Yet Another Oil Question for Twin Sparks

Hi all,
I have had my 147 1.6 (120hp Lusso) for 4 and a half years now. In that time I've clocked up 151,000 miles, doing roughly 550-600 miles a week. In the last 18 months its oil consumption has gone up. I now stick in 1 litre every 1000 miles whereas it used to be able to get 2000 miles. That in itself is not a worry ( as it is pretty common) but the cost of putting oil in every 2 weeks is getting annoying. Is there a grade of oil, like a 10w60, I can use to increase longevity?
It used to use 10w40 but at the moment TI Autos has put in 20w50 (Selenia HPX) to see if it would help consumption. That has not worked.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

wow! u racked up some miles.. whats that like around 250,000kms??

is the car blowing any smoke??

a car with this many miles surely have some oil leaks..
this could be addressed if the oil leaks seems major.

i never heard of an alfa 147 on such a thick oil..
i guess anything is worth trying before any major repairs are carried out.

No smoke, the car runs great. Only problems are wear and tear issues like suspension bushes. If there is an oil leak its certainly not major.

Gerry in Ti Autos knows his stuff so I trusted his suggestion to try 20W50. To my knowledge only older cars (70's and 80's vintage) use it. But it was only an experiment to see if it would improve consumption.

And it is 244,000kms I've done, the price of commuting long distances due to crazy house prices here in Ireland.

wow this is a bit mad,

All the old service stickers on my 33 are from TI! I wasn't even sure if they would still be around as I couldn't find them in the book!

Good to see someone else from Ireland here only a few of us about as far as I can see!

Hope you have some luck with your consumption!

P.s. My Mortgage gives me nightmares

theres a few on here allright

try 10W60 my 156 with 106K on the clock does not use oil to mention of...

10w60 is a much better bet than 20w50.
For a modern engine 20w is too thick when cold.

When I've had engines apart there's always a build up of carbon behind the piston rings. This stops the rings from moving freely and making a good seal with the bores.
There are various engine flushes and one from a company called Forte? or Forti? that seems to be the favourite for the trade.
Using it on an old engine is risky because it could dislodge something that goes on to block your oil galleries and I have never personally tried it.
I have tried chucking in some cheap Tesco oil for Diesels for 1000 miles or so. This is also risky because it should be pretty poor quality at £6 a can and there can be problems with rubber seals etc. that aren't designed for diesel oil.
It cleaned my engine up though, going black within the 1000 miles and leaving the underside of the rocker cover a shiny silver!
The safe solution would be to stop using Selenia and use something that's 1/3 of the price and has the same or better API rating like your local Motor Factor's budget semi-synthetic at £9.95 for 5 litres.
(Puts on tin hat)

Thanks for all the above comments, at my next oil change I'll switch to a 10w60 oil and stick with it for a while.

What can happen when using mineral 20w50 oil in a 147? Damage only at startup? Can it cause major problems?

Originally Posted by Bun147

What can happen when using mineral 20w50 oil in a 147? Damage only at startup? Can it cause major problems?

If the oil is too thick when cold, too many revs until it is warm will cause too high oil pressure.