635K Miles on a 2011

I was looking for the difference between Dot3 and Dot4 brake fluid for another vehicle (I only had Dot3 on my shelf ) and happened to land on Amsoil's site and I saw this article.
I figured you guys might get a kick out of it.
That engine does look pretty damn clean, I'll give em that.


Toyota* Tacoma* Nears 635,000 Miles With AMSOIL
Gary Smith hopes to hit 1 million miles (1.6 million km).




December 10, 2021


Few Floridians know the state’s turnpikes and highways better than Gary Smith, of Orlando. The retired auto-parts courier canvassed much of the state during his career, driving from Jacksonville to Pensacola to Miami and most places in between. In fact, with the help of AMSOIL products, he’s put nearly 635,000 miles (1,022,000 km) and counting on his 2011 Toyota Tacoma, with no oil-related problems.

Smith recently took the truck to Fuller’s Automotive, in Orlando, to repair a leaking spark-plug-tube seal that had begun to allow oil into the spark-plug hole. When Jim Fuller, who owned the shop from its 1976 inception until he recently sold it, removed the valve cover, he couldn’t believe the cleanliness of the engine and knew he had to show Smith.

“That’s why I got my camera out and started taking pictures,” he said. “I said, ‘You have to see this; no one will believe it.”

As the images show, the valvetrain area is clean and void of any signs of deposits or heavy varnish, which you’d expect to see in an engine with so many miles. The common wear points, like the camshaft, timing chain and sprockets, show virtually no wear.

“If you look closely at those cam lobes, there’s hardly any sign of wear,” said Fuller. “Usually, you have a distinct wear line on the lobes after that many miles, but I didn’t see that there.” The condition of the timing chain and sprockets also impressed the longtime mechanic. “If you take a close-up view of those sprockets, you can see there are no pointed tips on them,” he said. “Chains wear quicker than about anything in there.”



Smith has been servicing his Tacoma at Fuller’s Automotive since he bought it new in 2011. He started using AMSOIL XL 0W-20 Synthetic Motor Oil (XLZ) with the first oil change and hasn’t looked back. He changes oil about every 7,500 miles (12,000 km).

Unfortunately, an accident involving his previous truck forced him to buy the Tacoma. His original truck at that time had 450,000 miles (724,200 km) on it and also used AMSOIL synthetic motor oil. “I was really unhappy because I wanted to get a lot of miles out of it,” Smith said, who has his sights set on 1 million miles (1.6 million km) with his Tacoma.

Smith began delivering auto parts to transmission shops around Orlando in 2005. As he proved himself, his area expanded until he was driving roughly 600 miles each day, five days per week. “I drove night runs,” he said. “I used to drive to Miami, Tallahassee, everywhere. There was less traffic on the road [driving at night].”



“I haven’t had any problems at all, oil-related,” he said. “It’s always run very, very nicely. It sounded good. It drove good. It still does to this day; it’s in great shape.” Following his 2018 retirement, Smith no longer drives as much as he used to, but he still loves to get behind the wheel and hit the road whenever he can.

“I’m very proud of the mileage and that I’ve taken so good care of it,” said Smith. And a big part of that has been thanks to AMSOIL XL Synthetic Motor Oil and the excellent service Jim Fuller, who’s been an AMSOIL Dealer since the 1980s, provided all those years.

“That’s the best oil you can get,” Smith said. “Every time I drive my truck, there’s that little sticker up in the window, and it tells me when I need an oil change. I look at that number and I look at the mileage, and I know when I get the oil changed, everything is going to be good – AMSOIL is the best.”

Testimonials are the subjective experiences of our customers and are not intended to be construed as a guarantee that your results will be the same; individual results may vary.

 

Very cool! Hope my 3.5 runs that long!

 

I probably won't live long enough to even put 200K on my 2022

 

Gary smith probably won’t live long enough to put 1.5 mill on his either

 

Love hearing stories llike that. When I retired 2 years ago from a Ford dealership we had a customer who brought her Escape in every couple months for its regular maintence and oil changes. She was a courier driving all over the country and had 645000 miles and still going. Its all in how well you take care of the car and a little luck as well. I think hers was the first year they got rid of the boxey Escapes. Like you she was so proud of all those miles she had driven it. When ever she pulled in it got a lot of attention because everyone wanted to see her odometer.

 

My first Tacoma was a 1999 and I put over 350K on it. The only thing I ever had to do to it was brakes, tires, fluids and batteries.
The damn thing was even in a flash flood while I was away. Freshwater, but it got all the way up to the bottom of the steering wheel. I know that because that's where the mud-line was. And the tilt was in the up position too. Ex wife was too stupid to pull it up the hill as she's sitting in the living room watching the river come over the bank.

I took the carpet and seats out, drained every damn fluid, let it sit for a week, put everything back, (I used a power-washer on the seats, carpet and inside for the mud)---- that bitch fired right up and headed down the road like nothing ever happened.
I miss that truck. It was that dark forest green. A manual shift. I have a feeling its still running somewhere, probably some kid driving it on some red clay back country road in Alabama where I traded it in. Probably still worth the $4000 they gave me for it.

 

I dunno, looks like he's praying. That's gotta help.

 

AMSOIL does not deserve the credit for that truck hitting 635k, sorry.

 

Those cams look a little tired though.

 

Jeez I just hit 97k on my 11'

 

I have heard of AMSOIL before but never used it. After purchasing my '95 Integra a while back with 144k miles and it only got 26mpg average. I started using oil addictive with synthetic oil and started to get 29-30 mpg average right away.

Then I started to use gas addictive of the same brand as the oil addictive together, and slowly my mpg increased to 35 mpg average in 2-3 years. I was hitting 36 mpg average once or twice a summer. It had a EPA rating of 24 cty/ 31 hwy.

It was a manual, off the bat right when using the oil addictive the first time, the mis-shifting jerkiness was very noticeably smoother; almost no jerkiness, I couldn't believe it. After adding the gas addictive, the sound overtime got quieter and noticeably smoother.

To get 35 mpg average was amazing when the EPA rating is only 24/31.

I did the same thing (and products) with a '11 Camry that had 100k miles (using oil & gas additive together), after 2 summers and 1 winter....no difference in mpg. I'm still surprised today.

From my experience those stuff works, but for some reason the Camry doesn't care. Maybe Toyota made their engine that good off the bat.

Maybe Gary would of gotten to where he is today with just synthetic oil with 5k interval oil change instead of 7.5k with AMSOIL.

 

Okay Debbie Downer…

 

doesnt surprise me its a toyota tacoma 2nd gen 4 banger. 600 miles on the freeway to me equates to 200-300. Sounds about right.

 

Amazing. He's like the driving version of Forrest Gump. "I just kept dri-ving"

 

That smile says it all

 

Fantastic !!!

 

4 Banger!

 

He's thinking about where he's going to spend the money he got for doing the amsoil commercial.

 

Just think of the small fortune this man spent on oil.

 

He got it all back and then some.