Synthetic or conventional oil

Ask him to explain that.

 

Boackstone Labs had been testing motor oil for 30 years and according to them, dino is just as good as synthetic.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com
What's the best oil to use?
Ah, the million dollar question. We are an independent lab, so we don't make recommendations. It has been our experience that oil is oil, and either petroleum or synthetic-based oil will work well for just about any engine.

Come on, you're holding out on me. I should use synthetic, right?
Buddy, you should use whatever you want. Synthetic oil won't guarantee a longer engine life any more than my eating organic food will guarantee I'll live until I'm 90. We here at Blackstone generally use regular petroleum-based oil because honestly, it works just as well for us.

 

The oil at the dollar store is safe to use. Right?

 

Right.

 

On my 2010 2.7L access cab my oil cap has printed on it 0W-20 and 5W-20. When I bought it brand new and had the 5 free oil changes from the dealer, they were putting in 5W-20 which was Dino oil according to them. I asked for the 0W-20 to be put in which according to them was synthetic and they told me I would have to pay for it if I wanted synthetic. After the fourth oil change I started doing it myself. I use Mobil 1 0W-20 and change every 10k. At 95K now and she is still running just like the day I brought her home.

 

Pure synthetic > dino oil
Every time.

 

Blackstone Labs doesnt agree based on their 30 years of testing.

 

Careful, you need to read some between the lines, they are not saying dino is better or as good as synth, just that dino is more than sufficient for standard OCIs.

 

Had my oil analyzed by BlackStone many times in a 4.2L V8 Audi S4 Avant. If any of you are familiar with that car/motor, you know the 4.2L is known to burn oil naturally and due to its tight fit design, prone to leaks etc. With that said I was very very picky on oil changes and always wanting to know what was going on inside the motor via analysis.

In that car I ran Mobil 1 0w40 in the winter and 5w40 in the summer. Oil was changed every 5k miles on the DOT. Ok maybe I went a few miles over but never more than 10 miles; I was very very picky on making sure the oil was always fresh.

Long story short: Oil always checked out good with very little contaminates in it even though this engine burned the oil naturally. Was always told by Blackstone the oil had another 5 - 7k miles on it but I never wanted to go that far on that motor.

As for the Tacoma - I change it every 5k miles. Always have run Mobil 1 5W30 from day one. Never ever let the dealer change my oil even though it was "free" simply b/c I have learned my lesson over the years with "free" oil changes. I've had my oil analyzed now twice in the Tacoma. Once around 60k miles and then again after 100k miles. Both times everything looked good, no warning signs and both times mentioned I could have driven on this oil another 5 - 7k miles.

As much as I believe based on the oil analysis that I could take the oil changes up to 10k miles, I just can't stomach that personally and that's mainly from my old school ways where I changed my oil every 3k miles when I was running conventional oil (dino) in my old truck.

 

Exactly. Near as I can tell, with anything close to regular oil changes, there is no advantage whatsoever to running more expensive synthetic in a Tacoma. Guess maybe someone with bad back problems might see an advantage by sitting on a lighter and thinner wallet.

 

Just a question, why do you continue to pay to have your oil tested but you never trust what the tests show?

 

... it costs less to run synthetic that lasts 15K.

I also, personally, like that I'm reducing waste that impacts the environment. Since it's cheaper it's a win-win.

 

the only good reason to run synthetic oil (or so I have told by my Toyota dealers Mechanic) is that with synthetic I could prolong my oil change by 5k, with synthetic he recommended changing at 10k, with conventional 5k, don't know if he knew what he was talking about. I change oil at 5k sometimes synthetic sometimes conventional. this is jmop

 

Some people that have gone to extended (10k or more) OCI still recommend filter change at 5k miles.