I unscrewed the oil fill neck from the valve cover on our 1998 f-150 company truck and was surprised to find the area very free of varnish or sludge. It was so clean that even after runing my finger in it came out very clean- with only the oil and no deposits. Insteresting that the only oil ever run has been Motorcraft conventional oil, 10-30 or 5-30. Motor is now over 140,000 miles. Seems to me with proper drain intervals a good conventional oil does well. The motor runs like new. This gives us dino fans more hope than ever.
Clean valve cover
- Thread starter like a rock
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LikeARock, I've had the same experiences on my vehicles. As long as I can buy one with low mileage, that has not already been varnished up, I can keep the engine looking like new inside. All it takes is regular maintenence. I feel that's more important than the type oil that is used.
Maybe the service schedule I use(3mo-3K) is the reason why the wife's Jeep looks new,or could it be the Super Tech oil??
According to an article in the March issue of Lubes n' Greases magazine some 300-400 million gallons of oil is produced every year just to support the 3,000 mile oil change. Thats quite a chuck of profit for the oil companies!
If the oil companies could get out of the lube business, they would. Even if they made $2/gallon profit (highly unlikely), that's chump change for them. They sell motor oil to sell gasoline. In and of itself, motor oil is a "loss leader".
If the oil companies could get out of the lube business, they would. Even if they made $2/gallon profit (highly unlikely), that's chump change for them. They sell motor oil to sell gasoline. In and of itself, motor oil is a "loss leader".
Why are people surprised? I've been saying it all along; regular oil changes are much more important then the type of oil you use. You are going to have a hard time convincing me the the Amsoil 35K mile oil changes with their bypass filter is better than your regular Pennzoil oil change every 3-5K miles. Being a car collector, I have bought cars that are 30+ years old with 200K+ miles that have never had any synthtics in it and they run great with regular oil changes. I have a 1986 SAAB Turbo convertible I bought for $400 a fews years back that has 246K miles and the neither the trans or engine has ever been pulled or openned up. I bought it from a SAAB fanatic that had a binder packed of receipts for maintenace including a notebook with EVERY oil change(7.5K miles interval as per SAAB) and fuel fill up. Remember, it's a Turbo and he changed it every 7500 miles with 10W-40 because the book said. Even with synthetic, the results are all dependant on the engine. Some of the UOA show the sythetics at the end of their life at 5K and some just hit 11K before the end. There are dino oils that look better at 5K then some of the synthetics.. it all depends on the engine.
But there those of us who don't want to spend all our time changing oil every 3 months or 3000 miles. Once a year is about all I have time for and synthetic oil has over the last 25+ yrs given me piece of mind that my vehicles are getting the best lubricants I can find. From driving company vehicles for over 30 yrs I noticed that few of them were worth anything after 150,000 miles so who cared how good the engine was, dump it and move on.
I wish in all those years I had the forethought to keep records of my expenses. But I would not be surprised if I spent a lot less on maintenance and got as good if not better results for a lot less money + I did not have to trust some quick lube place or kiss some dealer butt to get my vehicles serviced when it was needed. Every November I have the dealer change my oil and filter, lube chassis and check it all out.
According to an article in the March issue of Lubes n' Greases magazine some 300-400 million gallons of oil is produced every year just to support the 3,000 mile oil change. Thats quite a chuck of profit for the oil companies!
I would suggest everyone read the article (I did), it will tell you were the motives for the 3000 mile oil change and they have you all convinced.
I wish in all those years I had the forethought to keep records of my expenses. But I would not be surprised if I spent a lot less on maintenance and got as good if not better results for a lot less money + I did not have to trust some quick lube place or kiss some dealer butt to get my vehicles serviced when it was needed. Every November I have the dealer change my oil and filter, lube chassis and check it all out.
According to an article in the March issue of Lubes n' Greases magazine some 300-400 million gallons of oil is produced every year just to support the 3,000 mile oil change. Thats quite a chuck of profit for the oil companies!
I would suggest everyone read the article (I did), it will tell you were the motives for the 3000 mile oil change and they have you all convinced.
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