Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Synthetic Motor Oil

WTF are you talking about? Did you just pull that sentence out of your azz?

My '02 Sierra 1/2 ton with the small V8 just went over 313,000 miles. Bought it with 70,000 miles, took out the 1/2 ton springs and put in 3/4 springs, registered it for 8,000 and pulled trailers through the city for 7 years as a contractor until last summer. Same engine and transmission. Conventional 5w30 engine oil. Usually Mobil or sometimes Shell. Never write anything down but change the oil and filter about every 3,000 miles or so. Drop the transmission pan once a year and change that filter and replace the fluid lost in the process. I plan on getting over 400,000 on it.

Maybe I'll try synthetic this winter after reading through this thread. It does start hard at -20 to -30.

Big thing is I probably got lucky on this particular vehicle. Otherwise I think letting them sit is the kiss of death and I try to drive it every day...and I don't drive it like a total idiot so that probably adds engine life too.

When I lived in Fbx without a garage, i had a block heater plus one on the oil pan and the trans. Makes a HUGE difference.

That's why I reco'd the magnetic heater to Sammo. Stick it on, have a cup or two of coffee, and go to work.

And that aint all......

I sure as hell wouldn't do that today... Geeze-Louise..

Did it lotsa times, no problem at all. Mind you , these weren't autos that cost $30k. My average car was worth $500 bucks , maybe. I thought of it catching on fire but I think it never did cause the engine is -20F, so therfore the oil is too. Kind of like taking cold coffee in a paper cup and putting it in a fire. It doesn't catch on fire cause the coffee keeps it too cool to ignite. Only thing I can tink of.

This happened to a service tech of mine that lived in Menomonee WIS back in the early 1980s...

Ronnie had a 1967 Dodge Monaco, with a 383 in it... His uncle was the Dodge dealer in Eau Claire.... and he sold the car to Ronnie's parents new in 1967...

Ronnie Graduated high school in 1970, and started a job was a service tech with our company... His parents gave him the car, which only had 3,000 miles on it at the time...

1981 or 82 rolls around, Chrysler is in the tank, and Lee Ioacocca is doing what he can to keep the company afloat...

Ronnie writes them a letter and lets them know that he has the 67 Monaco with 530,000 miles on it.. the job has him putting 55 to 60 thousand miles a year on it...

He was contacted by Chrysler's marketing and public relations dept, and they want to do a commercial on him and his car....So arrangements are made, that they will fly a camera crew out, and do a filming for the commercial of him and his Monaco at his farm outside Menomonee....

The scheduled day was in January, and the closest airport for them to fly into is Eau Claire, 25 to 30 miles away.... Ron even takes the day off from work for the event...

He jumps in the shower, and tells his 14 year old son to go out and start the car so it is warmed up when the film crew arrive...

its 25 to 30 below that morning...kid puts the key in it to start it and just the old cold weather ..RRRRrrrrr from the motor, as the oil is the viscosity of taffy...

Kid comes in and tells his dad, who is in the shower... dad tells kid to fire up the Hibachi and slip it under the oil pan...

Kid does as told and then comes running back into the house telling his dad the car's on fire... he thinks the kid is being a punk, and trying to fire him up... but kid insists.. he looks at the bathroom window and the entire front of the car is blazing...

Ronnie jumps out of the shower, wraps a towel around himself, throws on his overcoat, jumps into a pair of snow mobile boots, and goes running outside with the fire extinguisher, and his hair still wet and full of shampoo....

of course his hair do quickly freezes in the shape he ran out the door with it in...by the time he gets out in front of the barn, the interior is starting to smolder and catch on fire...

he yells for his son to go and get the other fire extinguisher....

as he finally gets the fire out, he is standing out here in an overcoat that is not hardly buttoned up, his hair looking like a frozen ocean wave coming in, just a towel wrapped around him underneath and standing there in a pair of untied snow mobile boots.. and in the drive way pulls the film crew that flew in from Detroit that morning.....

Have almost 300k on my 93 chevy. I bought it new and always use chevron 5w30
Never had to touch the motor and it still runs strong and uses no oil..
As for synthetics they are great oil. I use it in my motorcycles and have used them in the past in other trucks.. Never kept one long enough to tell if I get better engine life, but I don't doubt it would.. Synthetics are great in extreme cold and won't starve the engine on cold starts. They seem to run a little smother.. I switched all my diesel welders to synthetic for a winter Alaska job and back to conventional oil. Didn't see a problem at all.

Some of Mobil 1 is group IV (0W-40, all the ESP 15K oils, any of the oils that start with 0- not 5-), most Mobil 1 is group III (after Castrol won in court) . Amsoil is Group IV. Redline ,Motul, and Eneos are Group V (ester) and even better. Pennzoil Ultra and Platinum is GTL (gas to liquid) Group III, which is not a true Group IV oil, but great stuff. Any of the oils (from a major manufacturer) that meet manufacturer specs will do you well. Do you like blondes, redheads, or brunettes?

Or you could slap one of these on and save yourself a trip in the cold to plug it in. When it's not too cold I set it to trip on a few hours before I'll start the truck, when it's azz cold I run it all night.

I just bought a Toyota Avalon from a Toyota dealer, and it needs 0W-20 oil. As indicated above, I don't think I can get that viscosity range except in a synthetic or synthetic blend oil. It had 18,000 miles on it when I bought it and the dealer changed the oil for me. They put a sticker on the windshield indicating it is due for the next oil change at 5 months or 26,000 miles! I am used to doing oil changes religiously at about 4,000 mile intervals on my GM cars. The folks at the dealership swear it's okay to go 8,000 to 10,000 miles on synthetic or semi-synthetic oil. It's a certified used car and so has a 7 year, 100,000 mile power train warranty. It's not in their best interest to tell me wrong, but this is going to take some getting used to! By the way, the oil was as clear as water when new and now has 6,000 miles on it. It just now looks like oil in a GM engine with about 1,000 miles on it; it's just beginning to turn dark. the level is in the middle of the operating range. It does have a capacity of 6.5 quarts, about 2 more than on my GM V6 engines. I wonder if the greater oil volume has something to do with the longer oil change interval...

The wife's 2010 Corolla also wants 0W-20, and the only non-synthetic I've seen in that weight range, is Toyota's. They advertise $34.95 oil changes at the dealership, +$30 for synthetic. The service techs advise 5K intervals on conventional oil, and 10K on synthetics.

Of course, they also "advise" replacing the headlight fluid, and new shocks & struts every 15K, and shifter knob lubrication services� I'd guess they're on commission.

FC

i've run several cars to 200k or so running quaker state changed when the dash board tells me to. and none of them used oil or blew smoke. leak, yes, but thats what i call "lazy mans undercoating".