oil level

mind you i havent checked level completely. . the oil in my 94 Sl1 is completly pitch black. im gonna try to do an oil change real soon. its currently sittin in my driveway till i get all needed work done. normaly when i do oil changes i use valvoline max life(4qt) and lucus oil stabilizer(1qt). how much should i put in this one? someone told me i shouldnt use the stabilizer. i prolly still will. any other suggestions or ideas? thanx

Does your Saturn burn any oil? My oil is always black, even after an oil change. It just burns the hell out of the oil so I stick with the cheap stuff. I myself would probably go with what you said 4qts valvoline and 1qt stabilizer. How many miles does you SL1 have on it anyways?

Black oil in a gasoline powered engine is perfectly normal. New oil will start to turn black within a couple hundred miles.

Modern detergent oils are supposed to be black when they are changed. If they were not all that black stuff would remain in the engine and become a build up of sludge. The engine oil is designed to hold thos particles in suspension so they will drain out. Also the newer oils with the higher ratings (SG. and up) do not really reguire additives. As Mr. Olds states it is important to be sure your oil volume is up where it should be.

Check the owners manual for crankcase volume. If you do not have one check with Autozone's online repair manual (http://www1.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/19/98/e2/0900823d801998e2.jsp)., figure three will give you your answer (4 quarts with filter).

When in doubt with any car add 3 quarts of oil and check the dipstick. Add 1 quart at a time till you reach the full level. Do not overfill as it seams like you will have an oil leak soon after.

Good luck.

well the oil can be black from either past due, oil additives, or fuel getting into the oil due to bad pistion rings (carbon build up common problem on saturns).

never use that oil additive or any for that fact. its too thick, and will cause the oil to foam up, meaning AIR. this in turn causes the engine to starve of oil. if you want to replace your engine often, use additives, if you want it to last DONT!

so dont use any additives at all? just put straight high milage oil and thatll work best?

i suggest staying away from additives also !!

make sure your using the proper grade of oil

4 quarts with filter of 10w-30

i never let my oil get black. i always change it once it gets dark.

i suggest you buy a cheap oil and change it often and it will soon get better. if you run your oil and it gets black soon than you have an extremely dirty engine. never let it run on black oil if you can help it..

so use cheap oil and do multiple changes close together till the system is clean then use the good stuff? what do you think a procedure or time interval would be for that?

well one thing i could suggest is putting jb tune up in the crankcase. saturn dealers use this to clean up carbon built up on the rings so i guess it would also clean up the engine too. but only use it before an oil change, maybe within 100 miles or less. that should be more then enough time to let the carbon break up.

My saturn SL1 burns A LOT of oil. I used Slick 50 oil treatment and instantly it took oil consumption down 75%. Not all additives are bad, maybe some are but you'll never really know until you try for yourself.

so use cheap oil and do multiple changes close together till the system is clean then use the good stuff? what do you think a procedure or time interval would be for that?

unless you have enough cash to spend i suggest saving it... you wont break the oil down enough for it to matter if its cheap or not.

what i did was this. bought an oil filter and cheap oil. ran it till it started to get noticeable enough to change. changed the oil only (drained the filter too). so basically the first oil change was with oil and filter. second was oil only (to save money since oil wont broke down or there wasnt enough miles on the filter). third i replaced filter and oil. and fourth just oil... etc.. once it got clean i ran new filter on every oil change and changed to a higher quality oil. i went from 10w-30 super tech to synthetic 5w-30. my engine runs 90% cleaner than it use to.

hard to say how dirty your engine is. but i ran the changes up until about 2 months. it was a daily driver.

yours will vary. if you have the money then change filter too but i think its a waste of money since it is short change in oil changes. your filter wont be but 1/4 used.

also make sure your running a clean fuel filter and air filter.

The oil in my '99 SW1 is black too. My old ('70's) Toyotas ran cleaner!
I tried the short interval oil change, and it did help. Also, I don't use the cheap Fram filters anymore, and I'm surprised to see it helped.
My engine doesn't use too much oil, and at about 4000 km, I'm adding a product called "Rislon", about half a liter. That is suppossed to clean an engine, and OEM approved. So it's in for the final 1000 km. Hopefully that will help too.
I've seen some articles on that Lucas stabiliser. I wouldn't use it. It appears to foam easily.
Good luck

I've seen some articles on that Lucas stabiliser. I wouldn't use it. It appears to foam easily.
Good luck

yes as with other oil additives. with the crank sloshing through the oil, it whips up the thick additive causing it to foam. this means air is trapped in the oil, so if the oil pickup sucks in the foam guess what happens? you get a loss in pressure or worse no pressure which will then make noise and if run too much can cause serious damage.

so basicaly no additive at all is a good additive? i work at a repair shop and im at the learn as you go stage and i think we sometimes use something called an oil conditioner. anyone no anything about that stuff?

i think an oil conditioner is just an additive thats suppose to allow the oil to last longer, not breakdown as quick. still its an additive. i wont touch an additives. i just change oil regularly and keep on my pistons rings so they dont start letting too much blowby putting fuel into oil, like diesel engines. if you can your oil when its suppose to, and maintain the vehicle you wont have build up. the only way to have build up and do everything correct, is using crappy brand oil. im spending $6 a quart for royal purple full synthetic to keep my car at its fullest. its expensive but worth it compared to replacing an engine, but bumped my gas mileage by a hair, maybe 1mpg.

well right now im only driving a 94 which is dire need of tune up and work. would it be reccemended to switch to synthetic or wait to a later date after all needed work is done to do so?

I've read of some synthetics not keeping old seals in shape. The seals aged with mineral oil, and some synthetics won't keep the old seal in good shape.
If you use the oil recommended by the manufacturer, the engine will last a long time. What use is a great engine when the rest of the car is dead?
I got 284,000 km on a '78 Toyota, with only 2 oil changes a year for 13 years. The car was pretty rough at 13, but the engine was still good, it was down a liter at change-time.
My Lada got 246,000 km in 10 years, and there wasn't much car left, but it started and ran fine.
These were on mineral oil. Synthetics will improve life, but to what end? (at least with normal driving, not racing)
Quaker State Oil, in 1990, I believe was advertising that if you used their oil, they would guarantee an engine for 100,000 miles. I didn't find that too hard to believe. Oils are better these years, as well as manufacturing.

no synthetic isnt the issue of not keeping seals in shape. its just the seals are old, and if you use synthetic it can seap through old seals that are in need of replacing. synthetic is a bit thinner.

ive been running synthetic in my since ive got it. ive put 30,000 miles on it and inside of motor is as clean as it ever could be. the synthetic also lead me to a bad rear main seal and valve cover gasket, both are fixed and no problems. been running synthetic in our taurus for years. been on synthetic for 140,000 miles and keeps going. synthetics are used in racing because they hold up better and protect better. its only if a seal or gasket is going bad you probably will notice right away when using a synthetic.

synthetic is the only way to go in my eyes, and has been proven to me enough.