I just got finished thoroughly inspecting the underside of both my cars engines. They both clearly have oil seepage around the oil pan gaskets, but not severe. One car, it's "almost" dry. The other one, a bit more moisture around it. I think I'm going to take the plunge and try synthetic against some adive I've gotten to change the gaskets first. Why? Because, it is simply an oil pan gasket, that if I wanted to, I could simply change myself, but I'd rather try the synthetic first and see if I really need to after a few OCI's with the synthetic. Then if it does get worse, simply replace the gaskets, and problem solved. I do say I've made up my mind, but if any of you have any compelling advice, I'm still listening. The Chevy Lumina with 130k sits a lot. I put 5-7k a year on it, and I would like a better oil in as I plan to keep this car 70 more years (LOL). The minvan with 68k, it's the family mobile, and gets a lot of short trips, I want its engine to have more protectin than the conventional can offer.
My new bright idea
- Thread starter mossad
- Start date
- Status
Quote:Indeed, I could do that on the van, but the Lumina, from what I can tell is sealed on with something. There are no bolts...at least none that I can see. I might take another good look at it...
You could easily crawl underneath and snug them down, May slow it down some or stop it completly.
Either way, some people seem to think that if you put synthetic in your motor and it causes a bigger leak, it's as if your engine could suffer some catastrophic meltdown or something. The way it would seem to me is, it would simply reveal an problem that needs to be fixed. Now, for someone who doesn't want to keep their car until the doors rust off, I can understand not wanting to invest the money to replace engine seals.
Personally I think there's alot of "myth" to the "Change to synthetic oil and everything leaks" statement that alway's seems to be floating around. Most people that say this state it's because the synthetic has a higher detergent action. Last time I checked any good high quality conventional oil has just as much detergent's in it's additive package as a synthetic does. The only real difference is that they synthetic has just that, a synthetic base stock instead of good old fashioned petroleum oil as the base stock.
I have switched a couple of older engines over from conventional to synthetic over the years and never had a noticeable increase in oil leaks. Now, with that said, if these engines had been poorly maintained and had low quality oil run in them for years, yes I would have expected them to leak more. They were however well maintained and had had good high quality Dino oil run in them.
It has been my experiance that slight weeping of gaskets like you have can be cured with a quality synthetic oil. My 4.0 Jeep had a very small leak on the rear main seal and after about 5000 miles with synthetic oil it was gone. My wife's 2.5 in her Dodge Shadow did not spring any leaks and after I switched it to synthetic at just over 100,000 miles. I did do an AutoRX treatment to it before switching that one over to be honest.
It might be that the component of mineral oil that keeps the seals in good condition soaks out really fast, and it takes longer for the synthetic seal conditioners to soak in and replace them. I've seen initial seepage almost every time when using synthetic.
Is a small leak on an engine pan seal , a big deal?
Maybe you lose 1/4 qt if that.
Since you are not quick to jump under those two cars with a wrench and rtv and reseal, just start using Simple Green and a hose on the pan and any oil carried behind the pan. Then you'll either have controlled cosmetic dirt on the seeping seals or at least have the area clean enough to be able to evaluate whether the seaping oil is getting better or worse. Plus if you do clean the area you'll be able to be sure its the pan before you do that repair.
"More protection" with a syth oil?
I'm not sure that is a problem that needs to be addressed with your current engine operating conditions.
Yeah, and that small leak will keep the undercarriage rust proofed for Winter. 
mossad... WHAT HAPPENED?
MY FINAL CHOICE..NO MORE FLIP-FLOPPING
#206804 - 09/04/06 08:29 PM Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply
Castrol GTX. OMG!!I've been back and forth and back and forth, on the fence as to what brand to go with, and FINALLY I can honestly say without a doubt that I've made my final choice. If I change my mind again, I give permission to the powers that be to boot me from this web site.
What I've learned..FINALLY..is that for me, any oil will do fine, but I prefer a brand name that is readily available at any given time (just incase) I need to pay someone else to do do, although I always change my own. Also, Castrol really seems to be ahead of the game...I was intrigued with Mobil 5000 for a while because Mobil products in general seem to be at the top of their game, but sometimes it's impossible to find Mobil 5000. Recently I've heard that Castrol is now using sodium in their products which leads me to the conclusion that they are on to something just like Mobil is. I don't know what it is, but both companies additive packages seem to be diverse, and I like that, personally.
So I'm done. My mind is made up. And I'm sure that ANY brand would give me the same results given my choice of OCI, but I feel there is merit to sticking with one brand, and I'm just glad that I'm finally there.
- Status
Similar threads
