Long over do discussion

My car is brand new and I get free service every 5000 miles for 5yrs. Due for it’s first service in a few weeks, don’t know what they use. My truck get driven about 2000-3000 miles a year, I change the oil every spring, I just use cheap Dino oil. All 3 of my bikes get changed every 3000 miles, plain old Dino oil in all of them. It comes out if the Honda looking nice and clean, comes out of the Harley’s black, but still nice and thick. I had an old Explorer, got it worth 60000 miles on it, sold it with 250000 on it, I still see it running around 5yrs later, I bet it got an oil change every 30,0000 to 40,000when I had it. Abused the hell out of that truck but it still works.
 
I've run Castrol regular or Mobil 1 synthetic in everything I've ever owned. Sometimes I've gone back and forth.

I've noticed that synthetic stays cleaner longer, but I change oil at 5000 miles anyway. I'm planning to keep synthetic in my frontier, since I got it with low miles. I want this truck to last forever.

I don't know if the oil I use has anything to do with it, but so far, I've never had a car go down due to engine failure. When I've sold them, they were usually in the 190K-240K mileage range, and the engines were still fine.
 
I'm driving a Lexus LS430 with almost 250,000 miles. It has had full synthetic all its life. I change it every 12-1500 miles. I drive on average 2500 miles a year.
 
gunbelt said:
I'm driving a Lexus LS430 with almost 250,000 miles. It has had full synthetic all its life. I change it every 12-1500 miles. I drive on average 2500 miles a year.
Click to expand...
You missing some zero's there???

Anyone ever seen a legit study on synthetic versus natural oil? I'm betting this is one of those topics that you'll never put a solid finger on due to its association with the oil industry. Intentionally blurred data is what I'm saying.

I worked at a welding shop where the owner had an 80's F-150. He claimed the oil change intervals were "concocted by the A-rabs just to get more money out of use." He swore all you needed to do was keep it topped off and just replace the filter every 5-10k miles. He got about 400,000 miles out of that beast before it had to be put down. I watched him do his filter change with just a top-off of oil--it wasn't just tough guy garage talk. I don't care what some science lab says--it doesn't beat real-world data. Now if I could only remember if he used synthetic or regular oil...
 
9outof10mms said:
You missing some zero's there???

Anyone ever seen a legit study on synthetic versus natural oil? I'm betting this is one of those topics that you'll never put a solid finger on due to its association with the oil industry. Intentionally blurred data is what I'm saying.

I worked at a welding shop where the owner had an 80's F-150. He claimed the oil change intervals were "concocted by the A-rabs just to get more money out of use." He swore all you needed to do was keep it topped off and just replace the filter every 5-10k miles. He got about 400,000 miles out of that beast before it had to be put down. I watched him do his filter change with just a top-off of oil--it wasn't just tough guy garage talk. I don't care what some science lab says--it doesn't beat real-world data. Now if I could only remember if he used synthetic or regular oil...
Click to expand...
Nope I don't drive much.
 
v-twin synthetic in the sportster and cheap azz whatever in the jeep liberty. I am religious about 3000 mi oil changes so I never really hit the point where a cheap oil matters. Sportster is air cooled and runs hot so synthetic is the only way.
 
Majicmike said:
As for motorcycles, I started running Rotella T6 about 10 yrs ago.
Click to expand...
Tons of guys run that Rotella in their bikes. And then of course you get the anti-Rotella guys with "it's diesel oil and crap" put-downs even though they've never used it.
I've never used it, but apparently it seems to work great. I've never come across a complaint about poor shear qualities or it failing. Quite the opposite.

Oil in bikes definitely tests the stuff. The task of the bike is the determining factor for me.
The KTM 525 racer was the most demanding, and KTM says oil changes every 15 hours. Motul 10-40 full syn, green color like anti-freeze. Expensive..$12 a quart, but the bike only held 1.2 quarts so with such a tiny amount it hadta be top-flight. It still added up though. That bike had 4 filters; 2 paper filters and 2 screen tubes. Two drain ports also, and all of that stuff was safety wired. Oil changes on that bike were a test in perseverance.
ktm 07 003 .15.jpg

The FZR 1000..heavily worked..was another one that liked the pricey oil. But it was ok with Valvoline 10-30 full synthetic and only had the one filter. Pretty easy to change, and I did it every time I put new tires on, every 2500 miles.
(Gawd that bike was stupid fast, and extremely stable. Which made it extra-easy to go stupid fast.)
FZR1000 .80.jpg

The Goldwing..if I take that bike, besides putting along enjoying the scenery, I plan on probably sitting in traffic..ie Bike Week. So it gets Valvoline 20-50 half syn/half dino. It would do fine on regular old oil but the syn part does seem to make it shift smoother. The old 'Wing gearboxes are kinda clunky.
Goldwing1122 .80.jpg

The old two-fiddy Elsinore...I think you could run tar in this thing and it wouldn't care. Standard Valvoline 10-30.
Elsinore.jpg
 
9outof10mms said:
You missing some zero's there???

Anyone ever seen a legit study on synthetic versus natural oil? I'm betting this is one of those topics that you'll never put a solid finger on due to its association with the oil industry. Intentionally blurred data is what I'm saying.

I worked at a welding shop where the owner had an 80's F-150. He claimed the oil change intervals were "concocted by the A-rabs just to get more money out of use." He swore all you needed to do was keep it topped off and just replace the filter every 5-10k miles. He got about 400,000 miles out of that beast before it had to be put down. I watched him do his filter change with just a top-off of oil--it wasn't just tough guy garage talk. I don't care what some science lab says--it doesn't beat real-world data. Now if I could only remember if he used synthetic or regular oil...
Click to expand...
I knew a guy with over 300K on an old Ranger who only changed filters and topped off whatever leaked out. Used synthetic.

