My 88 F-150 has 200,000 mi. on it and it leaks and burns a little oil when I drive it on a regular basis. What is the oil to run to help with the start-up smoke and to keep the leaking to a minimum. I am currently running Castrol 15W40 to help with an oil pressure problem.I have tried oil stabilizers, but with little success. I guess I am just trieing to put off a rebuild for as long as I can.
Thank for any input at all.

 

I'd try Valvoline Maxlife 10w40 for a few oil changes. It might, over time, help a little with the leaking. I'm not sure if it would do anything for the smoking, but then again, nothing in a bottle will cure a mechanical problem. Best wishes to you.

 

Good advice.

I rarely see any reason to spend extra money for "designer" oils, but in his case, it's worth a try.

 

I like wavenwaynes "high mileage oil formulation" idea.
Several lube mfgrs make "high mileage" formulations with "tweaked" add packs to deal with the special problems engines with high mileage have.

Some of the addpacks contain extra detergents, dispersants, antioxidants, to dea with "blow by" & seal softening agents, to deal with hardened seals & gaskets.

The seal softening/swelling agent, can over time, soften up & swell hardened seals & gaskets & hopefully cause them to tighten up some, to cut down on, or stop small leaks.

Problem is, imo if you use them constantly, how do they know when they've done their job & stop the process???

SO, if you use one of these "high mileage" oil formulatios, maybe you should consider only useing it long enough to get results, then switch back to a regular formulated oil, so you don't "over soften" things & have something "blow out" when you get crazy every now & then & let er out!!!! lol

On the startup smoke thing. The Daughter had a 77 Celica 20R SHOC engine, in the mid 80's, that didn't use oil, but smoked only on the morning start up.

That engine had been run by the previous owners wife, on straight 30 wt Pennzoil, for daily 100 mile high speed road trips.
The engine was clean inside, except for plenty of varnish everywhere.

I thought maybe the morning smoke was caused by varnish deposits on the valve stems, causing oil to leak past the stem seals, into the combstion chamber, or maybe onto the exhaust valve, so I did something I don't normally do & added a qt of Marvel Oil to the 10W-30 Havoline I had changed too & had the Daughter add 0.4 oz per gallon of Marvel Oil to the gas & run this combo, for low speed, around town driving, for one 3K OCI.

I got the idea to use the Marvel Oil, from Smokey Unic (sp), in an article in his "Say Smokey colum, in I believe Popular Science, in which he had done one of his rare product endorsemsnts, in answer to a write in question about carbon removal in engines.

Anyway, you could easly see weekly improvement in the blue smoke on those morning starts, until it finally slowly stopped about 6 weeks later, or about half way through her 3K mile OCI.

On the next oil & filter change, which was about 1500 miles later, we stopped the treatment & used the Havoline 10W-30 & Texaco fuel, uncut & that puppy ran just fine, no more morning smoke, until she sold it in 97.

SO, maybe one of these high mileage oil formulations would help the leak & use problem.

Or maybe even a dose of Marvel Oil or Seafoam, as specified on the container, in the crankcase & gas tank & used under light duty conditions, until you get positive results, might help with the smoke problem, if you think it's deposit, rather than wear related.

The Marvel Oil & Seafoam aren't likely to help with seal leaks as they don't proclaim to have seal softeners, but if your oil useage is deposit related, like the Daughters varnish problem, or say carbon deposits on the ring lands, such that the rings are stuck & not sealing as well as they could, then maybe Marvel Oil, or Seafoam would help free things up some, in that they get after carbon, to soften it up for removal.

The guys are right, you won't get an engine rebuild from a bottle, for a mechanical wear situation, but if deposits are the bulk of your problem, you might be plesantly surprised, with the results you can get from the right bottle used the right way!!!!!!

Just some thoughts to ponder.

Let us know what you do & how it goes.

 

Since you are in the South, just step up to the next viscosity, 20W-50 from 15W-40, it doesnt cost any extra and still is rated for cranking down to about +15F. High mileage formulas will conditon seals, but will not correct for mechanical wear, only thicker oil will do that. There is some risk to do a cleaning on an engine that old, if removing the deposits behind the seals makes things worse. Diesel-rated 15W-40 has already cleaned up the ring area some, but I have found that most smoke, especially in the case of in-line engines, is from the intake stems, not the rings.

Jim

 

I think the way I'd go here, would be to make a trip to Napa and get some new gaskets. Where does it leak? Valve cover? Oil pan? Both relatively easy fixes. Maybe some new valve stem seals and you'd be good as new!

 

I found that on my old truck when I ran 15w-40 all it would do is take the oil longer to get to the bearings and ect. it would knock for about 3-5 seconds, I put 5w-30 in it and the knock went away, but the oil pressure was only about 3 or 4 psi lower, but the motor finaly did die 17,000 miles later, my fault mostly I ran it out of oil a few times it leaked 1 1/2 quarts of oil every 100 miles, it died at the ripe old age of 297,000 miles, all it ever had done to it other than a 4 barel and headers was new rod bearings