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Lately my KLZE is burning oil at a good rate. I haven't notice it leaking anywhere. I hardly drive the hell out of it. I put truck and car through way more hell than the KLZE and they never burnt oil on me. I'm running 5w 30 full synthetic oil and wondering if i should go to regular oil? This is the first time i have really tried synthetic on a vehicle. I never really trusted synthetic but that could be since i'm old school guy.

Stick with Dino oil on these kl motors. 10w-30 conventional. Regardless of mileage

Do you think that will make a differense? or will i have to do a rebuilt?

Well don't forget about the age of time not just mileage. Importers will commonly have those motors just sitting for Years empty of oil. Things dry up on the top end of engine. Even if ur not leaking u can be just burning crazy amounts of oil. 10w30 is proffered though. Ask Ryan here too he knows alot about these motors too. Try basic 10w-30 & see how much it helps. Synthetic spins old bearings too imo.

wagZE wrote:Well don't forget about the age of time not just mileage. Importers will commonly have those motors just sitting for Years empty of oil. Things dry up on the top end of engine. Even if ur not leaking u can be just burning crazy amounts of oil. 10w30 is proffered though. Ask Ryan here too he knows alot about these motors too. Try basic 10w-30 & see how much it helps. Synthetic spins old bearings too imo.

Hmm, a ballsy statement. Do I disagree, hell no, I think I like this fellow. Adding a conditioner, even two to your oil change could help your leaky valve seals. You didn't mention what synthetic you used. If you use our Search feature, that by the way sucks, you may find a post that has comments regarding different synthetics. My point is, and I do have one, different synthetics are not all equal. Some do seem to burn more than others. Please post what synthetic you used.

I have use 5w30 mobil 1 synthetic and just tried 5w30 pennzoil. I might just try regular oil if i cant find out what going on. Do conditioner actually really help? I havent had any luck with them in the past.

Conditioner helps my hair. why not an engine?

Whats a good conditioner then? I like using head and shoulders 2 in 1

Pantene Pro-Valvoline?

Trust me castrol gtx 10w-30, 3k miles everytime. I donno about conditioners. I haven't found any that don't clog the crappy small oil passage on these heads. When you use Lucas it'll make the top end of your motor loud! Tap tap tap.
Danski is right its most likely dried up valve seals.
And yea I like head & shoulders too with some crew gel.
mobil1 syn killed one of my ze's in under a week.

Castrol GTX 10-30 here. Some Lucas or....i think its an STP additive. Keeps my motor pretty quiet. KLDE with 130k miles.


***EDIT- Come to think of it, I put synthetic in my last DE 3 days before it blew. Coincidence....maybe not so much.

atx_mx3 wrote:Castrol GTX 10-30 here. Some Lucas or....i think its an STP additive. Keeps my motor pretty quiet. KLDE with 130k miles.


***EDIT- Come to think of it, I put synthetic in my last DE 3 days before it blew. Coincidence....maybe not so much.

Agreed then. No arguments any which way from here on out avoid 5w-30 (except cold winter-type climates) & more importantly avoid the synthetics they mean potential death on these kl motors (as vouched for officially!) the way we drive them or age or mileage is a non factor if it isn't rebuilt.
Castrol gtx 10w-30 & a good non-fram filter ie bosch is what I will swear by personally.
Any more experience with additives someone tell!
(Waiting for synthetic running Kl owners to post & state any positive long term experiences to debate this anti- synthetic uproar)
How much Lucas did you add to crankcase atx_mx3? I have tried on 2 different kls 1 whole quart & half a quart & it made the top end loud & tappy on both (your experience was on a rarer lower mileage klde though). What I tried was 1 klde (190k miles) & 1 klze (good guess 75k miles but unknown as it was bought from importer). It made a horrendously loud tapping sound up top as I stated before. And I'm going to say again synthetic spins old bearings on older Kl motors. Look at my sig I owned enough Kl engines to confidently shake up this topic.

FWIW I'm a big fan of Mobil 0w30 synthetic. I change oil around 5K and have used it for the last 10K miles. One oil for all my cars that use 5w30 or 10w30. The KL in the MX3 is silent almost from the moment it is started.

There is no way synthetic oil is ruining an engine. There is probably not much of a difference in engine life using synthetic over conventional that is changed regularly. But there is no way that synthetic is bad.

I don't have a desire to convince anyone that synthetic oil is better oil - but it is. It probably only makes economic sense if you analyze your oil and extend your oil changes to 10K miles or more.
My rationalization: It is a luxury - but if you change your own oil about equal to cost of a conventional oil change at a quicky lube place.

I can smell burning oil when i come to a stop now too. I went out and brought some regular oil (10w-30). Hopefully this will stop because i really dont want to do a rebuild if its even worth doing one. Parts are getting harder and harder to find. Scrap yards dont even have mx3 anymore where i live. I dont believe in any additives, i havent had any luck using them. And i forgot to mention i did do a compression test and all numbers are high with barely no differences.

burning smell?? whens the last valve cover gasket change, whenever this smell pops up on my car its oil leaking out the covers onto the exhaust and into the cabin......