lucas engine treatment

[winterset]

no. I have not.

It's on my to-do list to try when I feel better. - till then I'd like to try an additative.

[Napoleonesco]

no. I have not.

It's on my to-do list to try when I feel better. - till then I'd like to try an additative.

My vehicle did do the infamous "rattling" upon start up where it would literally shake the entire car, which probably means its time for the motor to be replaced but since its not in my budget I'm just going to have to continue to settle for the a thicker oil or additive. After using the Lucas my motor no longer rattles upon start up and i no longer experience the oil pressure issue. The car feels pretty much the way it did when i got it 8 yrs ago with 59,000 miles on it.

[FatLack72]

when i purchased my caddy a month ago, it had sat for about a year and when i started it it sounded a little rough. i was advised to use one quart of lucas engine treatment (thick honey like additive) with 6.5 quarts of gtx high milage 10w-40. since then i had my oil changed and chose to stick with the 1 quart of lucas. is this a bad idea? appreciate any help.

All of these inputs on this forum is good information. I have done research on this subject. Every ( GM ) technician I have spoken to, which has been plenty has advised against anything over 10w-30. If you look in your manual at the oil chart the 5w-30 is what recommended along with 10w-30 but at a smaller temperature range ofcourse. My good friend and neighbor is an Master technician at the local dealership ( 26 years ). He explained this to me. Anything under 75,000 miles 5w-30 is a good standard as long as you have the 3 to 5,000 mile oil change ritual going. But after 75,000 miles tolerances loosen up, inner wear / friction takes center stage. 10w-30 adds that viscosity protection. But all in all Lucas is a sure fire bet. With my Cadillacs I actually use 1.5 quarts because if you read the back of the bottle it says 1qt. for ever 4 qts. of oil. At 7.5 qts. of total capacity 1.5 qts. of lucas is just right for me. Short story.........Had a 1991 Lincoln Town Car 4.6 SOHC setup bought it with 178,000 for $1,000 dollars. 5 years later and 333,000 miles !!! , it finally shot a rod. From day one 15w-50 synthetic mobil 1 / lucas car ran itself to death!!!

[JohnnyG]

First of all, I'd say it's a wonderous thing that someone restarted a topic from 2007, and found it useful. I'm sure one of these days my words WILL come back to haunt me.

I think BBF has somehow determined that the oil pressure flicker is caused by an internal case half leak, so there are no bolts that can be tightened to eliminate that. By internal I mean that the case half would NORMALLY be considered a low pressure area, much like the oil pan, where oil sits or is collected, but not under pressure. However, in the casting of the N* block, an oil passage was milled into that seam which DOES carry oil under pressure....at least that's what I got from BBF's pictures some months ago.

I can see no reasonable, inexpesive, alternate solution to this problem except thickening up the oil. I'd love to see somebody invent an additive that hardens or seals when it is suddenly released into a nonpressurized state from an oil gallery, but that's not currently possible.

I would like to say that there are MANY additives out there that I would consider thickening agents. STP, Motor Honey, Valvoline SynPower Oil Treatment, and Rislone all come to mind. Lucas is not the only game in town. I'd choose an additive that fits my pocketbook on this one, along with an equally economical (what is WalMart's brand again) motor oil in the 20W-40 range and call it a day. Remember to keep the viscosity range as small as possible to guard against excessive usage of Viscosity Index Improvers, which can be very hard on older N* ring packs.

(20W-50 is OUT)

[JimD]

....(what is WalMart's brand again)

That would be SuperTech.

(20W-50 is OUT)

Agreed. On my hi-mileage '98 engine, I fill with 10W-30 at oil changes and add 15W-40 as required between oil changes.

Who knows what the final viscosity is but it works for me at 183,xxx miles (south of I-20).

[ampiifire]

i don't know i have ritualistically used lucas on every car i've owned BUT my caddy because some time during the rebuild which comes with an old, beaten down, leaking northstar with shot head gaskets and milk colored engine oil someone told me that the hydraullic lifters don't like lucas and the 5w30 is recommended because it is best able to pressurize those

...iono i believe in the lucas (because of that awesome little display with the gears on every parts counter in america) but if it's detrimental to the lifters (at around 30 dollars a piece times 32 - or worse - the operation of them) i may just forget about the stuff for a few years until the new rings start wearin down to nothing

so was someone pulling my leg or can this stuff actually hurt an engine's top end?

[BodybyFisher]

First of all, I'd say it's a wonderous thing that someone restarted a topic from 2007, and found it useful. I'm sure one of these days my words WILL come back to haunt me.

I think BBF has somehow determined that the oil pressure flicker is caused by an internal case half leak, so there are no bolts that can be tightened to eliminate that. By internal I mean that the case half would NORMALLY be considered a low pressure area, much like the oil pan, where oil sits or is collected, but not under pressure. However, in the casting of the N* block, an oil passage was milled into that seam which DOES carry oil under pressure....at least that's what I got from BBF's pictures some months ago.

