Helping out a friend

[jeepman3071]

One of my friends has a 2001 Chevy Malibu with the 3.1L V6. The car has almost 200k on the body and the engine probably has 120k on it. He wants to take care of his car, but doesn't have much money being in college. I told him I'd help him do oil changes and just charge him for the cost of the oil, since his shop was ripping him off and not changing the filter.

The cheapest I can find seems to be Super Tech 5w30 and a Purolator Classic. The car takes 4.5 quarts of oil. He drives mostly around town, with the occasional highway. How long could I run this oil and filter so he gets the most out of it? Any problems to look for on these cars? I'm not too familiar with them. I looked at the stick yesterday and it was still almost full, so I don't think it burns oil.

Thanks!

 

[addyguy]

On an old beater like that, if saving money is paramount, go 7-8k miles.

 

[NMBurb02]

If it has an oil life monitor/change oil light, go by that. If not, I'd go with 5k on conventional.

 

[The_Jeff]

The intake gaskets can go on those. I'd keep up on oil and coolant. Have you raided all the autozones for nexgen yet?

Also consider a VATS key bypass before it strands him.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
The intake gaskets can go on those. I'd keep up on oil and coolant. Have you raided all the autozones for nexgen yet?

Also consider a VATS key bypass before it strands him.


Shelf was clean of NexGen at the local Autozone. I'll probably go 5,000 on the conventional then. Good to know about the intake gaskets. I'll keep an eye on the oil and coolant.

 

[beechcraftted]

The GM 3.1/3.4 are pretty reliable, but are notorious for lower intake manifold gasket failures. Watch for mysterious coolant loss. If they have been replaced already with the Fel-Pro gaskets, you will likely never have an issue with this again.

The Supertech/Purolator will be fine, the bottom end of these motors are pretty indestructable. They occaisionally will pop a head gasket, but that is usually related to LIMG/coolant loss overheat.

We have 2 of these in our family, they clatter a little when cold, but if you watch the LIMG, they can go well past 220 K miles on conventional oil. Keep up on the ATF changes as well.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: beechcraftted
The GM 3.1/3.4 are pretty reliable, but are notorious for lower intake manifold gasket failures. Watch for mysterious coolant loss. If they have been replaced already with the Fel-Pro gaskets, you will likely never have an issue with this again.

The Supertech/Purolator will be fine, the bottom end of these motors are pretty indestructable. They occaisionally will pop a head gasket, but that is usually related to LIMG/coolant loss overheat.

We have 2 of these in our family, they clatter a little when cold, but if you watch the LIMG, they can go well past 220 K miles on conventional oil. Keep up on the ATF changes as well.



His coolant was a little low in the reservoir, where does it usually go when the intake gasket goes? Does it go into the oil or out the exhaust? How difficult a job is it to replace? The oil looked fairly clean on the stick, so maybe he has a small coolant leak somewhere.

What kind of ATF does it take? Is there a drain plug or does a change require dropping the pan? I doubt it has ever been changed.

 

[crazyoildude]

assuming the engine is in good shape and has a good air filter change the oil every 4 months or 4500 miles and use the cheapest 5w30 with the ratings of sn/5
those engines with proper maintanence can go to 300,000 miles with zero problems. I personally would get the dex cool out of there we run them all on the regular green prestone type when we rebuild them (a small percentage have intake gasket problems) its not as bad as some say considering for many years that engine went into 45% of gm's cars and many are going very strong today

 

[Donald]

He should get the intake gasket done using a Felt Pro, assuming it has not been done already.

 

[jeepman3071]

From what I could see, the coolant looked fairly clean and so did the oil. I don't think it has a problem yet. So should I just drain the Dexcool out and change it over to the green coolant?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Supertech or Mobil Super 5000 would be my two options. It may be a bit different running it for longer intervals on an engine of unknown history.

13 years of dexcool has probably already done it's damage

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
On an old beater like that, if saving money is paramount, go 7-8k miles.


+1

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: beechcraftted
The GM 3.1/3.4 are pretty reliable, but are notorious for lower intake manifold gasket failures. Watch for mysterious coolant loss. If they have been replaced already with the Fel-Pro gaskets, you will likely never have an issue with this again.

The Supertech/Purolator will be fine, the bottom end of these motors are pretty indestructable. They occaisionally will pop a head gasket, but that is usually related to LIMG/coolant loss overheat.

We have 2 of these in our family, they clatter a little when cold, but if you watch the LIMG, they can go well past 220 K miles on conventional oil. Keep up on the ATF changes as well.



His coolant was a little low in the reservoir, where does it usually go when the intake gasket goes? Does it go into the oil or out the exhaust? How difficult a job is it to replace? The oil looked fairly clean on the stick, so maybe he has a small coolant leak somewhere.


Mine leaked externally and internally. I had to run the engine to see it weeping. It was a really slow leak. I also had some leaking internally, but from the dipstick it was really hard to tell. Once I removed a valve cover, it was obvious. I may have set a record for lowest number of miles on one of those engines for changing out a LIM gasket, because my mileage was in the low 20's (thousands).

 

[KCJeep]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
From what I could see, the coolant looked fairly clean and so did the oil. I don't think it has a problem yet. So should I just drain the Dexcool out and change it over to the green coolant?


No don't do that unless you flush it very, very well. The green stuff will react with the Dexcool and create sludge. If you switch it to something that claims to be Dexcool compatible that should work though.

We've had several of these and still own one which we've had for 10 years, it has 162k on it now still going strong. Its had all the notorious gasket (head and intake) issues but keeps on plugging. If GM hadn't had problems with the gaskets they'd have been incredibly repair free engines.

I've paid a couple times to have the intake/head gaskets replaced, I've also used Barr's Liguid copper twice, both successfully, to seal a leaking intake manifold gasket. Much cheaper route if money/time is an issue.

These engines are not picky about oil/filters at all but stick with the recommended 30 grade. They don't use very much oil either, even at high mileage. I often use the oversize PF52 equivalent filter, dump in the whole 5 quarts and forget about it.

 

[ChrisD46]

I had a 2005 Buick with a 3.1L in it - DEXCOOL is not the problem , there were a few years where GM's gaskets had a reliability issue (do not recall if the 2001's were an issue - you said motor is rebuilt / newer so perhaps no need to worry) .
Oil & oil filter at around 5K to 6K miles for mostly around town driving is fine - may wish to check the PCV valve or replace which would aid in helping keep internals clean ...Other than that - pretty solid engine design which should have a few more years life in it .

 

[jeepman3071]

I'm not quite sure if the engine was a new one or a used swap. It seems to run fairly well and I will keep an eye on the coolant and oil. I will probably just change the oil for him every 5k miles. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[bigt61]

Stick with DexCool, it works fine when the cooling system is kept filled. Use the GM stop leak tabs to prevent the lower intake leak, or even stop any minor leak. Bars leak makes the exact same product and it's available at Napa:

5k OCI will work great with SuperTech. Start up rattle is normal, that motor is hard to kill.