Will a engine favor a oil?

[dieselcaddy]

I bought a 87 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon with 99,000 miles. It has the 307 V-8 with 4-bbl carb. The guy said he always put Castrol 10w30 in it, but this last time his son went with the oil change places feature oil which is Penzoil. I drive the whole way home which is 12 hours, only stopping for fuel. No smoke, didnt use any oil or nothing. I get it changed the next day at my place and they use Valvoline 10w30. I get it home and go out later to start it and poof, a thing of smoke comes out. Over the next 100 miles it is no to the point that if it idles any length of time it starts blowing oil smoke. Once you take off it burns away and you dont see any smoke until the next time you stop and idle. I have heard that a engine will get use to what ever kind of oil it has had since day one. Is that true? What are your guys thoughts?

Blaze

 

[Cooper]

My thought is that the guy put something like Castrol 20w50 in it. But, obviously that may not be true. He may be using something to stop the smoke. I would recommend using Maxlife 10w30 in it. That may help.

 

[Johnny]

I know they sell Pennzoil in Central Missouri. When it comes time to change the oil again, put some 10w30 Pennzoil back in there and see what happens. You never know. But as Cooper said, if you must have Valvoline, use their Maxlife 10w30.

 

[dieselcaddy]

I dont have to have valvoline, I just wish it would quit smoking. I guess I will try the castrol and then the penzoil.

Blaze

 

[oilyriser]

He forgot to tell you he also added two bottles of motor oil honey.

 

[rangerdood]

Sounds like bad valve guides... whether it had to do with the oil brand change... I doubt it

 

[kc8adu]

replace the pcv.
thats what mine does when it was time to replace it.
unless you got one of the bad batch with soft cylinders its way too low miles to be a smoker unless it was badly overheated.
my 85 with nearly 400k doesnt smoke or use more than 1qt between changes.

 

[NutBuster]

Sounds typical of valve guide seals to me...I've had good luck with max life. Seems to soften the seals a bit and decrease oil smoke.

It may not be due to lack of maintenance, but the fact that it's 20 years old would suggest that the rubber parts may have gotten a little "crispy" over the years. Something like max life may band-aid the problem, but a good long term solution is to replace those seals.

 

[glennc]

I'm with oilyriser. I bet he had something in it to control the smoking and I doubt it had anything do do with the oil change, except that whatever the stuff was, it wasn't in there any more. If the valve guides are bad, maybe enough seal conditioner will swell the valve guide seals enough to control it.

I'd say try a seal conditioner and/or maxlife and if it doesn't work then decide whether you want to live with it or fix it.

 

[mechtech2]

Right - valve guides. Feed it's habit or dive in for major repairs.
But who really knows what was used before, or what is in there now for sure?

 

[steve20]

Had an 83 Cutlass 2dr with the 307-4V. Got it from my mom with 103K on it-drove it to 256K when the 2nd trans went, and it was just not worth saving-everything but the motor was failing. I serviced the motor since new with Castrol GTX 10-40 and a Fram orange can filter every 3-5K. This engine never burned a quart of oil TOTAL in 256K-never. I used to supplement with 1/2QT MMO in the winter.