StreetCreeper
New member
A little background on my truck. It's a 1997 LTD 3.4 w/AT & 4wd. It was basically a grocery-getter and kid-hauler for the first 17 years of its life. 90% of the miles were from city driving, and it spent a great deal of time either jumping from shopping center to shopping center, or idling away in the drive through line of various fast food joints.
As for oil changes — from talking with the PO and sifting through some of the few maintenance records I was given, oil changes were infrequent at best and they often went way over normal OCIs. When oil changes were done, they were most often done at the cheapest place they could find. Which of course means the cheapest oil and filter possible. Yay...
So pretty dismal maintenance, cheap-ass oil and filters in combination with stop and go city traffic with plenty of time idling in the California heat has taken its toll........not.
This truck is a beast and it's about to roll over 400,000 miles before the next oil change. When I got it 50,000 miles ago, it was literally an abandoned truck. It was nasty inside and out. Everywhere I looked, I saw neglect. It literally looked like a Pick & Pull truck right before they put it out for the pickers. Not the kind of thing a prospective new owner wants to see....that is until the PO just gave it to me after the passenger LBJ failed and the wheel fell off. They gave it up for dead and probably thought it amusing that I was basically hauling away their trash.
Over the last 50k, with the help of this forum and its members -- my truck gets better every day. I’ve slowly been bringing this ol‘ girl back from having one wheel in the grave.
Anyways, I'd never used synthetic oil before and I figured that conventional oil had gotten it this far so why change? Plus we all know that some people feel that synthetic oil will cause oil leaks too. So changing to synthetic was not high on my list of things to do.
So every five thousand miles I changed out the oil with Valvoline 5-30 conventional and a Toyota D3 filter. And every oil change the oil came out black as night.
I usually lost about 1/3 to 3/4 of a quart due to leaking seals and loose valve covers as well.
After really contemplating what sort of things factored into engine failure and engine wear, I decided that oil really needed to be a top priority for me. And despite my engine getting to 350k on regular oil (read shitty oil), I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference if I changed from Valvoline conventional to Valvoline Max-life synthetic blend with all its detergents and seal conditioners.
So I picked up 7 quarts of Valvoline max-life synthetic blend 5-30. Per usual, I used a D3 filter and made a note of the next scheduled oil change. Fast forward a few months and as 5k quickly went by, I noticed that my oil level wasn't really dropping as fast as usual and the oil still looked really good.
Hmmm, I was right at about 5k and hadn't added any oil top-ups. I added 1/8 quart and called it good. I had a trip planned up the west coast and decided to not change the oil until it looked different or 7,500 miles — whichever came first. While I wouldn't advise anyone to go that long, I could not help but let it go and see what it did.
So I did my nearly 2,000 mile run up and down the coast and prepared to change the oil. After inspecting the oil from an engine with essentially 400k miles on it — I was surprised how good it looked!
Now I know many of you are shaking your heads and muttering "that StreetCreeper smokes way too much pot and is a complete idiot..." under your breath. You would certainly be right on the idiot part, but dammed if that oil didn't look, feel and smell like oil that had life still in it even at 7.5k! My curiosity was truly piqued! How long could this oil last and how dumb would I be to keep it in there a little while longer to see?!?!
Well, I’m pretty dumb, so I kept a close eye on it until 7,829 miles when I finally gave in. I just couldn't in good conscience keep going. However, even at 7,829 miles -- the oil looked better than the conventional I usually used at 2.5k....plus it wasn't losing as much oil through leaks.
Compared to new full synthetic oil.
Damn.....this got me thinking about full synthetics and engine wear some again. I revisited a poll I had started on the forum a while back concerning what in the forum members opinions was the root cause for the majority of engine failures. You can find that poll here.
According to those polled, 88.89% of them felt that engine maintenance was the number 1 factor for engine failure. Followed distantly by "manner in which vehicle was driven" at 13.33% and "design" at 11.11%.
