Synthetic oil change every 10k?

The guy puts out a good video (clear & stays on point) and he sounds sincere. What he misses is not keeping it apples to apples.
- First off, oil control rings will sludge with petroleum oil - not with synthetic. Syn don't sludge (normal use, good filters, no one pours additives in).
- Second, in his comparison with his family member, he specifies HE uses Toy oil and how he drives ('cept he said he works eight HOURS a week ). He does not say what the fam used for oil (syn or petro) nor how they drive (only how little). The type of oil is HUGE when changing by date (or miles)!
- Third he points out how very bad fuel dilution at start up is. It would be if it continued, but if it is only at start-up, then that fuel is evaporated as soon as the engine gets hot. If the drive is too short to heat the engine, then YES that's a big problem. (Before syn oil, fuel was -added- to the oil in sub freezing weather just to get the oil liquid enough to circulate. It promptly evaporated out.)
- Fourth, the engine flush recommendation is perfect advice for those engines running petro oil (which does create sludge). It is a waste of time with syn oil run engines, since they don't.*** (only a waste of time & money. it's not harming anything.)

Change it at 5k, change it at 10k, all up to you. But the oil will do it's job, and do it very well, far beyond those numbers.


Sidetrack away from the vid a little here:
***Back in the middle '70s when syn were first coming on the market, a car with 40k or more (on petro oil) almost always required an engine flush before switching to syn oil. There would be so much sludge that it would clog the filter, after the newly added syn cleaned it out & got it free. The clogged filter would cause the engine to seize from oil starvation - and the syn oil was unjustly blamed. After all, it wasn't the syn oil's fault that sludge was in there. Point is, no need to add flush to an eng operating on syn oil as the oil is already doing what the flush will do.
This was also why many said "syn oil will cause leaks" - way back then. The sludge from petro could act as a plug in a faulty seal. The syn would clean the sludge away, reveal the flawed seal, and a leak would show up. Again, the syn did not cause the seal to fail.

 

OEM Oil Filter - $11.00
Synthetic Oil - $45.00 (6qts) on Amazon
USAF Auto Hobby Shop - $10.00/hr for lift

I may save about $10-$15 bucks by doing it myself but having the dealership do it the first time is fine with me.

Ed

****

 

I buy my filters and Mobil 1 oil at Wally World. A 5qt jug is about $23 plus a filter and I'm at about $30 with tax. I can change it in my yard faster than I can drive to town and pay someone else to do it. I'd waste 2 hours paying someone else to do what I can do in 15-20 minutes at home. Plus I know it's done right.

I've been doing 10K oil changes for decades on multiple vehicles. I'm at 219,000 on the Tacoma with close to 1/2 million combined miles on the driveway. The guy in NC that had almost 1.5 million miles on his Tacoma does 8,000-10,000 mile oil changes. No need for more often.

 

Not sure if this is relevant or not, but back in my submarine days we did not change the oil on anything; we purified it with centrifuge purifiers. These things spun the oil around at high velocity which separated and slung out the bad stuff. The oil coming out looked like brand new honey! This was a long time ago, so doubtful it was synthetic oil. Oil is tough stuff!!!!

 

Wallyworld Super Tech with OEM filter every 5k. Yep.

 

You forgot a good torque wrench.
Without it you are just "that" ....dealership employee that gets insulted on tw day in, day out

 

No one is going to pass on buying a truck because the oil was changed too often. I would still do 5000-7000 even if it says 10,000. Warranty and the environment has no influence on my decision. The longest life I can possibly get on my engine does. Fresh clean oil is the number 1 thing you can do to make your engine last.

 

Cheers for this. I said it before, "peace of mind goes a looong way for good health". Blackstone Labs go farther for good engine health!
If shorter OCI lets one sleep better, then so be it.

I wanted to respond to say thanks -and- point out that turbos bring in a whole new needed awareness.
Syn oil flashes over at +400F. Some of those turbos, glowing cherry red, are up to +600F & +800F!! If the oil is allowed to sit there on the bearing & in the bearing housing, after the engine is turned off (not circulating), then the oil can (& will) coke up. Not a typo. It cooks, but also cokes, creates solid particles = Bad.
I added an extra accumulator and plumbed it to my turbo's main bearings which allowed a bit of oil to flow across after shutdown. Only a couple of minutes worth, but it was "peace of mind".

 

No argument. No flaw in your thinking. Only that this modern oil truly is still "fresh & clean" long past 5-7k.
It is a very good thing that you strive for longevity and reliability!
I'm all about getting high miles out of a car too. I have reached over 300k on at least 4 vehicles and every one of those had 25k change intervals. The two can go hand in hand. I never had an engine failure, replacement, or rebuild.
(Except a Subaru at 36,000 miles due to a factory engine assembly error. They paid for a new car.)

 

This is true and you're crazy to go even 5000 miles. I know every vehicle manufacturer, every oil manufacturer, every oil analysis company are all in on a giant conspiracy. I carry 2 55 gallon drums pumping fresh oil in to the engine and I just leave the drain plug open. You can never be TOO careful.

 

My understanding is the molecular bonds in synthetic will hold up for a long, long time and maintain viscosity, barring other factors. I think more about the buildup of carbon, metals, coolant, and fuel. While minuscule in a well maintained engine, they do exist.

 

That's a cool piece of trivia! Syns have been around since before WW2, not widely used, but maybe it was in subs...

In the 1950s, the USAF determined that more engine failures occurred directly after an engine oil change than any other time. So they quit changing oil all together! They just let the engine burn it, leak it, throw it, and then topped it up as needed. Engine failures declined.

Not synthetic oil, not jets, and not Toyota engines. It was Pratt & Whitney, Wright, & Continental recips (mostly radials). Dry sump types and most every one had a fuel dilution system for winter too. Would have loved to see a Blackstone Lab result from one of them!!

 

Spot on!

Use the very best air filter you can find! And of course the best oil filter out there!
There isn't anything that will remove coolant though (that I know of). Coolant shouldn't have a path to your oil. Correct it if it does.
That is one thing which can void the warranty offered by oil companies.

 

I suppose at that stage one should add drain pan to the initial cost also.

But it is what it is.

 

Toyota dealer told me every 10,000 miles. Someone I actually trust told me every 5,000 miles if I want the truck to run longer.

 

Purifiers are still widely used to clean up oil (and also fuel) used in marine and large industrial diesels. Oil does not wear out, it just gets contaminated from normal combustion processes and purifiers do an excellent job of removing them. Single viscosity oils with additive packages are used and usual volumes are one litre per horsepower for heavy fuel engines so a 5000 hp engine will contain 5000 litres of lubricating oil and under normal operation, will never be changed. Oil samples are routinely collected and sent off for analysis to determine engine and oil health.

 

This thread is pretty enlightening on the current state of the world.

On one side of the argument, you have a consensus from engineers who have conducted rigorous testing and looked at a multitude of studies and meta studies, from across every vehicle manufacturer and oil manufacturer.

On the other side you have a youtube video and some guy's uncle's neighbor's mechanic who worked for volvo in the 80s.

Yet we are supposed to treat these viewpoints as "equal."

In times like these, the quote we should all remember is - "You cannot reason someone out of something he or she was not reasoned into."

 

What is your definition of longer?

 

You change your oil at 35k miles?!

 

Who do I look like, Noah Webster?