I am just wondering what you guys use on yuor high mileage engine's? I have been using castrol gtx high mileage since 100,000 miles and stp oil additive. I am concerned now that I have a bunch of "gunk" in there that is slowing my engine down and robbing my hp.. I am about 500 miles away form an oil change, and I am wondering if I should change my oil? I mean, stay with castrol 5w 30, but instead of high mileage, run regular oil and dont put the stp additive in. I just feel like my engine has lost power in the last 40,000 miles. And does anyone know of something I can use to get the "gunk" out? I want my engine to feel like it did when it was new, or atleast when it had 50,000 on it. I have never had any internal work done, so I know it is tired, but what can I do to replace those lost ponies. And, my engine has no oil usage problem's if that helps.


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

well, for starters i prefer Valvoline MAXLIFE hi mileage oil. just the oil, no extra additives. now, im not sure if you are familiar with this, if not i can help you out. i use "GUNK" high mileage motor flush, comes in a yellow bottle and can be found at parts stores and wal-mart. also if you do this you might want to consider dropping the oil pan and cleaning the screen inside it, but you dont have to do this. (if you wanna restore horsepower its a really good idea) the motor flush is very simple, just domp the whole bottle in the oil, run the engine for 4 minutes, then proceed changing the oil and filter like you normally would. you should feel a difference. hope this helps


Did I mention I drive a 2000 Lumina now?-----wigm-tuners.org member

thanks , do I dump it in the old engine oil, or the existing engine oil? Or will the bottle give me detailed instructions?... Thanks for the tip, and on a scale of 1-10 for a moderate wrencher, how much work is it to drop the oil pan and clean the screen? And where exactly is the screen located? Thanks a bunch bud...


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

i prefer using seafoam in the oil as a gunk remover. This is what i would do since you said you've noticed a power decrease. Get a can of the seafoam throttle body cleaner and two bottles of the seafoam in the can. You can use it in the oil, in the tank and run it through the motor. Take your intake off and spray the seafoam throttle body cleaner in the throttle boddy. Have some one hold the throttle to the floor so you can get the underside of the blade and spray in the intake manifold real good.

Dump one can of the seafoam in the tank after a complete fill up. Then i think it says on the can to dump a 1/3 of a can in your old oil and not to drive no more than a 100 miles. I think i went between 40 and 50. Been awhile since i did that. Take your brake booster hose out and start the car( it'll idle a lil high but will be fine) Take a funnel or pour it directly into the hose slowly. When you get to about a 1/3 of a can pour some in real quick to try and make it shut off. If it didn't turn the car off.

I usually dump a 1/3 can in the oil drive for 40 miles. Then i will leave it running and run the seafoam through the brake booster hose. Shut it off and then change the oil and all that good stuff. Then start it up and go for a ride. You have to leave the seafoam you ran through the brake booster hose set in the engine for like 30 mins. Also when you go for a ride after you change the oil it will smoke for a good 5 to 10 mins which is suppose to be the carbon that was built up coming out.

O and to drop the pan on a 2.4 i would say maybe a 4 to 5. As it can be a pain sometimes. Also you need a new gasket for it when you do.

thanks for the info, and why would I put it in the brake booster hose? I just dont understand the reasoning behind that... And if I did do the seafoam over the "gunk" would you reccomend me still dropping the pan and cleaning out the screen? I still dont know where the screenis and thanks for the heads up on the new gasket. Would I run seafoam in the brake booster hose for the sole purpose of being helpful to the brakes? Or are you refer to a vacum hose that on the brake booster for the engine. Where is this hose located (just a rough guestamate and I can take it from there). Thanks for the help. Oh, and why seafoam over gunk? Does it get more carbon out? And I am more concerened about the gunk from the oil. Maybe I will do both so my engine is squeaky clean!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

ok, forget the ignorant post above... I did some research and I am now more educated. My main concern is, will seafoam get all the gunk out of my engine? As far as where the oil passes through the engine? If I seafoam, would it still be a good idea to clean the screen in the oil pan? And where is the screen located adn how would I clean it? Is it around the pump or what? HOW DO I CLEAN THE SCREEN??? haha! thanks!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.

ok when i said pour it in the brake booster hose the reason for it is you have to have a vaccum line running into the intake manifold big enough to pour it in. The hose is right there where you put brake fluid in. It plugs into the roud black thing(brake booster) just pull on the hose and it will pop out. There is alot of people that use seafoam and plus you can use it in more than the oil.

