GeorgeandKira,

You bring up a good point on brand of oil. My first ever experience with oil back in 1983 when I first started driving. I owed a 77 VW bug, and all I ever used THEN was QuakerState! I continued to use that until I bought my first new car, a 1993 Saturn SC2. When I started oil changes on that car I switch to Castrol, and I continue to use to this day.

My wife likes that pick up of the car, but does not punch it, though I suspect she could which may lead to a premature death of my carrier sleeve that I had to replace during the transfer case rebuild. So far we have 20k on the tires that came with the car as they were brand new when the water pump wet the bed, and the tread looks great. I suspect we will get a good 40k out of them till I'll need to replace them.

Your suggestion of a bore scope is probably worth a look. It won't cost me anything and it won't hurt. I can do this both before and after I do the flush. I've done the flush before on my Saturn and 98' V70, so I'm not too worried if its going to kill it. The Saturn improved with the flush, the V70, not so much. Its rings were already shot at that point and there was nothing short of an engine rebuild that would fix its issue's, thus the reason I sold it.

As for now, I'll continue to monitor the consumption, and make notes where appropriate, and enjoy driving it while I still can.

Best regards,

Matt
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1989 - 245, 1990 - 245, 1991 - 245, and 1993 - 245