Patti is now carrying 5 quarts of Valvoline MaxLife 10W40 high mileage oil in her oil pan.
I decided to start using this stuff, because I have to put, on average, about 2 quarts of oil in her between oil changes. I dunno where it's going, could be a combination of leaking somewhere and burning some too.
I think the reason why I've had such bad luck with oil control on this car is because I used to get my oil changed anywhere it was cheap when I was younger. Firestone, Pep Boys, Don Olson, Jiffy Lube, whereever. So I seriously had run about 5-6 different brands of oil through this engine before I started changing it myself and using strictly Valvoline.
I put about a quarter of a quart of ATF in it this morning and did a few errands, driving a total of about 30 miles. I hope this will quiet my lifters down a bit, as they still make noise, only at idle peculiarly.
I'll see how this high mileage stuff works and report back. But I'm fairly certain that in the next year or so, I'm just going to pull the motor, replace every oil seal on it, and put new HLA's in it. It runs great and pulls hard, but it just needs some refreshing on the outside.
High mileage oil
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If you're really running out of oil that badly, you might want to switch to 20-50w. It'll cost you a little in gas mileage, but it'll slow down that oil leaking (turned mine from a drip to slow seep)
1995 Polo Green Subaru SVX (189k miles - 08/2007-Present)Manarius wrote:The Neo-Cons would call me a defeatist. I'd call me a realist. I'm realistically saying that a snowball has better chances in the blazes of hell than democracy has in Iraq.
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Yeah you can put a mechanical gauge there. I don't know what the fitting size would be.
Josh
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1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT
If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
surrealmirage.com/subaru
1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT
If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
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- quasi-mod-o
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Putting ATF in your oil is a oooold trick to try to unstick old lifters. ATF is a detergent of sorts, and it can clean up the internals of your engine pretty well.
In my case, it cleaned them up so well that it probably cleaned out some gunk that was keeping things sealed up
Live and learn, I guess.
In my case, it cleaned them up so well that it probably cleaned out some gunk that was keeping things sealed up

Live and learn, I guess.