5k OCI- does oil choice really matter?

[BTLew81]

Serious question to start some conversation.

My Acadia 2.0t gets maybe 8k a year, so I change it every six months. Decent mix of highway and around town.

Started to think…does oil choice really matter and will the big boys really make a difference over the course of say, 100k miles?

Genuinely curious on your thoughts.

 

[burbguy82]

I think what matters more than the oil is how your drive those miles.....short trips, not getting to full temp for a little bit, idling, etc.

I am not an expert, but would say that if the above does not describe you, then yes any approved oil would do as intended.

 

[ATex7239]

Probably not. Swap around, only use your favorite or search around for the best deals. Why not do something to make a mundane task like DIY oil changes different just cause.

 

[Corollaman]

I don't think it matters at that interval. Use whatever you want.

 

[gfh77665]

Even todays conventional oils are more than adequate for 5000 mile intervals.

 

[OilStainedNapkin]

Nah

 

[ripcord]

Modern oil is good stuff. Your GMC will rust to pieces before the engine wears out with 4k changes if you use DEXOS rated oil.

 

[GR_CoB]

Yes, it does matter.
Recently there was a lot of valvetrain pictures here on BITOG with lots of varnish, despite using oils like Mobil 1 or other top shelf stuff from oil shelves at 5k intervals. Feel free to kill a couple hours in Photo Section if you'd like. The common denominator in all those cases were short trips.
Short trips WILL cause varnish issues, which lead to early death of variable valve timing components, timing chain components, and turbo shafts/bearings/seals, etc.

Valvoline ran two identical engines on synthetic and conventional. Same exact temperatures, conditions, and duty cycles for both engines. The engine ran on conventional was significantly more dirty and had to get an early turbo replacement, while synthetic kept the other engine cleaner and still on original turbo with same miles. Also seals on synthetic were still pliable.

How are you getting those 8k/year? Lots of short trips, or few long highway trips?

 

[Glenda W.]

Absolutely it matters. Especially if your engine has low tension oil rings.

 

[Patrick0525]

From a uoa perspective, I cannot tell what synthetic oil brand was used for the lowest wear metals. The Toyota V6 had uoa every 5k and used three different labs. It is a 2GR-FE engine @127k and no oil consumption. Average speed is 30 mph and 50/50 highway/city.

From an oil consumption, piston cleaning, and varnish perspective, there is anecdotal evidence that HPL and VRP are effective. Engine design, engine manufacture and driving profile impact your use case.

 

[Lubener]

Serious question to start some conversation.

My Acadia 2.0t gets maybe 8k a year, so I change it every six months. Decent mix of highway and around town.

Started to think…does oil choice really matter and will the big boys really make a difference over the course of say, 100k miles?

Genuinely curious on your thoughts.

I would do one 5k run then have a oil sample analyzed. You will then know how well your oil is holding up and you can adjust your change interval if needed.

 

[ChrisD46]

Yes, it does matter.
Recently there was a lot of valvetrain pictures here on BITOG with lots of varnish, despite using oils like Mobil 1 or other top shelf stuff from oil shelves at 5k intervals. Feel free to kill a couple hours in Photo Section if you'd like. The common denominator in all those cases were short trips.
Short trips WILL cause varnish issues, which lead to early death of variable valve timing components, timing chain components, and turbo shafts/bearings/seals, etc.

Valvoline ran two identical engines on synthetic and conventional. Same exact temperatures, conditions, and duty cycles for both engines. The engine ran on conventional was significantly more dirty and had to get an early turbo replacement, while synthetic kept the other engine cleaner and still on original turbo with same miles. Also seals on synthetic were still pliable.

How are you getting those 8k/year? Lots of short trips, or few long highway trips?

Makes me wonder if you can’t avoide short trips would an OCI of 3,500 miles / 6 months using a SP rated synthetic help with varnish ? A decent interstate run of 30 minutes every couple of weeks may help clean internals , help cook off moisture, etc. in oil . Lastly , a short tripped vehicle may benifit greatly from Valvoline R&P ?

 

[Triple_Se7en]

My Acadia 2.0t gets maybe 8k a year, so I change it every six months. Decent mix of highway and around town.

