synthetic motor oil

[Wade Garrett]

Yup, and that was the last time I ever did that!

[clare]

Actually there IS a product sold with the brand "mouse milk" - it is a very fine penetrant that seems to be known only to aircraft mechanics. I don't know the manudacturer offhand but I'll try to look it up. It is available from Aircraft Spruce. Also see

You can buy it from Anazon

It appears to be an unusual penetrating oil that is not effected by heat. "Mouse Milk Oil is Recommended by AiResearch, Continental, Lycoming, Beechcraft, and Cessna for use in freeing turbine waste gate shafts." From their advertising:: "Mouse Milk Penetrating Oil. Muscle in a hustle... for speedy help in the removal of rusted and frozen studs. MOUSE MILK frees up cables, slides, linkages and bolts. MOUSE MILK is unequalled wherever a lubricant or penetrant is required. MOUSE MILK will dissolve rust, relieve friction and resist oxidation. MOUSE MILK has amazing creeping ability. Frozen nuts and bolts can be easily loosened and removed after allowing MOUSE MILK to creep down the threads and break up the rust and corrosion"

It's a bit over a buck an ounce in US funds - so definitely not cheap.

[clare]

Had the same problem with my 1988 New Yorker (3.0 Mitsu-shitty). When the catalytic converter started rattling and the car didn't pass emissions I found out where the oil was going. When I dropped the cat you could hardly see the car for smoke. (wallered out valve guides was the cause)

[dpb]

AFAIK all the current commercial motor oils are processed crude as noted but I'd say it's more than a "just slightly" different process.

There are fully-synthetic oils purposes but they're far more expensive yet...

[Ralph Mowery]

That is about right for most cars up to atleast 100,000 miles. Change oil and check on the water and other fluids. I had a 91 toyota that I changed oil twice a year and the factory said change the timming belt every so many miles. I did have the water pump changed at the same time as it is under all the covering and driven by the timming belt. Breaks, tires and a sensor was all that I did to it in 200,000 miles. I did replace the plugs, coil and wires while trying to find out what was causing the problem at 120,000 miles.

[gfretwell]

Same basic engine I imagine and I suspected the same cause. I traded it on the Prelude and never looked back. I did pass up on offers to sell it to a couple neighbors ;-)

[gfretwell]

Honda bundles a lot of stuff into their $1000 belt job. I am not sure if I got plugs or not but I never replaced them.

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

This was before the coking ; just an example as to cite. It was around 1975 IIRC. IIRC Scramsoil was the only synthetic at that time. My memory foggy.. .

[badgolferman]

Pennzoil Pure Platinum Plus is made from natural gas. Most of the other synthetic oils are made from a blend of conventional and very refined oils. Castrol was sued by Mobil for false advertisement for their blends but the judge sided with Castrol.

[Tekkie®]

Wade Garrett posted for all of us...

That is why I never do business with coworkers, friends or neighbors. Selective memory.

[clare]

Mine had the heads replaced by Chrysler under extended warranty at just under 100,000km because the guides were loose in the head - just before I bought it. I replaced the heads again at 200,000KM when the oil killed the cat - and I sold it at about 244,000 for $1700. Bought it 6 years old for about $6000 - spent under $2000 in repairs over 12 years and 140000+kms - that car didn't owe me a cent when I got rid of it and I still got good money for it. (Mark Cross edition - loaded with everything you could get on it - the original owner left over $50,000 behind at the dealership)

[Tekkie®]

[e-mail] posted for all of us...

I don't have the history what she did... It could have had the original break-in oil still there. WE towed it to our bay and I don't know the end result.

[Tony Hwang]

Not true unless you have a reader/scanner costing like couple Gs. Cheap code reader can't read all the codes(generic, manufacturer specific, ABS, SRS). Nail the bad part? Some times yes. Not 99% of time. You're so simplistic big time. If you short something fooling around Poof! ECU goes. Then how much for replacement? I have a mid level updatable reader/scanner. Telling you from own experience. My back is in electronics. Even taught 12V electronics at local tech college as a volunteer. I help neighbors when they have CEL on their dash.

Timing is fixed? wrong. ECU adjusts timing real time back and forth.

Can be done with additional option if driver wants it. Why bother MID will tell oil status, color yellow or red with message. When you have red, watch out.

[Tony Hwang]

So you don't notice the difference between new Iridium plugs and worn out old ones? Ever compared two under high power mag. glass? I replace them when clock hits 100K Km.

[Tony Hwang]

That is water pump, valve gap adjustment. Tune up is separate service.

[clare]

My brother bought a 1965 Valliant back around 1970 or 1971.. 4 door sedan, automatic trans, 225 slant six - a real "ceam puff" with low mileage - somewhere around 65000 miles as I recall, but the valves were just a bit noisy so he decided I should adjust the valves for him. When we got the valve cover bolts removed it took a rubber mallet to get the rocker cover off, and you could hardly find the rockers and valve springs for all the crud in there. It looked like the only oil change it had ever had was the one done just before my brother bought it. We scraped out as much crud as we could, then washed it down with kerosene and I adjusted the valves. We changed the oil before he left, but in hindsight we should likely have run it for about 20 minutes and changed it again (and mabee even run it with kerosene in the crankcase for a short while). He didn't make the 10 mles home before the oil light came on and the engine made a very large rattle. When I pulled the motor out the next week, the oil pickup screen was totally plugged with crud that had washed down from the rocker area.. Not too much was salvageable.

Found out ONE thing that could kill a slant six - - -.

[clare]

All oils sold as "full synthetics" are made from reconstituted petroleum hydrocarbons of one sort or another except for the recent "green" product made of reconstituted vegatable oil.

The feed stock is broken down to it's molecular level and then recombined to form a consistent (engineered) product.

There are also higher end POA ans Estter synthetic lubricants

[dpb]

On 02/04/2016 4:01 PM, badgolferman wrote: ...

Interesting. Hadn't known that; never look at Pennzoil, actually other than for the large tractors don't see there's much need/point for anything we've got...

[clare]

For all the engine specific codes a cheap scanner is all you need. For ABS and a lot of other specific codes, there are readers out there for a few hundred dollars that will get most of them When you want to get in and control things, like exercising the ABS, or exercise the IAC valve, you need the full-on professional units.

The "mechanic" still needs to have a functioning brain and needs to understand how things are SUPPOSED to work. The scanner just tells you what computer inputs are wrong - you still need to figure out what caused those inputs to be wrong. Could be the sensor itself, or could be something causing what the sensor senses to be out of spec.

You need to know what you are doing - just like you needed to know what you were doing to adjust a carburetor, or automatic choke.

All in all maintaining today's vehicles is MUCH simpler, because they require only a fraction of the maintenance older cars needed. Repairs can be simpler too - it;s just the diagnosis has gotten a lot more involved.

The timing is "fixed" as in YOU cannot adjust it - and it never needs adjusting.

[clare]

You can tell the difference between worn out and new, for sure. The difference between new standard plug and new "gee-whiz high tech" plugs, not likely - unless like with My PT cruiser it misfired with Champion Iridiums and ran great on standard dual platinums - or like several renault powered LeSharo motor homes that I ran across that ran like crap on Bosch platinums, and ran great on ACs..