1GR-FE oil analysis 7,200 mile interval

Nothing special... Mobil or valvoline 5w-30 synthetic with an OEM filter usually every 5k. Sent a sample and 7.2 and they gave the go ahead to go 9k.

 

Wut

 

They always give the “go ahead” I never hear anyone say “oh they told me to change my oil at 9,000”

 

Kinda makes you wonder

 

haha, I was going to say, I don't think I've ever seen Blackstone say to back off the mileage. I guess that's because we're all still stuck in the 3k interval mentality. I think someone should go 20k on their oil and send it in. See if Blackstone says to go 25 lol

 

I don't think they're fudging the numbers. They've been in business a long time and I'd imagine someone on BITG or elsewhere would've called their bluff by now.

 

Oh I don’t think there fudging numbers , I just think either it’s not really necessary for a oil analysis or only useful for checking for coolant and gas in your oil if you suspect it . I don’t think they will ever say you oil is shot (broken down) and to change it

 

Without the total base number there's really no way to say oil is good or bad. About all you can infer is that the additives are consumed. The OP didn't appear to do one and I usually don't either since I'm using synthetic on ~5k intervals there's not much reason to expect the oil isn't good anymore.

The reason I do them is to watch for unusual wear or contamination. I switched from Mobil1 to Pennzoil Platinum I wanted to watch for anything odd. My boron is up but I think since sodium is still low that probably is just the relatively short interval leaving additives instead of coolant contamination.

Whether I trust Blackstone or not, I dunno. I've sent used oil periodically to them for I guess about 10 years now and haven't seen anything to indicate foul play. But then again I'm not asking for UOA on Air Force One nor have I ever felt the need for an independent verification. It wouldn't be hard to send samples from the same engine to another lab to check them.

OTOH 99.999% of people don't ever do that so who knows, maybe they just test a few and generate random numbers most of the time. But like you say, Blackstone is well known at BITOG and many others places so even if just 1-in-10,000 of people were to check them I bet such a thing would become viral pretty quick on the forums. I assume they have a process down to run these tests fast so I figure they're doing what they say they're doing.

 

Just my opinion.....Only gearheads (forum readers) and "automotive old timers" still subscribe to 3K oil change intervals. I sense that the number is moving to 5K. Most manufacturers now recommend change intervals up to 10K, supported by warranties. If Blackstone universal averages are based on extended change intervals ????, then, samples submitted at lesser mileage intervals would likely not meet the averages and be judged as "healthy".

 

The averages are just averages so they'll be based on the intervals of samples submitted. I do 5k (although my most recently was because it had been a year and I still had not made 5k) and like you say most people are probably around that on 2nd gen Tacomas. Older trucks might have a lot more 3k interval data built up. I doubt they try to normalize to make a prediction on mileage.

My philosophy about change intervals is I don't care about eeking out usage to find the point where it is completely done. That's IMO pushing the wear to the internals of my engine and I have no interest in doing that even just once. I want the oil coming out to still have some life but definitely the reality is oil has improved a lot, so it's usually changed early and engines don't run dirty anymore. I could do more, maybe 6k, 7.5k, I dunno. It's also just easier to let the maintenance reminder in the truck flash at me and Toyota has that set at 5k.

 

Cost difference for doing 5k mile oil changes vs 10k mile is so minimal in the big scheme of things. All of 750$ over 300k miles at 25$ an oil n filter change on your 30+k$ vehicle. See what I'm getting at...

 

I thought it was interesting. I put nearly 30k on the truck every year. It makes me feel better knowing if I can't get around to it at 5k, I am not hurting the motor.

 

this is timely. Just ran my 2013 to 6673 miles on Mobil1, OE filter and changed it the other night. Even though the 2013's fall into that odd 'don't run synthetic' window Toyota specifies, this seems like solid results. I'm at 58k on the ODO and plan to stick to the current plan....when the MAINT REQD light comes on (every 5K), change the oil at the next convenient opportunity, and if that adds an additional, 1 - 2 k on the ODO, no biggee. Sticking with full syn as well.

 

Where is "don't run synthetic" specified by toyota? and do you know what years?

 

Never heard of this , tell me about it?

 

thats pretty much what i do. Maint light starts flashing at 4500, and i start thinking about changing oil, and make sure i do it within the next 1k miles (by 5500) mobil 1 full syn and toyota OEM filter. Just opened up the engine to replace cam gears with modded ones and things looked fantastic inside at 110k miles.

 

hoo boy....didn't mean to re-open this can of worms. It's to be found here and there on the forum already.

Every year Toyota service bulletin publishes a service bulletin for oil in different vehicles/motors.

It clearly states the that Tacoma 4.0 1GR-FE 5.5 2 or 4 WD (different capacity) MUST RUN CONVENTIONAL OIL ONLY. NO SYNTHETIC. for ALL years.

the same exact chart will show the 1GR-FE in the 4 Runners and the FJ Cruiser and say they should run SYNTHETIC ONLY. This is Toyota's service bulletins kids.

I have a copy of the 2014 version on my desktop, I'll screen shot pieces of it so you can see.

here's the legend:









you can see four incidents of the 1GR-FE motor with different specs.

IDFK.....

 

FYI those are not the same 1GR-FE's.... everywhere it states synthetic for a 1GR would be the dual vvti version of it.

 

Nice work kidsmoke

 

So since my ‘07 isn’t even on the list , is it ok to run full synthetic ? I’m not trying to open a can of worms here , this is the first I’m hearing this . Thanks thou for explaining and showing me