5S-FE extended OCI

[supton]

Wandered into Walmart this morning and noticed that Syntech high mileage 5W30 full synth was on sale for $15.68--so I bought a couple, as our 2011 Camry is coming up on an oil change. Then I had a thought: why not do a 10k OCI on my 5S-FE for the summer? No cold starts, after all.

Thoughts? Engine has light varnish and a bit of sludge, but nothing that concerns me. I'm mostly concerned about heat, as summer brings a/c usage, and I don't drive the car particularly easy.

 

[tig1]

I have been doing 10K OCIs for the last 40 years with M1 oils in various types of engines with very good results.

 

[supton]

Done 10k on a few vehicles, just not a known sludger. Guessing it's fine, but... oil's cheaper than an engine, yadda yadda yadda.

I should probably try it once and then slice open the filter, see what accumulates. I think this needs to have the VC gasket redone, it has a leak someplace and VC is easiest to get to.

Winter would go back to 5k OCI on account of cold starts.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: supton
Done 10k on a few vehicles, just not a known sludger. Guessing it's fine, but... oil's cheaper than an engine, yadda yadda yadda.

I should probably try it once and then slice open the filter, see what accumulates. I think this needs to have the VC gasket redone, it has a leak someplace and VC is easiest to get to.

Winter would go back to 5k OCI on account of cold starts.


My engines all remain very clean and never show signs of wear with some over 300K. Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: supton
Done 10k on a few vehicles, just not a known sludger. Guessing it's fine, but... oil's cheaper than an engine, yadda yadda yadda.

I should probably try it once and then slice open the filter, see what accumulates. I think this needs to have the VC gasket redone, it has a leak someplace and VC is easiest to get to.

Winter would go back to 5k OCI on account of cold starts.


What works for one person might not work for another, even with the same oil in the same vehicle. I'm certain climate, driving conditions, and the location a person lives in is much more important in determining a proper OCI. 10K OCI's under the right conditions can be perfect, in other situations could be a formula for disaster. I spent the money on a few UOA reports. I used them to make an accurate and educated decision on how long I can safely go. That's what I would suggest to anyone that has any doubt, concerns, or cares.

 

[zorobabel]

As I'm sure you know, the 5S-FE in that generation Camry is a known sludger. I was doing 4k OCIs with Supertech Synthetic and Rotella T6 and was still burning 0.5QT per 1k miles.
If you're burning oil, you might as well go for 10k, but if you're not, why mess with a good thing?
Originally Posted By: supton
Wandered into Walmart this morning and noticed that Syntech high mileage 5W30 full synth was on sale for $15.68--so I bought a couple, as our 2011 Camry is coming up on an oil change. Then I had a thought: why not do a 10k OCI on my 5S-FE for the summer? No cold starts, after all.

Thoughts? Engine has light varnish and a bit of sludge, but nothing that concerns me. I'm mostly concerned about heat, as summer brings a/c usage, and I don't drive the car particularly easy.

 

[Cressida]

You must be driving this Camry quite a bit to get that many miles. Toyota removed the oil cooler on the 5SFE in 1997 so these Gen. 4 engines had more sludge issues than the prior generation.

You probably will be OK but if you indeed have a bit of sludge, I'd go ahead and replace that valve cover and take a fresh look inside the top end. If there remains any sludge then I would tend to not go past 8K.

I'm currently running Rotella T5 10w-30 in my Gen. 3, 5SFE Camry and my recent oil analysis was the best I've ever seen on any engine that I've owned. (I have not posted those results yet) And that was during this past winter so the cold starts with the 10w didn't seem to be any issue. I just had the valve cover off this past week to check valve lash and continue to have heavy varnish color in the top end but no sludge.

I'm not used to seeing light varnish and sludge. If there is sludge, I usually see heavy varnish.

Toyota recommended 10w-30 for my engine but of course most believe that oils have been improved the past couple of decades so a 5w-30 or 0w-30 may be just as good now. I do understand that Toyota changed their recommendation to 5w-30 for the later model years 5SFE like your example, but they are the ones that tend to have the sludge too.

 

[bbhero]

^^^^^^^^^

Great, great post Cressida.

Supton... If it were me.... 7k and no higher. But that's just me. My lady's Camry which is a 98 with the same motor... I of go 3200-3500 miles. Great car. Runs very good. But it had perfectly clean oil when we first got it. After about 1500 miles all the sudden the oil color went very, very dark with obvious pieces of crude seen in that oil. Best I figured was that enough heat cycles had been put on it and a lot of that crude finally got of internal parts of that motor... Then I did a lot of reading about these motors. It all made sense to me in what I saw. Again, a great motor in that car. Just small oil capacity combined with long runs is not a good combination. Especially one with no oil cooler on it. So I keep the lady's Camry on a short run change over. I did go 4700 miles on Motorcraft 5w30. Did good on that. Quietest oil I have run in the Camry...#1. Motorcraft 5w30, #2 Valvoline Maxlife 5w30, #3. Federated Auto semi syn 5w30... Those would be my top 3 I would suggest to run in that Camry due to how much quieter those ran vs others.

 

[supton]

I do about 2kmiles/month, a good 500 miles per week in the car. All highway, 70+mph, 50 minutes each way.

I figured, $9.58 conventional + $4 filter every 5k costs more than $12.54 synth + $4 filter every 10k. Huge difference it is not.

When I first got it, it did seem quite clean on the oil, despite supposedly being close to oil change time. It's stayed consistently dark since then--cleaning? high sustained engine temps? dunno. Maxlife, Mobil 5000, PP, Supertech conventional, all the same color. Not an awful color mind you, just not new car "clear" oil all the way through the OCI.

Just mulling over my options. Was content on a 5k OCI, was headed back to cheap conventional, then it dawned on me that it'd be cheaper still, if I only extended the OCI.

Edit: AFAIK it is not burning oil. Small oil leak. I think I had to add some oil on one oil change, but otherwise it seems to go the 5k with maybe half a qt of oil usage. That time I had to add oil might have been when the oil pump & pressure switch were leaking badly, long since rectified.

 

[BAJA_05]

Why not render a decision "after" you open it up and replace the valve cover gasket? That would answer if you have sludge issues on the top end. Report back after you change the VCG and give feed back.


Dale

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: BAJA_05
Why not render a decision "after" you open it up and replace the valve cover gasket? That would answer if you have sludge issues on the top end. Report back after you change the VCG and give feed back.


Dale


You mean see if it has changed after the last 30k? Hmm, it's an idea. I'm not sure when I was planning to get around to pulling the VC, I think I was going to some time this summer, when it struck my fancy. I guess I've got about 3-4 weeks until it's time to change out, so that might make some sense.

Can't find my photos, but this is what it looked like 16 months ago:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4295647/Under_valvcover:_'99_Camry

 

[Nick1994]

I'd split the difference and change at 7,500 or 8,000.

I'm coming up on 17 months and 7k miles on the oil change on my Camry and have the itch to change it, I've started driving it again for now.

Here's a UOA of mine with a 7,500 mile OCI with Pennzoil Platinum HM 5w30

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4132385/Pennzoil_Platinum_HM_5w30_-_7,#Post4132385

 

[supton]

I could do that, but I'd have to get some stickers to put on the windshield to remind myself. I prefer 5k or 10k. Dirt simple to remember.