Rotella t6 in a 00 Corolla?

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The 00 Corolla in my signature is sick. It has a classic problem for its year, clogged piston oil return holes. It burns a qt every 1k-1500 depending on highway use. Would like to try a synthetic heavy in detergent in an attempt to unclog the oil returns, but not too thin so I get blow by.

Available at Walmart is Shell Rotella t6 5w40. Any issues using that oil in that car?
 
No problem at all.
I know a lot of Toyota mechanics at dealerships that run T6 5w40 or 0w40 in all Toyota engines, they say they run much quieter.

I use to visit dealerships all over the state as part of my job a few years ago and i mentioned to some of the mechanics that i used 5w40 in a few Toyota engines and they seemed to run quieter and actually better.
I was told they are running it too but don't publicly advertise that fact as its spec for 5w20.
No issues with cold starts either and nothing worth noting as fare as fuel consumption.

Try it and report back, your gonna love what it does for that engine.
 
At 167k that is really a shame that there are issues like that. Do you know that there is a blowby issue at all?

Id consider running Rotella T5 10w-40 versus the 5w-40, personally, and would also think about trying PU.

No one oil will necessarily do it all, so you may need to try multiple. Would also consider Kreen or MMO in the crankcase.
 
Here is the problem afflicting thousands of 99-01 1zz-fe 1.8L Toyota engines in pictures:
IMG_0079.jpg

^^^^A piston with the clogged oil return holes.
IMG_0087.jpg

^^^^The repair: Replace with a modified piston or...drill out and widen the existing 2 holes, drill additional hole.
IMG_0089.jpg

^^^^Look at the completed repair from underneath.

With the holes clogged any oil scraped by the rings ends up in the combustion chamber. Whats clogging the holes is not the consistency of sludge, its a baked on hardened carbon. Its the only major issue with the 99-01 1zz-fe 1.8L engines. Toyota must have known it was a problem because the piston design was modified in 02. If the prior owner had only used synthetic I bet everything would be fine. These engines spent most of their lives pre gf5 when conventional oil wasn't as good as it is today. Drilling the holes may seem like an easy fix, but pulling pistons is a major teardown (for me anyways)

I tried M1 HM 5w30. Burned that really fast, a qt every 600-800 miles throughout the 5k OC so I gave up and went to PYB which slowed it some. Plan now is to add t6, see if that can dislodge the carbon in the holes. I did buy Kreen, have not used it yet. Maybe put that in at the end.
 
I tried *really* hard not to post this.........

M1HM not doing it for you anymore? :p

On a more serious note, the suggestion of Penz Ultra made in the first reply might not be a bad one. It did quiet my 00's VVT tick, though with a hair over 1k miles on the oil I'm still not seeing any change in color. I'm running 0w-20, though, not 5w-30.

I babied it for the first 500 miles of this OCI and it didn't burn a drop; then I started hammering on it and I can see a difference in oil level if I take it into the 5-6k RPM range a few times.

I'm not driving it nearly as much now that I've moved walking distance from my office, so it's going to take a lot longer to see any further results from using PU, but so far I can tell you I like what it's done. I know you were pushing me toward M1HM and I'm sure if I had gone that route I'd have similar results. Given that, PU might be something to try if the R6 doesn't help, assuming you aren't running M1HM in it already; if you're not, you might give that a try.
 
The T6 certainly won't hurt anything. Although I'll tell you from experience, I had the exact same car and year. When I tried using Delvac 15w40, the consumption didn't really slow down. I also tried a TON of cleaning products(ARX, MMO, Lubegard engine flush). The car burned a quart every 5-700 miles when I traded it in with 167K on it. Still ran OK though.
 
Originally Posted By: yonyon
Has anyone ever tried ye olde mothballs trick on one of these?


What's the mothball trick?
 
Many Saturn engines had a similar problem. A temporary solution was:
1. Remove all spark plugs
2. Put MMO in there or GM Top Engine Cleaner
3. Let it sit overnight
4. Crank the engine with the plugs out.
5. drive the car hard.

Maybe it could work for you.
 
Originally Posted By: panthermike
Originally Posted By: yonyon
Has anyone ever tried ye olde mothballs trick on one of these?


