Just did an oil change on my Camaro, and had to take stock of where it is in its life-cycle. I have owned the car since new, and it always had synthetic oil in the sump. But after 240,000 miles, oil consumption has trended up, and now it is using a quart in about 1200 miles. This gets kind of pricey if I am going to keep running synthetic oil. On the last oil change, I switched from Pennzoil 5w40 PUP to Valvoline MaxLife 5w30. I was hoping the high mileage oil would help with oil consumption, but it didn't seem to. Another problem I had noticed late in the VML interval was the oil pressure was low. Warmed up at idle, it would only be maintaining about 22 psi, and cruising 75 mph was only 30 psi.
Prior to my latest oil change, I went to Walmart and looked at oil prices, viscosity grades, and synthetic vs syn blends vs conventionals, and decided to take the plunge with Supertech High Mileage 5w30. M1 0w40 was $25/5qts, and Supertech HM was $13.50/5 qts. I leaned toward the STHM because high mileage oils are typically synblends. But I read the bottle, and there was no mention of that. But what the heck, I thought, if it doesn't work, the engine will blow through it in about 5000 miles, and I can start topping the oil up with better stuff. But I splurged on the oil filter, buying a Fram Ultra, assuming that I would run it through two OCI's.
I did the oil change, and went for a long drive today, and saw that the oil pressure is much higher. Warmed up at idle, it was holding 30 psi, and cruising at 75 mph, oil pressure was 40. So what the heck was going on with the VML? I took an oil sample, so maybe Polaris Labs will shed some light on the subect.
Prior to my latest oil change, I went to Walmart and looked at oil prices, viscosity grades, and synthetic vs syn blends vs conventionals, and decided to take the plunge with Supertech High Mileage 5w30. M1 0w40 was $25/5qts, and Supertech HM was $13.50/5 qts. I leaned toward the STHM because high mileage oils are typically synblends. But I read the bottle, and there was no mention of that. But what the heck, I thought, if it doesn't work, the engine will blow through it in about 5000 miles, and I can start topping the oil up with better stuff. But I splurged on the oil filter, buying a Fram Ultra, assuming that I would run it through two OCI's.
I did the oil change, and went for a long drive today, and saw that the oil pressure is much higher. Warmed up at idle, it was holding 30 psi, and cruising at 75 mph, oil pressure was 40. So what the heck was going on with the VML? I took an oil sample, so maybe Polaris Labs will shed some light on the subect.