Synthetic oil
Professional
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 158
Likes: 0
From: Long Island, NY
Yeah my feeling is that oil and filter technology is so good these days that everything else on the car/truck is gonna wear out before the engine will. I'd only switch to synthetic if I wanted extended OCI's.
As it is my truck goes about 3,500 miles a year so I barely need to change regular old dino oil once a year. If it got driven more I might switch just to not have to deal with changing the oil as often.
Damn, 8-10K a month??? That's crazy. I had an '84 Corolla that had 225K on the clock when I had no choice but to drive it to the junkyard, the body was falling off all around it, but the drivetrain was all original and I barely changed the oil in it, just replaced it as it leaked out of the rear main seal and did a filter every 5K or so.
As it is my truck goes about 3,500 miles a year so I barely need to change regular old dino oil once a year. If it got driven more I might switch just to not have to deal with changing the oil as often.
Damn, 8-10K a month??? That's crazy. I had an '84 Corolla that had 225K on the clock when I had no choice but to drive it to the junkyard, the body was falling off all around it, but the drivetrain was all original and I barely changed the oil in it, just replaced it as it leaked out of the rear main seal and did a filter every 5K or so.
I switched over @ 224,000 miles (or so) after replacing a leaking rear main seal, replacing the valley pan with a homemade one of 1/4 in aluminum, and replacing the plenum/intake gaskets & valve cover gaskets. Other than the front main, there's nothing left to leak. Like Tom's, mine doesn't burn or leak any oil. Mostly it's duty is going to the store. I try to get it out on the Interstate once or twice a month to get the engine good an warm--helps drive moisture out of the crankcase.
I have another lower mileage 5.2 on my engine stand, new gaskets and seals throughout. And it will get synthetic when it goes in.
There are three reasons to use synthetic oil, extended change interval, resistance to thermal breakdown, and better wear characteristics. I've been using synthetic oil (in a just out of warranty Toyota) since the mid 1970's, and early on did a teardown on the 76 Corolla 4 cylinder engine to check engine wear (after 120,000 miles.) It was negligible, and the inside of the engine was very clean--change intervals ran about 12 to 15,000 miles (this car was running 8 to 10,000 a month.) The car wore out before the engine did, btw. I sold it when it hit about 300,000 miles, and the new owner drove it away.
I have another lower mileage 5.2 on my engine stand, new gaskets and seals throughout. And it will get synthetic when it goes in.
There are three reasons to use synthetic oil, extended change interval, resistance to thermal breakdown, and better wear characteristics. I've been using synthetic oil (in a just out of warranty Toyota) since the mid 1970's, and early on did a teardown on the 76 Corolla 4 cylinder engine to check engine wear (after 120,000 miles.) It was negligible, and the inside of the engine was very clean--change intervals ran about 12 to 15,000 miles (this car was running 8 to 10,000 a month.) The car wore out before the engine did, btw. I sold it when it hit about 300,000 miles, and the new owner drove it away.
Legend
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 8,058
Likes: 183
From: Fort Worth, TX
We bought our 05 in 05.5 and it had 297,000 when we sold it almost 2 years ago. We bought our 11 in 12 as old inventory, and it has 42,000 on it. Dad's a regional service tech for hospitals in texas, OK, LA, and Ark.