engine oil capacity

[PawnofChaos]

1995 sedan, how many quarts does the 1.9 liter dohc engine hold. What weight should I use? Seems to burn a little oil, anything I can do to reduce this?

[yaz4real]

The oil capacity is 4 quarts. Yes, they tend to burn oil. I use a 15W40 Rotella nine months of the year and a 10W30 the rest of the time.

[denisond3]

You can look underneath and check if the car is losing oil from the gasket on the oil pan, or dripping it out of the bell housing: But most oil consumption in Saturns appears to be from the oil control rings on the pistons not doing a good job. So the oil gets burned and flows out the exhaust invisibly. If the car has been used for short trips, those rings dont stay 'free' and get gummed up in the grooves. I just got a 92 SL2, 15 years old with only 128,000 miles on it, already an oil guzzler. I took the engine out and apart. The compression rings on the pistons looked great. But the oil control rings were stuck in the grooves and didnt expand out at all. The piston rings are the only things I am going to replace; as the rest of the engine looks great. The best you can do is to change the oil regularly (we do it each 3 months on our 98 Saturn - which means each 5000 miles) and never let it get more than one quart low. There is a chance you could improve the oil consumption by doing a 'piston soak'. You can do this yourself and it doesnt take much of your time.

[PawnofChaos]

Thanks for the help. Decided to do a "piston soak", as well as replace the valve cover gasket. Gasket seemed to be leaking pretty bad, plugs were covered in oil. I let it soak a good 14 hrs. Put her back together and waited for the white smoke to clear, this took awhile. I then changed the oil, used Rotella T syn. 5w-40, and put in new plugs. I have only driven a handful of miles since but so far so good. No longer burninng anything visibly, and she's running great!!

[saturnspeed_12]

Originally Posted by yaz4real

I use a 15W40 Rotella

bad idea. your hurting the motor more then helping. 15w40 is for diesel motors. diesels have alot of fuel soaking with the oil, so the heavier weight wont break down to "water" in a short time.


now the car does take 4 quarts. oil burning can be normal, but you can try quaker state or pennzoil which can help oil burning. ive ran quaker state for a long time in mine, then switched to royal purple and i burned that oil. piston soak normally doesnt do much of anything. it can possibly clear the carbon out of the oil control rings and free up compression rings. but still, the design of the pistons/rings for the engine werent all that great, so they burn some oil.

[holdemjunkie]

I run 10w30 full syn with a half bottle of lucus oil stab in my 98 and it has burned far less oil then it did before, I also did the piston soak with cleens (combustion cleener) you can get it at any GM dealer. But the best way to stop burning oil is to replace the all the rings and re cross hatch the cylinder walls. Prob around 500 to 800 bucks to get it done at the dealer.

[saturnspeed_12]

$500-$800 for a re-ring and hone at the dealer??????? maybe an underground dealer that does cheap repairs that are questionable. basically for the dealer to tear into and repair the motor, your talking near, same, or even more then just buying a rebuilt motor.

lucas oil stabilizer is also a bad idea. but if you want another piston soak idea, try trans fluid or kerosene.

[holdemjunkie]

Originally Posted by saturnspeed_12

$500-$800 for a re-ring and hone at the dealer??????? maybe an underground dealer that does cheap repairs that are questionable. basically for the dealer to tear into and repair the motor, your talking near, same, or even more then just buying a rebuilt motor.

lucas oil stabilizer is also a bad idea. but if you want another piston soak idea, try trans fluid or kerosene.

Have you ever reringed a 1.9 ltr engine?? you dont have to take the engine out, iv done lots of them, its not a big job. Also can u tell me why lucus isnt a good idea?

[saturnspeed_12]

engine #1



engine #2


now for a recent that im in the process......



ford escort 1.9l that im running a different head on to up compression and overbored.

now for a friends car i did..........





420a eclipse that is turbo. running 10psi and i still have to retune it since the megasquirt went pyscho.



so yes, i have dealt with the motors. ive dealt with other motors. $500-$800 re-ring for the do-it yourselfer is very likely. dealer, HELL NO! and lucas oil stabilizer aerates. you can get air pockets instead of oil. and it just thickens oil, so why not buy thicker oil? still a bad idea.

[holdemjunkie]

Originally Posted by saturnspeed_12

engine #1



engine #2


now for a recent that im in the process......



ford escort 1.9l that im running a different head on to up compression and overbored.

now for a friends car i did..........





420a eclipse that is turbo. running 10psi and i still have to retune it since the megasquirt went pyscho.



so yes, i have dealt with the motors. ive dealt with other motors. $500-$800 re-ring for the do-it yourselfer is very likely. dealer, HELL NO! and lucas oil stabilizer aerates. you can get air pockets instead of oil. and it just thickens oil, so why not buy thicker oil? still a bad idea.

well maybe it is more at the dealer maybe its not, 1 way to find out is that im going to get a quote tomorrow at work and I will re post tomorrow.

[pandak]

i got a 1997 saturn sc2 and I just found out that it is losing oil. I just changed the oil and then I drove it for 3 weeks and got around 350 km on it when i found out that that the oil level in the dipstick is almost 1/2". I suspect that it is burning oil since I can see black residue in the exhaust. Is my poor acceleration related to this oil burning problem?

Originally Posted by denisond3

You can look underneath and check if the car is losing oil from the gasket on the oil pan, or dripping it out of the bell housing: But most oil consumption in Saturns appears to be from the oil control rings on the pistons not doing a good job. So the oil gets burned and flows out the exhaust invisibly. If the car has been used for short trips, those rings dont stay 'free' and get gummed up in the grooves. I just got a 92 SL2, 15 years old with only 128,000 miles on it, already an oil guzzler. I took the engine out and apart. The compression rings on the pistons looked great. But the oil control rings were stuck in the grooves and didnt expand out at all. The piston rings are the only things I am going to replace; as the rest of the engine looks great. The best you can do is to change the oil regularly (we do it each 3 months on our 98 Saturn - which means each 5000 miles) and never let it get more than one quart low. There is a chance you could improve the oil consumption by doing a 'piston soak'. You can do this yourself and it doesnt take much of your time.

[djjsc]

Originally Posted by saturnspeed_12

bad idea. your hurting the motor more then helping. 15w40 is for diesel motors. diesels have alot of fuel soaking with the oil, so the heavier weight wont break down to "water" in a short time.

Diesels have much less oil dilution vs gasoline engines. Every time a gas engine starts cold there is unburned fuel washing past rings into oil pan & engine oil dilutes (becomes thinner). By it's design (injected & compression ignition) a diesel burns more of the fuel it gets, cold or warm. Diesel oils normally have a higher detergent content (to cope w/ higher combustion soot) vs gasoline oils, which would only help a gas engine stay cleaner longer. The soot actually THICKENS diesel engine oil over time. From the mid 60s we used diesel engine oil in ALL our machinery, cars & trucks. Never a problem, in fact the gas engines seemed to run better. GOOD IDEA, I say.