My 98 ls1 that I just bought has a small oil leak.

Anyone ever use this stuff? Is it harmful?

I can't tell where its coming from there is a lot of oil residue around the pan, but I'm not sure its the gasket.

 

I wouldn't use it.

 

I have never had any faith in leak stopper or tune ups in a can. Clean it all off and see where its coming from, might be something simple to fix.

 

if you really think about it...in what scenario would a liquid stop a leak?

 

no such thing as a mechanic in a bottle..see where the leak is coming from and go from there

 

It softens the rubber on the seals.

 

I'd try a qt of high mileage oil. My jeep has over 250k on it and doesn't leak a drop. I use 1 qt of high mileage Pennzoil every oil change.

 

I would only use such a product in a car I don't care about... If I care about the car, I'll always find it and fix it right.

 

Thats why it doesnt leak, it is packed with sludge from using Pennzoil.

 

Despite the helpful post above, do not use leak stop. Properly find the leak. If the pan was ever removed and the gasket reused I can almost say for sure that the person did not replace the rtv between the front and rear cover seals and the oil pan gasket.

 

I use it with every oil change in my '00 'bird which is about once a year.

I also use their engine stabilizer in my 233,000 mile '99 Silverado. I had a noisy/sticking lifter that it took care of.

 

What are you liviing in the 60's? That's a old wifes tale for Christ sake!

 

I've always used penzoil platinum in my gm cars, I haven't changed the oil in this ca yet, buy i plan on using the same. I'm not sure on the oil pan. This is how much it has leaked in about 8 days of being parked in the garage, would you consider this a slow leak?

 

Well my car leaked about 3 times that in a year-year and a half.

 

Hopefully its something simple.

 

First off, if it smells like snake oil it probably is. But for the sake of argument, let's look inside at how these "magic" products really work. Before we start, let's put on our thinking caps and apply the K.I.S.S. theory.

Stop Leak... Sounds magical enough, right? Stops the leak. That's what's important, right? Or is it? Let's now take a look at the leak, and pick a common one. How about a rear main oil seal leak? That's a pretty common problem that many times leads to just the product we are talking about. First, why are we leaking here in the first place? Probably because the rubber seal has hardened due to age and heat. It simply cant provide a tight enough lip seal around the crankshaft. Oil squeezes out under pressure creating said leak. Period.

Usher in the magic cure that your local parts guy guy suggested and dump it into the oil pan. We now have a magic cure being circulated throughout our engine. He told us it would take time, so we patiently wait for the leak to subside. Once this magic cure hits our rear main seal, what happens? It undoubtedly will leak out just like before...with one minor difference. It has mixed with our oil and changed the chemical composition of our oil and is slowly penetrating the rubber seal using a chemical designed to change the composition of the rubber, causing it to soften and swell. This "swelling" of the rubber expands the seal causing the leak to magically disappear... for a while. By softening the rubber we have also weakened it, and done so in an area that is exposed to 40 psi or so anytime the engine is running. Also, keep in mind this magic fix didn't enter your engine and intelligently seek out that rear main seal like an intelligent nanobot. It coated EVERYTHING in your engine, including all the other rubber seals that come in contact with the oil that aren't leaking...yet. And we now know what happens right? I've seen a lot of automatic transmissions bite the dust because of this very issue as well. Of course, all this said, it is only an opinion, and we all know what those are like, right?

 

I wouldn't run Penzoil in lawnmower or my ex wife's car. Well, maybe her car but NEVER my mower!.

 

Yeah you wouldn't to use one of the best oils made.....................