Oil Recomendations?? Lifter Noise.

[froggymike]

Still have some lifter noise. What oil brand / weight do you guys recomend for Murphy the 87 T-Wag. I will post soon about the Santa Cruz adventure.

[ausubaru92]

I just did a service and used Shell helix 20w-50 (On 'Special' cheapy)

 

It has quietened my lifters heaps:banana:

 

Gannon

[heep70]

I use 10-30 castrol with 8 onces of MMO. If that doesn't clear it and the lifter noise appears to be only one lifter and it is pretty loud then you may have a collaps lifter.

[soobmater]

i use 10/40. you could try some see foam

[froggymike]

Did a quickie oil change yesterday and went from 10-40 to 20-50. Made a HUGE difference. Also, because the I never flushed the engine (oil that is) before I installed it, and since the problem was intermittent, there might have been some debris or other piece of muck in the oil circ system. Now if I add some MMO,, how much should I add? Or should I add CR-2 instead?

[Steveman09]

You guys need to remember that EA82 Engine's were designed to use 10w30, the Oil passeges, bearings, cam towers, lifter oil supply lines, etc were machined to a certain size where a thicker oil will not be able to flow properly, thus increasing engine wear.

 

 

If you have lifter noise you need to fix the problem rather than switch to thicker oil to shut it up, doing this might shut them up for awhile but your also doing more damage to the engine internals where as letting them tick would actually be better.

 

There are a few things that cause lifter noise on EA82's :

 

1. Oil Pump Failing (low pressure)

2. Oil Pump Seal Leaking (air in system)

3. Lifter Oil Supply Line clogged with debris (located in cam towers)

4. Lifter(s) bad

 

The lifters are pretty tough in the EA82's and usually dont fail, 9 times out of 10 I have found #3 to be the problem after checking the oil pump and finding it to be good and supplying good pressure.

[CHIM]

i used to use 10w-30/10w-40 valvoline, ran it in my truck and my firebird and naturaly used it in my first subie, Complained about lifter noise to my buddy donny (Harpua) and he said give Castrol gtx a shot, Thats all i run now, made the motor run better and alot more queit, in my turbo i run 20w-50 in the summer and 10w-40 in the winter and at every oil change i use stp oil treatment.

 

With how hard i drive i like the oil a little thicker plus the turbo heats up the oil a little more as well, see i have 2 throtle positions............ON AND OFF!!

[555Ron]

You guys need to remember that EA82 Engine's were designed to use 10w30, the Oil passeges, bearings, cam towers, lifter oil supply lines, etc were machined to a certain size where a thicker oil will not be able to flow properly, thus increasing engine wear.

Really? My owners manual suggests 5w30, but says it is not recommended for continuous high revs/loads/temps. So i put 10w40 in mine

[karinvail]

I have used Chevron Delo 15/40 in all the years I have driven Subaru's and never had lifter noise problems........ Have used in our Suburban for 10 years that has 260K miles on it too..........

[Steveman09]

Subaru did state back in the 1980's that 5w30 was fine for EA82's but they later issued a TSB changing the information to :

 

5w30 only under normal driving conditions

 

10w30 for heavy duty or high speed driving

 

 

This is a classic "I dont want to admit I was wrong, but lets suggest another option so that if engines die we can refer to it being said"

 

 

EA82' Motor's run best with 10w30 SAE Motor Oil, its been proven lots of times so long as the motor is not completly worn out or has bad rings.

[85Sub4WD]

the specs for my car are 20w50 for normal driving, and 10w30 for cool weather - and it SPECIFICALLY denounces the use of 5w30 except under extreme cold conditions. It was put in my engine once by mistake, and I had all sorts of problems to deal with. I use 15w40 API SL Castrol in the summer, Castrol Syntheticblend 10w30 in the winter and I have had NO problems - I have enough miles that if I was doing something wrong I would see a problem too - oil pump gaskets are probably your problem (commom cause) make sure you replace the one on the shaft as well as the mickey mouse gasket mechanics usually miss the shaft gasket. MMO is a VERY good thing to add too, usually the recommended amount is 1/2 a quart, I use it maybe every third oil change. CR-2 is CRAP - don't use it!!

BTW - avoid ANYTHING with teflon in it - teflon is BAD for engines!! Says DuPont, who makes the stuff!!

[idosubaru]

the best thing to put in your oil pan is oil. nothing else should be added.

 

that being said, MMO and ATF can be added to help alleviate noisey HLA's, if it is the HLA's causing the problems and you don't or can't pull the HLA's and clean them yourself or replace them. if the oil pump seal or gasket is causing the problem then MMO or ATF won't do anything for your problem. the bottom line is that an engine needs oil and nothing else. fancy additives are a waste of time. MMO and ATF are quick fix alternatives for pulling the cam towers and cleaning the HLA's by hand. otherwise putting anything other than oil in your engine is good for the pockets of the additive manufacturers and not what your engine was designed for.

 

as far as clogged oil passages, i've never had that problem. out of like 10 XT6's that i've owned it has always been the oil pump gasket (every time but one) or a frozen HLA (the other time - two were frozen actually) that has caused any noise.

[keltikrewser]

feel free to flog me, but when i bought my xt6 last winter (first soob) i went to cindy's subaru heaven (20miles from my house)to get some info about the xt, common problems, special fluids, oil rec. that kind of thing, since all the stickers and manuals were either gone or unreadable. Mike, the owner, says he uses nothing but straight 30w all year, keep in mind i'm in wisconsin, negetive degree days are not that uncommon in the winter. i ve had no problems with it so far and i drive 50+ miles a day to and from work

[bella]

I use Valvoline 10w/40-winter and 15w/40-summer and THAT noise is very very seldom....