Mileage Update

[twitch]

Well, I did it...... I switched over to the 20W-50 oil. I had a guy tell me I was going to blow out my seals with oil that heavy. I have to be honest, it made me feel a little sick at my stomach putting it in there. When I took to 5w oil out it was like water. Granted it was hot from being run but, I put it on my hand and rubbed my fingers togather and it was like nothing was there. in my head I was thinking that 20w was going to be like honey but, it isn't. it looks like 10w-40 stuff we have used my whole life. I don't know if I could tell the differance side by side. I don't know my oil pressure because the dumb arsses at toyota decided that we need a check engine light rather than gauges so... I guess it is a wait and see thing. I don't notice anything remarkable about it yet. I did notice that my oil I had changed 2 weeks ago is already turning black. blackish purple.

Pray I don't blow any seals or break anything! It is a new motor! just paied 6k for it and can't aford another one.

PAul they will answer...I have always received a return e-mail....
I also
received the Fever buster today..it is installed about an hour and 1/2 ....I ran a little on the highway to calibrate it...
you can tell when you have too high a voltage as the engine
feels like its choking on gas.....mine is set just a tiny turn from complete counter clockwise setting...It is too early to give any indication of MPG....I just filled up...truck runs pretty good and responds at a light touch of the accelerator....

I really need the fuel fogger now.....maybe I'll get that next week

stay tuned for a report....Ii really can;t tell if it will be better or worse right now...last time when my tires rolled easy I thought for sure my MPG would risel.but it fell....so we will see in 3-4 days...
but a better test would be a rerun of the Lancaster PA trip
that I just did.....its hard to be truly scientific in the experiments when you use the veihicle in real life

Regards,
JOhn

 

[twitch]

"found this artical in a search for 20w-50 oil. I think the differances are run time and heat but, knowing what I know now I am going to spend the money and go back to the 5w-30. I am thinking that would be smarter than running what I have now for to long. I am afraid I am going to dammage the motor.
Read the message below and tell me what you think.


Ken, thanks for the tip on the 209 filter.

This weekend I'm installing an OilGuard bypass filter. Used them in industrial applications and for under $200 I wanted to add the protection to my engine.

And to those using a 10w-30 instead of a 5w-30, you might be missing some startup protection for no gain iin protection when warm.

We have run standby generators on 5w-30, 10w-30 and 20w-50. These engines get run and stopped about 100 times a week, with running times that vary between 5 minutes and 1 hour.

Oil samples up to 4,000 hours show the 5w-30 to be much better than the 10w-30 for engine wear indicators.

Can't answer about 20w-50 becuase those three engines never made it that far. They all dumped before 2,500 hours. They suffered camshaft and lifter wear along with excessive ring and cylinder wall wear. We also had crankcase vent problems and had to change the oil at 100 hour intervals when the 5w-30 (23 engines) was lasting close to 500 hours, based on oil sampling.

Using the wrong oil and changing it more frequently is just not the answer.

The 10w-30 engines (12) were making it to 350/400 hours between changes, based on oil sampling.

So all that talk about 'lighter' oils being only for CAFE ratings might be a little over blown.

We have three engines (that replaced the 20w-50 engines) that are over 700 hours on oil sample driven oil changes, that are using 0w-30 oil.

These indicators are for engines that are started cold, brough up to 3,600 RPM in 60 seconds and full load applied and they are run from between 5 minutes and not more than 1 hour, with an average of 100 cycles per week.

By the way, the oil is Mobil 1. Regular oil in 5w-30 and 10w-30 never made 100 hours between changes and with these more frequent oil changes we never got 2500 hours from an engine. The overhauls to put an engine back in service were a lot more expensive, requiring more replacement parts. That put to rest the idea of saving money on the price of oil and changing it more frequently. It just does not work.

You will hear a lot about oil that is not based on real world testing but this is a close as I can come. I'm using 5w-30 Mobil 1 with the Mobil 1 filter (the 209) and changing at 5k miles to keep my warranty in place.

In cold weather I would use 0w-30, but in San Diego there is no weather so the 5w-30 is good for the whole year.

 

[Climb14er]

And to those using a 10w-30 instead of a 5w-30, you might be missing some startup protection for no gain iin protection when warm.

There's a lot to be said re: lighter oils vs heavier weight oils.

