Volvo S80, 2.5T. Oil and filter input wanted

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Fuelman

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Hey gentlemen, I surf around here a bit and rarely post, just absorb.
I just picked up an '04 Volvo S80 AWD with the 2.5 turbo engine.
Runs like a swiss watch, drives equally well for 105K miles on it. Previous owner did the Volvo recommended 7500 mile OCI's done at a valvoline quickie lube place.
Inside the breather/ fill cap it looks pretty nasty and previous owner said it was due, so I changed the oil with havoline 5w-30 and a puralator filter and plan on doing a short cycle to help clean it out.
Question is; should I do a few short cycle OCI's to clean this thing out a bit before doing a synthetic fill?....and I use puralator filters on everything but how are the OEM MANN and Mahle filters compared to puralator, price is all about the same.....

I did read the other volvo thread where it was pretty dirty inside the cap, this one looked the same.

BTW, without starting a "mine is best" brand war, is there any one brand of oil that has significantly better abilities to clean out an engine in some short cycles like I intend running?

Thanks in advance.
Fuelman
 
Use German Castrol and a Purolator PureOne filter once you are ready to go synthetic. MMO with regular Dino like PYB during your short cycle phase. Yes, join and be one of us!
02.gif
 
Not to scare you too much, but the results of running mineral oil in this Volvo turbo engine at 7.5k mile intervals are generally disastrous. I've read quite a few reports of serious sludge forming and turbo dying.

I would open the engine up and assess the damage. More likely than not, you may need some heavy duty cleaning performed to get the sludge out. Just using synthetic engine oil may not do the trick.


As for filters, OEM Mann/Mahle/Hengst/Knecht filters are very good quality - use without worries.
 
I did not notice a Pure One filter for that car.
One thing to note: when I changed the oil about 800 miles ago, it came out like mud, but the filter had no goop caught in the pleats. Just an observation....
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Not to scare you too much, but the results of running mineral oil in this Volvo turbo engine at 7.5k mile intervals are generally disastrous. I've read quite a few reports of serious sludge forming and turbo dying.

I would open the engine up and assess the damage. More likely than not, you may need some heavy duty cleaning performed to get the sludge out. Just using synthetic engine oil may not do the trick.


As for filters, OEM Mann/Mahle/Hengst/Knecht filters are very good quality - use without worries.



I can mail order mann or Mahle filters at a great price, just wanted to know if the puralators (available locally) were as good as them or about equal quality...
Think I should do a bunch of short OCI's with Autor Rx ?
 
I really wouldn't be worried about the brand filter, or the brand oil for that matter. You will want to do some shorter cleaning oci's with some cheap stuff probably no matter what. But, without removing the valve cover or at least getting a mirror in the oil fill hole all people here will be able to do is speculate.
 
You have a sludged engine. Good luck.

I wouldn't have bought a turbo with that sort of maintenace history, but hey, there's a sucker born every minute!

If you want a 'cheap' fix, run 2-3 short OCI's with a dino oil of your choice, and 1 quart of MMO in the oil. It will do some slow cleaning.
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
You have a sludged engine. Good luck.

I wouldn't have bought a turbo with that sort of maintenace history, but hey, there's a sucker born every minute!

If you want a 'cheap' fix, run 2-3 short OCI's with a dino oil of your choice, and 1 quart of MMO in the oil. It will do some slow cleaning.


Just the kind of constructive advice I was looking for addguy.......I appreciate the vote of confidence....(note the sarcasm)

Anyway...The seller gave me every OCI invoice there was, and like clockwork, it was changed between 7K and 7.5K, exactly as indicated in the volvo maintenance manual with the recomended 5w-30 oil. Most the receipts were from the local valvoline instant change place, rest were at the volvo dealer, not a single OCI missed!!.
Assuming the volvo recommended intervals are adequate, would it be safe to assume there is no abnormal sludging issues going on? I would think that would be the case.
 
Have a BG engine flush performed. Or, you can use Amsoil's Engine Flush.

The Auto-RX stuff may or may not work.
 
If it were my car, i'd switch to Castrol GTX 5w30 and run a very short Oil Change Interval (500-1000 miles). I'd continue to do that until things begin to look pretty clean and then switch to Castrol Syntec Blend 5w30 + an OEM Mann/Mahle filter.

I tend to believe that the slow clean-up method may be less risky for an older high mileage car.

Volvo recommends Castrol, so that's what i would use, along with OEM filters.

I'd try keeping the oil change interval to a minimum with a turbo. I would not go beyond 5,000 miles.

With a little work and a little luck, i think you could get a lot more miles out of this beast;)
 
alldata lists: Engine Oil

Grade API SJ, SJ/CF, SJ/EC, ACEA A1, ILSAC GF-2
Below 30°C (86°F) 5W-30
-20°to 40°C (-4°to 104°F) 10W-30
--------------------------------------------

Do dino oils have the ACEA A1 spec?
 
Fuelman, if you have the maintenance records see when the PCV system was serviced. if it hasn't been that would be a good place to start. 7500 mile OCI's are no problem on that engine, provided the PCV is working properly. i'd also start thinking about the timing belt
 
I saw no maintenance record for that so I was thinking of taking apart the pcv system and cleaning it since its unconventional compared to my dodge ram.
Probably going to change timing belt here pretty soon, book says 120K but I'm a preventative maintenance freak....
Thank you.
 
Fuelman, as long as it is not burning oil your engine is probably fine. The turbo is water cooled, so it is not "disastrous" to run conventional oil. Valve seals are what seams to go on higher mileage Volvos.

Volvo's OCIs are kinda long though so some cleaning is definately in order. I just ran AutoRX clean in my S60 from 60 to 70k and picked up some fuel mileage. You can't go wrong with it. Follow the directions on the web site.

I like the Mahle filters best and they are cheaper to boot so thats a bonus. I have run both the Mobil 1 and the Amsoil with good results. Currently running the Mobil 1 classic in 5W-30. Don't get too hung up on the viscosities in the manual if running synthetic. Current Volvo recommendation is to use 0W-30.
 
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