Another OCI Question

[novaks44]

I've got a 2002 Mazda Protege LX, with a few bolt ons under the hood. Nothing special, just a header, intake, TB spacer, ported TB, plug wires, and soon an AFC. The car sees city driving 99% of the time, and it's all short trips. Once a month or so, I'll take it on a Sat morning freeway run, for about 20mins. My "commute" to work is a whopping 5 miles each way. On the weekends I drive a bit further, and for longer periods of time than the 15mins it takes to get to work(dang traffic), but it's all city driving still, and still considered short trips. Oh, and I drive very hard. Lots of hard acceleration and the like. I do let my oil come up to temp before the thrashing begins though(I've got an oil temp gauge). The car does see freeway speeds(or close) depsite my driving in the city, usually around 60-ish, but not for very long. I've been using Castrol 10w30, and my OCI's have been every 3months. No analysis has been done(gotta do that). My question is : Am I changing my oil way too often? What OCI would everyone reccommend for regular oil? Would I be better off paying for synthetic, given my driving habits?

 

[mechtech2]

Not 'way' to often.
You could probably go more. Maybe 5,000 miles.
Many will recommend a few oil analysis to find out, but you could just keep changing it with the money you saved.

And get rid of the TB spacer. It is sometimes beneficial for carbureted engines, not port fuel injected ones.

 

[FZ1]

How many miles do you travel in 3 months

 

[novaks44]

In 3 months I'll drive 1K at the most. Maybe 2K if it's a "busy" month. It's all the short trips + hard driving that concern me.

 

[Eddie]

A used oil analysis will answer your question properly. I would do a 2,500 mile try and based on that used oil analysis, adjust from there.

 

[lewk]

Dont have a definitive answer but, the guy/gal who makes it first to market with a OBD ll retrofit OLM is going to make some cash.

 

[Gregory]

If you have a PDA you could buy that thing that goes in the dip stick tube.

 

[novaks44]

What is that? lol Never heard of such a thing. Have a link?

Oh, and I looked at my mileage/maintence log, and I was way off on my numbers. I travel about 1K miles in 2-3 months, not per month as I stated. D'oh!

I'm going to do an oil change soon, so I'll have a used oil analysis done. Kragen's has the Valvoline Synpower on sale for $3.99/qt, then after a rebate, it's free. Tempted.....

 

[Gregory]

Intellistick

http://www.intellistick.com/home.html

 

[dnewton3]

Since you only do a TOTAL of 5k miles in a year, then you might consider a good quality conventional oil of any brand you choose, along with a quality filter such as Purolator, Wix, etc. and be done with it. Conversely, if you're uncomfortable with going that long in duration with only 1 O/FCI, you could certainly afford two OCI's a year; the cost of conventional oil isn't THAT expensive.

If you want a DEFINITIVE answer, then you'll have to do used oil analysis.