Whats the best oil to run????

[MY1STRUNNER]

hi guys,
Yes..... im a newbie..... with newbie questions.

Just bought my 1st runner, 1996 with 175000.

wanted to ask you vets, whats the best oil to run?

should i go synthetic? hi- mileage?

your help is appreciated.

 

[cordrayj1]

i use mobil 1, just regular mobil 1

 

[badattitude]

Oh boy, you'll get a varied number of responces. IMO you should use Castrol Synthetic for your truck. I belive sythetic is superior to conventional for it's ability to flow at startup, especially if you are in a cold climate. And Castrol is designed for imports. Not sure it makes a differance. I use Mobil 1 and will continue to use it as I just don't want to switch. In retrospect I would have commited to Castrol. They use Castrol at my dealer. Of course, if the synthetic leaks use Castrol conventional oil.

I also like OEM or Mobil 1 filters.

 

[doubleA]

i use Valvoline max life high mileage... purolator pure one filter.

most arguments come down to cost... so go with what you comfortable with. some say full syn is a waste of money, some say not. other comments I have noted are, putting full syn in a high mileage truck that has not run full syn may start to leak. this is due to the detergents in the full syn oil removing the gunk. i for one didn't want them to be right, so I went with Valvoline max life. (BTW max life has a lot detergents too, but so far so good, 1k miles, no a drop lost 115k miles on the engine)

 

[JohnsD90]

I use shell 5w-30 non sythetic, drives fine. I have heard not so great things about castrol in comparision to the reviews of mobil and shell (when comparing syn to syn, and. Non to non). Stick with mobil or shell, they are all i would really ever run in my cars.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Whatever you can find the best price on that is rated at least SL.

 

[theizzardking]

baby dinosaur oil... it's like veal for our engines...mmmmmm veal

 

[quicksilvr]

baby dinosaur oil... it's like veal for our engines...mmmmmm veal

ROFL.


In all seriousness, the best oil is the kind that is clean, and the proper viscosity. Which means: use any 5w30 you want, change it regularly, and use a high quality oil filter. PureOne, Mobil1, K&N, Toyota OEM, all good filters.


I run Mobil1 High Mileage 5w30 in my 4Runner with an oversize PureOne filter (PL20195). I've also used Valvoline SynPower, Pennzoil Platinum, and Quaker State Q. All good oils. My truck has had full synthetic since 2002...so that's why I keep using it.

My sisters truck has 244k miles on it. I usually put Valvoline MaxLife in it, but I've run regular Pennzoil yellow bottle in a couple times too. It's never had synthetic, I believe most of it's life it got Castrol GTX conventional oil.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Like everyone has already stated, pretty much ANY oil is fine just depends on what YOU want from it and how often you feel like changing it.

You can use the cheapest oil you can find as long as you don't let it go more than about 3000 miles MAX.
Slightly better grade petroleum maybe you can safely get a bit longer out of it but personally I would never let petroleum oil go much past 3000 miles in any of these Toyota engines that are prone to sludging up.

100% "real synthetic" like Amsoil or Redline is always going to be the best choice over all and really wont cost that much more if any, in fact if you get your oil changed and do not do it yourself then you will probably save money using synthetic.
You can let 100% synthetic go for maybe up to 12,000+ miles especially if you drive a lot of highway miles and drive it in less than a year.

I usually change mine once a year but I only drive at most about 8000 miles a year on average.

I use 5W30 Amsoil signature series with their 15,000 mile EA Oil Filter and change it once a year.

As far the engine having 175K on it, that really should make no difference as far as running synthetic or not. If your engine leaks its because you already have a leak, if your seals are not too far gone then it is possible the synthetic could swell them back up over time.

 

[flatboy]

In my taco I've always ran Redline 5w30 and beat the hell outa that motor - 14psi, nitrous 5500rpm shifts regularly. So the first thing I did with the new 4 runner was switch it to Redline. My wifes CRV gets Royal Purple mostly because she liked the bottle colour.


shayne

 

[Gerdo]

Some prefer synthetic and some prefer conventional.