I can see no reasonable, inexpesive, alternate solution to this problem except thickening up the oil. I'd love to see somebody invent an additive that hardens or seals when it is suddenly released into a nonpressurized state from an oil gallery, but that's not currently possible.

I would like to say that there are MANY additives out there that I would consider thickening agents. STP, Motor Honey, Valvoline SynPower Oil Treatment, and Rislone all come to mind. Lucas is not the only game in town. I'd choose an additive that fits my pocketbook on this one, along with an equally economical (what is WalMart's brand again) motor oil in the 20W-40 range and call it a day. Remember to keep the viscosity range as small as possible to guard against excessive usage of Viscosity Index Improvers, which can be very hard on older N* ring packs.

(20W-50 is OUT)

Hey Johnny, thanks for exploring this low pressure at idle further and for thinking about my theory.

Yes I believe that since we know that the case half seal can cause EXTERNAL leaks, it can also cause INTERNAL leaks.

I do believe that there is an OIL GALLEY, that carries the oil to the top half of the engine and to the bearings, IF the case half was leaking in a pressure location, it would lower the oil pressure. Consider that NORMAL oil pressure AT IDLE is only about 7-10 PSI so it does not take much to set off the oil pressure switch, at idle. Someone correct me or provide the correct oil pressure if my 7 - 10 PSI statement is wrong. When my oil light comes on, it only takes a VERY slight increase in RPM to turn it off.

Now, add this thought to the equation. I first got my IDLE LOW PRESSURE OIL light when I had my engine laid up for 5 weeks doing my ISS Speed Sensor, heater pipes and crossover, where I had drained my oil out, because I had removed the oil filter adapter to gain room to remove the electrical harness. I believe that with the engine NOT RUNNING and the crank case empty, caused my seal to dry out and possibly shrink. I never recovered to be able to use 10W30 again... I am using 10W30 now because of cold winter weather and smell oil burning and see smoke when I park my car, $^*@&!!!!

I wish there was a way to definitively confirm this theory, but that is what I believe. As soon as I go back to 15W40, I should be fine. A way to confirm this would be to replace the case half seal and do nothing else, but that is hard to do.

In the past, the GURU has said that IF the crank pulley bolt is not torqued to spec, that could cause low or no oil pressure because the crank pulley bolt torque puts pressure on the oil pump input gear/impeller. I don't think that is my problem however given the case half leak I have.

Thanks Johnny

Here is the photo

[JohnnyG]

BBF, I agreed with your theory immediately after seeing the pictures of the oil gallery milled into the case half seam. I had no idea that it was put in that location prior to those photographs, thanks for the education.

Important to note though that we now have two more possible causes for this flickering oil light. It is unlikely though that either of the two newly mentioned causes, too slow an idle and loose crank pulley, would be cured or affected in any way by the addition of heavier weight oil. This still leads me to believe that BBF's theory is the most plausible.

Great post!

[winterset]

I thought it was low RPM also. yes, my car Idles at 600/625 RPM. I thought it was 625/650, but I verified it today. it's not low RPM, as I get it going down hill at 1100RPM also. I poured Lucas in tonight, but didn't try it out yet.

[winterset]

I thought it was low RPM also. yes, my car Idles at 600/625 RPM. I thought it was 625/650, but I verified it today. it's not low RPM, as I get it going down hill at 1100RPM also. I poured Lucas in tonight, but didn't try it out yet.

Yep, I have been using the car every day since for both work & errands. I have not seen the light flicker even once. My suspicion was that I was right under the tolerance to cause the low oil indicator to light. Yesterday I was stuck in traffic (because of the rain), and where the light would have not only flickered, but stayed on steadly to give me the "STOP ENGINE" message, it didn't even flicker. It will take me a little bit to get my confidance back in the car, and not look at the gauges in anticipation of that dreaded oil icon lighting up. I agree, a different oil might have done the trick too, but I have 50% life left, and this was a simple enough cure. Also when I was at advanced auto, they had Techron buy one get one Free, so I treated both my cars. $7.49 for 2 bottles.

[BodybyFisher]

winterset, do you have a case half leak? What oil do you normally use 10w30?

[winterset]

winterset, do you have a case half leak? What oil do you normally use 10w30?

I thought I had a case half leak, but I don't anymore. (When the car mostly sat the last few years, I had little quarter sized puddle spots under the car whenever I moved it. now that I am using it every day, the drip tray on the driveway floor is pretty much dry. (just a few drips over the last few months) - nothing at all like I used to get. I have Mobile 10w30 in there now. when the car was sitting, I had synthetic. the oil changes I did in Nov was the first time ever that I used dino oil. I attribute switching from synthetic to regular oil to stopping the leaks.

I checked the engine, and it is dry - so I guess I don't have any external leaks.