Another "Noisey Mobil 1" topic

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About 2 weeks ago I changed the oil in my dad's '91 S10 for him. It has the 4.3L V6. I had 2 1/2 quarts of M1 10w30 (SL) and 2 quarts of Mobil dino (SJ). Dumped them in and all was well for up until yesterday.

This engine has never made any odd noises before. It had bad valve guides which were repaired about 6 months ago. Yesterday was the first day since the oil change to M1/Mdino that the truck was run for a long period of time on the oil. It was driven for about 120mi consisting of trips of about 30mi each. In between which it sat for about 20mi while my father did his water sampling at the small town drinking water plants he oversees.

On the final return leg of the trip he noticed when stopping and idling that there was a lot of what sounded like valvetrain noise... a lot of ticking/clacking.

Mind you, this engine has never made any noise at all in the past. So perhaps its the case that M1 is just too thin for some engines. Whatever it is this is the 4th GM engine that I've experienced an increase in what seems to be valvetrain noise when using Mobil1. The other engines were a 3.8L with over 100K mi, a 3.1L with ~45K mi, and a 3.1L with less than 15K mi on it.

In the case of the 3.8L switching to Havoline syn 10w30 completely eliminated any ticking/clacking that I had for the year and a half while using M1. The same goes for the Havoline 10w30 HiMileage in it right now.

On the 3.1L with less that 15K mi, I initially filled it with 5w30 Havoline dino. No tick/clack. On the next two oil changes I used 5w30 M1. Very noticeable tick/clack at idle. Switching to Havoline syn 5w30 or the Havoilne semi-syn 10w30 that is in it right now produces no tick/clack.

On the 3.1L with ~45K mi. I sold it while still running M1 5w30 (10w30 in summer). It had a very loud tick/clack at idle... Prior to using the M1 I used Valvoline 5 and 10w30 up till 20K mi. No valvetrain noise at all until switching to M1.

This doesn't make sense, since the Havoline syns have approx. the same cSt@100degF as M1 (both right about 10.1) and yet the Havoline produces no noise. And with the Mobil1 there was noise not just when the engine was hot/oil up to temp. The tick/clack occurred at idle whether the engine was cool or had been run for 2 hours. The Havoline produces no noise either at cold start or in a hot engine at idle.

I don't think I'll ever go back to using M1 in any vehicle ever again. It may be an excellent oil, but something seems a bit fishy when I see the same results (tick/clack) in 4 different engines of 3 different displacements.

[ May 14, 2004, 02:02 PM: Message edited by: Forkman ]
 
All of the engines you mention were high mileage engines and from your comments you inferred these engines had been run solely with dino fluids.

Have you considered the possibility that these synthetics are cleaning the sludge and crud around the valve guides and valve stem seals and have increased their clearances.
 
I think hi-mi. may exacerbate the situation more, but my friend has a C240 Mercedes with the factory M-1 0-40 (?) that has an audible tick especially at idle. I know it's the M-1, but he says, how can the oil be responsible for the tick? But, it can....
 
I think Molekule is right. People don't realize how many engines M1 smooths out bc positive news is hardly reported. Mobil 1 is on the thin side and works well. A thicker oil will be more dense like RL/GC and quiet things down. Cleaning action is likely.
 
You may wish to try some Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic oil in them. I noticed it really quiets down engines! It would still be a synthetic...well maybe a Group III of course, but it has seemed to work well with the engines that have it in at this time. It will also swell up seals and such things for a higher mileage engine. Just a suggestion or idea.
 
Somethings fishy because I've had both of those engines running Mobil-1 with no noise at all as well as many other GM engines.

I been using only Mobil-1 for over 20 years and never had any engine noise.

My daughters 3.1 gm engine has 105k miles and has been running Mobil-1 0w-30 since new and still no noise what so ever.

People keep saying this but something else has to be going on. Especially since we don't have reports of noise with the new thiner 20w oils.

[ May 15, 2004, 08:36 AM: Message edited by: Hankrr ]
 
'91 Honda Accord makes considerable valve rattle in the morning with 5w30 dino oils, and no valve noise with M1 5w30. Car has 430k on it, heads have never been off. Very strange that you see the opposite.
 
Hankrr and Moutainhouse proved my point. To bad there aren't enough people on this site with enough common sense to realize this.

Consider that M1 represents 63% of the synthetic oil market. I'd say 9 out of 10 have more good to say then bad. If Redline was used by 9 out of every 10 synthetic oil users, we'd here a lot more negative and positive things about it. My car runs great on Mobil 1. To many people read what others have experienced and right M1 off before using it or considering the actual reason why things are happening. Like this BS that Mobil 1 isn't good in a LS1 engine bc Pb is 3ppm lower. Give me a break. Can't we stop this garbage? It's really ridiculous.

[ May 15, 2004, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: buster ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by buster:
[Like this BS that Mobil 1 isn't good in a LS1 engine bc Pb is 3ppm lower. Give me a break. Can't we stop this garbage? It's really ridiculous.

