Thread: OIL V Fuel Consumption V Engine Noise

Thicker oil in old engines helps to stop it rattling and smoking. Its also a common car yard trick to hide a worn out engine. Your biggest hassle will be if you put the correct stuff in oneday it will probably leak and burn it on you. Thats very low milage to resort to this kind of thing. It just might need some cleaning.

Originally Posted by mrapocalypse

Hi,

I have a Dii V8 02MY with 58000k on it.

I also have very noisy lifters.

It's been suggested that I try heavier oil!

Does heavy grade oil typically help.

Does it have adverse effects on consumption or seals etc...

I'm going to try it anyway but I thought it an interesting topic.

Ian.

Mrapocalypse whats the fuel consumption at the moment?

on your next oil change.....put a litre of auto transmission fluid in then top up with engine oil......

this should clean the lifters out and get them working again.......

I hadn't heard the ATF idea before. Why not try that to clean up any grime, then change the oil a couple of hundred km later and replace with a synthetic.

I always use Penrite, but a friend with a TD5 Disco was telling me he did his first service last week (he's had it for 10K and the car's done about 120K). He replaced both filters and changed to Nulon synthetic oil and reckons it revs out easier and is a lot quieter. He doesn't know what oil the previous owner had, but he noticed a marked difference.

Probably a better oil rather than a sludgier oil would be better for a young engine such as yours.

Fuel consumption is fine. It goes really well.

I tried putting tappet cleaner in but no change.

I've soken to a few mechs and they all say it's kind of normal.

I've never heard of the ATF idea.

Have you owned it since new? Do you know the service history? Iwould try Zooks idea, just sounds like there is a build up of crap in there. Matt

Sorry, but ATF in the engine oil is a crock, as there is eff all detegency in ATF. If you really need to internally clean sludge, etc, you need something like Auto-RX which is a specific ester based cleaner that is added to the oil.
ATF won't do a damn thing except thin your engine oil.

My DII V8, 1999, 112,000km also had noisy lifters, only when engine was hot. Added some engine lifter conditioner, took it for a decent drive and noise was intermittant - some drives it was quiet, some it was noisy. Changed oil out to GTX2, noise reappeared. No change, and while I couldn't really hear it while driving (except one when it was cold it was knocking for abut 100m after taking off) it was obvious out of the car with bonnet closed.

I have the car in getting leaking head gasket repaired at the moment, and mechanic can find no wear on valve train anywhere to suggest why it's noisy. Will replace lifters anyway as they are relatively cheap to replace while everything is apart and the oil conditioner did appear to have some temporary affect.

Apparently these V8s are sometimes noisy but I hope lifter replacement will fix mine. I'll let you know how it goes.