You can pour it in the gas to clean the fuel system. Dump it in the oil and it cleans the gunk out of oil passages,lifter valleys and all that. Run it into the engine while running and shut it off and leave it set for about 30 mins. Cleans carbon deposits of the pistons and valves. When you use the throttle body cleaner it cleans carbon deposits on the throttle blade, and in the intake.

Honestly i wouldn't reccomend dropping the pan and cleaning the screen. It would be to much of a hassle to me because when using any gunk remover it breaks down the gunk deposits in which it should come out when you drain the oil. But the screen is hooked to the oil pump. The screen though is on the end of the pickup tube though. It shouldn't be hard to miss and to clean you would just look to see if it has junks of oil or anything and wipe it off.

Does the oil look especially dark? If not, with the STP it's probably just rather thick. Neither of your products should produce any "gunk" in there - but the STP is certainly much higher in viscosity than any oil you're going to put in there.

I would just change the oil to any straight 5W30 of your choice and see how it reacts. If you've been fairly diligent about your change intervals to date, there shouldn't be any extra cleaning required. If any engine is badly "gunked-up" enough to need to use one of those "engine enema" products, it probably is in need of a rebuild in the near future.

If you're looking for a high detergent oil, you could try Pennzoil Platinum full synthetic. If you've already got your GTX purchased, then I'm sure it would suffice also. The differences between oils these days probably aren't as great as we're made to believe from all the advertising. Any good name brand should be just fine.

My Sunfire is currently at 225,000km (about 140,000 miles), and I've never added anything to 5W30 oil. I've never added a drop of additive to the gas either, and it just passed it's last emission test last week with readings of 0 hydrocarbons, 0.0%CO, and only 11ppm NOX. If proper quality oils and fuel are used, extra additives shouldn't be required (or does GM recommend them). It's even pulled my 16ft boat for several thousand of those kilometers, so it hasn't had an entirely pampered life either.

If you're feeling a loss of power, the first two things I would do are change the fuel and air filters. I've changed my fuel filter twice to date, and have been very surprised each time as to how much difference it made. It's such a slow, gradual decline that you don't really notice it until it gets really bad. For "gunk" to cause a power loss problem, you would have some very serious issues going on in there. Thick oil won't help, but usually it would have to be a LOT thicker for you to feel an actual loss in power.

Hopefully this will be of some help...
John

Crbon build up is a real problem with our cars if you didn't know that. The problem why we get stopped up cats because all of our cars run rich from the factory. The 2.4 i just dropped in my sunfire with 106,000 miles on it had carbon build up clear up to the throttle body and the boy that had the car never babied it. Thats why i told him to run seafoam in it.

But as jon said fuel fliter and air filter wouldn't hurt. Myself it has never had any kind of good tune up i would do. Seafoam first. After running it throught the tank and motor. Change the fuel filter and plugs. Then replace the spark plug boots and check the housing for black marks or streaks which moreless means the boots and springs are bad or the coil pack housing. And fix or pump issue asap instead of rigging it to go.

If you don't have leaks then I would not use high mileage oil. Those oils are designed to condition the seals that tend to dry out and shrink as the motor gets older. If your seals don't need expanding then why spend the extra cash for something you don't need?

Running Seafoam through the crankcase is supposed to clean out sludge. Using it through the intake is supposed to clean up carbon deposits. Using it in the gas is supposed to clean out injectors. Some people swear by it and to others its just a sales gimmick. Its cheap so its worth a try I suppose. I don't use additives in my cars for the most part. Just timely, frequent oil changes using the same brand and weight every time. I don't know if your climate allows for the same weight throughout all seasons though.

yeah, I always use gtx high mileage 5w30... I am going to do the seafoam thing, and go back to a regular motor oil with no additive. I just changed my boots, plugs, filters, and fuel pump, I will invest in some more plugs and do the seafoam, but only after my darn water pump is fixed... Thanks for all your input guys!


98z24, lowered 2", aem intake, cat-back striaght pipes!, cop ligths in the front and rear, 18" liquid metal's, primer black, tint, full audio and video.