Since most people don't work on or maintain their engine, it's safe to say that "poor engine maintenance" really means oil changes or lack thereof. So I started to reevaluate my oil routine.
So how does oil prevent your engine from failing? Most of you know all this, but for anyone who doesnt, oil keeps metal parts from actually touching one another. Friction wears shit out and creates heat. Oil helps prevent friction.
Some wear is to be expected, and that wearing of internal components means that there will be microscopic bits of your engine floating around inside. Those bits are grinding away at surfaces until the oil carries it to the filter and traps it so it doesn't cause any more wear.
If the oil has detergents in it, those detergents will help keep all the little passages inside your engine clear. If they aren't clear, then oil can't flow there, and friction/heat come back to harm your engine.
Basically old oil is just oil full of shit that you don't want in your engine. Old oil can’t clean efficiently, can’t lubricate efficiently and can’t dissipate heat efficiently. In other words, old oil is actually harming your engine (says the guy who just intentionally left his oil in extra long just to see what would happen).
From the limited research and repeated stoned ponderings I’ve done, it seems to me that engine wear comes primarily, from cold starts when the engine components are not sufficiently lubricated (much of the oil has drained to the pan once the engine has cooled sufficiently), viscosity breakdown caused by heat, and not changing the oil before it loses much of its ability to protect your components from wear.
So my requirements for oil were the following:
1) Needs to have excellent cold start protection.
2) Needs to have excellent high temp protection.
3) Needs to be changed before it becomes saturated with contaminants from engine and/or environment, e.g., moisture, fuel, coolant...etc.
After reviewing various oil brands & types (by no means all or even most of them) I have decided to make the switch to Quaker State Ultimate Durability Full Synthetic 5-30.
I chose Quaker State UD because it gets high marks for cold start wear protection, high temp wear protection and lastly, it is reasonably priced and easily sourced at most stores that carry motor oil.
I still plan to change my oil every 5-6 thousand miles and use a genuine Toyota D3 filter.
Next oil change is scheduled @ 401,556 miles.
So there.
(Marijuana contributed significantly to the long-winded ramblings of this post)
As for oil changes — from talking with the PO and sifting through some of the few maintenance records I was given, oil changes were infrequent at best and they often went way over normal OCIs. When oil changes were done, they were most often done at the cheapest place they could find. Which of course means the cheapest oil and filter possible. Yay...
So pretty dismal maintenance, cheap-ass oil and filters in combination with stop and go city traffic with plenty of time idling in the California heat has taken its toll........not.
This truck is a beast and it's about to roll over 400,000 miles before the next oil change. When I got it 50,000 miles ago, it was literally an abandoned truck. It was nasty inside and out. Everywhere I looked, I saw neglect. It literally looked like a Pick & Pull truck right before they put it out for the pickers. Not the kind of thing a prospective new owner wants to see....that is until the PO just gave it to me after the passenger LBJ failed and the wheel fell off. They gave it up for dead and probably thought it amusing that I was basically hauling away their trash.
Over the last 50k, with the help of this forum and its members -- my truck gets better every day. I’ve slowly been bringing this ol‘ girl back from having one wheel in the grave.
Anyways, I'd never used synthetic oil before and I figured that conventional oil had gotten it this far so why change? Plus we all know that some people feel that synthetic oil will cause oil leaks too. So changing to synthetic was not high on my list of things to do.
So every five thousand miles I changed out the oil with Valvoline 5-30 conventional and a Toyota D3 filter. And every oil change the oil came out black as night.
I usually lost about 1/3 to 3/4 of a quart due to leaking seals and loose valve covers as well.
After really contemplating what sort of things factored into engine failure and engine wear, I decided that oil really needed to be a top priority for me. And despite my engine getting to 350k on regular oil (read shitty oil), I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference if I changed from Valvoline conventional to Valvoline Max-life synthetic blend with all its detergents and seal conditioners.