However, when the factory recommends a 5W-30 or even a 10W-30 oil I'd be very hesitant to use a 20W-50 racing type of oil.

This is based on thirty five years of using racing oils, diesel oils and now 5W-30 weight oil in my 4Runner V8. :

 

[abigpicture]

I have had my Fever buster on for a few days now...Unfortunatley I have not been able to drive it on the hwy more than 10 miles at a time....and this latest 110 miles had lots of stop and go traffic in the city....

my mileage came in at 18.5 for basically city driving....that is lower than my previous MPG but also the conditions were worse...therefore I have really no opinioin of the Fever buster as of yet....it seems I am going to have to install a scangauge to
set the "FB" to and optimum setting....it is hard to do it by feel....

SO the verdict is simply not out yet good or bad....however my most recent MPG was towards the worse category....I also had real gasoline still left in my tank for the previous MPG reading of 20.83
that real gas now is gone...and its the 10 Ethonal crap in there now.....
like I said the scientific method needs repetitive tests that are identical to be accurate....

JOhn

 

[Road Warrior]

If you live in a colder climate, I would start saving for an engine rebuild. 20W50 will not flow to vital engine parts as quickly as a 10W30 will, especially in cold weather. Most engine wear occurs at start up while vital parts are waiting for their lubricant to be 'delivered' via the oil pump. This is not by accidient, all motors are engineered with that in mind which is why correct oil vis is especially important to longevity!

"found this artical in a search for 20w-50 oil. I think the differances are run time and heat but, knowing what I know now I am going to spend the money and go back to the 5w-30. I am thinking that would be smarter than running what I have now for to long. I am afraid I am going to dammage the motor.
Read the message below and tell me what you think.


Ken, thanks for the tip on the 209 filter.

This weekend I'm installing an OilGuard bypass filter. Used them in industrial applications and for under $200 I wanted to add the protection to my engine.

And to those using a 10w-30 instead of a 5w-30, you might be missing some startup protection for no gain iin protection when warm.

We have run standby generators on 5w-30, 10w-30 and 20w-50. These engines get run and stopped about 100 times a week, with running times that vary between 5 minutes and 1 hour.

Oil samples up to 4,000 hours show the 5w-30 to be much better than the 10w-30 for engine wear indicators.

Can't answer about 20w-50 becuase those three engines never made it that far. They all dumped before 2,500 hours. They suffered camshaft and lifter wear along with excessive ring and cylinder wall wear. We also had crankcase vent problems and had to change the oil at 100 hour intervals when the 5w-30 (23 engines) was lasting close to 500 hours, based on oil sampling.

Using the wrong oil and changing it more frequently is just not the answer.

The 10w-30 engines (12) were making it to 350/400 hours between changes, based on oil sampling.

So all that talk about 'lighter' oils being only for CAFE ratings might be a little over blown.

We have three engines (that replaced the 20w-50 engines) that are over 700 hours on oil sample driven oil changes, that are using 0w-30 oil.

These indicators are for engines that are started cold, brough up to 3,600 RPM in 60 seconds and full load applied and they are run from between 5 minutes and not more than 1 hour, with an average of 100 cycles per week.

By the way, the oil is Mobil 1. Regular oil in 5w-30 and 10w-30 never made 100 hours between changes and with these more frequent oil changes we never got 2500 hours from an engine. The overhauls to put an engine back in service were a lot more expensive, requiring more replacement parts. That put to rest the idea of saving money on the price of oil and changing it more frequently. It just does not work.

You will hear a lot about oil that is not based on real world testing but this is a close as I can come. I'm using 5w-30 Mobil 1 with the Mobil 1 filter (the 209) and changing at 5k miles to keep my warranty in place.

In cold weather I would use 0w-30, but in San Diego there is no weather so the 5w-30 is good for the whole year.

 

[twitch]

Cold is not one of the ways we describe this part of Texas but, I have changed back to 5w-30. right of the start I noticed a HUGE downslide in my MPG's. and I was using good gas! so I changed back quick! I really am not sure about the rest of this stuff now! they were giving 20w-50 the thumbs up but after reading more and trying it I give it 2 thumbs down for performance and mpg's. results were as follows.

normal city is 15 with 5w30
new city is 10 with 20w50

not good, not good at all! very sad about the results.

