I know a rebuild would be best but right now it's not in the budget. Son will have to start saving for a new motor. The motor has approx 90,000 miles on it and it appears to be burning oil, smoke on startup(valve guide seals) and a little out the tail pipe and the oil pressure runs a little low. 10-30. 20-50? Basically a weekend crusier with a few trips here and there. TIA Pete

15/40 sythetic blend. My Suburban has 165,000 on it and still has 45 pounds at idle.

Throw a little sea foam in the gas one time and see if it cleans things up?

Is the PCV new/ functional? Sometimes they can help it stop smoking a little.

You could easily replace the valve seals for under $50, and if you bought/borrowed the spring compressor that can be used with the heads on the car it would be cheper. Now if the guides are warn out then the seals wont do as good a job as if that is all that was wrong with it. You can also pull the valve covers to check to see if the seals are even still there, they may have cracked and broken away in which a seal replacement would do wonders. Otherwise I use Castrol GTX high milage 10w-30 here in California.

15/40 sythetic blend. My Suburban has 165,000 on it and still has 45 pounds at idle.



i'm not sure it's a good idea to run synthetic in an engine that already smokes with conventional. seems to me it would burn more of it.....

No way, he's never done it in a tired motor, trust me. I run it my 129K Tahoe, but its still tight. ( oil lines leak more with synth though).

Straight 30w. Cheapest you can buy.

i'm not sure it's a good idea to run synthetic in an engine that already smokes with conventional. seems to me it would burn more of it.....

probably won't burn it but it will probably start to leak or leak more...

probably won't burn it but it will probably start to leak or leak more...

sorry thats what i meant......maybe i should double check my posts :clonk:

by nature many synthetics don't smoke as visibly as petroleum based oils. i'd run Rotella 30W myself. Multi-grade oils use polymers to get the viscosity changes to work, single grade offers more overall protection.

use some 15w40rotella with a bottle of either stp or eos and see where your oil pressure is at, if it is still low I would step up to a 20w50

Cheapest 10w-40 I can find! Usually I use Wal-marts own brand. 30W I'm sure is good too. I've tried some stuff that claims to seal the cylinder walls, but I didn't notice any improvement.

OK- So not everybody likes my 15w/40 BLEND idea.
That's cool. It works in my truck. And it's been flogged like a rented mule for most of its life. It's a 6.0 in a 2500 suburban. Oh, and the actual mileage is 167,000. I just looked.

How 'bout going to hotter plugs? One old school thing to do with a tired motor is go one heat range up for a motor that smokes. It is supposed to help burn some of the oil up and help it smoke less.

I would try my oil idea and hotter plugs for one oil change and if it doesn't work, start using wal- mart SAE 30.

I saw some improvement with Valvoline High Mileage Oil. Second choice would be straight 30.

You could try the synthetics but you might 'discover' some new leaks. Personally I'd opt for new seals, its cheap and easy.

Cheapest 10w-40 I can find! Usually I use Wal-marts own brand. 30W I'm sure is good too. I've tried some stuff that claims to seal the cylinder walls, but I didn't notice any improvement.

Oooooh...You're running WalMart oil?! Hasn't your engine fallen apart yet? :confused: :)

BTW- the WalMart brand is made by Warren Distrubution. The same people who make the ACCEL 10W40 SF rated oil for cars OLDER than 1988. This can all be verified by checking out the MSDS data from WalMart at this site and typing "Warren" into the mfr. search box:

http://msds.walmartstores.com

I'd stay as far away from any of the high mileage oil as possible unless you want the leaks to get much worse.

A decent dino 10-40 or if it's really bad a 20-50 would help as much as possible. If those don't help, it's just plain tired. Valve seals might help, check to see what kind of condition they are in.

I just got through changing oil and filter in my 2003 Accent after, (if I messed up), 10,000 miles and I use Walmart's, Tech2000 stuff and a small bottle of good old MMO so go from there!

Older engine 20w40 should be fine, imho!!

pdq67