3K OCI Enlightenment

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bender

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Mar 4, 2006
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I had been a 3K mile OCI guy for no particular good reason. Then I found this site and have seen the light. I am currently at 3400 and am beginning to sweat bullets but I am determined to get to 5K. I am currently running QS Peak Performance 5W30 in a 98 Saturn SL2 with 122K on the clock. Not sure I'd see much benefit in switching to syn at this point in the car's life but my goal is to get to 200K. Still get 32-34mpg. Great site!
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I feel ya, brother..

3K M1 changer until very recently. I'm 6K and counting on this oci, M1/VSOT/Amsoil filter, headed for a 7500 UOA. If it's good, I'm taking it to 10K. It's either the Amsoil synthetic filter, or the engine in this new car is so tight or clean, it's not started to darken on the stick, and very little on a white napkin. Haven't used any, either.

So what was your incentive for long OCI, Bender? True enlightenment, or does a long OCI appeal to a larger sense of laziness? Me, on this new car, I got a difficult lie on the oil filter, so of course, a longer OCI appeals to MY sense of laziness. Frequent OCI is a cool addiction only if the deed is quickly accomplished on impulse without wear and tear of the mitts.

But that's just me
cheers.gif
 
quote:
Originally posted by toocrazy2yoo:
I feel ya, brother..

3K M1 changer until very recently. I'm 6K and counting on this oci, M1/VSOT/Amsoil filter, headed for a 7500 UOA. If it's good, I'm taking it to 10K. It's either the Amsoil synthetic filter, or the engine in this new car is so tight or clean, it's not started to darken on the stick, and very little on a white napkin. Haven't used any, either.

So what was your incentive for long OCI, Bender? True enlightenment, or does a long OCI appeal to a larger sense of laziness? Me, on this new car, I got a difficult lie on the oil filter, so of course, a longer OCI appeals to MY sense of laziness. Frequent OCI is a cool addiction only if the deed is quickly accomplished on impulse without wear and tear of the mitts.

But that's just me
cheers.gif

Click to expand...
Toocrazy, you're not alone...the oil filter in my CRV is plenty motivation to pursue longer intervals.
 
Bender: Your not alone. I am worse than you and
change my oil every 2000 miles using Havoline
Oil is cheap engines are not and that keeps the
engines nice and clean
 
Who in the U.S is driving this 3K OCI madness?? It drives us here loopy seeing this same ** repeated over and over. Is it the oil change places you have (which we don't have) or somebody else saying this? Modern oils do NOT need to be changed every 3,000 miles and thats a fact.
 
Dang! 2000 OCI on Havoline, Bubba? I see that years comtemplation here have not been of any help...

Perhaps you need to climb the mountain..Speak to the Man!

Sprint-ski..

Oil change shops, dealers and garages of every stripe drive the madness. Oil filter companies, the oil companies, too. Its a giant industry, and besides, we're only one generation (people-wise) since the engines went EFI, the metals got good and the oils became superior.

The transition will be fought by the industry, but people will come around sometime. Besides, EVERYONE isn't doing 2,3K OCI, tinkering with the adds and all the rest. That's a small percentage. Most of em here, or hereabouts.

I wonder if it'd be possible to calculate, extrapolate, and collate (?) some way, maybe through filters or quarts of oil sold or something to figure out what our "National OCI" is..

Easy for you to say, anyway, Sprint, YOU have GC after all..
lol.gif
 
A good friend of mine has one of the ORIGINAL LeBaron Turbo Convertibles from the 80's. He changes the oil faithfully at 2500 miles (Castrol GTX) and flushes the automatic every 30K and he now has over 280,000 miles on that car. He's replaced the convertible top, a water pump, and numerous sets of tires and other wear parts and it's still running strong. I'm inclined to think that his frequent OCIs have something to do with that Mopar 2.2 turbo lasting so long. Iacocca would be proud.
 
The filter is not too bad in the Saturn, although it's not in the best of places. I think my main motivation is conservation. If I extend out to 4K on dino, that's one less oil change in four which will add up to less oil used in the long run. Even more so if I make it to 5K.

