Pretty good for the cost. I would have never guessed you had a cheap filter on there with a low efficiency air filter. I think you found your sweet spot.
That's really really good, thanks for posting (I might link to it one day when people talk 10W-30 as obsolete, it's getting the job done.
(BTW, have made a 10W-30(ish) blend for my L67 with Caltex C3 5W-30 syn and Delo Gold Ultra - thinner than anyone I know with an L67 in Oz - a lot more than $2/qt)
Originally Posted By: Virtuoso
Just a check up. Been loosing coolant.. wonder where it's going?
GM 3.8 = bad upper and lower intake manifold gaskets. If you're truly losing coolant, 90% chacne that's your problem. Common on that engine because of the lousy gaskets GM used until 2005 or so. I had to replace them when I had my 2001 Bonneville a few years ago. I could smell coolant just standing by the car. Plenty of info on this issue on various GM car forums, just do a quick google search on it.
Yep I was mainly sending this in to make sure those pesky intake gaskets were not leaking into the oil. I did one earlier this year but I figured to play it safe. So far they're not. I'll google up the typical 3.8L external leaks and go from there. Can't see any at the radiator or the easily visible coolant elbow.
The engine burns a little oil (but it's burning less than when I bought it); so that skews results a little I'm sure. Next one I'd like to run the OLM to 0% and run a UOA with TBN just for kicks.
The air filter's pretty caked - it's been in use for a while before I bought it at 148k. A restriction gauge is probably in order.
Nice report. I had a '00 Bonneville SSEi and miss the car a lot. It never cared what I used for oil, UOAs were always fantastic. I'd pick the cheapest dino or semi-syn I could find like Citgo, Trop-Artic, 10w-30 HDEO, etc. Always a good result.