Potential Buy 1997 GSX

[niterydr]

Didn't realize you bought one, pm sent!

[SlowWhite]

Yeppers, drove it to work today where I had access to lots of long straights on the way in and it feels much faster then before.

[SlowWhite]

So after talking with two guys at work about my car and whats been going on with it.

One of them mentioned that I should probably change my oil with all the rich a/f its possible i was getting blow by and could have mixed some fuel with the oil which would lower the viscosity.

Any rate its a cheap precautionary measure. So my question is what oil and filter to use now a days?

Previous owner said he only ran valvoline vr1 20w 50w. Didn't mention a filter though.

Is this the correct oil to be using? I know ive read that is the correct oil for the hp we put out now adays, but just wanted to verify

[Halon]

That's a fairly heavy race inspired oil. If this thing is going to see the track a lot, run high engine oil temps with back to back runs or constant road course driving, then yeah I can see running an oil like that. On a car that you're going to start up regulary on a brisk morning, drive it to work in back, maybe do some spirited driving here and there, I personally wouldn't run that. I still run 5W-30 in my car. I'd stick with something in the 30-40 weight range. Filter, just get something like a Wix or Napa Gold.

[SlowWhite]

I am just wondering about the 95+ heat here everyday. And then my coolant temps being over 206 constantly. (Im working as much overtime as I can to speed up the process of fixing the coolant issue)

But for this next oil change would it make sense to stick with the 20-50? Or just switch now?

[Halon]

Like I said I would not run 20W-50 in a daily/street driven DSM personally. I run 5W-30 in mine, and mines a summer only driven street car here. If you're concerned about the higher temps, then like I said consider going up to say a 5W-40 or 10W-40. If you're really wanting to make a science experiment out of it, get an oil temp gauge as that will be the best tool to tell you what weight to get for your application.

Remember that your oil doesn't even get to operating temp until you've been driving say 20-30 minutes under normal conditions. So if you're just taking 20-30 minute trips, your oil is barely even making it to it's operating weight anyway.

[polishmafia]

95% of the cars on the road today - in the arctic to the burning heat of the equator - run either a 20 or 30 weight.

I think you need to figure out why your car runs at over 206 degrees constantly.

[SlowWhite]

Like I said I would not run 20W-50 in a daily/street driven DSM personally. I run 5W-30 in mine, and mines a summer only driven street car here. If you're concerned about the higher temps, then like I said consider going up to say a 5W-40 or 10W-40. If you're really wanting to make a science experiment out of it, get an oil temp gauge as that will be the best tool to tell you what weight to get for your application.

Remember that your oil doesn't even get to operating temp until you've been driving say 20-30 minutes under normal conditions. So if you're just taking 20-30 minute trips, your oil is barely even making it to it's operating weight anyway.

Sounds good to me and not trying to make anything more difficult.

[SlowWhite]

95% of the cars on the road today - in the arctic to the burning heat of the equator - run either a 20 or 30 weight.

I think you need to figure out why your car runs at over 206 degrees constantly.

Already have am idea on that, and its the fact that 1/2 of the coolant lines are gone. And the water pipe behind the turbo is just welded shut at the end so its not a flow through system there, instead it just hits a wall and then has to reverse course I guess causing extra time getting heated by the turbo.

[asshanson]

Oil can take a lot higher temps than that, and unless you're just racing, the 20w-50 would be useless. Get a good 5w-30 (or 5w-40 if you insist on the heavy weight). Redline motor oil is very good, but expensive ($10/qt).

Edit: there is no way the water pipe is just blocked off. Maybe the turbo water lines are blocked off, but not the end of the water pipe. I can't even see how that would work.