what oil? ...additives?

[tricked919]

I'm putting a 96 EJ22 in my 97 OBW tomorrow. Donor motor has 161K on it - supposedly runs good. I know it takes 4.2 quarts, but of what? ...am I wasting coin on synthetic at 160K? Is this a 10-30 motor or is it time for 20-50 ...or something in between?

 

I've never had a car with more than 100K in my life i'm having fun wrenching on this and would love to see how long I can keep it on the road. Any additives suggested? I had a neighbor who had to be 90yrs old and swore by MMO in his old cars since the 50's.

[Old Pearl]

I personally feel that castrol GTX is the best as far as regular dino juice. If I am not mistaken in the US we don't really have "real" synthetic oil...it is only 35% synthetic or something. Dino and Syn do not mix so that is why I am skeptical of our USA syn because it says you can mix with dino. Just my .02

[GeneralDisorder]

I run Chevron 10w30 year round (Oregon). It's a very good quality oil - I get it a Costco for $24 a case.

 

Being a '96 it will have hydraulic lifters. I would pop the valve covers and have a look at how much varnish is inside the engine. If it's varnished up I would plan on running a quart of Rislone for the first few oil changes. If it's really nasty in there I would do a flush with ATF. Fill the engine with ATF and run it at idle for 15 minutes and then drain.

 

As I've said before - synthetic is a waste unless you are going to do oil analysis. Don't bother. Change your oil and filter every 5k and you'll be good for as long as that car is likely to need an engine .

 

Funny you mention your 90 y/o neighbor. My grandfather (who was 91 when he died) swore by Rislone. He had some pretty convincing stories too. I must say I've had good luck with it. MMO is ok too but I like the Rislone better.

 

GD

Edited May 25, 2010 by GeneralDisorder

[mr.radon]

I've got two motors now with more then 300K. Both are ER27 motors with hydrolic lifters. You can rebuild them and buy new ones, but the trick is to add 1/2 to 1 quart of ATF till they stop ticking. Running ATF in the motor oil will cause gummed up leaky seals to leak, but won't effect motor lubrication.

Use whatever oil is right for your application. A good multi grade will work. Synthetic is a waste of money on these engines.

Another amazing fact is people are so worried about motor oil and then NEVER change their gear lube or rear diff lube. Had one car I bought with +200K on it and the rear diff gear lube was black. After I changed out the gear lube I got 3-4mpg increase.

 

Whenever I get a motor I don't know the history I usually run ATF to clean up the insides, seal it if it leaks and watch out for lifter noise. Rebuild/replace as necessary.

 

MMO works but is basically expensive ATF fluid.

[forester2002s]

... and then NEVER change their gear lube or rear diff lube...

I agree that gear and rear-diff oil should be changed periodically.

Why don't people do this?

I think that Subaru is partly to blame. The recommended maintenance schedule only requires an INSPECTION of the oils every 48,000km, and doesn't actually require any oil REPLACEMENT.

 

When I drain these oils, and see those little metal particles, I'm know that I've done the right thing for my car.

[axgutt]

I have 331k miles on my 1995 Legacy with the 2.2. I bought it with 174k back in 2003. I use the Castrol High Mileage oil, 10w30. I've periodically thrown in other stuff - MMO early on, and for the last few years I've used some Restore. I did just do a Seafoam treatment which seems to have fixed a cylinder misfire problem (it was probably a stuck valve). I use the Purolator PureOne oil filters. They're not cheap, but since I do the oil changes myself it's not too bad.

[Fairtax4me]

Had been running Castrol (plain) 5-30 in mine until it developed a tic on startup that would go away sometimes in 10 seconds other times it took 10 minutes. Switched to Valvoline max life 5-30 and it stopped immediately. I'll see if it returns when it's time to change again in 2000 miles.

I run plain Purolator filters.

 

With everything sealed up there isn't any need to be concerned with switching to synthetic at 100k+ miles. The main reason for not switching is because leaks tend to develop with old seals when the detergents wash the varnish away that was holding them together. If you're not comfortable with it because of what you might have read, stick with dino or synthetic blend oil and motor away.