Slick 50?

I do not use Slick 50 or any other "Teflon" additives. I have used Valvoline's higher mileage vehicle oil in my son's 1996 120K Saturn SL1. To be completely honest, I have not noticed any difference and the engine still uses a little over a quart between 3K mile changes. As far as additives go, I try to stay away from most, but use STP during the summer on another high mileage vehicle that has low oil pressure. My theory here is that the STP increases the high temperature viscosity of the regular 10W-30 that I use during the summer and helps increase the pressure.

As to your 2 quart per change oil consumption, this is a bit on the high side, but from what I've read here from others, about "normal" for the Saturn engine. If you google search the archive, you will find a procedure for putting a special cleaner/oil through the spark plug holes and soaking (overnight) the combustion chamber to free sticking piston rings. People who have performed this procedure said that it produced noticeable reduction of oil consumption.

As to your leaking on the underside of the engine, this could indeed be the oil pan gasket, but is more likely worn seals which are much more expensive to address. I'm not sure what viscosity oil you are using, but you could try increasing this to see if this helps reduce seepage.

Good luck

Bob

While you'll find a few arguments in favor of oil additives, generally speaking, they have been found in practice to be useless and occasionaly more harmful than good. The FTC was forced to file suit a few years ago for deceptive advertising practices against Duralube, et al.

There was a bit of a discussion about them in this group a couple of months ago. You might check groups.google.com under this group for more about how the additives interact (or don't) with Saturns.

In my limited experience, Saturns tend to burn more oil than they leak. Perhaps the leak is fixable by changing a seal or gasket? Or maybe it isn't worth the effort, depending on which gasket it is.

-rj

98SL2

Barry Schnoor wrote:

Don't use slick 50. It does nothing useful for your motor, and clogs your filter up.

The 'high mileage' oils contain additives that swell the seals up. How well this works is debateable.

If you're leaking, check the front seal by the pulley, and check in back by the tranny. The pan, etc are RTV'd on at the factory quite nicely. In any case, the best way would be to really clean/degrease the bottom of the car and the engine, then see where the 'fresh' leaks form.

I wouldn't use any of those oil additives. A lot of them contain Teflon which simply doesn't belong in an engine. Also, oil manufacturers recommend against using additives. "High mileage" oils may help some with oil leakage, but I don't think they're likely to do a whole lot for an engine that's burning oil.

Saturn 1.9s often seem to start using oil because of carbon buildup on the rings causing sticking - the commonly advised MMO or Top Engine Cleaner soak of the combustion chambers may help with this.

YES! Clean and degrease! God I hate it when I'm asked to find leaks and the entire compartment is coated with oil and crud! I find spraying down the crud with engine degreaser then driving around and spraying it again the next day while its cool then hitting it with the garden hose knocks that crud right off.

I hate a dirty motor, period. Maybe it'sthe Harley owner in me, but, I HATE looking at dirty motors.

Esp when great degreasers are avilable everywhere.

I dont just hate looking at them, its having to work on them as well. If I have to do something like a intake job I got to do more work just to keep clumps of dirt from falling into the lifter valley. I'm a auto tech, not a damn car wash. I had to do this one damn 3/4 ton pick up once. The wheel well shroud was missing on one side so the area's that you shim were loaded up with dirt grease and rocks. The job never got done right, mostly because

9/10ths of the work was spent scraping that crap off. If anyone out there thats not a mechanic is reading this please take note. CLEAN off the areas that you are going to have serviced on your car! Who ever works on your car should be more appreciative and the quality of the repair should more than suit you.

So I go to Autozone and buy a spray can of engine degreaser, now what? Are there things I shouldn't spray it on? After I spray on the degreaser, can I use a garden hose or the hand-sprayer thing at the carwash under the hood to wash off the excess dirt and grime? I've seen at carwashes where they have "Degreaser" and a little icon of an engine next to it ... are you really supposed to open up your hood and spray?

I want to keep my engine clean for the sake of keeping it clean, but I also am afraid to damage anything or get water into the engine somehow.

-rj

98SL2

I have used Gunk Brand Citrus engine degreaser with some success. I've also used "Simple Green". I generally use a brush to get at some of the more difficult to reach locations. For small/tight areas, an old toothbrush does wonders. I've never had a problem starting the vehicle after cleaning the engine compartment, but take care with the air intake, ignition coil/pack, and the electronic (computer) connectors.

What I will warn about here though, is to exercise care with the degreaser products since they can (and have from my personal experience) damaged the clear coating on my intake manifold. If there is the slightest bit of doubt, try the cleaner on a inconspicuous location on areas that you feel might flake or peel.

I have always been amazed at how clean you can get things under the hood with just a little effort. In addition to making it easier to work on the engine and find problems, it can't hurt the resale value either!

Cold engine, Simple Green and old paint brush to get out the crud in the nooks and crannies. I let it sit on stubborn places, spray some more and brush some more. Then with low pressure, cold water from the hose I rinse it off into the lawn (which seems to love it too). The black hoses may get some white scaling - I use a little Armor All on them, the composite valve cover and anything else that looks dull...

Search the web for FTC rulings about Slick 50 claims that were false and then search for Dupont's comments that teflon (PTFE) does not belong in the engine.

Just go to full synthetic. I started using it in a 98 SL2 at about 90,000 and by the time I traded it in at 120,000 miles, it was using less oil!!

Charles

The results obtained can vary widely depending on the quality/performance of the synthetic oil in question. Some, "synthetic", oils these days are not really, "synthetic", per se, but simply more refined petroleum oils.

Synthetic oils are no more the same than all vehicles are the same.

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