97 GP Havoline 10W30 5100 miles on oil, 300,016 on car

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I would guess that for your application when the mpg drop to below average compare to other choices (i.e. another 3 year old car), it is time to replace. 50-75 each way would land you probably 500-700 per month on gas bill, any fuel economy improvement would be significant even at 1mpg.

Wow, 300k and running strong, thats rare.
 
wlkjr1951, if your temps are up, and there is traces of potassium in the oil, I'd get it checked for a warped upper intake/melted EGR tube. Or, add some GM cooling system sealer/supplement. Cheap insurance. That stuff STOPPED a heater core leak in my Dad's Blazer.
 
I commend you for doing 5k oci on your driving regiment. 300k miles too. 3k is a serious waste for dino.
 
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If I can spend under $1000 and get another year out of it, then I have saved myself about 10 payments on a new one. Also less insurance and taxes. Body wise and interior, everything is still in A1 condition, so I suppose it would be worth a chance.
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I agree with this. If the body is still good and things are still working as they should, you're money ahead to keep fixing what you have.

cheers.gif
for another great Havoline report.
 
Shaman and goodvibes, it is a GT completely stock and I never add any oil between changes. It is usually about half a quart low at 5000 miles. So far in the almost 9 years I've driven this car, I've probably spent less than $900 in total repairs. It's really been a good car. I hope to get another year or two out of it at about 35-40,000 miles a year.
 
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That is one spectacular report. 300K miles is terrific. You definitely get your money out of your automobile purchases. Cheers to you, your engine and Havoline!!!
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THIS CAR SEES almost 40K per YEAR!!!
Sorry for shouting but this case is totally unique. Why do you people get SO excited?

THESE ARE ALL easy FREEWAY miles.
How long did it take to accumulate 5K under those conditions?
Just over a month?

The owner of this vehicle could have saved himself LOTS of time and even some money by going with a good synthetic like GC, keeping it in his motor for 15K-20K miles.
His report would be not that much worse and his engine even more cleaner.

I have nothing against Havoline,
but people please get real.
There is nothing magical about Havoline, at least in this case.
Any dino would provide similar results under the same conditions.

Geesh!!!
 
How would he save money. Perhaps he could take GC to 15-20k, but he could probably take Havoline to 10k, and it's HALF THE COST!!!!!!!!!!

He would not save any money using GC, sorry. We've seen almost as many Havoline/Chevron UOAs at 10k as GC UOAs. What makes GC good for 15-20k, we haven't seen one UOA that show it can.

-T
 
Half the cost?
Hold your horses my friend.

How much did he pay for his Chevron? Plus filter.
Did he change himself or paid someone to do that?
Even he did the oil changed himself I don't find it to be an enjoyable experience to repeat every single month.

Why do you take into an account the number of miles only and not the conditions the oil was run under?

For example there was a 10K UOA not that far back showing good results with GC in a Pick-Up truck that was towing a good size trailer for 4-5K miles.

Would you compare that UOA and this as a proof of Havoline's superiority?

Man, the GC cult is a child's play in comparison to what some Havoline guys have become.
rolleyes.gif
 
Vad,

I have still in the family a 1986 VW jetta that just turned 250k miles.

So that works out to 13,200 miles a year.

Would we agree that this is a "normal" amount for a outfit?

I'd say most of it's life it saw commutes in the 10 mile one way city and trips here and there.

Never had a single problem with it. Passes all smog and runs just as good as it did when it was new.

Oil used. Havoline and Valvoline mostly and fram filters at 4-5k OCI. Also in Utah where it gets below zero to over 100 easy.

We would agree that todays oils are better than 19 year old oil spec'd for 1986?

How clean is the engine? We had the valve cover off a few years ago to fix a leak and it was spotless. You can look in the fill cap and it's still clean.

You do NOT need to run syn to have a "clean" engine.

You do NOT have to run Syn to have a motor last.

You will not ever run syn long enough to make it "cheaper" to run syn over dino.. (Remember that I only buy oil on sale and stock it up
grin.gif
so I'm using under $1 a quart for name brand oil as my base vs $4 a quart Syn.)

I'll always change out oil every 4-5k even when out of warrenty. In my sick mind, I'd rather change it at that OCI and save the $$.

Also, unlike some folks here at BITOG.. I like working on my outfits and only buy cars that are easy to work on..
rolleyes.gif
(yes, When I buy cars.. I look for oil filters, drain plugs and such.. (and tick off my wife in the process..
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)

With my 1999 Taurus, We tore the engine down twice (62k and 110k) and both times it was spotless (nothing.. Not even a tint) using Pennzoil dino that I bought for .69 cents a quart and ST filters. And it was a buyback Hertz rent-a-car with 21k when I bought it so you know it did not get 3k OCIs...
crushedcar.gif


My 2000k Chev which gets now maybe 1000 miles in 4 months is spotless inside. 1 mile one way trips seems to be the majority of the use since gas wnet up and I'm driving the toyota. (Sad use of this fine truck... I am prob going to sell it...
frown.gif
)

And I could go on. If you like and want to run syn, EXCELLENT!
cheers.gif


But your correct, I think if we had this GP running on Castrol, Pennzoil, Mobil drive clean, QS or such, the results would be prob the same.