No mater what ONLY USE 5w30. Heaver is NOT better.

Modern engines have tighter tolerances than older engines. The thinner oils is requires to reach into those tight tolerances. You can actually oil starve an engine with too thick of an oil.

 

[gotsboost]

royal purple
Check it out-http://royalpurple.com/rp-videos.html#

 

[zcruiser]

Castrol GTX

 

[miheckman]

i run pensoil 10w 30 have ran it in all the cars i have had no problems at all

 

[WHORERUNNER]

Same here as nunyabiz. I run 5w30 sig series with 15k oil filter. As well as f&r diffs plus t-case and trans. I have used amsoil on previous t4r's and have been very happy.

 

[Baja Runner]

Just remember, you get what you pay for.

That being said, synthetic is slightly more advanced. However, I do not feel that synthetic oil will have less particles/dirt/contaminants after 3k miles than conventional oil, and should be still changed in 3k mile increments.

IMO -- Synthetic isn't worth the price tag, as long as you change your oil ever 3k, you can use what you want.

 

[Supra725]

Mobil 1 Full Synthetic 5w30 for me..

 

[Socco]

5w30, Black 'n Slippery. I did a job a bottling plant once that changed my perspective on oil... They had one giant bulk tank that fed the 1 quart bottle line, in the morning they ran bottles branded for a nationwide gas station chain, after lunch it was for a local drug store. They had bottles prepped for at least 5 other companies waiting in line.

 

[Nelsonmd]

Some prefer synthetic and some prefer conventional.

No mater what ONLY USE 5w30. Heaver is NOT better.

Modern engines have tighter tolerances than older engines. The thinner oils is requires to reach into those tight tolerances. You can actually oil starve an engine with too thick of an oil.

x2, and as was said, just follow the change intervals. Even conventional oil can go alot longer than the 3k miles that they specify, but this isn't an item you want to be pushing the limit on, especially since it canbe done for less than $20 and 30 minutes. I would rather run the cheapest oil of the proper weight changed early every time than use the best most expensive synthetic and run it for the 15k miles that some of them advertise. As was mentioned, synthetic will still get dirty, it just won't break down as easily as conventional

5w30, Black 'n Slippery. I did a job a bottling plant once that changed my perspective on oil... They had one giant bulk tank that fed the 1 quart bottle line, in the morning they ran bottles branded for a nationwide gas station chain, after lunch it was for a local drug store. They had bottles prepped for at least 5 other companies waiting in line.

Yeah, it is very interesting to see how some of this stuff works. I bet every one of those brands that were coming from the same tank were sold for a different price.

Sorry baja, but you don't always get what you pay for, sometimes you get less.

I think I usually get the oil change special at autozone. I add seafoam to the oil 100 miles before I change it. I think I am going to change to synthetic and change it every half as often (5-6k), that's what I did on my old car. I drive 80+ miles a day commuting, so I hit 3k miles pretty dang fast.

 

[fasterdammit]

re: oil change intervals

I used to have a series 1 Disco, and of course the topic of oils & intervals was a popular one on one of the Land Rover forums; one of the guys was an LR tech who had an interesting viewpoint on change intervals - at least as it was related to the early Discos: every 3k or every 3 months, whichever comes first, and run a can of ATF (automatic transmission fluid) through it for 5 minutes in the driveway (i.e., no load on the motor, just idling) prior to the oil change. Didn't matter what flavor oil, just use the right viscosity (obviously).

And since I was only putting about 2500 miles/year on my truck at that point (I'm a motorcyclist) I practically spit my coffee over the monitor. 4x a year, for 2500m? In the summer, I would go 2 months without even putting GAS in that thing (because I'd have put 4k on one of the bikes), nevermind changing the oil ...

But ultimately, apples to oranges: that was a Rover, my T4R is not ... and the Rover barely made it to 100k, whereas I'm looking at 201k ...

Regarding the 4R, I'm still trying to decide whether to swap up to full-syn and/or 'high mileage' ...