Oil for SL2 Saturn?

[SMILEY]

Its a 96 with 99k miles. It runs great yielding a nice 35 mpg on CA crap gas.

I am running a mix of Delo 15-40 and Motorcraft 5-20. With the oil consumption issues that these cars have, I am thinking of just running the Delo alone. It does consume some oil... maybe a quarter quart per 1000k miles? Not Sure as I have not had it long.

Saturn experts please advise.

 

[tensecondz1]

do a piston soak overnight - a few oz of seafoam in the cylinders.

Sister has a 95 SL-1 Got the oil consumption down to 1 quart per 3000 miles. Oh and it has 225K

 

[dave1251]

Run a Auto-RX treatment. Delo is a good oil for this engine. Good Luck.

 

[The Critic]

Got a '96 SL2 over here with 89,XXX

Family member changes oil at least once-a-year with 5W30 and either FRAM or Purolator filters. Running Havoline 5w-30 and a Purolator right now.

No clue how much it burns. We keep it topped-up religiously but never keep track of how much we add. I doubt its more than a quart every 2-3K though.

Since the maintenance has recently been turned over to me, I'll be changing the oil more frequently now and repairing some of the items that need to serviced/replaced.

For example, I need to replace the engine coolant temperature sensor, thermostat, and transmission pan gasket. Will also do the upper/lower radiator hoses as preventive maintenance. Did a coolant flush just last week with Prestone All Makes/Models. After I change the thermostat and temperature sensor, I do plan on running Auto-RX, so stay tuned.

 

[nascarnation]

Run a couple OCIs with German Castrol or Rotella 5W40. They seem to be helpful in oil ring belt cleanup on the S-Sats.
Then if you want to go back to thinner grades for fuel econ, you should find the oil consumption to be much improved.
Here's my history:
http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55258
In any event these will run a long time if you don't let them run low on oil.

 

[burnout]

15w-40 in Delo or Rotella form is popular on these cars. Cleans up the rings some, and slows burning. I'd say do an auto-rx using generic 10w-30, and a MMO piston soak for 8-12 hours.

Tons of info in the saturnfans.com how to guide forum. You'll find the MMO soak "stickied" at the top I believe.

 

[m2200b]

Keep track of actual consumption. 1 qt per 4000 is not that much. I'd do ARX as the car seems about an average 100k car. I would not use 15-40 delo staight even in CA in that motor. 5-40 rotella syn maybe. 5-20 is a good blend as the 5-20 is usually the best and CS 5-20 blends well with delo.

 

[m2200b]

Make sure a brand of cars issue is actually your car's issue before using the heavy treatments.

 

[SMILEY]

Wow. Lots of different info. Im still not sure. I would like to do a autoRX but dont want to release too much crap all at once.

Im thinking about the GC...

I dont know...

 

[bigpaulo]

I had a 95 SW2... and at 112K miles, it was burning a quart of oil every 600 miles. It was ugly. Unfortunately, this was before I knew about AutoRX. I definitely would have tried the AutoRX before trading it in, but before that, I was replacing oil so frequently, I went out to 6K mile OCIs. I even tried 10W-40 to slow down the consumption, it didn't help.

One thing most people don't realize is that these Saturns have timing chains bathed in engine oil, and my understanding is that they have the effect of chopping up any VI polymers in the oil add pack, i.e. these engines are rough on oil. I wouldn't go beyond 5K with any oil in these engines personally. If you want to baby it, go ahead and use the GC. Couldn't really hurt... except the wallet.

Oh yeah, and I went through 5 alternators on my car because some GM engineer thought it was a good idea to place an alternator directly above the exhaust manifold without a heat shield in between. Bad piece of engineering

 

[burnout]

15w-40 gives great results with this motor, I'm not making it up

 

[SMILEY]

Burnout,

How long have you been using this oil? Do you have any UOA's with this oil?


I broke down and got my fist 5 quarts of GC. Im hoping it will clean it a bit but I wont spend this kind of money for long. Im looking to go back to the Delo / MC mix or just Delo.