If you live in a colder climate, I would start saving for an engine rebuild. 20W50 will not flow to vital engine parts as quickly as a 10W30 will, especially in cold weather. Most engine wear occurs at start up while vital parts are waiting for their lubricant to be 'delivered' via the oil pump. This is not by accidient, all motors are engineered with that in mind which is why correct oil vis is especially important to longevity!

 

[iLLWiLL]

at 1325 miles, i'm averaging 18.3 MPG on my '07 v8 4WD...average speed is 30 mph

 

[Atomic 4Runner]

25k Mileage Report

My 2006 V-8 Limited has 23,500 miles, and I have tracked every drop of gas that has gone in it since I bought it new with 2 miles on the odometer. That was 15 months ago.

I have used 1,354.3 gallons of fuel, with about 50% 87 octance, and the remainder a mixture of 89 and 93 octane. My cumulative fuel economy right now is 17.3 mpg.

This includes one 5k mile trip from Tennessee to Las Vegas and back, with the rest of the mileage being inter-city and suburban type driving. Maybe being over 50 years old helps with the fuel economy, cause I sure don't make hard accelerations like I did in my younger days. Well, not as often as I would like.

 

[twitch]

where is Abigpicture

what is up with the feaverbuster?

 

[twitch]

did everyone start getting free gas or something? everyone just stoped talking!

Will be out of touch for a week or so due to hurricane. I am sure they will lower the price of gas if we get hit here! we are only 40% of the nations refineries. LOL!

Looks like south Texas will take the hit from what I can tell.

Anyone heard about the Feaverbuster yet? Abigpicture was going to install it and tell us how it worked but, he hasn't been back. hope he is ok!

I had decided to leave the 20w50 in for a while and run it. I can tell a small increase in highway miles but in town there really isn't that much of a dif. I think I am going to find the heavest weight 5w I can find and put it in.

I ran some super 98 oct. last week and I don't know if i got bad gas or what but, I expected to get better fuel and got worse, way worse. I just for the life of me don't understand why they think ethnol is a good thing. it raises the price and takes more to do anything.

one of the guys here at work runs gocarts racing. he was telling me about some product called nitro. it is a high oxygen based liquid. he said it would burn hot. I wonder what a small bit of that would do in the tank? little bit will do ya!

 

[Paul2660]

I held off on the 20W-50, but haven't ruled it out. I heard back from the Brightgreen folks in relation to the oil. I did a web search and it seems that there is alot of evidence against the use the 20W-50 in trucks/cars that have engines designed for the lower Viscosity oils, like 5W-20 or 30. I did remember one thing from my own use. I used to own a 89 Acura Legend, great car, but that model/engine was famous for Lifter Noise. As they got older, almost all of them would start making the noise. My remedy was to use full synthetic on the car, in one lighter weight that it asked for. The results were interesting, the lifter noise stopped, however many of the engine seals and others areas started to leak oil. Not bad, but I did start to see oil leaks. My mechanic, who I was using at the time and trusted, mentioned that when you moved to full synthetic, often you would start to see leaks. So on the next change, I did a 50-50 blend and then started to see less oil but still kept the lifter noise down. Net, this proves to me that a lighter not heavier weight oil would get around all the engine parts better. This goes against the 20W-50 theory. I still may try the 20W-50 in my older Landcruiser, and see what happens, however I don't think I am going to try it in the 4R. I haven't added acetone yet since I haven't had a long trip in the truck to really measure it. But I am still going to try that, even though there also seems to be alot out there that works against the theory that it makes any difference and or can harm some of the engine parts. The evidence on Acetone seems more 50-50 as many people point out that most of the over the shelf gas additives have acetone in them.

I still feel deep down that if it really made a big difference, then everyone would be doing it as it's not hard to get or add.

Paul Caldwell

 

[4Runner168]

19.6 MPG average on my V6.......:driving:

 

[twitch]

I think adding the acietone to your fuel would not hurt anything, it is such a small amount that it wouldn't dammange anything..

