Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Engine oil?

Use what the factory recommends.. I have been using chevron 10-30 in my 93 chevy and have done regular oil changes and now have 289k and have not touched the motor. It runs like a champ and uses no oil and no smoke. I think I may have another 100 k in it. I used to tow a 35 ft travel trailer and 19 ft off shore boat. Made a few trips to Thasis bc on vancover island. 20+ percent grade on gravel so that old truck has had a workout...
Filters....A C. Filters used to be made by wix haven't used then for years tho. Anything from napa gold or any auto parts premium filter will most likly be made by wix.. Just look at the fine print..
Stay away from anything like fram puerlator ect you get for cheap. Ask at napa about cutting filters apart.
Key to long engine life is good oil/ filter and reg oil changes and don't get it hot..

Mobil 1 and a Motorcraft filter in my 2014 Ecoboost.

Almost everything I've ever read about Purolator oil filters has been very positive.

The best lubrication and oil filter won't do chit if you're pouring dirt down the intake.. Air filters and proper intervals matter. Highway miles are a lot different than stop and go or dirt roads.

We routinely get 200,000+ miles out of our Fords with conventional oils. I've always felt that synthetic oils are overrated. Clean oil, and a new filter every 3,000 miles.

Agree on the air filter....but that a given right..

Mobil 1 0w-30 synthetic and a Toyota filter in my '05 Tacoma. I've only had the truck for a month so this was my first oil change with it. I had a Corolla for a long time that really seemed to like the same oil.

Mobil 1 and Motorcraft filters in my 2014 F-150 Ecoboost and 1993 5.0 LX....
Valvoline Dino and Purolator filters in the 2005 Toyota Matrix....

Mobile 1 0w-40

Went back to Amsoil in my deisel Duramax. The only reason is cause It got darn cold here last winter and synthetic helps it start a bit better. I am going to start with the oil analysis again with a filter change every 15k.

I run whatever oil is cheapest, usually the Chevron stuff from Costco, and Wix filters. I've run every car or truck I've owned close to, or well past, 200k and never had an issue related to oil.


Wife's car gets Mobil 1 because that's what she wants and she buys it.

I change oil every 5K miles. Most of the time, I use whatever is on sale. Same for filters.
Old 4Runner is well north of 300K miles now, and seems no worse for wear due to oil changes.

Pennzoil Platinum and a Purolator Pureone filter.

2010 Nissan Titan.

Dan

rotella T6 and wix filters.

I run synthetic motor oil for cold starting because of the VI modifiers and the high film pressure. Buy the cheap walmart synthetic oil that has the right API grade and change out at 3K instead of the 6K my chevrolet manual says.
Run Fram higher grade oil filters because of the convenient sticky stuff on the end. Fram is tied in with Cummins so they know their filtration.
Don't believe the pictures of construction on filters pointing out plastic parts because they are percieved as poor quality. Its all about media performance and integrity.

Don't use K&N air filter - low restirction for "power", but poor filtration. Just because you see stickers on "race cars" doesn't mean they are "good". They just market to the sheeple and its stupid thinking you can clean a air filter and "save money" doing it. Use air filters the Ag & heavy construction people spec on their $100K+ machinery because they warrant their engines and need to hit perfrmance targets (think Mann, Donaldson, Cummins or quality suppliers)

Oil filters are trivial - its quality fuel and air filters really matter. Engine oil filters are pretty "loose" compared to hydraulic filters and keeping oil in the proper TBN range is more important.

I wasn't impressed with my Napa gold air filters I bought on "sale" during my last maintence interval. Some are better built than others and its their manufacturer variances.

I wasn't impressed with the WIX salesman and business model when he was in my office trying to get my filter designs. Seems like a will fitter and thats all. Baldwin doesn't impress me much, but they make a passable filter.


Yea... I'm opinionated, but I know a lot more about filtration than most people. The problem is consumers can't get the performance data to make good choices so you have to fall back to using API standards and buying product from reputable manufacturers.

Trying to find a good reason for buying the cheap Walmart synthetic and changing it twice as often. Enlighten me here.

The Napa Platinum filter is supposed to be a Wix or made by Wix?

My mechanic recommends them to me.

