'88 Caddy Brougham - dark oil + lifters noise

[momo]

Originally Posted By: crazyoildude

Is it 66.000 miles or 166,000 miles or 266,000 miles they wear very well and its very very hard to tell... Maybe do a car fax or a Motor vehicle mileage lookup year by year. Those are great cars! Driving uphill and the ticking sound came back? Are you sure its a ticking sound and not a knocking sound or maybe an exhaust leak? Those 5.0 307 v8 Oldsmobile engines are very very good engines, they don't have loads of power or a lot of horsepower but they run forever..

The previous owner loved the car so much but he passed away that's why the car was sold. It is certainly 66k miles. However, he wasn't DIYer either, so I saw a lot of invoices from local lube shops. My speculation is that since the car was sitting for long period of time giving that it's 30 year-old car, I assumed the previous owner was doing long OCI (~10k miles). My plan is going to be doing short OCI (2-3k miles) using whatever on sale (e.g., PYB, Maxlife, or T5) add seafoam or MMO (I am not sure from where I can get that in Canada) in the last 300 miles, then change the oil. Any supporter to this idea?

 

[caprice_2nv]

Walmart had MMO last time I checked here in Canada. Seafoam is available at Canadian tire. If it really went that long between oil changes while not being driven a lot it's definitely going to be sludged up badly. Your idea seems like it's worth a shot.

 

[Hokiefyd]

The Olds engines tend to sludge under the large "turkey tray" intake gasket. Not really something you can get to easily without removing much of the top of the engine (but at least you don't have to remove the distributor, as you do on a Chevy). Your plan of short oil change intervals should work fine. If you get curious, pulling a cylinder head cover to check for sludge/varnish wouldn't hurt anything, but I know there are miles and miles of vacuum/emissions hoses under there, and stuff like that is hard to do. If you suspect EGR problems, you may need to clean the EGR passages in the intake under the carburetor primaries. I suspect this has an overdrive transmission, yes? I bet it came with at least a 2.73 or 3.08 final drive. You could safely bump that up to a 3.73 or so to improve response if you get interested in that. I bet it uses the GM corporate 8.5" ring/pinion set common to that era.

 

[caprice_2nv]

That should be correct about the trans and gears, possibly even taller. In my 83 Caprice I went from a 3 speed and 2.41 gears to a 4 speed 2004R and a 3.08 8.5" rear end with posi. That made a huge difference and still gets great highway gas mileage. Finding a stock 3.73 ring and pinion might be tough. they only put them in olds 442s. My cutlass has the same trans but a 3.73 442 rear end. It's my burnout machine.

 

[gallydif]

Pics of the Caddy please!!

 

[meborder]

I would add half a can of seafoam now and run it the full oci. I did this on my 2010 with 5w20 and had no ill effects. I added a whole 16 oz can to my 83k20 with 5w30 and ran it a full year. Works very well for stickey lifters. A friend of mine ran one a full oci on 5w30 in his 3800 Lumina. Cured the stickey lifter that had been plaguing him for years. Do it with confidence

 

[momo]

Originally Posted By: meborder

I would add half a can of seafoam now and run it the full oci.

Wouldn't it make the oil very thin?

 

[meborder]

It thins the oil some, but not enough to worry about. I double dosed my plow truck and it didn't seem to care. It's good stuff. I've also had good luck with CD2 valve medic. I saved an 87 escort lifter with that, but it took two bottles. One bottle just didn't do it. If you are worried about thinning the oil, do it on the next change and go up a grade. I used it with 5w20 though and no known ill effects.

 

[Merkava_4]

I once cured a lifter tick by pouring in a pint of gasoline. The tick was gone in about 30 seconds. The car just so happened to be a '78 Cadillac Brougham too. I imagine the thinned down oil goes up and cleans the crud off the inlet holes to the lifters is what my theory was.

 

[Red91]

I would give Liqui Moly MoS2 a try. It's the only product of LM I've ever used, so it's all I have experience with, but they also sell a "Valve Tappet Stop Noise" The MoS2 may take a change interval or two to work, if it works. Worth a try anyway, it's reasonably priced and available from Napa and Amazon.

 

[Nickdfresh]

I'd try Rislone with a cheap 10W-40...

 

[momo]

I picked 3 cans of seafoam for ($5.66 each). I will start my plan using seafoam with PYB

 

[artificialist]

I was just thinking of something. Do you know how well the complex smog carb and all those vacuum smog devices work? When an engine produces more smog than it should, it may darken oil more quickly. I'd also consider replacing the O2 sensor since they lose accuracy over time, but the check engine light will not illuminate unless the sensor is way off, short circuited, or open circuited. I hope nobody put tape over the check engine light or remove the bulb. I would also make sure the coolant temperature sensor, the engine can't go into closed loop if the coolant temperature is too low. If the coolant temperature is within normal range, the check engine light will not light up. I think you can find out if the check engine light works by jumping the right terminals on the diagnostic port. It should blink a certain number of times to show that all is normal.

 

[momo]

Originally Posted By: artificialist

I think you can find out if the check engine light works by jumping the right terminals on the diagnostic port. It should blink a certain number of times to show that all is normal.

Done that and it worked without any problem.

 

[meborder]

Any results with the PYB + Seafoam?

 

[ToadU]

Hello, my advice is very different from others. First, please don't try and "clean" the engine. That is horrible horrible advice and not backed up by any manufacturer of any engine anywhere I have ever seen. Secondly, dark oil. Who cares? There is absolutely nothing you can tell from the color of oil. Different oils have different base stocks and additives and different engines interact with the oil differently. Color means nothing. Now obviously if the oil comes out in chunks and it's as thick a molasses you can determine that oil is not good for the car. The color especially after 300 miles indicates nothing. A lab would be able to tell you conclusively but it's not worth the $40 to spend to analaize the oil. It's an 88. I'm sure it's in great shape but just use the weight spec'd by the manufacturer...conventional is fine.....it's a very low tech motor. Pretty much bullet proof but low tech. Any brand of oil will work fine. Use Supertch. Cheap and good. As far as the lifter noise it's a GM push rod motor. Half of them had lifter noise when built. Unless it's excessive in which case replace the lifters...cheap and easy to do....just turn up the radio. Don't worry about it.

 

[ToadU]

Please please please heed my advice. Don't try to clean the motor. I've seen several motor failures from people using additives to try and clean a motor. Drive it. Leave it be. See my other posts as to why you should never clean a motor. The only way to properly and safely clean a motor is to completely disassemble it and clean it during a rebuild. Period.