Who all uses straight-weight oils?
I am curious because we had a gentleman at the dealership recently that has 456000 miles on his 1999 5.3L Silverado. He bought the truck at 23000 miles.
I had to ask what oil he used and he responded without hesitation "Pennzoil Straight 30, from the minute I got it home and changed it out." he added "It doesn't leak and and I don't have to add between changes." I asked how often he changed it... he goes by the OLM... "the light comes on and says to change it I do it within a 100 miles of that" he said.
As an aside he hot shot tows with the truck and told me he had to do a fuel pump at about 200000 miles and replace the 3rd and 4th gear in the automatic at 400000 but otherwise, and with the exception of maintenance items, it is original. No motor work or u-joints or coils or anything else that would be justifiable given the mileage.
I can confirm that after sitting for a few hours the truck fired up with no smoke and ran smooth as glass. Tail pipe was clean and no leaks underneath.
High mileage engines are becoming more common with modern oils and engineering and I'll admit I was most impressed with the transmission. He said he changes that every 50K or so. Fluid and filter and adamant that avoiding flushes was key...
Anyways, I guess on his long highway runs the straight weight worked fine but it peaked my curiosity on the whole. However, almost a half million miles is impressive and the next time Im agonizing in the oil aisle Ill think of that truck and the fact that its owner used the old straight oil my grandparents used.
I am curious because we had a gentleman at the dealership recently that has 456000 miles on his 1999 5.3L Silverado. He bought the truck at 23000 miles.
I had to ask what oil he used and he responded without hesitation "Pennzoil Straight 30, from the minute I got it home and changed it out." he added "It doesn't leak and and I don't have to add between changes." I asked how often he changed it... he goes by the OLM... "the light comes on and says to change it I do it within a 100 miles of that" he said.
As an aside he hot shot tows with the truck and told me he had to do a fuel pump at about 200000 miles and replace the 3rd and 4th gear in the automatic at 400000 but otherwise, and with the exception of maintenance items, it is original. No motor work or u-joints or coils or anything else that would be justifiable given the mileage.
I can confirm that after sitting for a few hours the truck fired up with no smoke and ran smooth as glass. Tail pipe was clean and no leaks underneath.
High mileage engines are becoming more common with modern oils and engineering and I'll admit I was most impressed with the transmission. He said he changes that every 50K or so. Fluid and filter and adamant that avoiding flushes was key...
Anyways, I guess on his long highway runs the straight weight worked fine but it peaked my curiosity on the whole. However, almost a half million miles is impressive and the next time Im agonizing in the oil aisle Ill think of that truck and the fact that its owner used the old straight oil my grandparents used.
