the oil burning saturn sl1 with sludge pics

[jmaster]

2000 saturn sl1, owned since new. it has 165,000 miles on it, all that's been replaced is the brakes, belt and is on 2nd AAP battery(oem battery lasted 10 years). it has been pretty reliable other than burning a little oil. seems to burn about a quart in 1500 to 2000 miles. oil changes were extended after having to add oil. my dad has been in charge of maintenance and it turns out up until now it has been filled with 5 quarts which overfills by 1 quart! have no idea if that made it burn any more oil. right now oil is currently 3qts quaker state green bottle with 1 quart supertech with dash of redline zddp. to help with oil consumption i replaced the original pcv with a fixed orifice type as recommended on the saturn forums. i will be doing a piston soak towards the end of this oci, around 2500 miles, then repeat as needed. i'll just be using seafoam for now as its what i have on the shelf. should i bother using it in the oil to flush?-also have mmo. not to worried about the sludge/carbon as this seems typical for a saturn. at most i would clean up the valve cover and leave the rest be(it aint my car!). i picked up some 10w-30 syn blend delo dual rated for diesel/gas engines, i'll be using this after a few cleaning cycles to see if it wants to stay in the engine. pcv tube was so full of carbon it was clogged and i could not squish with my fingers.

 

[Padawan]

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but with that relatively minor level of oil consumption (not terrible for an SL1) and the number of miles already on the engine, I would not get very aggressive trying to "treat" it or otherwise clean it out.

 

[zach1900]

Originally Posted By: Padawan

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but with that relatively minor level of oil consumption (not terrible for an SL1) and the number of miles already on the engine, I would not get very aggressive trying to "treat" it or otherwise clean it out. +1

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I'd do a piston soak and just run cheap Supertech synthetic in it for a while. But for the common oil burners of that era that isn't terrible.

 

[TFB1]

Interestingly, the rear cylinder rockers aren't really sludged... I'd clean up the valve cover(some flaking off is visible) and let it be...

 

[Eddie]

That doesn't qualify as an oil-burner according to General Motors. Got to consume a quart every 999 miles to qualify. )

 

[eljefino]

I'd run cheap HDEO in it and an oversize 20195/ 3600 filter. Glad you're improving the PCV system; that sludge is in the worst 20th percentile for those saturns. Usually the right (drivers side) is clean and the left looks like your right.

 

[jmaster]

i cleaned up the back of the throttle plate for the first time and it sure was caked. i think i will just buy a new idle air control rather than clean the old one(still has high idle).

Originally Posted By: eljefino

I'd run cheap HDEO in it and an oversize 20195/ 3600 filter. Glad you're improving the PCV system; that sludge is in the worst 20th percentile for those saturns. Usually the right (drivers side) is clean and the left looks like your right.

i'm going to add a catch can/oil mist filter on the other emissions hose and after the pcv if there's room. can't say for sure if it had every oil change done on time:)

 

[spasm3]

That consumption is not bad at all. Mine was up to a quart in 400 miles. The piston soak on this car will not help the consumption, i tried it several times. The oil control rings have no tension upon teardown, my oil ring lands were not coaked up. See my pics here of a teardown. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3917461/1 http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3917461/2

 

[kschachn]

Wow. So there is something worse than a 1MZ-FE. Only 165,000 miles and it looks like that?!? What is the OCI? I'm not sure I can tell from your post. Here is my 1MZ-FE after 299,000 miles, and this is the rear bank (the front one looks a lot better). I'm just amazed at how nasty your engine looks after about half the miles.

 

[OVERKILL]

My God that's ugly!

 

[jmaster]

Originally Posted By: kschachn

Wow. So there is something worse than a 1MZ-FE. Only 165,000 miles and it looks like that?!? What is the OCI? I'm not sure I can tell from your post. Here is my 1MZ-FE after 299,000 miles, and this is the rear bank (the front one looks a lot better). I'm just amazed at how nasty your engine looks after about half the miles.

i suspect the oil was changed whenever my dad felt like it. i know it was changed at least once a year, but it had a lot of city driving on it for the first 115,000 miles. now some highway driving is in the mix so its a bit less severe. the car gets the cheapest oil money can buy, usually green bottle from menards, shell, service pro(from aco hardware?). so about a 10k oil change interval if changed yearly that toyota looks pretty great!

 

[eljefino]

The high idle is more than likely your TPS or a bad intake gasket by the #1 cylinder. You can change the IM gasket in a couple hours; just loosen the PS pump out of the way and get some nuts from up top, and some from waaaaay down low. The IM gaskets don't leak coolant in these; rather they get a wrinkle by #1 that both blocks the port partially and causes a vacuum leak.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

The high idle is more than likely your TPS or a bad intake gasket by the #1 cylinder. You can change the IM gasket in a couple hours; just loosen the PS pump out of the way and get some nuts from up top, and some from waaaaay down low. The IM gaskets don't leak coolant in these; rather they get a wrinkle by #1 that both blocks the port partially and causes a vacuum leak.

eljefino, is spot on with this. I had the same issue some time back and he had me check the intake manifold, it was the problem.

 

[jmaster]

so its a "dry" intake manifold? no coolant to be spilled changing the gasket? sounds easy enough, i'll spray some carb cleaner around there and see what happens.

 

[Doog]

I would run Supertech 10w30 syn in it with a large filter and skip everything except cleaning the oil pan and pcv

 

[Hybrid]

Originally Posted By: Doog

I would run Supertech 10w30 syn in it with a large filter and skip everything except cleaning the oil pan and pcv

then 5000 oci ??

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: Hybrid

Originally Posted By: Doog

I would run Supertech 10w30 syn in it with a large filter and skip everything except cleaning the oil pan and pcv

then 5000 oci ??

5 OCI is what I'm thinking

 

[Turk]

Originally Posted By: spasm3

Originally Posted By: eljefino

The high idle is more than likely your TPS or a bad intake gasket by the #1 cylinder. You can change the IM gasket in a couple hours; just loosen the PS pump out of the way and get some nuts from up top, and some from waaaaay down low. The IM gaskets don't leak coolant in these; rather they get a wrinkle by #1 that both blocks the port partially and causes a vacuum leak.

eljefino, is spot on with this. I had the same issue some time back and he had me check the intake manifold, it was the problem.

Yep, same here on my past SL1. I did it myself, no problem, just take your time.

 

[jmaster]

cool, i'll pick up some carb cleaner and spray around there. then also there is a miss-fire only at idle, would this be attributed to the intake gasket leak or the coils? i replaced the plugs and wires and the miss still occurs randomly. i drained and filled the trans(4 speed) twice with 8 quarts total of maxlife and replaced the oem spin on filter with a wix. the last time it was serviced was 60,000 miles and only 4 quarts were replaced so there were 3 quarts of original fluid in there. should i do another drain and fill? the fluid was dark the second time draining it but now it looks and smells clean on the dipstick.