Synthetic oil with moisture around valve covers?

[Oldmoparguy1]

grbr95,

I have a 2000 GC 3.3 also. I'm on an extended trip to Michigan right now. Just turned over 78,000 miles. Have 4100 miles on M1 10/30.

What kind of miles do you have on your Caravan? What kind of OCIs' have you been using? Why do you want to switch to Synthetic? Are you able to do your own work, or must you have it done? Make sure that your PCV valve is clean and working correctly. That can help with oil seepage.

 

[grbr95]

I have 62,000 miles on it right now, it sits a lot and makes very short trips of 2 miles. It gets on the highway ocasionally, but the short trips really tear down the oil in this van. By 1500 miles on the oil, the stuff is VERY dark. I don't feel comfortable going beyond 3 month OCI's given the many short trips in all extremes of temps this van undergoes. The only reason I thought about Synthetic was that perhaps I could extened my OCI by one month and do a 4 month OCI instead.

 

[CBR.worm]

The last vehicle I had with a valve cover leak was an '89 grand voyager with the 3.0 V6. I ended up replacing the front valve cover gasket, and let the back one leak. Ironicly the valve cover gasket lasted longer than the valve guide seals. The valve guide seals were leaking by 60K. I didn't get them fixed until 140K (in 1994) . At that point I put in new OE valve cover gaskets which started leaking right around the 280K mark (140K on those gaskets). I replaced the front one only. Shortly thereafter I had a head gasket start leaking - I didn't want to deal with it, so I gave the van to a friend (1998). He is still driving the van, and hasn't fixed the head gasket - he drives a lot easier than I do and he said he retarded the ignition timing a little bit, and doesn't tow a trailer like I did. The original UltraDrive has not been opened up yet. I started using Mobil 1 in that van after the valve guide seals were done. So in my experiance with that one van, the valve guide seals lasted 140K with quick lube oil, and 140K with mobil1.

No other car that I have ever owned has leaked oil, I usually keep them until around 200K, and they are usually japanese.

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

Well that's severe service all right. Do you do your own oil changes? If not then you have balance your costs against what you can afford.

W/M ST oil changed every 3 months will be much cheaper then any syn changed every 4 months. If you can change your own oil, the Super Tech oil and filter would give the most protection for the price. If you live where it gets really cold in the winter, you will be better off with the short OCIs' and low cost oil will be just as good as expensive. Where I live, it doesn't get cold enough to be a problem. I've switched to M1 10/30 and will be changing it 7500 miles or one year.

 

[grbr95]

Yes, I do my own oil changes...have been using Castrol GTX and/or Havoline. IMO, I think I should keep doing what I'm doing by sticking with the 3mo oci, given my severe driving conditions that is.

 

[Missouri Tim]

Yeah, I'd give tightening the bolts a try before I took it to a mechanic for a lot of labor costs. Have a set of sockets? It's easy to check the valve cover bolts. Wipe everything off while your in there.

The '89 Acclaim (2.5L) I had would leak around the valve cover from time to time and all it took was to wrench all the bolts - they'd walk out over time and some of them would go 'round twice after just a few thousand miles. One of the quirks. I will normally wipe down the engine and compartment while I wait for the oil to drain anyway, so I just added checking bolts to the routine.

Wife's 2001 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0L requires that same maintenance but not nearly as often.

You guys want to see some leaks? Get a Triumph. Heh, now those leak.

 

[Volvohead]

Ditto: I'd snug down the cover bolts - slightly. On the 3.3, don't go too far or the leak will be much worse.

Get it to stop weeping on dino before going over to synthetic. It will weep more heavily on the latter.

Avoid stop leak treatments.