Current relevance of time-based OCIs for low mileage drivers

[ripcord]

Check out this video of a tear down of a Ford 289 that had been sitting for 40 years. Note how much oil is still on the front main bearing.

 

[tired]

IMO no. I think VRP should be run a minimum of 3k per OCI for full effectiveness. Ideally I think doing 4 intervals of 5-6k each would be what people should go with if they’re looking to reduce consumption significantly. If consumption slows down to an acceptable amount by the third interval then you could switch to something else if you like. After my current run of VRP, which is my third interval, I’m going with ESP X2 0w20 in my Civic. I went 5.5k on the first run, 6k on the second and will do 6k on this run.

This was my concern as well. I'll have more miles this summer. I just don't have a reason to drive a lot during the winter. At least for now. I need to do my valve cover gasket at some point as it's leaking, just not on the manifold yet. I think I'll bear in mind that I may need to do more than the 4 OCIs on VRP to get back to a clean engine. Interestingly in the last few hundred miles or so, the oil really darkened up. It had stayed clean for some time and then turned darker. Fortunately I don't think I burn too much oil. But hard to say as I only have 1500 miles on this oil, and I lose a little through the valve cover gasket. I just think I should probably change it as it's approaching 6 months, and I'm sure I had significant fuel dilution over the winter. The dipstick no longer smells of fuel though when I pull it.

I’d probably look at like, it’s oil it’ll last a long time on a shelf, but when it’s sitting in an engine, occasionally being used? It’s not clean oil sitting in a bottle, it’s oil with carbon/soot/gas/and everything else sitting in your engine. I’d change it between 6-9 months.

The only thing I can add to that as a tech, the worst engines I see inside are the ones that have sat for a while before we opened them up (months). Dirty oil sitting in an oil pan tends to coagulate on the bottom. It looks darn ugly. But that’s usually really dirty oil that’s sat for a while.

I drive most days I'd say, not every day, but not a lot. But that's a good point. It's sitting there with that fuel and soot contamination for 6 months.

 

[Hohn]

I have an attached garage but no heater inside. So it doesn't freeze, but it's still not fun changing oil in the winter.

I think that the prefilling the filter is outdated advice. Modern engines are designed to account for this. There is no increased wear during the startup after an oil change. In fact, prefilling the oil filter could be more detrimental than not as you're circulating unfiltered oil.

If prefilling the filter was important to the OEM, I’m guessing they wouldn’t mount the filter tilted sideways or even upside down as they often do.

 

[tired]

If prefilling the filter was important to the OEM, I’m guessing they wouldn’t mount the filter tilted sideways or even upside down as they often do.

Yep exactly

 

[Hohn]

If prefilling the filter was important to the OEM, I’m guessing they wouldn’t mount the filter tilted sideways or even upside down as they often do.

Yep exactly

That said...

Since you have an ADBV on your filter, you can do at least a little bit of prefill quite effectively. I like to prefill about half the filter and let it saturate the media. Installing the filter will typically involve rotating the filter faster than it can drain back out through the media.

I doubt it has a measurable positive effect, but I like the idea of at least a bit of prefill to help with that initial oil delay.

 

[ltslimjim]

Hey, why even bother with ADBV? No issue with oil-less oil filters.