synthetic oil vs convetional oil, and how often do you change your oil?

every engine I ever had was noisier with conventional oil and much quieter with synthetic oils and I am talking about close to a dozen vehicles. he same is true with motorcycles outboards and lawn mowers.

the only time my engines ever made more noise was if I replaced the synthetic oil with conventional oil, then they got much noisier.

the myth that synthetic oil makes engines noisier is talked about a lot but it has been proven false time and time again, show me one video that shows replacing synthetic with the same viscosity conventional oil quiets an engine.

 

I should clarify that I run 0w20 in my 2011 and 5w30 in my 99. Sorry just realized OP was talking about a 1st generation.

 

In my time here in the beginning we had gurus and car geniuses like my friend Chris 4x4 who will chime in and we all took it to the bank. Now with our new moderators
who are around only to police the site, is more confusing as far as who to trust.
To bad Chris is into Jeeps now a day, but even so, I don't think Arizona is still part of this union anymore. but, I may be wrong.

 

In theory zero weight oil does not exist. Kinematic viscosity is time based, the amount of time it takes to flow through a standard orifice at a given temp so it is impossible for it to flow at a zero time. They get around that with pour temp rating to explain the zero rating bottom line unless you live where it drops to -50 on a regular basis it's pretty much useless as 5W will pour at -42.

 

Everyone has an opinion on this. In the end, you're not going to hurt your engine by changing your oil too often.

Just to specify what Toyota says for my truck. Is it out dated? Perhaps, but it still won't hurt to follow it.

From the MY2000 operator manual:

SAE 5W–30 is the best choice for your
vehicle, for good fuel economy, and
good starting in cold weather.
If you use SAE 10W–30 engine oil in
extremely low temperatures, the engine
may become difficult to start, so SAE
5W–30 engine oil is recommended.

There are two maintenance intervals, either 5000 or 7500 miles.

5,000 Miles or 4 Months
❑ Replace engine oil and oil filter

Here are the maintenance requirements:

Determining the Proper
Maintenance Interval
Depending on your circumstances, you should obtain maintenance
for your Toyota every 5,000 miles or every 7, 500 miles.
Followthese guidelines to determine which interval to use.
5,000-Mile Intervals
Use 5,000- mile intervals if you primarily operate yourvehicle
under any of the following conditions:
• Driving on unpaved or dusty roads.
• Towing a trailer or using a camper or car- top carrier.
• Repeated trips of less than five miles in temperatures
belowfreezing.
7,500-Mile Intervals
Use 7, 500- mile intervals if you primarily operate yourvehicle
under conditions other than those listed above.

For your particular vehicle, send an oil sample to Blackstone to get a full report on how dirty your car gets the oil. Use that to decide how often you should change your oil.

Considering the wide variety in ages & mileages of our trucks, there's no way to know optimum oil change time without testing your oil. Regardless of synthetic or not.

I tend to change my oil too often. Perhaps I get bored, perhaps it's my OCD, who knows.

 

I just ran amsoil to almost 20K, but they say you can go to 25k with the premium oil (whatever it's called). I ran an amsoil filter to 15K and then an oem for almost 5k. I'm about to send an oil sample to blackstone to see how it looks.

I commute 85 to 90 miles a day roundtrip...all highway.

 

I'm going to have to enter into the current century before I trust my oil to last two years w/o changing it.

 

I just updated my post. I drive about 90 miles a day and it's all highway. I can probably run mine longer than someone else can.

 

True you won't hurt your engine, but you can hurt your wallet. IMHO the 3,000 mile oil change is bull shit advertisement from the quickie oil change industry. Really if you think about it, maybe you should change your oil every after every tank of gas, it's just cheap insurance, right? Or, maybe you should look at who is telling you it's a good idea and then apply a little common sense. (on a side note have you every wondered why the air filters from those places are bleached whiter than white? Because even the tiniest bit of dust makes them look like like crap when compared to a new one. Then the sweet young customer buys a new one.)

^ this x 3,000

The only true way to know if your oil is worn out is to have a lab test it. Personally that is too much bother for me, so I buy the cheapest name brand oil I can find, and change it as the manufacturer recommends. Been doing that for forever and never had an oil related problem in my engines.

 

For normal service Amsoil 'signature series' recommends up to 25k miles, or one year, whichever comes first. Didn't see anything about a bypass kit unless I'm missing something-

http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ...00-percent-synthetic-motor-oil/?code=ASLQT-EA

 

http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-produ.../filters-and-mounts/single-remote-bypass-kit/

 

If you are still unsure after reading all the above information, try running a blend, I put 315,000 miles on my " old school" Toy running Castro Syn / Conventional blend. As far when to change, I'm with the driving conditions & how hard you drive it crowd. By the way, the truck is still running - somewhere, trying to find it and buy it back.

 

I never sell any thing with less than 200K my 97 was sold with 285K and it too is still being used, 5K with what ever brand name WalMart has on sale. You can use syn and your truck engine will last 250K or you can use dino and it will last 250K it's up to you.

 

I agree to an extent, there's a lot of things that come into play though. Synthetic oil is engineered in a lab to be better than Dino oil, hard to believe there are some people out there that have a hard time believing it. I watched a video by a chemist from Amsoil that mentioned he was at a conference with some Mobil 1 guys that were joking with him and said if our bosses let us spend that much money to make oil, we would have just as good of a product as Amsoil. Point being Amsoil goes far beyond the reach of "bargain" oils. And it sure shows.

Do some researching about Amsoil and I promise you will come out enlightened, also check out some of the tests they do. The guy who has the gm van that went a million miles with Amsoil sent his oil in at 25k mile interval and Amsoil said go ahead and change the filter, and run the same oil for another 25k. Pretty impressive.

Might be more expensive in short term, but when your intervals are 25k miles and you're spending less time under the hood, you end up coming out on top

 

hmmm, this is interesting. I have been running the Mobile 1 0w30 full synthetic in my first gen for about a year. She runs like a champ should I not be using it?? (Honest question)

 

No you should not. Stick to 5w-30. Could maybe see 0w-30 in extreme cold situations

 

" Warranty protection for 5w-30 and 10w-30 requirements" That's what is written on the bottle at least. Seems like it would be ok to use.

 

So why we are on the topic of synthetic oil, i have a question to ask. Its merely a myth that one should NOT switch to syn if you have a high mileage vehicle correct? Im really contemplating switching over next oil change, which will be around 175k. Also has anyone ever noticed if syn helps smooth an idle? Ive never been told it has or hasn't. Just curious. I know stranger things have happened. it was just a thought As im trying to do everything cheap to track down my rough idle.
Disclaimer: op, not trying to turn this into a rough idle track down thread, not trying to thread jack!!!

 

I have been using mobil1 0w-30 for several years now and my motor loves it. After much research on BITOG, the use of 0w-30 even in normal temperatures is beneficial because the cold engine viscosity is much easier on the engine. Though it is a marginal difference when compared to 5w-30, the difference is there. And it does not have to be arctic temperatures either. The viscosity was tested at 70F and was still less viscous than 5w. That basically means less engine wear from start-up. Go research some on BITOG, there are a bunch of guys who did research on it with a bunch of testing and facts and figures to back it up. Don't listen to people have no idea what they're talking about. Go read what the REAL oil nerds are saying on BITOG. Or you could believe me because I already scoured that board and came to the conclusion that 0w-30 is better to use than 5w-30 when it comes to start up wear.

 

Well said...this is exactly correct!!!



Ed