Trying to free sticking oil control rings in my ZHP

[Smolck]

Wow that looks pretty pristine for such high mileage.

The thing that confuses me now is this; the oil control rings (as far as I know) are there to prevent oil from entering the combustion chamber and thus burn. So if your car doesn't burn oil/blow blue smoke (especially during cold starts in the morning) then perhaps the rings are not the issue since they appear to be doing their job.

I wonder how aggressive of a leak you have. Also, I'll be curious to see if your new CVV delete will make a difference since a faulty CVV has been reported to cause oil consumption.

The car burns oil, of that I am certain. It doesn't HAVE to smoke to be burning oil. The car was using a qt every 400 miles before I did anything to it. After the lubro moly flush it went 1200 miles before it needed a qt. then slowly consumption went back to 400. I am sure the rings were temporarily unstuck and then slowly crapped up again.

But I am now sure I am leaking a decent amount too.

I find it comical that I will end up replacing my clutch and flywheel not because they failed (still on OEM clutch at 202k miles) but because the rear main exploded.

[danewilson77]

Thanks for update. You are breaking down and removing sludge for sure. Hopefully no harms comes to any software.

Good report. Good news.

Sent from my S4 > Mason, OH

[Blaster3500]

I am curious to see the results of this. If you still have cats you will be amazed how much smoke they can hide. Lots of 335i guys that delete there secondary cats end up seeing lots of smoke from leaking turbo seals.

[Smolck]

Headers are on the way, we shall see if she smokes.

[Avetiso]

Headers are on the way, we shall see if she smokes.

In for power gains.

[Smolck]

In for power gains.

Me too. I really think my car has some clogging going on in the cats and removing them will bring about some extra power gains.

[Smolck]

I changed my oil again today, after about 300 miles on the oil/seafoam/atf mix I had ZERO oil useage. For me that is HUGE! Oil that came out was still dirtier looking that I would like after 300 miles, so I guess it is working. Reloaded with a new filter, 6qts Penzoil High Mileage Dino 5w30, 1 can seafoam, 1/2 qt ATF. And another 250 miles we go! Two cycles completed, three to go!

[kayger12]

I changed my oil again today, after about 300 miles on the oil/seafoam/atf mix I had ZERO oil useage. For me that is HUGE! Oil that came out was still dirtier looking that I would like after 300 miles, so I guess it is working. Reloaded with a new filter, 6qts Penzoil High Mileage Dino 5w30, 1 can seafoam, 1qt ATF. And another 250 miles we go! Two cycles completed, three to go!

Great news.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[Smolck]

250 more miles and another change. More Penzoil High Mileage, seafoam, and ATF. No oil lost, oil control rings still free'd up. Didn't do a lubro moly flush before the change this time. Gonna see if it is clean enough without it, if it uses some in the next 300 mile interval, I'll do another one. I think this is actually working! One more cycle after this one will make 5 changes and roughly 1200 miles worth of running cleaners in fresh oil. If that doesn't free up those rings and decrease consumption, nothing will.

[LivesNearCostco]

This is a common problem in the Saturn S series from the 90's because the piston grooves for the oil control rings lacked drain-back holes, in some sort of GM engineering oversight. The rings would get coked up and stop scraping oil off the cylinder walls. It was fast enough to lose up to 1 quart per 1000 miles but generally not enough to make visible blue smoek.

The recommended Interwebz cure was to take out the spark plugs and pour Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) on top of every piston and let it sit overnight. Officially you're supposed to use GM Top Engine Cleaner, but nearly every FLAPS carries MMO. I did it twice and it seemed to help but the car always burned oil and still does. It burns about 1.5 quarts every 3000 miles where my BMW burns 1.5 quarts every 7500 miles. Of course now I have an oil pan gasket leak so it will consume oil faster.