Hey guys/gals.... i know everyone hates oil topics but i was curious. I have a 02 ram 4.7 with 172000 KMS on her. I was thinking of changing my oil more often. right now i change it around 8000 KMS (mobil 1 and K&N filter) You guys think i should go down to 5000 kms and use reg oil or stick with the syn and go down to 5000. Eather way ill stick with K&N filter. Now i know syn oil last longer and doesnt break down as fast but my oil is pretty black when i change it. Thanks for the time !

 

Even though it's ok to switch from synthetic to dino oil, I wouldn't do it. Look at the longevity you're getting with the Mobil 1! I wouldn't change a thing other than the change interval...

 

Mine has 96K miles. I found a receipt in it indicating the P.O. had used synthetic, but I've used dead lizards. I do use Pennzoil Hi-Mileage, though. It may be a marketing gimmick, but I use the high mileage oil anyway.

Like Hammer said, you're doing fine. The shorter interval may be a good thing. I change mine every 3K miles -- have for years on every vehicle. I do have to say I've been considering taking my interval out to 5K miles. That would make my oil changes about every eight months, though. Kinda long, time-wise.

 

You know back a few years ago there were many oil companies, today there are a handful.I change my oil in my 4.7 between 3500-5500 miles and yes it does look a little dirty but oil is supposed to look that way, tells us its doing what its designed to do catch and keep in suspension , engine contaminants.No i would not change my oil back to the reg stuff if i had good service out of synthetic.

 

One of the more surprising findings of a MPG test I did was that Mobil One 15W-50 gave me slightly better MPG than Mobil One 5W-20

The 5W-20 'should' have given better MPG due to friction reduction.

The best explanation was that the Magnum 5.9V8 engine already had about 130,000 miles and the ring seal might have been better with the 15W-50, and at 1750 rpm the internal engine friction is low.

If you look on the back of Mobil One synthetic 0W-20 'improved fuel economy' bottles in the Walmarts right now, ExxonMobil is putting in writing a 2% MPG improvement promise.

If you are changing your relatively expensive KN oil filter at each oil change,
you are both wasting money and giving your engine WORSE filtration.

Partially used oil filters filter better and better as the small holes get blocked off by trapping particles.

In the best of all worlds
you would keep using the oil filter until it had collected enough particles to make the backpressure the filter creates about 8 to 9 psi at an very high engine rpm of 5000.

Almost all the filter makers say that even the short filter can easily last 500 hours of engine operation. At an typical average speed of 40 mph, that is 20,000 miles.

You can check actual hours and average mph speed on your Ram's odometer digital readout, because the PCM computer keeps track of it. Learn how to do this.

 

hey bud I use Mobile 1 full synthetic in everything we have I'd stick with it just my opinion

 

stick with the mobil 1. i changed my oil last week after running it for almost six thousand miles. like mentioned it was black in the drain pan. i stuck my fingers in it. it still had a little of that gold hue to it and when i rubbed my fingers together it was still very slick. now i can't think of the word but i could feel that it was still lubricating the way it should and it felt like it had life still in it. i was very impressed at how it held up after 6K miles.

 

I helped a guy get through a seriously sludged up engine recently---

And from what your saying, the synthetic is doing its job, but may be falling behind a little. You might want to consider doing a couple of engine flushes with dino oil (synthetic is way to expensive to waste) and then switch back to your current routine of 8000K (what ever the hell that works out to in miles). If the engine has been running synthetic this long, it will keep on going just as well over the remaining life of the engine.
The verbage that HankL added also has me wondering about cylinder sealing too. I do know that years ago that if synthetic was run right from the start on High Performance engines (12.5 : 1) compression, the rings would never seal up until it was drained and the rings seated into the cylinders. That 5W-50 hmmmmm he may have something there.

Sorry---just thinking out loud through my fingers.

Yah know, the best way to determine where your at in terms of wear would be to run a compression test on the cyl's,and see if they meet spec!!!!

I'm guessing they most likely do.

Just my .02---hope it helps