Started to think…does oil choice really matter and will the big boys really make a difference over the course of say, 100k miles?

Since you only plan on keeping it untill 100k, then Supertech Syn will be fine.
4k OCIs - Supertech Syn 10k oil
8k OCIs - Supertech Advanced 20k oil

 

[SC Maintenance]

Yes, it does matter.
Recently there was a lot of valvetrain pictures here on BITOG with lots of varnish, despite using oils like Mobil 1 or other top shelf stuff from oil shelves at 5k intervals. Feel free to kill a couple hours in Photo Section if you'd like. The common denominator in all those cases were short trips.
Short trips WILL cause varnish issues, which lead to early death of variable valve timing components, timing chain components, and turbo shafts/bearings/seals, etc.

Valvoline ran two identical engines on synthetic and conventional. Same exact temperatures, conditions, and duty cycles for both engines. The engine ran on conventional was significantly more dirty and had to get an early turbo replacement, while synthetic kept the other engine cleaner and still on original turbo with same miles. Also seals on synthetic were still pliable.

How are you getting those 8k/year? Lots of short trips, or few long highway trips?

That is a function of the short trip / engine design - not oil choice - not?

The Valvoline "test" was done on exactly one engine - a Ford Turbo 2.3, run at 10K OCI. So a single test on a single engine design is hardly scientific, and they ran the conventional twice what it was likely recommended at, and they didn't mention which conventional either I don't think. IIRC they still both went 500K miles?

 

[SC Maintenance]

I doubt oil choice matters at 5K OCI. Even with short trips - one oil likely won't outperform the other. The short tripping is a separate problem, not oil choice problem.

I do 5K OCI only to get the fine particle <10um wear out. If there was a cheap / effective way to run it through a sub-micron filter Its probably still fine.

 

[facility1]

just use a name brand synthetic oil and correct viscosity with a good reputable filter,change at 5-7 k or 6 mo . (whichever is first) and your engine will be fine for the life of the vehicle providing a engine is of course a proper design with no bad mechanical issues, and use good maintenance practices.

 

[Jetronic]

Serious question to start some conversation.

My Acadia 2.0t gets maybe 8k a year, so I change it every six months. Decent mix of highway and around town.

Started to think…does oil choice really matter and will the big boys really make a difference over the course of say, 100k miles?

Genuinely curious on your thoughts.

Depends on the engine aswell as use. Some engines get high oil consumption early on, even with short oci.

 

[Patman]

I would do one 5k run then have an oil sample analyzed. You will then know how well your oil is holding up and you can adjust your change interval if needed.

That won’t tell you if that particular oil is slowly causing the engine to get more deposits in it compared to other oils though.

 

[Pablo]

Some engines you can get away with it. Then dump the car and be done with it. Plenty of fuel bombs driving around

 

[dnewton3]

That won’t tell you if that particular oil is slowly causing the engine to get more deposits in it compared to other oils though.

I'm going to both disagree and agree with you. But I'm just nit-picking for the sake of clarification.

I disagree because most UOAs will give some form of indication to contamination in the lube. We can take an inference from those values to understand how much contamination may be left laying about in the engine. For example, Blackstone uses their "insolubles" value to rate a lube; lower numbers are better results. Many other UOAs use soot and oxidation; also good ways to track contamination (and more objective than the "insolubles"). So we certainly do have tools within the UOA to measure contamination, which would presumably result in deposits if those levels become too high. Also, the level of TBN can be a contributing indicator of base elements used for detergency effects (mainly Ca and Mg).

But where I agree with you is that singular UOAs (even multiples of small sample size) are NOT a means to be a trustworthy tool to judge one lube against another. To really know how well an oil resists the effects of cumulative contamination, you need a LOT of samples to understand the averages and variation of each lube. A few UOAs just don't come anywhere close to enough data for these types of conclusions to be valid. This is the greatest misunderstanding of how UOAs can be used. A single UOA can help understand how that one sample compares and contrasts to known "normals" in macro-data analysis. But that same singular UOA cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be used to declare one lube "better" or "worse" than another product in micro-data analysis.