I was doing extensive research as to how to fix oil consumption problems in the 3.2. I came accross several articles and suggestions for improving the problem. I'm not sure yet if this will work but I will keep everyone posted on how much oil I go through over the next while and how effective it is over the long term. One person claimed by doing what I did ( or a variation) he now has no consumption problems. I did it a little different but should still have the same effect or better.


First, I bought a BG engine clean kit and two bottles of cleens by AC Delco from my local saturn/saab dealership. I also bought a a bottle of Seafoam. Then, I used the Cleens in the spark plug holes and let it soak 12-14hours. I sucked out the cilynders with a cilynder pump and poured the Seafoam into the crank case. The motor was run for 20 mins and the oil and filter removed. The oil came out like thick tar or glue. Fresh oil was then added and a new filter and the BG was put in and run for another 30 mins. The oil was again drained and it came out slightly lighter than a normal oil change. Another new filter was put on and the motor was filled with 15w 40 Diesel oil. The theory being that Diesel oil contains more detergent than normal motor oil, specifically Shell Rotella T. The more the vehicle uses the Rotella, the cleaner it will run and will eventually stop using oil all together after a couple of routine oil changes. I am skeptical that this is an actual cure but I have read on the internet from several sources that this holds true and a mechanic friend has told me that it sounds like a possibility at least for a short term. After the motor was fired with the diesel oil and cleaning there is significantly more power at least. Time will tell if the cleaning and 100.00 spent and time it took was worth it. Because I am doing this in Canada and the weather does get to be about -40 C in the winter, I think I will go back to 10-30 oil at that time for viscosity purposes. For now I don't forsee the heavier oil being too much of a concern except for maybe a loss of fuel economy. Again, I will post all of my findings when I have someting to note.

 

I have some preliminary results for anyone interested. So far I have gone a little over 500 km and I am down less than 1/4 liter of oil. This is very good if one considers I was, at the worst, going through 1 liter per 400km of oil. The engine runs smoother and has better power. I am still hoping that after a couple of oil changes it will stop using oil like the one person suggested in another postclaims.


Again, I will continue keeping an open for any issues and continue to post them. So far, though, other than a little time and few dollars I have increased my milage vs. oil consumption considerably.

 

I have now put the 3rd liter of oil in and I am at 3000 km past my last oil change so the math reads that I am sitting average. 1 Liter per 1000 km. I myself am not satisfied with those results for the amount of work but I'm still optimistic. I am going to use Seafoam one more time and another oil change soon and see what happens. Currently I'm looking at swapping the block for a standard 3.5 (not direct Inject) as it is a direct bolt up swap if the heads and manifolds, electrical is maintained from the 3.2.

 

Am I assuming correctly that all of this clean up is removing build up from the oil ring? Is that the actual cause of the oil consumption problem on these vehicles?

 

Yes you are correct. The problem lies in the fact the holes for the oil return are too small and too few and are prone to clogging up. I ahve also been told that the grooves for the rings ave very tight tolerances and are prone to clogging up as well peventing the rings from moving around freely. The cleen ups are supposed to remove all of the gunk and allow the oil to return more quickly. As I have been over sees for the last month and a bit I have not been able to post but so far I am short of my first oil change in terms of kilometers but the consumption has slowed but not stopped. I am hoping that when I do the next change it will improve even further. I am going to do another seafoam treatment and continue to use the Rotella oil as it does appear to be cleaning the engin further. After about 3000 km the oil was very black, more than it should be. This is supposed tohappen from what I had read in other posts and is likely due to the added cleaning agents found in the diesel oil. My consumptionis perhabs a little better than average and is about 1 liter per 1200km. Much better than the 1 liter per 400km I was getting