Any known lubrication issues with 3.1L?

**grasshopper** · 08-09-2009

I'm new here so my apologies if this is a known issue.

My neighbor has a '95 GP w/the 3.1L engine. He replaced the engine w/a rebuilt one from Autozone due to a spun bearing. He has put about 7K miles on it since the "new" engine was installed.

The car runs fine & does not appear to have any problems. However, he has noticed metal in the oil after each oil change (first change was only 1K miles). The last one was worse than the previous two.

He has been running 10W30 (Pennzoil, i think) in it. Are there any known lubrication issues with this engine? He feels sick about the car after he spent all the money to get it running again.

He has a 36K mile warranty from AZ, but he's worried the motor won't stop running completely until after the warranty is expired. I would appreciate any thoughts or ideas about what the problem might be.
Thanks.

**mikedinthecity** · 08-13-2009

only issues with lube are the fact that the intake gaskets fail and mix coolant with the oil, or the lifter may make noise on startup. seems like it may be something that looks like metal or grey, i doubt he is seeing metal in his oil. especially if the car is still running. might be something they had built the engine with. i dunno. i would imagine when an engine is new its normal to get some sort of metal from everything breakin in. hard to say. weird. tel him good luck and i know my 3100 takes 5w 30, people who know use valvoline.

**Liquifire** · 08-13-2009

get rid of the pennzoil.............no known issues with the oil on these motors that I know of. I did have to replace my intake gasket as mentioned above. Have him use a quality oil filter as well. Was he supposed to run any special oil in it for a break in period?