Worth while experiment or waste of money?

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ROLEXrifleman

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Hello all, long time lurker 1st time poster.

Backstory....
Bought a 98' firebird with 100,080 on it. Has a 3.8 in it that feeds on a steady diet of 1qt per 1250, otherwise reliable and gets me 17mpg around town.

From what I've gathered on the forum just about anything will do if your OCI is under 5000 miles. With that said I run Menards QS filters no longer than about 4500 miles.

The person I bought the car from did not maintain it very well and I've been doing my best to take care of it.

I'm do for an oil change and was wondering if you think this would do anything to help clean it out.

1st I was thinking using motor medic 5 minute flush when dropping the old oil.

2nd I was thinking of putting a new filter on and Super S 5w-30 (was on sale for $7.99) from menards with a can of sea foam and running that combo for about 1000-1500 miles.
-- Mind you, the car gets 10w-30, would 5w-30 hurt for that length of time?

3rd when I drain the Super S/Seafoam blend I was going to refill with Quaker State defy 10W-30 and a fresh QS filter.

The questions are:

1) Do you think this process will clean any [censored] outta the engine?
2) Will anything above harm the engine?
3) Do you think it is a complete waste of money?

Thank you for your time and I appreciate any and all info or comments you folks may have.
 
I'd be careful with quick flushes; you never know what might be dislodged. I'd start out with a few short OCIs, first, and then re-evaluate as needed. And no, 5w-30 won't hurt at all.
 
I think this is the use for marvel mystery oil. I don't thing it needs to be added to modern cars in good condition. But in a car that my have some sludge, its a good cleaner that works slow. I would not use a strong quick flush, as you don't want to loosen and gunk too fast and plug the oil pump screen. I'd use a good dino like pyb or mobil and add a pint of mmo you could mix 5w-30 and 10w 40 if you don't want to thin out the 5w 30 too much with the mmo. I'd run this 3 k, see how it looks and dump. The just use a quality dino and a good filter. If you wanted synthetic, mobil 1 hm is a good cleaning oil.
 
1. Yes for sure. Maybe free up some stuck rings.
2. I don't think so, but make sure you check oil level frequently after sea foam because that stuff will flash off quickly.
3. It isn't going to cost that much. $7.99 for the cheap oil. A $6.99 can of sea foam and I'm not sure how much the motor medic is.

I say go for and document the results with lots of pictures. Especially cut open those oil filters!

Btw what does it look like under fill cap and inside the fill hole in the valve cover?
 
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one bit of info I forgot to mention. This would be my 4th oil change and I have used 5 minute flushes for the other 3 up to date.
Sorry about that major piece of info.

The car is sitting in the drive way with 110, 400 miles on it as of today.
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
1. Yes for sure. Maybe free up some stuck rings.
2. I don't think so, but make sure you check oil level frequently after sea foam because that stuff will flash off quickly.
3. It isn't going to cost that much. $7.99 for the cheap oil. A $6.99 can of sea foam and I'm not sure how much the motor medic is.

I say go for and document the results with lots of pictures. Especially cut open those oil filters!

Btw what does it look like under fill cap and inside the fill hole in the valve cover?


No doubt I will be reporting back on what gets done! With tons of pics!
 
Looking forward to the pics. Our '99 Firebird doesn't seem to burn much at all, but the previous owner always changed the oil before it hit 3,000 miles (usually around every 2k). I ran some Pennzoil HM 10W-30 along with MMO mixed in to help with a knocking lifter noise I'd get occasionally along with stopping the leaks and it worked great for me. I'd try a HM oil along with some MMO mixed in like I did and see how it works for you, changing it fairly often.
 
Originally Posted By: Brybo86
1. Yes for sure. Maybe free up some stuck rings.
2. I don't think so, but make sure you check oil level frequently after sea foam because that stuff will flash off quickly.
3. It isn't going to cost that much. $7.99 for the cheap oil. A $6.99 can of sea foam and I'm not sure how much the motor medic is.

I say go for and document the results with lots of pictures. Especially cut open those oil filters!

Btw what does it look like under fill cap and inside the fill hole in the valve cover?


With the '98-'02 3800 in the Firebird, you can't really see too much through the oil filler because of the way the filler tube is angled. If you get it just right, though, you can see just a tiny bit of the valvetrain with a flashlight.
 
Before going too far on a cleanup why not remove the easiest valve cover and see what you're dealing with. If it's clean then no worries. If not at least you know where you started.

This should be within the range of a DIY guy who is doing his own oil changes. I'd change the gasket while I was there too. I don't have a 3.8 so someone else would have to walk you through any details.

PS Take photos.
 
Do not use fast flushes, they cause high friction and I've seen high wear from subsequent uoas.

Just use a good oil and filter and forget about unnecessary things.

On a side note aren't those Quaker State filters made by Purolator and part of the media tearing failures?
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Do not use fast flushes, they cause high friction and I've seen high wear from subsequent uoas.

Just use a good oil and filter and forget about unnecessary things.

+1
 
Originally Posted By: 147_Grain
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Do not use fast flushes, they cause high friction and I've seen high wear from subsequent uoas.

Just use a good oil and filter and forget about unnecessary things.

+1

+ also on board with this^
 
Originally Posted By: wemay
Originally Posted By: 147_Grain
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Do not use fast flushes, they cause high friction and I've seen high wear from subsequent uoas.

Just use a good oil and filter and forget about unnecessary things.

+1

+ also on board with this^


I'm with y'all as well. No additive flushes. Just use a good 10W30 oil.
 
You're adding fresh oil every 1250 miles, so I doubt the engine has a problem with sludge and doesn't need to be cleaned out. How many quarts does the 3.8 take in an oil change? Four? If so, the engine is getting a complete oil change every 5000 miles. Just run PYB 10w30, and let it do its cleaning thing gradually, if any cleaning is needed at all.

Maybe you should do a Kreen piston soak to see if oil consumption can be decreased by freeing stuck rings. That would also give you an opportunity to inspect the spark plug condition and change them if needed.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
You're adding fresh oil every 1250 miles, so I doubt the engine has a problem with sludge and doesn't need to be cleaned out. How many quarts does the 3.8 take in an oil change? Four? If so, the engine is getting a complete oil change every 5000 miles. Just run PYB 10w30, and let it do its cleaning thing gradually, if any cleaning is needed at all.

Maybe you should do a Kreen piston soak to see if oil consumption can be decreased by freeing stuck rings. That would also give you an opportunity to inspect the spark plug condition and change them if needed.


4.5 quarts with filter change. With an oversized filter I go up to 5 quarts.
 
What are you trying to accomplish?

If you've used engine cleaning stuff x3 now, you're pretty much done, it's doubtful you'll achieve any additional benefits by repeating this. Aside from the excellent advice that you don't want to go too aggressive with flushes b/c you can dislodge crud that can then cause real problems, it sounds like you want to reverse the effects of age. Sorry....no can do.

Use the manufacturer rec viscosity and a good filter, and enjoy your car. I'm only aware of one time that actual resurrection occurred, and many dispute even that.
 
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Thanks for all the responses!
One hard thing that I have to learn and was mentioned here is the fact that I cant take years off the engine by going overboard with procedure.

On that note, what I did do was use the Motor Medic. I put a fresh filter on and poured in the Super S WITHOUT seafoam! I realized that for the price of the seafoam, I could add another $1 and get another 5qt jug of Super S. Now with that said, I could do an oil change only, no filter, after 2500 miles with fresh oil and do more justice than putting an additive in this oil.

I will post that in a new thread in a few minutes. Now.... how do I cut open filters without making a mess???!!!!!
 
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