Son bought grandmas 02 Buick 3.1 L best oil

[flirish]

Son bought my mothers 2002 Century 3.1 L. It has been living on 3k dealer bulk oci its whole life. He has ran it 1500 miles with no leaks. The famous gaskets have been changed a couple years back. He is in school up in Indiana and I would like him to go 6 month oci with synthetic, he drives about 15k year mostly highway. The car has 76k on it with a wide range of temperatures. I have several oils in my stash, that i am willing to give him. I have GC 0w30, PP5w30, MB 5w30, and MB 0w30. Do you think he should run a high milage oil. He likes changing oil but not like I do. He is very busy with school and a wife. Would the Mobil 1 0w30 be safe in the winter for him. Does it have a better base than 5w30. Do you think there would be more of a chance for a leak with MB 0w30. I think he would be a little upset if it started leaking. Thanks for your opinions.

 

[bobfather99]

Cant go wrong with any of the oils mentioned.
The 3.1 is a great engine and pretty easy on oil.
Once the intake gaskets are changed out, it should be problem free.

If it were mine, Id drain/refill the coolant, and follow your posted OCI schedule with the PP, and a good quality filter.

 

[bubbatime]

If he is an adult and married I would let him take care of the maintenance. I'm sure you have taught him over the years how important maintenance is.

 

[daves87rs]

PP 5w30. Hands down.

 

[J_Myler]

I have a car with the same motor with 123,000 more miles on it and I'm running GC right now but the best oil over all I've ran is PP its given me the best mpg and the piston slap isn't too bad on with it.

 

[askani79705]

Any of the oils mentioned are great,I like to add Maxlife to that list

 

[ThirdeYe]

I've used MaxLife in my mom's 3.1 before with good results... also used Valvoline conventional, Havoline Synthetic, Mobil Clean 5000 and Castrol GTX. They all seemed about the same in terms of piston slap and performance. I would use the Pennzoil Platinum or German Castrol Syntec 0W-30 in it.

 

[hal]

i had a 3.1L V6 in a '93 Cavalier. essentially the same motor and a very good one at that. im pretty sure i ran mobil 1 in mine, sold it still running around 190,000mi. i'd run no less than a 5w30 in it.

 

[G-MAN]

Valvoline Maxlife 5w30 changed every 6 months.

 

[flirish]

Thanks for the response. I will probably stock up on PP and Napa gold (wix) filters and give them to him when I visit this summer. He is in his 6th year of a 7 year degree and I try to help him out with the little things that I can. I will give some of my GC that I cleaned out from 3 Auto Zones to my other son that is in college down here in southern Florida. He thinks he is a race car driver, so I would think that will hold up for him. Even though he drives a 05 Focus that is spec 5w20. I bought the car so I will watch that experiment.
I will have to use my Mobil 1 rebates on something else. I was using 5w30 MB 1 in my truck until I read so much about PP on this site, and WM drop it to $20 last week so I put it in the truck. It does 5 mile trips to work in south Florida. I have been trying to get in some longer drives to help maintain it, I have not done a UOA so that will be my next step. I only put 5k a year on this 03 Sport Track. (4.0)
Thanks this has been my first two post. Wife thinks I read waaayyyy too much of it now that I have found it. I told her once I catch up reading all the previous posts then I can just keep up with the daily.

 

[robl]

I have the same engine as well. It now has almost 150,000 miles on it. It started on Mobil1, and has seen everything early on from Trop Artic to Castrol, to others. For the past 60,000 or so it's been on either Pennzoil Platinum or a Valvoline product. Either Synpower of the Full Synthetic Maxlife. I like the Pennzoil and Valvoline! Runs smooooooooth!

 

[saberz]

Run with Mobil 1 Synthetic. GM 3.1 ,3.4, and 3.8 engines love it, runs really quiet and smooth out of anything I had used before when I had my Impala, and my dads 3.1 Lumina.