Engine Problems, Oil related or coincidence only?

[Francis]

Hi Guy's, Just after a little advice and thought on a few engine problems that may be oil related or perhaps coincidence only.

I'll list the problems below, but what got me directly wondering is, that I have been using lets say brand X lately and different products brand X makes in different engines and have had a few problems happen.

1: A 80's model, recently rebuilt Ford Cleveland V8 engine started leaking from the rear main seal when I used Band X's High Mileage oil in it. Could this just be a coincidence?

2: A 86 1.5L Toyota engine, that has done a lot of Mileage. I have noticed that when I used Brand X's thicker oil (was using same weight in other brands before) also suited to racing, found that the Timing Chain become noisier, or even more rattly on de acceleration that before.

3: Now this may just be me imaging, but on the same engine, prior to using there High Mileage product the top part of the engine viewed through the Oil filler cap hole, mostly the Rockers and springs and so on, were just the golden brown oil colour, but now went a dark more dirty looking colour.

So could these problems just be shear coincidence? The brand has been around a very long time and I have not heard of anyone else with problems like this.

 

[andyfish]

Personally I think some engines have the problems and certain oils sometimes make the owner more or less aware of them. Its interesting on this board you see posts where people blame an oil for the engine's problems.

In your case I have no idea but maybe a switch around would help address (mask) them.

[ May 12, 2004, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: andyfish ]

 

[Mike_dup1]

An engine in good mechanical condition should not exhibit any problems. Seals will leak in these old engines, been a long time problem related to the design of the engine. Many a after-market gasket maker has come out with products to solve these but many engine builders don't use them because they cost as much a 10x that of the plain old OEM types.

As for a timing chain making noise, sounds like wear in there to me.

I doubt very much it has anything to do with the oil. Its probably more that you are trying to find a correlation for old tired iron?

 

[TR3-2001SE]

Number 1 is probaby oil related. The high milage oils clean the seals and could remove enough sludge to start a leak. It should stop once the entire process is done.
Numbe 2 is probably related to oil viscosity. The previous oil was thicker and cushioned the chain. I'd go with this heaver oil and change what you tried. The second oil may be rated as thick but is not or thins out quickly which we have seen on this site in UOA's
Number 3 sounds like the oil is cleanning the engine better than anything used before so is turning black quicker. This is good ,just change it often until the cleanning is complete.