Can I go 4 - 5k miles on Valvoline dino?

[john_ertw]

Vehicle in question is a 2002 Grand Am GT with GM's 3.4L V6. I live in Toronto, Canada to give you an idea of the climate and the car is NOT driven hard. The car has about 30,000 miles on it with a current OCI of around 3k miles with whatever oil the shop uses.

The last oil change (last week) was with Valvoline in either 5W30 or 10W30 (I'm not sure cause the work order says 5W30, but I just noticed today that the window sticker they put on says 10W30 - no big deal since it will be taken out this fall at the latest).

Anyway my question is do you guys think this oil can hold up for 4000-5000 miles with 90% of them being highway miles of trips over 20 miles. This will get me to fall when I will start my new oil stategy:

I plan on chaning over to M1 in the fall (will start doing my own oil changes) with two changes a year (0W30 or 5W30 in the fall and 5W30 in the spring). I figure I will put about 8,000 miles on the oil with that OCI. I will also start using a larger oil filter (I think it will be the equivlent to AC Delco's xxx-52 instead of the tiny filter speced for this car) and am considering changing the filter and topping up oil around 4,000 miles in the summer, but I'm not sure if I'll do this in the winter.

Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[Hammer]

quote:

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Originally posted by john_ertw:

Anyway my question is do you guys think this oil can hold up for 4000-5000 miles with 90% of them being highway miles of trips over 20 miles. This will get me to fall when I will start my new oil stategy:

any opinions are appreciated.

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I don't really see a problem

Hammer

 

[RF Overlord]

quote:

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I will also start using a larger oil filter (I think it will be the equivlent to AC Delco's xxx-52 instead of the tiny filter speced for this car)

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If you have the room, the PF-52 (or equivalent) is an excellent choice. I've used various PF-52 equivalents on my 2001 Safari AWD with the 4.3L V6 (instead of the dinky PF-47 it came with) since its first oil change, and I normally run a 5,000 mile OCI using Pennzoil 5W-30 dino...

 

[john_ertw]

quote:

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Originally posted by RF Overlord:
If you have the room, the PF-52 (or equivalent) is an excellent choice. I've used various PF-52 equivalents on my 2001 Safari AWD with the 4.3L V6 (instead of the dinky PF-47 it came with) since its first oil change, and I normally run a 5,000 mile OCI using Pennzoil 5W-30 dino...

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That's exactly what I want to do. The PF-52 instead of the PF-47. I couldn't remember the numbers off the top of my head. There's lots of room on the Grand Am. We also have an Olds Silhouette with the same engine which I would like to try the PF-52 on, but I don't think it would fit.

 

[Yuk]

Kinda off topic, but why do you want to use two varieties of M1 here in the land of GC? If I were you, I'd do two GC changes a year and not worry about 5w vs. 0w.

BTW, GC is less expensive than M1 in Canada.

Maybe Patman, or someone else with GM V6 knowledge can tell you which oil is best for your Grand Am?

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by john_ertw:
Vehicle in question is a 2002 Grand Am GT with GM's 3.4L V6. I live in Toronto, Canada to give you an idea of the climate and the car is NOT driven hard. The car has about 30,000 miles on it with a current OCI of around 3k miles with whatever oil the shop uses.

The last oil change (last week) was with Valvoline in either 5W30 or 10W30 (I'm not sure cause the work order says 5W30, but I just noticed today that the window sticker they put on says 10W30 - no big deal since it will be taken out this fall at the latest).

Anyway my question is do you guys think this oil can hold up for 4000-5000 miles with 90% of them being highway miles of trips over 20 miles. This will get me to fall when I will start my new oil stategy:

I plan on chaning over to M1 in the fall (will start doing my own oil changes) with two changes a year (0W30 or 5W30 in the fall and 5W30 in the spring). I figure I will put about 8,000 miles on the oil with that OCI. I will also start using a larger oil filter (I think it will be the equivlent to AC Delco's xxx-52 instead of the tiny filter speced for this car) and am considering changing the filter and topping up oil around 4,000 miles in the summer, but I'm not sure if I'll do this in the winter.

Any opinions are appreciated.

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Before you go more than 3K miles on that engine do an oil analysis. Even money says you will gave an intake gasket leaking. Get an analysis that tests for potassium. Use the larger filter..there is room.

