I am going to be changing my oil on my Dakota for the first time since I bought it in November. I have about 63,000 miles on the truck. I am looking to replace the oil with straight synthetic. I have narrowed down my brand choices to Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, Quaker State Torque Power, and Amsoil. Also, what viscosity should I be using, remember this is Wisconsin where it sometimes get well below zero.

Besides oil, does anyone have a preference in oil filters. I am looking for one with high flow and maximum filtration. K&N, mobile 1, AC Delco, Motorcraft, Fram. These are the choices I have locally at my auto parts stores I visit No blue marble or other brands. I want something i can purchase and walk out the door with it, no ordering.

grrr keep forgetting things. How often should I be changing this synthetic oil?

Thanks
Gregg

 

Mobil 1... 10w-30 or lighter depending on how cold it gets.... living in CA i've always used 15w-50 and with temps down into the teens, have never had any issues. for a filter... K&N would be my choice with the ones you mentioned.

 

As for the choices, I have access to any oil and filter available at any carquest, AAP, autozone, NAPA, and a couple of smaller places. All of these are within a short drive from me or on the way home during my 20 minute commute. I guess I put on about 120 a week for mileage. Temperatures get down to about zero. Average temp this time of year is in the 20's. I would love to get a oil that I would not have to change but once a year so a little more expensive for oil/filter is just fine. Hope that helps.

 

I am guessing that will need to change the oil/filter sometime in summer due to the superior cleaning properties of the synthetics, to change out the junk in the filter. After that, I should be able to change oil at 7500 miles or more. I saw a great website that shows many of the filters cut open and although they don't test the flow of each filter, they do give recommended filter based on filtering, the type of bypass used, and a few other things. I think I saw it on here or one of the other Dakota forums.

 

I noticed that you said 10w30. My manual says 5w30 or 10w30. I assume I could use the 10w30 without problems with the synthetics being thinner but protection is better. Is that the reason for recommending the thicker oil?

 

I used 5w-30 Mobil 1 in my Durango. However, it sometimes wants to tick when it first starts. If this happens, you can always swap to something else.

I use Purelator Oil Filters on all my vehicles, cheap and a really nice filter.

When I swapped my Durango to Synthetic, I ran it for 2,500 miles and changed it again to clean out all the crap that was cleaned with Synthetic.

 

theres really no need for anything higher then 10w-30 especially since ur average temp right now is in the 20s if you dont wanna change it out in the summer i was just put in the 10w now or if you wanna run the 5w now then 10w in the summer but then you wont get the long interval that you want. i would go mobil 1 k&n or napa gold for a oil filter

 

my opinion is that the thicker the oil, the better the protection. this based on my own experience. ran lighter oil at one point and the motor seemed to run rougher and did not give me that warm fuzzy feeling when driving it. again my personal preference.