I held off on the 20W-50, but haven't ruled it out. I heard back from the Brightgreen folks in relation to the oil. I did a web search and it seems that there is alot of evidence against the use the 20W-50 in trucks/cars that have engines designed for the lower Viscosity oils, like 5W-20 or 30. I did remember one thing from my own use. I used to own a 89 Acura Legend, great car, but that model/engine was famous for Lifter Noise. As they got older, almost all of them would start making the noise. My remedy was to use full synthetic on the car, in one lighter weight that it asked for. The results were interesting, the lifter noise stopped, however many of the engine seals and others areas started to leak oil. Not bad, but I did start to see oil leaks. My mechanic, who I was using at the time and trusted, mentioned that when you moved to full synthetic, often you would start to see leaks. So on the next change, I did a 50-50 blend and then started to see less oil but still kept the lifter noise down. Net, this proves to me that a lighter not heavier weight oil would get around all the engine parts better. This goes against the 20W-50 theory. I still may try the 20W-50 in my older Landcruiser, and see what happens, however I don't think I am going to try it in the 4R. I haven't added acetone yet since I haven't had a long trip in the truck to really measure it. But I am still going to try that, even though there also seems to be alot out there that works against the theory that it makes any difference and or can harm some of the engine parts. The evidence on Acetone seems more 50-50 as many people point out that most of the over the shelf gas additives have acetone in them.

I still feel deep down that if it really made a big difference, then everyone would be doing it as it's not hard to get or add.

Paul Caldwell

 

[abigpicture]

Im back

Been on vacation for awhile. I'm back...my last trip from Harrisburg PA to Wash D.C. today yielded 26.24 MPG

this is with no A/C...55-63 mph and with about 500 pounds of extra weight due to Wife Child Labrador suitcases etc..

I have set my feverbuster on stock as I need to get a scan guage
to calibrate it

my mileage over the last few weeks ranged from 18.5 to 26.24
still much better than my previous range before my changes..

Those discussing 20w-50 please use the TORCO oil and additives as described by LOU at smartgas.net

I have not added the fuel warmer yet ...

JOhn

 

[twitch]

Re: Im back

glad to hear you are still with the living LOL!

Been on vacation for awhile. I'm back...my last trip from Harrisburg PA to Wash D.C. today yielded 26.24 MPG

this is with no A/C...55-63 mph and with about 500 pounds of extra weight due to Wife Child Labrador suitcases etc..

I have set my feverbuster on stock as I need to get a scan guage
to calibrate it

my mileage over the last few weeks ranged from 18.5 to 26.24
still much better than my previous range before my changes..

Those discussing 20w-50 please use the TORCO oil and additives as described by LOU at smartgas.net

I have not added the fuel warmer yet ...

JOhn

 

[abqsteve]

1996 SR5 4x4 MPG

I'm getting 21-22 MPG with my 1996 SR5. It's the 3.6l V6 4x4 5 speed manual. I'm pretty happy with that MPG.

 

[abqsteve]

Mythbusters the other night proved that Acetone actually degrades gas mileage

Also, if the orings are viton, acetone will cause them to very quickly swell and decay.

 

[mtnracer]

I have followed discussions regarding fuel mileage many times on this forum and I just want to re-iterate that the 4Runner onboard MPG calculator is WAY off.

Anyone claiming to drive a V8 4x4 4R and getting over 20MPG needs to do some manual calcs. It will make you cry.

The best I have EVER seen in my 2003 V8 4x4 was 18.1 MPG and that was cruising on the highway no faster than 65 MPH. At 85 MPH I barely get 14 MPG.

Anyway, I hope someone will come up with some definitive recommendations for better MPGs.

One weird note: My 2003 Land Cruiser gets the same MPG as my 4R even though it weighs about 1000 lbs more. Of course they have the same engine and both are full time 4WD.

 

[abqsteve]

I have followed discussions regarding fuel mileage many times on this forum and I just want to re-iterate that the 4Runner onboard MPG calculator is WAY off.

Anyone claiming to drive a V8 4x4 4R and getting over 20MPG needs to do some manual calcs. It will make you cry.

Yeah, I always calculate my manually. In fact, excel does it for me. Geek out.

 

[03 Limited]

Yeah, I always calculate my manually. In fact, excel does it for me. Geek out.

Same here, although when i divide up miles with gallons in, the on board mpg meter is pretty darn close on the avg, its no more then 0.4~0.5 mpg off.

50/50 street and freeway i get 19 MPG avg, and about 23-24MPG on pure freeway.