Vavoline Max life?

[etw310]

i work at a valvoline instant oil change part time now for about 6 months, and the max life line is recommended for vehicles with over 75,000 miles. it has additives in it that condition the seals in your engine so they don't harden as the engine gets older. as far as being a band-aid, i guess it kind of is a band-aid because the seals will eventually wear out no matter what you do. the next question is, does the additives really do their job or is it just another way to charge more money for a "premium oil". i'll let you make that decision, cause only the manufacturer knows for sure and they sure won't tell.



as for adding a fuel treatment for cleaning the engine(per the original post) i add a fuel injector cleaner every oil change, but this is only to clean the injectors and is added by pouring right into the gas tank. there is an engine flush treatment that is recommended every 20,000 miles to clean any build-up in the engine. this is done by pouring the treatment into your engine just like you were adding oil, and then running your engine for 5 minutes, and then doing a regular oil change.



also, any of you with hondas or acuras, that change your oil, when you put the drain plug back in, you need to replace the gasket every time. they have a crushed gasket on the drain plug that "seats" when you torque the drain plug down. if you put a used gasket back on, you run the risk of an oil leak.



sorry for the long post, thought some of you might find this useful

 

[ACURA95]

Which seals are you speaking of because I just replaced my valve cover gasket and all my spark plug seals because it was leaking around the valve cover and one of the spark plug seals was blown.



It was very easy to do however.

 

[etw310]

acura95,



i am talking about the front main seal and the rear main seals in particular, but any other seals and gaskets that come into contact with oil will also benefit. there are generally two different type of seals and gaskets, rubber and cork. the cork was popular on older vehicles, and i think rubber is pretty much a standard today (but don't quote me on this one)



the front main seal usually isn't too much of a problem although the rear main, most of the time means at minimum unbolting the engine from the transmission bell housing to provide clearance to get to the seal to replace.