What's the mothball trick?


Mothballs in the air cleaner. The naphthalene is supposed to be good for cleaning deposits off of intake valves, but I've never never been in a position to personally see whether or not it works. If it does, maybe it could clean this out too?
 
Originally Posted By: artificialist
Many Saturn engines had a similar problem. A temporary solution was:
1. Remove all spark plugs
2. Put MMO in there or GM Top Engine Cleaner
3. Let it sit overnight
4. Crank the engine with the plugs out.
5. drive the car hard.

Maybe it could work for you.


The infamous "Piston Soak". I was thinking of suggesting this, but didn't want to go that far. The OP can find info, testimonials, and instructions at Saturnfans.com forums...
 
Just to throw something else in here.....I know it's for carbon deposits on top of the pistons, but I'd try a really heavy water de-carboning.

Carefully feed at least a quart of water into a vacumn line on a hot engine - the steam may 'reach down' enough to help free the rings.

It's cheap and worth a try.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
No problem at all.
I know a lot of Toyota mechanics at dealerships that run T6 5w40 or 0w40 in all Toyota engines, they say they run much quieter.

I use to visit dealerships all over the state as part of my job a few years ago and i mentioned to some of the mechanics that i used 5w40 in a few Toyota engines and they seemed to run quieter and actually better.
I was told they are running it too but don't publicly advertise that fact as its spec for 5w20.
No issues with cold starts either and nothing worth noting as fare as fuel consumption.

Try it and report back, your gonna love what it does for that engine.


OK will give t6 a try. I was reading that this oil is supposed to (according to the literature) be helpful preventing ring coking from sooty diesels. Thought that made it a good candidate. That and being thicker so I dont consume like crazy. I like the idea of the PU but would assume its thinner than the M1 HM 5w30, definitely thinner than t6 5w40 so it will burn that heavily. The only ??? is the levels of zzdp in t6 and the cats being an oil burner. Maybe age the cats quicker? If the oil consumption slows there's a tradeoff to the cats that may be a good thing (I'm hoping)

This is my second 00 with the same problem, oil consumption. The first was mostly resolved after 2X M1 HM/Kreen OC's. Sold it and bought another one cheap same problem but a better body. Assumed I could fix the consumption again. So far this one drank the M1 HM so fast it was getting in the way of using it, constantly stopping and checking all the time, stressful! I dumped some PYB in till I came up with a new game plan. The new plan is t6 for 5k, dump in some Kreen for 1k, cross my fingers. If theres something wrong with that please let me know, thanks!
 
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
If theres something wrong with that please let me know, thanks!


There is nothing wrong with it. But, I would do it a bit differently: at the point of adding Kreen to oil, instead do Kreen piston soak overnight. Kreen will go down to the sump anyway, but in the meantime, rings will see 100% Kreen. It worked very well for me in my corolla with 1ZZ-FE.
 
Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
If theres something wrong with that please let me know, thanks!


There is nothing wrong with it. But, I would do it a bit differently: at the point of adding Kreen to oil, instead do Kreen piston soak overnight. Kreen will go down to the sump anyway, but in the meantime, rings will see 100% Kreen. It worked very well for me in my corolla with 1ZZ-FE.


Did you turn the engine over first or just start it the next day?
 
Let it seat undisturbed overnight, crank a few times with plugs out next morning, install plugs, start it and idle some with good ventilation: kreen smoke is highly irritant (and likely toxic). Most kreen should go into oil and give you more cleaning action before next oil change.
 
The only thing wrong with Kreen is that I can't f***ing get it here!

Good luck, depending on how it goes for you, I might try the Rotella in my '00 and see if that stops the consumption at higher RPMs, though I'm not hopeful that it will, due to simple physics.

Sounds like it might be a good match for you, though.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
No problem at all.
I know a lot of Toyota mechanics at dealerships that run T6 5w40 or 0w40 in all Toyota engines, they say they run much quieter.

Its in! You were right, after about 2 mins of idling the Toyota tick was gone! Different consistency than I'm used to, real slippery. Like the gallon jug no foil! Now the question remains will it slow consumption. Will report back.
 
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