Also an interesting observation. I have a 6.2L Ford V-8 and ran it on Amsoil for the first 40K miles. It used some oil between changes of 7500 miles, about a quart. I took it to the dealership about the oil usage and they changed it to the Motorcraft synthetic blend that was recommended by them for the motor. It immediately stopped using oil.

I don't know if the rings coincidentally got broken in properly at that time or if the Amsoil is just so "skinny" that it used a lot.

Two reasons: (actually four)
1. The typical oil change interval is based on "typical driving" where "Severe duty usage" accelerates the oil change intervals. Trailering and running dirt roads puts you into severe duty category typically. Cheaper insurance to change it more often with a lower cost same API grade oil.

2. My truck doesn't get driven much so the seasonal changes drive lower intervals...
An example is to change after hunting season when my dirt road driving drops off and I don't want to change it later in frozen December in my unheated garage. I change at the end of winter to get rid of the short drive/cold engine water emulsion the oil holds before I start trailering again in the spring.

3. Fresh oil will always have a higher TBN and obviously less acid to sit there and etch your bearings. Getting rid of carbon emulsion is good to.

4. A person could try oil monitoring for TBN and wear metals if they were really concerned, but and oil change is cheaper than a test kit. I would have a different opinion if this was construction or heavy ag equipment or even an industrial air compressor.

Ok. I can see your reasoning for a low annual mileage vehicle. I change the oil and filter on my play cars every 12 months because they don't get miles put on them. I use Mobil 1. On my daily driver, a Cummins, I use regular Rotella T4 and change it every 5-7k. Did this on my previous '03 Cummins that made 502hp and 1060 ft/lb to the wheels for almost 300k miles and the engine was clean as new inside and used no oil. I'm still over maintaining them according to Cummins but that's what works for me.

Fram is not tied in with Cummins. Cummins filtration division is fleetguard, which makes extremely good filters that are always my first choice.

Years ago Dodge and Cummins issued a technical service bulletin advising against using Fram's filters on Cummins diesel engines, specifically the Fram PH3976. The filter was poorly made with glued parts inside that were coming apart due to the strong oil pressure output of the cummins engines. The filter parts were clogging the oil passages and causing bearing failure. Fram eventually redesigned the filter to the PH3976A to fix the issue.

It's not all about media performance and integrity if the filter is so cheaply made that it comes apart. There are much better filters at the same price point as Fram, purolator is an example of a much better filter costing roughly the same as a Fram.

I don't care what grade Fram it is, I won't use them.

It would take some digging, but I think there is cummins filtration ties to Fram at a sub-brand level somewhere. It may be on the air filter side as part of cummins buying up nelson. Fram could be the consumer level line where fleetgard is kept as the industrial side. Some of these filter brands will have up to a dozen brand names hiding under them because filter companies grow by buying each other out.

Most people don't realize that many filter companies make filters for each other to round out their product lines and you really don't know whose filter you're getting many times.

As far as "glued parts" coming apart... ALL filters have the media potted to a end cap whether it is cardboard, metal, or plastic. Most people think a good oil filter is one that doesn't leak!
The media is glued together at the seam or heat bonded with monoplastic or metal clips and sometimes plastic endcaps are the best because steel platings can be hard to bond to.

The filter media is "glued" together too. Most engine lube filters are cellulose media which is wood fiber with resin glue holder the fibers together. If you think about it - A common facial tissue is a higher grade of resin bonded cellulose that doesn't break down when wet unlike toilet paper that you want to breakdown and it has less resign in it. Synthetic medias trump cellulose medias BTW.

If given a choice, I would only use filter companies that publish an engineering applications catalog and not just a cross reference book. A company that publishes engineering data does its homework and probably really tested the aftermarket product offerings. Going with a Donaldson or Mann would be better because they supply to Deere, case, and Cat and know rough applications. A lot of time the automotive companies go for the lowest cost and the industrial filter companies don't even play in that market.

Too bad you had a bad experience with your Fram filter and it sounds like Fram missed a application parameter when they made the crossover line. Its proof that a person should stay with the OEM filter because you know its "application approved". Like most consumers, its hard to pay the dealership price when you know they really don't make the filter and you really want to find the real manufacturer and not pay the dealership markup!