So I picked up 7 quarts of Valvoline max-life synthetic blend 5-30. Per usual, I used a D3 filter and made a note of the next scheduled oil change. Fast forward a few months and as 5k quickly went by, I noticed that my oil level wasn't really dropping as fast as usual and the oil still looked really good.
Hmmm, I was right at about 5k and hadn't added any oil top-ups. I added 1/8 quart and called it good. I had a trip planned up the west coast and decided to not change the oil until it looked different or 7,500 miles — whichever came first. While I wouldn't advise anyone to go that long, I could not help but let it go and see what it did.
So I did my nearly 2,000 mile run up and down the coast and prepared to change the oil. After inspecting the oil from an engine with essentially 400k miles on it — I was surprised how good it looked!
Now I know many of you are shaking your heads and muttering "that StreetCreeper smokes way too much pot and is a complete idiot..." under your breath. You would certainly be right on the idiot part, but dammed if that oil didn't look, feel and smell like oil that had life still in it even at 7.5k! My curiosity was truly piqued! How long could this oil last and how dumb would I be to keep it in there a little while longer to see?!?!
Well, I’m pretty dumb, so I kept a close eye on it until 7,829 miles when I finally gave in. I just couldn't in good conscience keep going. However, even at 7,829 miles -- the oil looked better than the conventional I usually used at 2.5k....plus it wasn't losing as much oil through leaks.
Compared to new full synthetic oil.
Damn.....this got me thinking about full synthetics and engine wear some again. I revisited a poll I had started on the forum a while back concerning what in the forum members opinions was the root cause for the majority of engine failures. You can find that poll here.
According to those polled, 88.89% of them felt that engine maintenance was the number 1 factor for engine failure. Followed distantly by "manner in which vehicle was driven" at 13.33% and "design" at 11.11%.
Since most people don't work on or maintain their engine, it's safe to say that "poor engine maintenance" really means oil changes or lack thereof. So I started to reevaluate my oil routine.
So how does oil prevent your engine from failing? Most of you know all this, but for anyone who doesnt, oil keeps metal parts from actually touching one another. Friction wears shit out and creates heat. Oil helps prevent friction.
Some wear is to be expected, and that wearing of internal components means that there will be microscopic bits of your engine floating around inside. Those bits are grinding away at surfaces until the oil carries it to the filter and traps it so it doesn't cause any more wear.
If the oil has detergents in it, those detergents will help keep all the little passages inside your engine clear. If they aren't clear, then oil can't flow there, and friction/heat come back to harm your engine.
Basically old oil is just oil full of shit that you don't want in your engine. Old oil can’t clean efficiently, can’t lubricate efficiently and can’t dissipate heat efficiently. In other words, old oil is actually harming your engine (says the guy who just intentionally left his oil in extra long just to see what would happen).
From the limited research and repeated stoned ponderings I’ve done, it seems to me that engine wear comes primarily, from cold starts when the engine components are not sufficiently lubricated (much of the oil has drained to the pan once the engine has cooled sufficiently), viscosity breakdown caused by heat, and not changing the oil before it loses much of its ability to protect your components from wear.
So my requirements for oil were the following:
1) Needs to have excellent cold start protection.
2) Needs to have excellent high temp protection.
3) Needs to be changed before it becomes saturated with contaminants from engine and/or environment, e.g., moisture, fuel, coolant...etc.
After reviewing various oil brands & types (by no means all or even most of them) I have decided to make the switch to Quaker State Ultimate Durability Full Synthetic 5-30.
I chose Quaker State UD because it gets high marks for cold start wear protection, high temp wear protection and lastly, it is reasonably priced and easily sourced at most stores that carry motor oil.
I still plan to change my oil every 5-6 thousand miles and use a genuine Toyota D3 filter.
Next oil change is scheduled @ 401,556 miles.
So there.
(Marijuana contributed significantly to the long-winded ramblings of this post)
