I use Blackstone when I have an analysis done. I tend to be a real believer on synthetic oil from Mobil, and in particular using high detergent Diesel motor oil in gas engines. I probably run my oil longer than most guys on the campfire, but they get done at still regular intervals. Analysis seems to tell me a lot, and is why I run my oil in my engines for so long.
Not used as much as it use to be most of its life... I have a 4 Runner, with a gnat's hair under 600K on it, with the original engine still under the hood in good running shape. Have run a few vehicles 350 to 425K, and gave them away still in operational shape. I keep on eye on things, anyone remember getting flamed on a thread where I say I change my valve cover gaskets every 50,000 miles? Boy did I get flamed by a bunch of macho idiots over that. One even bragging how he beat the schitt out of his truck, and never changed the valve cover gaskets... guess oil leaks are MANLY.
Vehicles I personally drive myself, and in the drive way;
88 4Runner, 22 RE engine. 593K on it.
06 Honda Pilot, 333K on it ( just rolled over today in fact)
08 Camry 4 cylinder and manual trans 207K
11 Tacoma 4WD pickup, 4.0 V 6.... low mileage on this one... 176K
Put a lot of miles on vehicles each year, for business and then a couple of trips down to Arizona or back to Minnesota, and last couple of years, a long one back to the east coast, to visit family in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, then up to New England. Last one I took was in November and December, getting back like Jan 4th or so. That one was 250 miles short of 10,000 miles round trip. That was in the Pilot, where I towed a trailer back to the east coast, I had built out here. For family in New England... women, disabled Army Vet.
Oil analysis, keeps me on top of what is going on within the engines....
Change automatic trans tho ( on the other end ) more often than most folks do... every 25K Manual trans, every 50K.
Rear ends and front ends on 4 WD vehicles, every 50K also.
Removing valve cover when replacing gaskets, I don't see any sludge on the heads or rocker arms. Even when I replaced the head on my 4 Runner at 540K, ( only time), there was NO Sludge on the head....always used 5W40 or 15W 40 oil, and changed it every 20K to 25K. synthetic Mobil diesel truck oil. Filter changes every 5 K, until I started running Mobil one filters when they came out... those get changed every 12.5 to 15K most often. Air Filters every 20K.
Most if not all analysis I've gotten back from Blackstone, tell me my engines are in good shape, and the tell me to run the next drain another 2 to 3K miles longer and send that in to see how its doing.
A short year of mileage is about 40K on the road, and a long one is normally 60K. and the "mechanic" doing the most of my work on my vehicles? Myself.. I don't trust many other mechanics....so I only have me to blame when something breaks down, and I usually know how to fix it...even when I am a couple thousand miles from home.