Some one should reduce their caffine intake
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. This is an open forum and people do have different opinions and experieinces. And I'm sure very little of our experiences are truely scientific. It's the readers responsibility to read through and sort out pertinent data for themselves. Buster I truely enjoy your posts. They always bring out a lot of differing opinions
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. To not be too off topic I used Mobil 1 5W-30 in my Zetec engine for years and never paid attention to the "engine noise". But this past winter I used Havoline 5W-30 to get me through the winter since the car is garaged and rarely driven in rotten weather and I change in the spring for a long road trip. I did notice that the start up noise with the Havoline was less than with the Mobil 1. But then again the Havoline was "new", only had less than a 1,000 miles when I changed in the spring. Most likely the noise would have increased as the oil accumulated more miles. Noise is hard to determine. It's more of a perception than scientific. Oh Lord! I better lay off the caffine myself, I'm babbling
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!

Whimsey

[ May 15, 2004, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Whimsey ]
 
Not kowing what was done to repair the valve train or the quality of the work makes me leary. DId they chamfer the guides and reinstall the old valves? Did they ream the guides and install oversized valves? Did they install new guides and the old valves? Did they install new guides and new valves to std. size? How clean was the work? What about the seals what type?

I suspect that the valve lash probably needs to be reset. A clacking noise is usualy rocker a tick is usualy lifters. I would check valve lash!
 
quote:

Originally posted by MolaKule:
All of the engines you mention were high mileage engines and from your comments you inferred these engines had been run solely with dino fluids.

Have you considered the possibility that these synthetics are cleaning the sludge and crud around the valve guides and valve stem seals and have increased their clearances.


No they were not. Two were. The 3.8 with over 100,000mi and the 4.3 with over 90,000mi.

The other two engines were both 3.1L. One with less than 15,000mi and the other had less than 20,000mi when switched to Mobil1 (and was sold with 45,000mi on it put on over a period of 6 years). Unless you have a radically different definition of high mileage than I do, the two 3.1L engines do not qualify.

Yet I had the same type of noise from those two 3.1L engines as I did from the higher mileage engines when switching to Mobil1 although just not quite as pronounced as it was in the higher mileage engines. Filter brand didn't make any difference, as they were all tried on both ACDelco and Purolator filters with no noticeable change from one filter to the next.

Both of the 3.1L were maintained with dino before being switched to M1. The 3.1L that I sold with 45K on it was bought new in 98 with 20mi on the car and fed a steady diet of Valvoline 5w30 and 10w30 at 3,000mi (or less) OCIs for the first 20K miles. The newer 3.1L I assume was changed according to the OLM light prior to my ownership and probably saw changes in the neighborhood of every 5-7Kmi. It had 9K mi on it when I bought it.

Someone else mentioned the "quieting effect" of a fresh oil change with Havoline. I never found this to be true with any of the vehicles in question. Noise levels never increased even near the end of the OIC on Havoline (syn or dino).

Perhaps its a case of GM V6s simply not "liking" Mobil1 oil for lack of a better explanation.
 
Go figure. My 3.8L V-6 was noisier with GTX and Havoline Syn, early on. Much smoother with Syntec and Mobil 1. All 10W-30.
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I guess there is no universal answer.

M1 is fine in my engine, now at around 80K.
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My GM seems to really like M1 and Syntec, which we all know is way too thin
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I believe GM does like Mobil 1.

[ May 15, 2004, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: haley10 ]
 
quote:

Go figure. My 3.8L V-6 was noisier with GTX and Havoline Syn, early on. Much smoother with Syntec and Mobil 1.

This is what I was getting at in that in some cases some oils will be quieter and work better, in other cases they won't. So much of what we see is engine/driving conditions specific, and not oil related. We blame the oils too much at times. M1 due to be a light 30wt, might produce more noise in certain engines where a thicker 30wt won't.
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My LS1 seems to be noisier with M1 that other oils. I drained the ST 10W40 and put in M1 15W50 and it got noisier right away. It has always made noise with M1 no matter the weight. It also made a lot of noise with GC and Havoline Syn. I was hoping the thick 15W50 would be smoother than the ST 10W40....but it ain't.
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My 98 chevy silverado with the 5.7L was much noiser with the 5W-30 Mobil 1 compared to the 5W-30 Chevron Supreme I run now. With the Mobil 1, I was getting loud ticking at idle when the oil was hot. With Chevron Supreme under the same circumstances I get hardly any noise at all.
 
i just completed an auto-rx treatment with pennzoil 5w-30. my engine (subaru 2.5 liter) was noticeably quieter with the pennz than with the mobil 1. this engine has seen mobil 1 since about 5000 miles (now has 53000 miles). i went back to the m1 after the rinse phase, and noticed the ticking is back, especially when cold.

now that my supply of m1 is out, i'm going to try some other brands at the next change.
 
Thank you Lastz, 502, wtd, and tweeker for reporting the same type of noise issue I've experienced with Mobil1... now I know that its not just me and that its not a case of needing to "lay off the pipe".
 
Running M1 in my 02 Tacoma I heard increased audible engine noise. Syntec Blend = less noise, at least in my particular engine.
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