Oil for 2000 Buick Century motor swap

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Hey guys,

A family friend is giving the wife and I a 2000 Buick century with the 3.1 V6. The motor has lost compression and therefore I'm gonna have it swapped for one with approximately 55-60k on it for $1000. What would you suggest the oil be for it since it will only see about 500 miles a month? I was thinking 5w30 maxlife and a fram TG3387A. We plan on having this vehicle for awhile and the friend is the original owner. Car has 190k on the clock.
 
Originally Posted By: NavyVet88
Hey guys,

A family friend is giving the wife and I a 2000 Buick century with the 3.1 V6. The motor has lost compression and therefore I'm gonna have it swapped for one with approximately 55-60k on it for $1000. What would you suggest the oil be for it since it will only see about 500 miles a month? I was thinking 5w30 maxlife and a fram TG3387A. We plan on having this vehicle for awhile and the friend is the original owner. Car has 190k on the clock.


The oil's fine but I'd avoid the Fram and get a Wix or NAPA filter, or the old style AC Delco PF47 (NOT the newer PF47e e-core.) Also, that engine family has intake gasket issues; you might want to be proactive and have the intake gasket set replaced with the Fel-Pro version while the motor is out. If the valve cover gaskets are bright blue in the new motor, someone probably did them already.
 
Oh yeah I'm aware of that issue because the current motor has it as well. The friend is an ase certified mechanic and says the transmission is fine so I'll just keep an eye on the fluid with it.
 
55k-60k miles? Sure it does.

People will say anything to sell a motor.

They aren't picky on oil. MaxLife 5w30 and a Wix for 5,000 miles would do fine.
 
I'd go SuperTech 5W-30 and I don't care about the filter right now. TG OK by me.

The thing is it's a new to you motor. No maintenance history, don't know if it has any issues. Don't know how it was driven in the past. I'd be using the ST oil and a can of BG109 as a first flush. I'd run it say 1,500 miles and do a change. ST Synthetic and a can of BG109. Run it 3,000 and do a change.

THEN I'd assume regular OCI and maybe run Pennz Plat or something. If it has any seal weaps, you'll know by then and you can use HM if need be.

Actually, I'd run Kreen the first short change, but that may be a boit aggressive for some folks ...
 
SuperTech 10W-30 & any cheap filter, including Fram - they're fine. That motor is not picky, just keep it topped off.
 
Originally Posted By: Matt6127
Originally Posted By: NavyVet88
Hey guys,

A family friend is giving the wife and I a 2000 Buick century with the 3.1 V6. The motor has lost compression and therefore I'm gonna have it swapped for one with approximately 55-60k on it for $1000. What would you suggest the oil be for it since it will only see about 500 miles a month? I was thinking 5w30 maxlife and a fram TG3387A. We plan on having this vehicle for awhile and the friend is the original owner. Car has 190k on the clock.


The oil's fine but I'd avoid the Fram and get a Wix or NAPA filter, or the old style AC Delco PF47 (NOT the newer PF47e e-core.) Also, that engine family has intake gasket issues; you might want to be proactive and have the intake gasket set replaced with the Fel-Pro version while the motor is out. If the valve cover gaskets are bright blue in the new motor, someone probably did them already.


Why would you recommend he avoid the TG which is superior to Wix? The TG is 99% @ 20 microns and the Wix is 95% @ 20 microns
 
F-RAM = NO filtering then element washdown when in bypass; this is Actually typical of many aftermarket products.


Given todays small filter form factor, and gumming element blockage issues(TBD), I will take a screen door over high efficiency media most always.

My wifes Subaru gets the fram-aru service unit - a more nicely built and painted TG. ( I will say when looking at the latest lot of orange cans a my local WM, they seem quite improved in "apparent" build Quality.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Farm = NO filtering and element washdown when in bypass.


Given todays small filter form factor, and gumming blockage issues, I will take a screen door over high efficiency media most always.


That's ridiculous, the tough guard has more holding capacity than the oem requirements
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Originally Posted By: Matt6127
Originally Posted By: NavyVet88
Hey guys,

A family friend is giving the wife and I a 2000 Buick century with the 3.1 V6. The motor has lost compression and therefore I'm gonna have it swapped for one with approximately 55-60k on it for $1000. What would you suggest the oil be for it since it will only see about 500 miles a month? I was thinking 5w30 maxlife and a fram TG3387A. We plan on having this vehicle for awhile and the friend is the original owner. Car has 190k on the clock.


The oil's fine but I'd avoid the Fram and get a Wix or NAPA filter, or the old style AC Delco PF47 (NOT the newer PF47e e-core.) Also, that engine family has intake gasket issues; you might want to be proactive and have the intake gasket set replaced with the Fel-Pro version while the motor is out. If the valve cover gaskets are bright blue in the new motor, someone probably did them already.


Why would you recommend he avoid the TG which is superior to Wix? The TG is 99% @ 20 microns and the Wix is 95% @ 20 microns


I don't like the "fiber" endcaps, bad pleat spacing, leaky bypass etc. I will say that Fram Ultras look pretty good and pretty reasonable prices on EBay.
 
For a new used motor, % cleaning is irrelevant. What you need is filter media area. Run the biggest oversized filter you can make fit.

You need to stop rocks, not microns ... Once the engine is sorted, then you can start worrying about 3~6% difference.

And if you want better filtration, leave it on for 2 changes. As it filters it gets better
laugh.gif
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Matt6127

I don't like the "fiber" endcaps, bad pleat spacing, leaky bypass etc. I will say that Fram Ultras look pretty good and pretty reasonable prices on EBay.


The ultra is my favorite too, but the tough guard is just fine and better than most aftermarket filters in terms of things that actually matter like holding capacity and efficiency, not your feelings and un objective measures.
 
Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
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I understand your point. And in the long run filtration quality matters at that level over the course of a 100,000 miles.

But I was talking about an unknown condition engine and some fairly aggressive cleaning BEFORE trying for long-interval standard operation. During an aggressive cleaning you will dislodge stuff that is larger than what they are discussing in that paper. For that you need filter area, not small pore spaces ...
 
Peak oil at Dollar General is on sale for $1.85 or so. Saturday is the last day of the sale I believe. It's a BOGO deal. No rebates to deal with.
 
10w30 semi-syn HDEO (Rotella T5 or equivalent). Oversized Fram (3980) TG or XG.
That's what my Century is getting (mostly), for the last 5 years, and seems to be happy with.
 
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