Good dino oil is good! And unless you have a Turbo or some real racer, Syn is really not needed for long clean life of a engine.
grin.gif


Take care, bill
biggthumbcoffe.gif
 
Bill, I agree with you on many points.
And I never said that the dinos shouldn't be run in your engine if you want to keep it for a long time.
I'll be first to admit that with the short intervals/easy driving the synthetics are a waste.
Yet more and more people are switching to synthetics because they can do certain things better than the latest dinos are capable of:
maintain fluidity in the low temps,
resist thermal breakdown in the turbos, while driving in the desert or towing ,
allow much longer intervals for those of us who drive a lot or don't have time,
keep the sludge monsters under control.
 
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Yet more and more people are switching to synthetics because they can do certain things better than the latest dinos are capable of:
maintain fluidity in the low temps,
resist thermal breakdown in the turbos, while driving in the desert or towing ,
allow much longer intervals for those of us who drive a lot or don't have time,
keep the sludge monsters under control.
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Vad,

I think with SL and now SM oils, unless your in the below 20 degrees both day and night, a dino 5w-30 will cover all your needs.

I've run Syn at those temps (I get off work at 1-2am after my outfit sitting outside for 12 hours. SO it's "cooled" off
grin.gif
) and dino 5w-30 and both oils did fine. I've taken Mobil 1 5w-30 and Pennzoil 5w-30 and place them in 5 below freezers and they both flowed to the eye the same.

And I still have to get back to my thought that todays oils are alot better than 10, 20 years ago. Outfits that I've owned and my Family and friends own are still running fine with using normal oils.

My uncle has a 1978 Ford F-250 with a 351C engine and it's still running excellent, clean inside (just replaced both valve covers) and it carries a 12 foot slide in camper most of it's life. Across the desert, up in the hills, snow, and it's never had any other oil but normal 10-30 and thats even in the winter! (Tried to get him to try 5w-30 and he would not..
rolleyes.gif
.. )

I agree even that all the oil companies say that all their oils are "Turbo approved" I would run a blead at the min...

As far as driving alot.. I only drive about 28k a year (so about 540 miles a week) and with 4500 miles per oil change average that is a oil change every 8 weeks or 2 months.

With the Sure Drain and easy to maintain outfits, it's not hard to change oil. In fact I did it Friday when I came home. 30 mins tops.
cheers.gif


With my Oil change costing well below $10 at a time using Castrol Syntec Blend for now that I got for $1.49 qt, I'm feeling good with what I'm doing.

After the Castrol stash is used up, then I'm prob going to Chevron stash that I have .. Then my oil changes will be less that $2 for oil alone!
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The sludge motors...
rolleyes.gif
I'm sure there are some that only syn will fix. But my fix is to not buy them..
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(easy for me to say..)

Take care, Bill
biggthumbcoffe.gif
 
Seems some are questioning my oil changing practices. Since this is my thread, let me make this clear. No one else pays a dime when I have car trouble so I service them to my satisfaction. Since I bought my first new car in Dec. of 1970 I have changed my own oil except for three times. My commutes are 50 miles one way plus other miles doing the run around. I like changing my own oil and I'm comfortabe with 5000 mile oci's. I only started oil analysis to see what might be going on in my engine---not to see how good I thought Havoline was or to see if I could stretch the interval. If it is waste, it only costs me. I will continue to do this as I have in the past and nothing I read here will change my mind. I am NOT caught up in all the hype over synthetic or extended intervals. I'm actually amused that someone would waste the energy to make negative replies to my analysis.
My post was a tribute to the longevity of the engine and I give credit to the Havoline. I'm sure others feel as strongly about their oils and engines as I do mine and that is their right.
 
wlkjr1951: I was curious as to what kind of maintenance regimen you performed on your automatic transmission over 300K? Also I agree with Drew99 about using the sealing pellets or Barsleaks in your radiator to inexpensively seal that slight coolant leak that you may have.
 
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Half the cost?
How much did he pay for his Chevron? Plus filter.
Did he change himself or paid someone to do that?
Even he did the oil changed himself I don't find it to be an enjoyable experience to repeat every single month.
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GC is usually $5-6, Havoline is usually less then $2. As he said he changed it himself. If you really concerned about saving money, then what other way would you do it?

quote:

Why do you take into an account the number of miles only and not the conditions the oil was run under?
For example there was a 10K UOA not that far back showing good results with GC in a Pick-Up truck that was towing a good size trailer for 4-5K miles.
Would you compare that UOA and this as a proof of Havoline's superiority?
Click to expand...
I never did only consider miles. There was a 10k run with HAvoline in a truck recently as well. Still looking for the 20k GC UOA. BTW I have a great UOA with a major coolant leak with Chevron and it did great.

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Man, the GC cult is a child's play in comparison to what some Havoline guys have become.
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Maybe you should read some more from the GC forum.
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GC is usually $5-6, Havoline is usually less then $2
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GC is usually $5 a qt and very often goes on sale as it is right now at $4.

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Still looking for the 20k GC UOA.
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I don't know anyone who would be running the 20K intervals.
The most drivers are so caught in the 3K myth it will take long time before the situation changes.
The starter of this thread would be a good candidate since he operates his car under the unique conditions that would allow such a lengthy OCI.
 
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