Seal conditioners and cars that dont need them

[KilgoreBass]

So, I changed the oil in my S-10 to Mobile 1 10W-30 High Mileage yesterday, and changed to the M1 oil filter. Ran some errands, just to get the new oil working on the valve seals, about 90 minutes of driving and idling as I did every errand I could think of. Home Depot trip #1289 was made, returned used motor oil, all that....

Cold start today, same puff of smoke. I assume seal conditioners take some time and engine use before they do their thing. So, what is a realistic time or mileage (engine hours, whatever) before I should conclude "that didn't work". Hundreds of miles, or thousands? Or is time the seals are exposed to the conditioners more important than engine run hours?

 

[TallPaul]

I would think if it is going to do anything, it won't show for a few OCIs or more. But then if the seals are physically damaged, it'll never work. Still, no harm to using a high mileage oil.

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
I'm amazed about the posts I see here about no oil consumption with engines greater than 100k miles. syn use seems to be key in their posts. I'm pondering a similar question with using Maxlife syn with seal conditioners. I'm hesitant to use it in my vibe.


I switched my GMC Sierra 5.3L V8 over to full Syn at 63k. It now has 128k. There is No use of oil, the oil is at the top of the dipstick even when I run it to 7.5k.

There is no need to run HM oils if the engine does not need it.

I will continue to run Amsoil/PP for the life of the vehicle (hopefully 300k+) with normal full Syn.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
I'm amazed about the posts I see here about no oil consumption with engines greater than 100k miles. syn use seems to be key in their posts. I'm pondering a similar question with using Maxlife syn with seal conditioners. I'm hesitant to use it in my vibe.
Now, I'm not sure what the definition of "no oil consumption" is. My F150 4.9L has about 155,000 miles and I never have to add make up oil. I fill it above the full mark and the only time I ever had to add make up oil was when I ran the 9000 mile OCI, but on a typical 3000 to 5000 mile oci, it consumes relatively no oil. Now this truck has only run one or two loads of synthetic ever. I bought it at 58,000 miles and proceeded to run Durablend until around maybe 110,000 miles. Since then, it has had a varied diet of Durablend, Maxlife, and a few runs of Citgo (couldn't resist 50 cent oil deal). My last 4.9L, an '84, also didn't consume right up to the 175,000 miles when I sold it anyway. And that truck never saw synthetic.

OTOH, wife has an Aerostar 3.0 that has used a quart about every 1300 miles from when we got it at 27,000 miles to now at around 127,000 miles.

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
I'm amazed about the posts I see here about no oil consumption with engines greater than 100k miles. syn use seems to be key in their posts. I'm pondering a similar question with using Maxlife syn with seal conditioners. I'm hesitant to use it in my vibe.
Now, I'm not sure what the definition of "no oil consumption" is. My F150 4.9L has about 155,000 miles and I never have to add make up oil. I fill it above the full mark and the only time I ever had to add make up oil was when I ran the 9000 mile OCI, but on a typical 3000 to 5000 mile oci, it consumes relatively no oil. Now this truck has only run one or two loads of synthetic ever. I bought it at 58,000 miles and proceeded to run Durablend until around maybe 110,000 miles. Since then, it has had a varied diet of Durablend, Maxlife, and a few runs of Citgo (couldn't resist 50 cent oil deal). My last 4.9L, an '84, also didn't consume right up to the 175,000 miles when I sold it anyway. And that truck never saw synthetic.

OTOH, wife has an Aerostar 3.0 that has used a quart about every 1300 miles from when we got it at 27,000 miles to now at around 127,000 miles.


My definition on my truck: When I put in 6 Qts of Syn oil, check the oil on the dipstick, then 7,500 miles later the oil level is at the exact same point on the dipstick, then I have no oil consumption.

128,000 miles and the oil level does not move a millimeter in 7,500 miles, that's pretty good I think...........

 

[glennc]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
I'm amazed about the posts I see here about no oil consumption with engines greater than 100k miles. syn use seems to be key in their posts. I'm pondering a similar question with using Maxlife syn with seal conditioners. I'm hesitant to use it in my vibe.


My car has over 300k and virtually no oil consumption, and until recently I did not use synthetic. Nor, I believe, did the previous owner.

However, I did have slight oil consumption until perhaps 80k miles ago. I used a bottle of Valvoline Maxlife Engine Protector in one OCI and since that point, consumption has been reduced almost completely (too little to track, really).

For my part I don't think synthetic has anything to do with it. I think clean oil with the proper seal conditioning characteristics has something to do with it.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: glennc
perhaps 80k miles ago. I used a bottle of Valvoline Maxlife Engine Protector in one OCI and since that point, consumption has been reduced almost completely (too little to track, really).
Wow! For you the Engine Protecter should be called Engine Restorer. Now I wish I had bought tons of it when Big Lots was offing it for $2 a bottle.

 

[glennc]

I think at some point my car was run too long on an OCI, maybe more than one, which is why it has dark carbon deposits all over the inside. Doesn't seem to hurt anything and nothing has been able to clean it cosmetically, but I suspect the same issue caused some of the seals to shrink and harden. Restoring them and keeping them properly swollen with regular OCIs of good oil was in this case apparently completely possible.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: glennc
I think at some point my car was run too long on an OCI, maybe more than one, which is why it has dark carbon deposits all over the inside. Doesn't seem to hurt anything and nothing has been able to clean it cosmetically, but I suspect the same issue caused some of the seals to shrink and harden. Restoring them and keeping them properly swollen with regular OCIs of good oil was in this case apparently completely possible.
It is possible. I had a motorhome that started leaking oil after I put synthetic in it (maybe just a coincidence). I put some stop leak stuff in it and the leak stopped in less than 700 miles.

 

[KilgoreBass]

Originally Posted By: TallPaul
I would think if it is going to do anything, it won't show for a few OCIs or more. But then if the seals are physically damaged, it'll never work. Still, no harm to using a high mileage oil.


wow, considering the mileage I put on this truck (about 2K a year average), it might take YEARS for the seal conditioners to work????

no harm, I know, and for some reason I feel more comfortable now that I have "gone synthetic"....with gas prices at such levels, it cost less than half a tank of fuel to change to Mobile 1 oil and filter, so why not?.

PS: I still don't understand why leaking valve seals only burn oil at startup, and not all the time. As I said, NEVER need to add oil between OCI.

 

[rockyrunner99]

Leaking valve seals will burn oil more than just at start up. When you start it up there is just an accumulation of oil there to burn. The rest of the time there is just a very small amount being burned. Also if you have a manual transmission. When you rev the car high, and let off the throttle to shift, the high vacuum would suck oil in. The rest of the time there probably sum, just very little oil consumption.

 

[bmwtechguy]

Maxlife is a good synblend oil that will do the same as the Mobil 1, but at about half the cost and is good for 5000 miles or so. The Mobil HM would probably go about twice that far, especially if engine is clean inside already.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: KilgoreBass
wow, considering the mileage I put on this truck (about 2K a year average), it might take YEARS for the seal conditioners to work????
No I don't think it's that bad. Consider glennc's example and my motorhome example (about 75000 miles, but 17 years old). Go ahead and run the Maxlife and let us know how it works out.

 

[KilgoreBass]

Follow Up:

over a year later, and (about) 2K more miles, and no improvement in the cold start puff of smoke after using M1 HM 10W-30. I'm thinking of trying some MMO, due to comments made by tpitcher in in this thread:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/luvin-the-mmo.111717/