North Star oil consumption

[Rat407]

Is anyone familar with the TSB out on the North Star engine and it's use of a quart of oil in 1700 miles?
I was wondering if the Auto-rx would help. According to the TSB the dealer is suppose to run a cleaner through the engine to help clean up the rings and stop the oil consumption.
Anyone know about this? My father-in-law's Eldorado uses oil at about that rate and is out of warranty so I was wondering if the Auto-rx would make a difference. The car has 51k on it and most of the miles came from city driving. His oil has been changed every time the oil life indicated less than 30% oil life left.

Thanks

 

[jjbula]

I've seen the TSB on the web. The TSB directs pulling the plugs and soaking the pistons. It also says the solution needs to be vacuumed back out of the pistons.

IMHO autorx will also do the trick. It may take more than one application, but you should see some results with the first application.

 

[ALJAMES]

What brand of oil are you using in that Northstar? If your current oil has a low flash point then I would recommend a change in brands either before or after the cleaning procedure. I have been comparing the published specs for oils for about a year now and the dino oils with the highest flashpoints in SL grade are Chevron Supreme, Texaco Havoline, Citgo Superguard, and Shell Formula. As a side note, many on this forum like Mobile drive clean but it has the lowest flash point of any oil that I know of. This probably doesn't matter for 80% of the cars and trucks on the road, but could be the absolute worst oil to use in a Northstar or Saturn engine. I currently use the Shell Formula and have been very pleased with the performance. I have a 92 Cadillac with the 4.9l pushrod v-8 and my oil usage was cut in half after the switch from Valvoline to Shell. The other 4 vehicles in my family do not use enough oil to bother with between changes but I still use the Shell in three of them.

 

[Terry]

One of the Chemists that developed Auto-RX owns this same Cadillac car and engine and has used Auto-RX successfully for exactly your concern.

Hopefully he still frequents this site and will chime in on his experience.

 

[keith]

I also have a northstar (99 Seville STS with 54K miles) with appalling oil consumption - 1L / 1000 miles. GM/Cadillac deem that to be "normal".

Anyway, I have three bottles of AutoRX and am just waiting for the temperatures here to warm up a bit before I venture out and change the oil and filter.

The TSB does indeed put acid into the bores, to dissolve ring deposits and unstick them. I hope AutoRX will do the same. I figure it can't do any harm, and has a great chance to succeed.

By the way, you should also try a few full throttle accelerations - with a warmed up engine of course. If you don't ordinarily drive that way, carbon does built up. When I first did this, about 10K miles ago, got a huge black cloud out of the exhausts. Now I don't get the clouds, but for this northstar, it didn't reduce the oil consumption any. YMMV.

Keith.

 

[eldawg4100]

the cylinder wall is honed very agressive to keep lots of oil in there for high speed operation... the northstar can run at 6k rpm ALL day long...

Gm does say 1 quart is normal for 1000 miles... and everyone is right, the rings stick. sometimes people overfill the oil and this contributes to the problem

PS i have a 92 seville with 4.9 also... have you had to change your injectors yet? you will at some point lol, i hate those injectors. i will replace all 8 with ford motorsport 19 pound injectors.

 

[Bill J.]

Probably not a bad idea to run some Neutra #132 in the gas to help on the combustion end. After a thousand miles or so, drop down the treatment rate to a maintenance dose for life.

 

[Rat407]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill J.:
Probably not a bad idea to run some Neutra #132 in the gas to help on the combustion end. After a thousand miles or so, drop down the treatment rate to a maintenance dose for life.

---

I'm new at this so help me out. Where can I get the Neutra #132? It isn't something I have seen around before on the store shelves. Thanks

 

[Rat407]

Ok just read another thread and found the info there. Sorry guys I should have done better homework.

 

[Rick20]

My wife drives a 98 Deville, with Northstar V-8. We had purchased it with 45,000 miles. Low oil light came on before the 3,000 mile dash indicator for oil change interval. I was shocked.
Cadillac dealer said that these motors use oil, all of them. In my mind I thought , no wonder why they have an 8 quart pan. I ran Auto-Rx at the back end of two oil changes and have had excellent results. Oil consum,ption has dropped to slightly over 1 quart in 3,000 miles, regardless of highway vs. local driving. I think this is as good as its going to get.

 

[eldawg4100]

yes just remember, the engine is sacrificing lots of oil for reliability....but the sticking rings begin to become a big problem at one point. i wouldnt mind a quart for 3k miles!

 

[Bror Jace]

Neutra #131 ... correct?

#132 is their moly E.P. additive for the crankcase.

http://www.schaefferoil.com/data/131.html

--- Bror Jace

 

[Bill J.]

Thanks Bror, typo - the correction should read -

"Neutra #131 Fuel Stabilizer"