Engine Flush wise for High Mileage Car? (2010, plugs, fuel)
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I posted a thread last month on my purchase of the 87 Pontiac 6000LE wagon. It runs great so far and havnt encountered any problems. With that said, I want to work on improving to where the car runs even better.
The car has 182K miles on it and the seller who sold me the car suggested I use the Gunk HM motor flush and then changing the oil. I did some reading on the stuff and have read mixed reviews on it. Basically the stuff is red dyed kerosene which I have dealt with before. Checking the oil it wasn't black or anything so I wonder if I should use the stuff, try using seafoam or just stick with regular oil changes. May try using the Hm oil and a good filter.
As for the tranny I checked that fluid on a paper towel and its brown but is the color of light engine oil and no burnt smell. I will simply drop the pan and change the filter and fluid, no flush.
I occasionally take road trips so I am going to do what I can to make the car run even better. It's not about the miles its how well the car was cared for.
Any thoughts on flushing and whether a good or bad idea?
I have had really great luck with slick 50. I had one GM 305 and I abused the crap out of it. I put the slick 50 in every 100,000 km and that motor went 700,000km.
if you fell that you that you need to flush the engine, then i say use a qt of ATF. that is designed to lubricate, and clean. it sounds like your engine doesnt need anything more aggressive than that.
The Gunk motor flush is maybe useful if a motor is really dirty, if it's been subjected to over-long oil change intervals. If your motor is not real dirty inside it's not going to do any good. I doubt it will do any harm, but like washing anything that's not really dirty, it does not accomplish much.
If the engine does not leak or burn significant oil, you *might* think about upgrading to a decent synthetic like Mobil 1. If it does leak/burn I have had some success with Castrol High-Mileage (conventional) oil. A good oil filter like a Pure 1 or NAPA Gold won't improve anything, but is IMHO as important as the oil in minimizing wear.
What probably *will* help running are, in no particular order, a new fuel filter, new plugs (I really like NGK, ND, or Denso plugs) and a new O2 sensor. All of these wear parts can be "bad" enough to hurt your MPG without being "bad" enough to set the check engine light.
A synthetic transmission fluid might also help.
If this car has that wonderful "everlasting" Dexcool antifreeze, you might want to do something about changing it, I recommend distilled water rather than tap water for mixing antifreeze. If it has the GM engine that has the intake manifold coolant leak issues, I'd tend to that.
The big radiator hoses are the usual ones to develop leaks or fail outright, if you don't know how old the upper one in particular is, I'd change that.
Bleeding the brakes, getting good dry fluid in there, won't help running but will improve the "feel" of the brakes.
The Gunk motor flush is maybe useful if a motor is really dirty, if it's been subjected to over-long oil change intervals. If your motor is not real dirty inside it's not going to do any good. I doubt it will do any harm, but like washing anything that's not really dirty, it does not accomplish much.
If the engine does not leak or burn significant oil, you *might* think about upgrading to a decent synthetic like Mobil 1. If it does leak/burn I have had some success with Castrol High-Mileage (conventional) oil. A good oil filter like a Pure 1 or NAPA Gold won't improve anything, but is IMHO as important as the oil in minimizing wear.
What probably *will* help running are, in no particular order, a new fuel filter, new plugs (I really like NGK, ND, or Denso plugs) and a new O2 sensor. All of these wear parts can be "bad" enough to hurt your MPG without being "bad" enough to set the check engine light.
A synthetic transmission fluid might also help.
If this car has that wonderful "everlasting" Dexcool antifreeze, you might want to do something about changing it, I recommend distilled water rather than tap water for mixing antifreeze. If it has the GM engine that has the intake manifold coolant leak issues, I'd tend to that.
The big radiator hoses are the usual ones to develop leaks or fail outright, if you don't know how old the upper one in particular is, I'd change that.
Bleeding the brakes, getting good dry fluid in there, won't help running but will improve the "feel" of the brakes.
excellent advice. especially about the dexcool garbage. if the OP does have the dexcool in the system, make sure that you thoroughly flush the cooling system, and eliminate as much of the old coolant as possible before you replace the coolant.
