98 Saturn SL2 burning oil

17 years ago

My 98 Saturn burns oil. Several mechanics have told me that Saturns tend to burn oil and not to worry about it, and my last oil change, he added Lucas treatment to it, and it did decrease oil usage a lot for well over a month. Its time for another oil change and I'm not sure if if I should have them add this stuff again, the info I've read online goes from oil treatments being a godsend to a guaranteed engine killer.

The car has 90,000 miles and runs pretty good, I'm noticing some decreased power on accelerating on the highway and lovely blue puffs of smoke if I gun it, so I drive like an old lady, which I am approaching anyway, lol. I really want to drive this car until the wheels fall off, at least another 2 yrs.

So should I add the Lucas again or not?

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Comment (1)

jemdandy
17 years ago
If you are getting oil smoke when you add throttle, likely there is excessive leakage past the rings; If you create an oil fog when you suddently let up on the throttle, it is likely oil being sucked through the valve seals. Either way signals repair time soon. If you get a momentary puff of oil smoke on puching the throttle open and it goes away, this may not be too bad. Some of GM larger, older V8s did this when relatively new, noteable Corvettes.

My wife has the dual overhead cam Saturn engine in her '97 and she has 120,000 miles on it. I haven't noticed excessive oil loss with her engine, but I have my fingers crossed. Two years ago, her engine developed oil leaks at the valve cover, both in the spark plug wells and where the cover meets the head. That cover is molded and I discovered that it had shrunk. In fact, it had shrunk so much that it caused binding of the oil filler cap. A new gasket set stopped most of the leaks.