I have used cheap dinosaur juice for a long time but just recently decided to switch to synthetic. I was watching some videos about oil and decided that even cheap oil is pretty good, but even good oil is pretty cheap. So my oil change costs $40 instead of $25. I think I will live.

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk
 
I use conventional in my 1988 Suburban. I figure that since that is what it was designed to run, it would be best to stick with it. And I change it every three months cause it's going to do it for me anyway!
 
I run conventional in my '03 Ram (Hemi) with 140K. I change it about every 6K. But I also have to add a quart every month or so (burns it out, no leaks)...so the oil is fresher than 6K. :D

'05 Pilot also gets conventional, and changed at 7500 miles. 170K on that one.
 
In today's day and age, one could argue that so long as they use the recommended oil and recommended maintenance intervals, it doesn't really matter whether you use natural or synthetic oils. (Unless your recommended IS a synthetic oil.)

Much of what people use, and how often they change it, is really based on what makes them feel good about their car...not on any real "facts" pertaining to their vehicle.

And that's all well and good...so long as they use a quality oil of the right weight and change it often enough not to cause problems.

Your engine oil has to accomplish several things to be effective:

- Lubricate (duh)
- Prevent/minimize corrosion
- Keep contaminants/wear particles in solution

(There are others, but these three are huge factors.)

Lubrication is the obvious one, but there is more to lubrication than just "making things slippery" like most people think. The proper viscosity at low and operating temperatures is vital and is why people REALLY need to pay attention to getting the right "weight" of oil for their vehicle. If your engine was designed to use 5W20 oil, THEN USE 5W20 OIL and NOT 10W30 "because that's what I've always used". Engines built today are NOT using technologies from the 50s and 60s in their design, materials, and tolerances...so don't treat them like they are.

When your engine is running, the moving parts are separated by a thin film of oil as they rotate.

Please re-read that sentence and note that I said the moving parts are SEPARATED by a thin film of oil. That wasn't a mistake. At speed, there ain't no metal-to-metal contact.

See where this is going? Using the proper weight oil helps ensure your moving parts are properly separated by that film of oil at different temperatures.


Oils also contain a (propriatary) mixture of chemical additives to help prevent/minimize corrosion over the life of the oil. They also play an important part in the last thing I mentioned above, which is to maintain contaminants and particulates in solution in the oil so that:

1. They don't settle out in your engine/oil pan.
2. They can be filtered out by your oil filter.
3. They are removed whenever you drain your oil for your routine oil change.


You oil life is really a measure of its ability to do these last two things well...minimize corrosion and maintain contaminants/particulates in solution. The oil itself rarely, if ever, "breaks down"...unless you're running an engine to temperature extremes for high performance purposes. (And then you're probably on a different oil change routine than the typical "manufacturer's recommendation" any way.)


If you REALLY want to know exactly when you NEED to change your oil, buy a sample kit and have your oil analyzed. I don't think it costs much ($20 - $30) but that's the way to go if you're that concerned.

However, that's about what it costs for me to do an oil/filter change on my car using Mobile 1 and a quality filter. You do the cost/benefit analysis yourself. It DOES makes fiscal sense for people who use heavy equipment where oil changes are measured in gallons and not quarts.


Most engineering recommendations have "fudge factors" built into them for a variety of reasons. Which is why I say that so long as you use the recommended oil at the recommended interval, it probably really doesn't matter what you use.
 
Last edited:
'99 sable 222k and taurus 300K 3L ohv 6-7500 miles new wix filters. On '09 Malibu and '03 ion Mobil 1 9-10k.
 
Last edited:
Oh yeah...and I'll add this.

Conventional 20w-50, and a supercharger, in <20F temps, is a really bad combination. :(
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
Much of what people use, and how often they change it, is really based on what makes them feel good about their car...not on any real "facts" pertaining to their vehicle.
Click to expand...


While we're talking about "facts"; why is it, Chief, that the oil capacity for the engine in my car (identical to yours) is 4.5 quarts? The highly paid engineers at GM couldn't find some place in an entire engine to fit an extra pint of oil to even the numbers out.
 
GoWolfpack said:
I knew a guy with over 300K on an old Ranger who only changed filters and topped off whatever leaked out. Used synthetic.
Click to expand...

I got an 85 El Camino from a guy way back that was using STP "Oil Treatment" to keep it from smoking... " I put it in instead of changing the oil, it re-freshens it. "
I pulled the valves cover to try and stop up some of the leaks,
I could not see the rockers. That stuff was the perfect mold of the inside of the cover. Looked like I flipped the pan and unloaded a cake on there...
 
GoWolfpack said:
While we're talking about "facts"; why is it, Chief, that the oil capacity for the engine in my car (identical to yours) is 4.5 quarts? The highly paid engineers at GM couldn't find some place in an entire engine to fit an extra pint of oil to even the numbers out.
Click to expand...

Heh! Beats me! I just looked mine up on line and it says 5 quarts. Oil and filter change puts me right at the top of the hash marks on the dip stick. 4.5 would probably put it in the center.
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
Heh! Beats me! I just looked mine up on line and it says 5 quarts. Oil and filter change puts me right at the top of the hash marks on the dip stick. 4.5 would probably put it in the center.
Click to expand...
My owners manual says 4.5 qts. Never looked online.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom