2001 Tundra 4.7 V8 135,000 miles Rotella Syn??

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bandit9

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Manual calls for 5/30, I have be using 5/30 Mobil 5000 with OCI 5000. I am in the pest control business. I put about 30K miles a year on a vehicle. I drive 20 miles into town, then about every hour or so, I start it up and drive for 10-15 mins. After doing that during the day, I drive 20 miles back home. I also would like to keep this truck until the frame rusts apart.

What would be the oil and OCI of choice for my needs? Would Shell Rotella Syn 5/40 or the Dino 15/40 Rotella work? Or does the OEM's 5/30 spec need to be followed on the Tundra?

I did a search and didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so forgive me if this has been discussed before.

Great site,
Chris Blanco
 
There is no need to increase the viscosity from what Toyota recommends. This is a very low wearing engine and your driving is not as severe as you may be led to believe. Also your climate is actually really easy on an engine. Heat and humidity are not going to put excessive stress on the engine or oil.
I recommend that you keep doing exactly what you are doing (conventional oil at 5k miles) and your engine will definitely outlast the rest of the truck. Using a 40wt would only waste fuel and you would see any benefits in wear reduction. A heavier oil could also have negative effects on your starter motor life.
 
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We have a lot of Tundras, some 4Runners and Sequoias in fleet service with V8 engines. Don't use 40 weight oil. We have Tundra working in the desert in brutal conditions and 5w-30 is the ticket. This engine produces great uoa's, and will live a long time with normal maintenance. Some of these vehicles in severe duty are using German Castrol Syntec 0w-30 with great results. This is a thick 30 weight that is almost a 40 weight, but we only use it in the most severe applicaitions. You are nowhere close to that. Otherwise we use 5w-30, even in the desert. We don't use Mobil products because of cost. They perform just fine, but cost too much. We also have about a dozen Tundras in light duty like yours using Motorcraft 5w-20 with excellent results and have plans on expanding this to more vehicles. Just remember the duty cycle you describe is a light one. Let me give you an idea of the sever duty cycle that get the German Castrol Syntec. They drive mostly on unpaved roads. They haul hundreds of pounds of tools with two people. They tow a trailer that weighs about two thousand pounds. Speeds are often under 10 mph for long periods of time going over bumps and ruts. The trailer hitch is a pintle hook which transmits a lot of jolts back and forth between the truck and trailer. They are in four wheel drive over 75% of the time and average under 5mpg. Air filters last no more than a week. We use the standard air filter with a prefilter added and a delta gauge. We change the filters based on the gauge reading and as I've stated the average life of a filter is a week, sometimes two weeks. We tried K&N filters but the stock paper filter with a prefilter works better in our experience. Believe me your truck does not live a tough life.
 
It is not going to matter what you use in this engine from a wear stand point. If you want to try 5W40 go for it you are not going to hurt anything. I would though do a UOA of your current oil at the end of the oil change interval for comparison. If you should decide to go to 5W40 I would try 8000 miles with a UOA then try 10,000 mile if the 8000 mile UOA is good. My Dad has in the past ran M1 15W50 in moms Tundra in the warm months and 10W30 dureing the winter. This time around I put 5W30 in the Tundra.The real qustion is weather or not you will gain anything by going to a 5W40 and I have to admit that with this engne it is doubtful but possable that it might do a better job. I think if you really want to try a synthetic I would try M1 or PP 10W30 most synthetic 10W30's have no VII's int hem and are very shear stable.The main advantage to going to a synthetic 10W30 or 5W40 is going to be deposit control. If you decide to stay with conventional oil I would go with Chevron Suprem or Havoline in 5W30.
 
Oh and if you wanted to run a dino 15W40 you could do that as well but I would expect it to cut into fuel ecconomy a little!! Delo 15W40 is the best OTC 15W40 on the market inmy opion!
 
These trucks service micro-wave installations in the desert. They are placed where the need to be, not where they are easy to get at. The Tundra V8 does not need an oil cooler and does not need a 40 weight oil. 30 weight oil works well and it looks like 20 weight oil is, in our small numbers, working well to for non-severe duty. Also we have found no value in using anything but the stock type air filter. This engine has got to be one of the best engines going for durability.
 
The UOA section has a bunch of Toyota/Lexus V8 UOAs.

With a 30k year driving style, I would seriously consider any synthetic oil and 10k-15k OCI's. Less time in the shop and less time being serviced is something to consider. 2-3 OCIs a year vs 6 with a mineral oil=less hassle. Just remember to monitor oil consumption and top off if needed. A larger filter fits easily. I regular use the FL1a/PH8a sized filters on the 4.7L. This adds a little oil volume and extra filtering area if you will consider the 10k+ OCI.

There is no need for a 40wt. But, since you are in a southern climate, it shouldn't hurt. MPG won't drop much because your cold starts and cold running time are considerably less then up north.

The Seq's and Tundras that I've work on all had a factory oil coolers(water oil exchanger). If you have that, then you are immune to oil weight. 5w20, 5w30, 5w40.... is your choiced to make. If you don't have the cooler, maybe a 40wt is justifiable.
 
If it was mine.... Motorcraft Syn Blend 5W-30 5000 mi, Pennzoil Platinum 7500 mi or Castrol Syntec 0W-30 "European Formula" for 10000 mi.

Rotella 5W-40 would only be my choice if you routinely saw sustained oil sump temperatures over 230*F.
 
Lonnie,
You may want to check on that oil cooler. I have an '02 Tacoma with the 3.4L and it came standard with a factory oil cooler! I stumbled on this fact while looking at a maintenance manual and was surprised to see it.
 
I'd recommend a top tier, PAO/Ester synthetic and a 10,000 mile oil/filter change interval. This will reduce the time/labor you spend doing oil changes by 50% and provide protection that is at least as good as you're getting now.

My leading candidates for this would include the Amsoil 5w-30 or the Castrol Syntec, 0w-30 European Formula. The OEM Toyota oil filters are of good quality and can be purchased in bulk at a discount from most Toyo dealers.

Other maintenance I'd highly recommend is to gradually replace your auto transmission fluid with the Amsoil 100% synthetic ATF, which has been fully tested by Amsoil and their additive supplier to meet the performance specifications of the Toyota Type T-IV spec. I'd also recommend changing out the rear differential to 75w-90 synthetic gear lube. The Mobil 1 or Royal Purple, 75w-90's are both good products and fairly easy to find on the shelf....

TD
 
We have a fleet of Tundras (4x4 4 door) and they are out in the system for 20 hours a day. Most of the operation is idling to keep the a/c on or heat on and for the lightbars.

We also drive them very hard when responding to incidents.

They get Jiffy lubed every 5k. Or should I say thats when they should. I've seen the sticker in the windsheild say 3k miles AGO that they need a oil change.

So far, all are fine. We don't have to top them off between oil changes and they are approaching 100k on most of them.

Our Fords have 200k+ and they have had the same service. Transmissions in EVERY ford has been rebuilt at least once.

Take care, Bill
 
I've used mostly 5W30 over the life of my 2000 Tundra V-8 (125K miles) on 5K OCI's. I've used only synthetic since 17K miles, Pure One oil filters, and Toyota air filters. It still runs sweet with nice UOA's. I'm currently using PP 5W30 and will analyze at 130K. BTW-if you haven't changed the fuel filter yet, you need to. I hadn't changed mine for 90K and it sure made a difference when I did!
 
Just use inexpensive dino changed sensibly and keep the cooling system fresh.
 
Thanks for sharing Sounds like hard work for man and truck.
driving.gif
 
Quote:

Our Fords have 200k+ and they have had the same service. Transmissions in EVERY ford has been rebuilt at least once.

Click to expand...


Bill, I keep trying to tell these guys the Ford 4R70E has had some problems. They keep claiming the GM 4L60E is worse (not from my experience). I'm just hoping my F150 with the beefed up 4R75E does better.
 
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