The thing is, GM has or had decided to cultivate the non-enthusiast owner/buyer/driver, one who does not want to do any maintenance, so they go with stuff like 100K mile sparkplugs, 100K mile this, 100K mile that, and sell to old fogys who typically sell on before 100K.
But the piper must be paid eventually, if you don't pay on time he imposes interest and surcharges!
So one either changes out fluids and wear parts at a reasonable interval, or ends up with bigger problems down the road. If people would no-bull change coolant, big hoses and V-belts or serpentine belts on a 4 year rotation, they would have next to no problems with roadside boilovers.
Likewise you can get lifetime guaranteed brake pads, but how do you think they make them so long lasting? Two words, "hard compound". Then when DW can't mash the brake pedal hard enough to stop short of some trial lawyer's Mercedes, because the bads have little "bite", where are your savings then mate?!
The Gunk motor flush is maybe useful if a motor is really dirty, if it's been subjected to over-long oil change intervals. If your motor is not real dirty inside it's not going to do any good. I doubt it will do any harm, but like washing anything that's not really dirty, it does not accomplish much.
True that. The motor isn't all that dirty for a 20+ year old car so I am pretty sure it has had its regular oil changes. Besides, if the oil changes have been neglected it wouldn't have made it to 182K miles.
If the engine does not leak or burn significant oil, you *might* think about upgrading to a decent synthetic like Mobil 1. If it does leak/burn I have had some success with Castrol High-Mileage (conventional) oil. A good oil filter like a Pure 1 or NAPA Gold won't improve anything, but is IMHO as important as the oil in minimizing wear.
Car doesn't burn any oil...kept check on the oil level for the past month and has not dropped level wise. The oil pressure is where it should be during my commute and remains strong, so I know the oil pump is healthy. I may consider going with an synthetic oil, so that the engine can remain as clean-running as it can be.
What probably *will* help running are, in no particular order, a new fuel filter, new plugs (I really like NGK, ND, or Denso plugs) and a new O2 sensor. All of these wear parts can be "bad" enough to hurt your MPG without being "bad" enough to set the check engine light.
I do plan to change the fuel filter, which I located next to the gas tank underneath the car. This is a 2.8L 6 cylinder engine and have not seen any CEL conditions. At least the car is distrubutorless and has the coil packs in the front.
A synthetic transmission fluid might also help.
Plan to do that too by just dropping the pan and doing the fluid and filter change. I do know though that the new fluid will mix with the old fluid so not sure how effective the synthetic ATF will be. But either way I am sure it will benefit the tranny either way.
If this car has that wonderful "everlasting" Dexcool antifreeze, you might want to do something about changing it, I recommend distilled water rather than tap water for mixing antifreeze. If it has the GM engine that has the intake manifold coolant leak issues, I'd tend to that.
Thankfully, none of the Dexcool crap is in this car, though cars in the 80's still used the good ol' fashioned green stuff, which is what is in this car. No leaks anywhere that I can see.
The big radiator hoses are the usual ones to develop leaks or fail outright, if you don't know how old the upper one in particular is, I'd change that.
Yeah, that will be on my list to change items, and maybe the lower hose too since it carries the cooled coolant from the radiator to the motor.
Bleeding the brakes, getting good dry fluid in there, won't help running but will improve the "feel" of the brakes.
Bleeding the brakes is a tedious job; not hard to do but tedious. Need a helper to do that job. Gonna check and inspect the front and rear brakes and since the drum brakes are more work to work on (based on my experience working on the rear drum brakes on the '84 Olds) I will have all my bases covered.
I know I am going slightly off-topic on my own thread but when I got the car the seller gave me 4 additional tires (on steel rim wheels) as extras. Only one is a donut (spare). I was thinking I could use two of them to mount on winter tires for the Michigan winters to where I can get around easier in the snow. Don't know on what good winter tires are available so will have to look into that.
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