We have a chain of oil change shops around here that are actually called "Oil Changers 3000" where the logo is a trip odometer on 3000 rolling to 3001
pat.gif
 
I understand. I've been doing 3k ocis on Mobil 1 EP and GC for the last 40,000 miles. Only now have I passed the 3,000 mile bar and will hit 5,000 miles tonight. If the UOA looks good - might attempt a 7,500 or more. Takes a lot of willpower (or it took me anyways) to not change my oil at 3,000 miles like I did for so many years (PRE-BITOG).
 
bender, I was just like you, too, until I discovered this site. Once you do a 5,000-mile OCI for the first time, and you realise the Earth DIDN'T stop revolving, the rest gets MUCH easier...
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toocrazy2yoo we no longer have GC. Found to cause to many problems. Castrol removed it from marketplace here some years back. Dumped it on you guys instead. 3K oci's went the way of the Dodo here many moons back. The U.S is a far more conservatve country than Australia so I guess it will take longer.
 
quote:
Originally posted by toocrazy2yoo:

I wonder if it'd be possible to calculate, extrapolate, and collate (?) some way, maybe through filters or quarts of oil sold or something to figure out what our "National OCI" is..
Click to expand...
I did a BITOG survey last year. The third page has a graph of the data collected.
 
Bender,

Be sure to read this website with a "critical eye".

For sure most engines can safely use the oil well beyond 3000 mi. But just how far beyond 3000 mi can and usually is somewhat specific to the engine itself, and of course the brand/type/quality of oil. The best way to extend your OCI is by doing used oil analysis. You won't have to do UOA forever, just during the experimental period while you're learning how the your choice of oil fares in your engine with your driving conditions.

Don't be too quick to jump on the band wagon around here with people making statements about big mileage numbers on the cheapest oil they can find and all that. For example I have been using roughly 3000 mi OCI with dino on my Chrylser 2.7L V6. This engine is hard on oil but many people reading and posting here aren't necessarily familiar with it so they dont'adjust their advice accordingly. I've had people say that I'm just wasting oil and I should push it out at least 5000 mi, or switch to Synthetic and go for 7500 to 10,000, etc etc. So, I did 2 runs of synthetic for the first 5 months of this year, 4000 miles each run. I had UOA done on both of those and I posted them here. Guess what ? The oil was sheared down to a 20 weight after only 4000 mi and the TBN was totally depleted in one run, and had only marginal capacity left in the other run. Where were all the pundits espousing "at least 5000 mi" on dino and even more on synthetic ? Not a peep from them.

There's no question, someone else could use the same oil I used for those runs in a different engine, and the oil would hardly be touched at the 4000 mi mark. Probably would have easliy gone 7500 mi in a Honda Civic. But the point is that the engine matters.

Don't be "determined to get to 5K" on QS 5W-30. Instead test to see if it will go to 5K in your engine. And maybe it will go further. Search all the posts and the UOA section for reports on other Saturn SL2's. Maybe you don't have to reinvent the wheel for this car.

Best of luck. There is lots to be learned from this site, but caution must excercised. Enthusiasm and herd mentality often trample good scientific thinking.

Phil
 
From Sprintman "Modern oils do NOT need to be changed every 3,000 miles and thats a fact."

Does this include 3000 miles of short stop and go traffic??

Old habbits die hard.
 
Of course. Oz had 3k OCI's decades back but we moved on. Manufacturers oci's are 10,000k, 12,500k, 15,000k or 20,000k with dino. Changing real syn's like GC or Mobil 1 at 3,000 miles is just plain stupid.
 
quote:
From Sprintman "Modern oils do NOT need to be changed every 3,000 miles and thats a fact."
Click to expand...
That's exactly the sort of blanket statement that I'm talking about. It's technically incomplete.

I definitely agree that modern oils and engines are far superior to what we had 30 years ago, and therefore the old 3 mo/3K mi should not be used as a blanket practice. But we still have plenty of examples today of where the OCI needs to be qualified (what engine ? what driving conditions? Is there a turbo? etc etc). My 2.7 L V6 chews dino 5W-30 practically into water by 3K mi. And oxidizes it right into no mans land because of the high internal temps.

Phil
 
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