PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Experimenting between 0w-20 and 5w-20 will net you almost nothing. The difference in a 0w and a 5w at cold startup is negligible. And at operating temp they are both 20 weights.

The biggest difference is 0/20s are all synthetic. 5/20s can be conventional, blends or synthetics. The only decently heavy 20 weight I know of is M1 Extended Performance 5w-20. It scores a 9 at 100° C....almost making it a light 30 weight.

But still....you need to move up 1 full grade to net any benefit

 

Which is why I'm moving up to 10W!

 

No....you're moving to a 30w at operating temp.

I'm probably confusing you a bit. The 1st number is the cold startup winter rating. That's what the "W" is....winter.

The 2nd number is the weight at operating temperature. The "W" I'm using there refers to "weight"

 

So, should I have stuck with 5W30 instead of getting 10W30?

 

Both oils are a 30 weight at operating temps. The difference is the 5w is a little thinner at cold startup than the 10w. I wouldn’t sweat it. 10w pumps down to -20° F....or somewhere around there.

Oil geeks might argue that the 10w30 has a little less viscosity modifiers in it...which is a good thing. But VMs are a whole different discussion all together.

Charlie....you have tendency to over think and 2nd guess everything. Both the 5w30 or the 10w30 will serve you well. Either one is a full grade higher viscosity than what you were using.

The only change I would have made had it been my rig is the use of a high mileage formula of the 5w30 or 10w30. They tend to have a little heavier base oils, more detergents and a bit more seal/gasket conditioners in them.

 

I have been using rotella 5w-40 diesel oil for THOUSANDS of miles

you will be fine!

 

I did get the high mileage formula…

 

Excellent. I've been trying to get you to do this for a long time

 

How many miles on your rig and what are you running in it again?

 

Closing in on 90k. I get my oil at Meijer. So I wait for either M1 or Valvoline to go on sale. So it's seen Valvoline Full Synthetic or different flavors of M1....vanilla, Truck and SUV or Extended Performance....basically whatever was on the self....all 5w30.

With the next OC I'm going with some Valvoline Maxlife synthetic 10w30. It's got a good HTHS number.

 

You don't need a cylinder "leak down" test. Totally silly because your cylinders will still have perfect compression. 3500 miles/quart is normal at your mileage for someone using 0W-20 or 5W-20 oil and who has been extending oil changes to 7500-10000 miles or one year. You can reduce the consumption by using a slightly heavier oil (5W-30 or 10W-30 high mileage) & changing it every 6 months or 3000 miles to keep the engine (piston rings, PCV Valve, etc) cleaner.

Your head gasket is almost certainly not blown. To verify, remove coolant overflow jar and clean it out. Drain & refill radiator at the same time. Refill both with Toyota Pink Super Long Life Coolant and drive normally to see if any signs of oil in the coolant re-appear after a period of weeks. Drain & refill your transmission too (if you have an automatic) to look for signs of coolant contaminating the tranny fluid. There is a slight chance the transmission cooler that's built into the lower tank of the radiator is leaking tranny fluid into the coolant and vice versa.

The 2TR-FE will not be damaged by 5W-30 or 10W-30 oil. Owners manuals throughout thw World (e.g. Russian one below) say it can use oils as thin as 0W-20 and as thick as 20W-50.

 

Good advice.

An alternative to SLLC is Valvoline Zerex. It's basically a clone to the Toyota juice at about 1/2 - 2/3 the price....depending on where you find it on sale.



And I have a friend with a '14 2.7 that's lived exclusively on M1 0W40 Euro fomula it's entire life. 125k and that engine is rock solid and consumes nothing.

 

A local toyota dealership tried to give me the Zerex when I paid for SLL Pink, so Toyota definitely endorses the product. For the record, I made them go back and get the Black Jug of SLL Pink that I paid for

 

It's good stuff. I've used it in all manner of Toyota vehicles in my family and extended family's vehicles for years. Never an issue.

Walmart used to carry it for $13 a gallon. Great price. But is often the case WM has changed there source and now carries another "Asian" formula....Peak maybe? Can't remember.

I wait until the auto parts stores put Zerex on sale....around $16 or so.

 

Actually, I stopped doing oil changes every 7,500 miles at 110K miles when this "quart per 3,500 miles" issue first manifested itself; I've been getting the oil changed every 5,000 miles since then. I first switched to synthetic just shy of 80K miles, in January 2018, and I got it changed at a Valvoline place.

I don't have anything against Valvoline, but I only went to the Valvoline place because I needed an oil change and I was driving up to the mountains to spend the weekend with friends the very next day; Just about everyone I talked was saying how great Mobil 1 was, and I switched to Mobil 1 at just after 84K miles (Five months and almost 5,000 miles since I got the oil changed at Valvoline; From 84K to 110K, roughly a year and a half, I got the oil changed every 7,500 miles). From the first oil change in the spring of 2010 (six months after we bought the truck, at about 5K miles) to roughly 110K miles right before the COVID lockdown started, I was running 0W-20; I should have taken @Plain Jane Taco's advice and switched to 5W30, but instead went by what the oil filler cap said and moved to 5W20, which staved off the oil burning/seepage for roughly a year but ultimately didn't make a difference because it started doing it again this spring.

The first year I owned the truck, I only put a little over 7,400 miles on it because I didn't drive much (I had a learner's permit when we got the truck and finally got my driver's license in May 2011; My parents both had their own cars so the Tacoma really did not get driven much, and it only had like 13K miles on it two years after we bought it). In 2010 and 2011, I'm pretty sure the oil only got changed once a year since it was drive so little and it was a semi-synthetic blend (as recommended by the owner's manual).

 

It was not until 2012 that I started putting enough miles on my truck to require two oil changes per year; From September 2018 to March 2020 (right before the COVID lockdown), I put probably 20K on my truck. This is because from September 2018 to June 2019 it was a 20-mile round trip commuting to and from work, I started doing Uber Eats in December 2018, I started doing DoorDash in July 2019, and I went to a record number of cars between April 2019 and October 2019.

2019 was the first time my truck required three oil changes in the span of a single year; I drove a lot in 2020, but not as much as I normally would have due to the pandemic, and I believe I may have only gotten the oil changed twice that year. I hit 110K sometime in March 2020, and 120K on November 3rd, 2020, so that's 10K miles in seven months.

I started doing DoorDash again in January 2021 (After nearly a year of hiatus due to the pandemic) and managed to put 5,000 miles on my truck in like two months; My truck is getting its third oil change of 2021 in just over a week, and with all the driving I plan on doing this year (Car shows, DoorDash, vacations, etc) I would not be surprised if I end up getting the oil changed four times this year!

 

Why not just check the oil weekly and add when needed and move on with life. It’s an older truck with some miles on it so it’s not going to perform like new. This thread has been beat to death and back already. Solutions have been given.

 

Hey, that sounds like something I would say... and I'm over 60. (And that ain't no viscosity, Baby)

 

In Pennsylvania, all gasoline-powered passenger vehicles newer than 1974 with a GVW of less than 10,000 pounds (I think), must get an emissions test every year. All diesel vehicles are exempt from emissions testing (even cars) regardless of year, and all commercial vehicles and light trucks over a certain GVW are exempt from emissions regardless of whether they are gasoline or diesel. Any vehicle 25 years old or older can be made exempt from both the emissions test and safety inspection by registering it as an antique, but it cannot be driven more than a few thousand miles per year.