Again to don't run this pos longer than 3K on any oil

 

[john_ertw]

quote:

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Originally posted by Al:
Before you go more than 3K miles on that engine do an oil analysis. Even money says you will gave an intake gasket leaking. Get an analysis that tests for potassium. Use the larger filter..there is room.

Again to don't run this pos longer than 3K on any oil

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Don't worry about the intake gasket... it was repaired about 2000 miles ago! It's funny cause I was just thinking about how long till it would go about a month before it did.

It sounds like you have owned one of the 3.4's Al? As I said earlier, I have two of them. Both of them had the intake gasket leak around 30,000miles and after 2.5 years.

 

[john_ertw]

quote:

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Originally posted by Yuk:
Kinda off topic, but why do you want to use two varieties of M1 here in the land of GC? If I were you, I'd do two GC changes a year and not worry about 5w vs. 0w.

BTW, GC is less expensive than M1 in Canada.

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I could get GC at the local Walmart for $6.66/litre. I don't think the price difference is enough to make it the deciding factor unless all else was equal. I was thinking of GC, but I thought I'd wait until my summer interval to try it out. Maybe go one interval with M1 0W30 and then go one with GC to decide. This way I'd use the thinner oil in the colder OCI and the thicker oil for the warmer OCI.

 

[jthorner]

We have an Olds minivan with the same engine (also with a fresh intake manifold gasket

). If anything I would think that the minivan application is likely to be harder on that engine than your GrandAm is. The van is probably 1,000 lbs heavier.

You can see the most recent UOA with Valvoline MaxLife 5W-30 at:
BITOG UOA Results Page

At 3,750 miles that oil still had plenty of life left in it. I don't know how the regular Valvoline dino would compare, but I can say that in my case 5,000 miles would have been no problem on the MaxLife 5W-30.

John

 

[KW]

I'd just run the M1 5W30 and change it twice a year. Once in the fall and once in the spring.

 

[john_ertw]

quote:

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Originally posted by jthorner:
We have an Olds minivan with the same engine (also with a fresh intake manifold gasket

). If anything I would think that the minivan application is likely to be harder on that engine than your GrandAm is. The van is probably 1,000 lbs heavier.

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John, I would have to say that the minivan is harder on the engine. There is no tach on the minivan so I can't comment on how high the revs go exactly, but I can assure you that you can hear engine working harder on the minivan when accelerating than on the Grand Am. It's also evident on the better milage from the Grand Am.

I think that I now feel comfortable leaving the Valvoline in the car until October or November (I'm not going to let it go past 5,000 miles max) and will then put in either M1 or GC (Yuk got me thinking about that one again). Either way I'm going to do 2x a year changes with one synth or another.

 

[SWS]

Sounds like a good plan to me. I plan on doing the same thing with my 3 cars (M1, 6 mo OCI).

SWS

 

[Starbreaker666]

Yes you'll be fine. Just look up my UOA's with Valvoline All Climate. These people on these boards are oil perfectionists and strive for 0ppm in all catagories..=) Valve is a fine oil.

 

[Mystic]

There probably is no problem going 4000-5000 miles with ANY conventional motor oil that meets all of the requirements. But if there are better conventional motor oils available compared to what you are using (based on the results of VOAs and UOAs at this web site), why not use the better motor oils? Such as Pennzoil, Castrol, and Chevron? If the difference in price is small why not use the best oil you can find?

If I lived in Canada I would definitely use synthetic oil in the wintertime, such as Mobil 1 0W-30. Even if I used conventional motor oil the rest of the year.

 

[jbas]

I just changed the oil in new Kia Sedona van at 1K. Used Pennzoil base 10W-30. I'm a synthetic kind of guy, even more so after reading BITOG postings, but will use dino during the early changes.

Guess what? Engine didn't blow up, no overheating, vehicle started right up, just cruising down the road...you know, given time this "conventional oil" stuff might actually work! Hope it works for you, too.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by john_ertw:

Originally posted by Al:
[qb] It sounds like you have owned one of the 3.4's Al? As I said earlier, I have two of them. Both of them had the intake gasket leak around 30,000miles and after 2.5 years.

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I have had 2 3.1's-both leaked and my son has a 3.4-currently leaking. Again I would not go beyond 3K and would at that time do a UOA to confirm no leakage. Even here you will get some posassium residue..You need to confirm as soon as possible that that beastie is fixed (IMHO)