At speed, the "hum" is much much louder, and when I pull over and idle, the engine is much clickier. This clickiness persists until the engine has cooled for over a day, more like two days -- and then it is quiet again, and remains quiet until the next high speed run. I can only assume that this is because the consistency of the oil is changing somehow because of the high speed, and it doesn't fix itself until after a very long cooling period.
2. The high iron numbers I've been seeing for Mobil 1 are scaring me.
Can someone please please, just *tell* me which oil to use for the way I drive this car. I'm so confused!
I do NOT care about price per quart, I just want the best oil out there. However, I'd rather have a common oil that is available at my local store.
How about this combo:
Syntec (which grade?) and a K&N oil filter.
Any thoughts?
I have a Volvo 740 made in 1992, with 140,000 miles. It containes the venerable old B230F 2.4L 4cyl engine. It is *not* my daily driver. I keep it in mint condition and use it for one thing only: long distance driving for vacations, with good gas milage at high speed (26mpg@100mph). The car otherwise sits around most of its life.
When I *do* drive it though, I usually warm it up carefully, drive it gently for maybe 70 miles until I'm out of town and on the open road, and gradually end up getting the speed up to about 90-100mph sustained, for several hours (I'm not driving like a maniac, I'm getting blown away by old ladies in minivans!). At that speed, my engine is turning 4500rpm, which is high, but normal for this year of Volvo. The engine is in excellent shape considering the miles, and the valves are recently adjusted. The engine used to have slight #1 piston slap when cold, which went away in less than 1 minute after starting -- again pretty typical for the breed. Since I switched to synthetic 30,000 miles ago, in the last 10,000 miles, the slap seems to have disappeared.
I've been using Mobil1 10w30 most of the time, sometimes 5w30 if it was all I could find, and a Mann filter, or a Mobil1 filter if I was in a bind. Change interval has been 6 months, or 3-5,000 miles. The M1 0w40 just popped up in my local auto store, so I was planning to switch to that.
Here are my problems:
1. After about one solid hour of high speed running, my engine becomes noticeably louder. At speed, the "hum" is much much louder, and when I pull over and idle, the engine is much clickier. This clickiness persists until the engine has cooled for over a day, more like two days -- and then it is quiet again, and remains quiet until the next high speed run. I can only assume that this is because the consistency of the oil is changing somehow because of the high speed, and it doesn't fix itself until after a very long cooling period.
2. The high iron numbers I've been seeing for Mobil 1 are scaring me.
Can someone please please, just *tell* me which oil to use for the way I drive this car. I'm so confused!
I do NOT care about price per quart, I just want the best oil out there. However, I'd rather have a common oil that is available at my local store.
How about this combo:
Syntec (which grade?) and a K&N oil filter.
Any thoughts?
