High mileage full synthetic, synthetic blend or conventional in a 263K mile car?

[BlueOvalFitter]

My son uses 10W40 whatever in his 96 Corolla, 260K miles. Currently it's Rotella 10W40.

 

[nickaluch]

Any cheap 10w30 works fine. If it's burning or leaking bad bump up to 10w40 in the spring. Home Depot runs a sale once in awhile on formula shell 5 qts $10

 

[celicaxx]

Originally Posted by ka9mnx

Originally Posted by JeffKeryk

Since it's cheap, I would run ST Synthetic HM 5w30 or 10w30.

Agree. Sounds like this engine hasn't had a good oil changing life. This would be my recommendation.

It certainly hasn't. It was my father's girlfriend's car, he said she used Formula Shell 10W40 forever, but I think she probably didn't change the oil for the last 4-5 years she owned the car, and really really abused it, carrying gravel in the back seats and stuff like that. This is after 1500 miles of Supertech. I'm actually really leaning on Maxlife, though, mainly because it seems neat, and worth the extra $3. The other reason, too, if I get 5W30 Max Life, I could actually streamline my oil for all our cars in the household, since my mom's Five Hundred is spec'd for Motorcraft synthetic blend 5W20, but I've found it runs better with 5W30 Motorcraft synthetic blend. So since my car will take 3.5 quarts, her car takes 6, the leftover quarts can go into her car and vice versa. I also feel a little partiality to Valvoline, in the past with my mother's Taurus, I loved the way it ran on Valvoline full synthetics, I liked them even better than Mobil 1. One reason I'm thinking my mpg stuff is oil related, is that I feel a definite difference in engine smoothness/pep when warm, and the engine just revs more freely. I'll also be switching to another oil filter with a bypass, as the stock Nissan filters have no bypass, but I have leftover filters from my old Jetta that are 3/4 threaded and have a bypass (they're set relatively high, I think 15 PSI?) I was also thinking of a 1068, as I used those on Toyotas in the past with great luck, and have one 1068. But the 1068 probably will up it to 4 quarts total, as it's such a big filter.

 

[Nayov]

I have a '93 Sentra as my daily driver bought new which now has 335,000 miles (OCI 5K w/ 5W-30 syn on sale). I have used 20W-50 once and got the best ever MPG's with it (42) a few years ago while on a trip to the Mid Atlantic (car is an auto and the a/c was blasting). Nevertheless, I use syn 5W-30, never a HM oil, no need. My car consumes no oil at all during its 5K OCI, but they commonly leak at the front crank seal, an easy and cheap fix. Anytime you open the valve cover, you "must" replace the rocker gasket or it will burn oil. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Ni...p;hash=item3416b451b3:g:fc0AAOSwJRldwsWy

 

[Triple_Se7en]

celicazxx My (now-gone) 99' Chevy S-10 with high-output 4.3 ran it's smoothest on Maxlife blend and Shell Premium.

 

[Olas]

Redline 5w30 with a full bottle liqui moly MOS2, and shell Vpower fuel with a full bottle of Redline SI1. it was expensive but it was smoother than any other combination of oil and fuel I have ever used before or since.

 

[celicaxx]

Originally Posted by Nayov

I have a '93 Sentra as my daily driver bought new which now has 335,000 miles (OCI 5K w/ 5W-30 syn on sale). I have used 20W-50 once and got the best ever MPG's with it (42) a few years ago while on a trip to the Mid Atlantic (car is an auto and the a/c was blasting). Nevertheless, I use syn 5W-30, never a HM oil, no need. My car consumes no oil at all during its 5K OCI, but they commonly leak at the front crank seal, an easy and cheap fix. Anytime you open the valve cover, you "must" replace the rocker gasket or it will burn oil. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Ni...p;hash=item3416b451b3:g:fc0AAOSwJRldwsWy

I do have to get to that. Unfortunately, it will be my 4th time going into the valve cover. I didn't know or notice that part until recently, but mine is definitely rock hard. It is an ebay valve cover gasket, too. I'm wondering if I should have sprung for Fel-Pro or OEM. One thing that seemed to stop the leak, too, was ditching the OEM screws and rubber washers for normal 10mm bolts and torquing to about 85 in/lbs instead of the stock 20-30. At least with said ebay gasket. I also put a new dizzy oring on, too. Maybe a silly general question, but is the car supposed to feel so... slow? I have my timing adjusted to what I believe is about 12 degrees (my crank marks are hard to see...) and the car is fine in traffic now, but still, it takes a lot of throttle to get up to higher speeds sometimes. I've had and driven other 4 cylinder econoboxes, but mostly with a manual. Even Volkswagen 2 point Slow engines were rocket ships compared to this engine. I've lost my compression gauge/have been too scared to do a test on it to see just how tired my engine is, but are the GA16DE Sentras really so slow?

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Originally Posted by celicaxx

It certainly hasn't. It was my father's girlfriend's car, he said she used Formula Shell 10W40 forever, but I think she probably didn't change the oil for the last 4-5 years she owned the car, and really really abused it, carrying gravel in the back seats and stuff like that. This is after 1500 miles of Supertech.

Looks better from where I'm sitting... which ST are you using?

 

[Boss302fan]

Maxlife semi syn is the way to go. I have had many collector cars that sat and I always used Maxlife semi syn... I have used it in modern higher mileage vehicles and it has work well Good luck with your decision.

 

[celicaxx]

Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter

Originally Posted by celicaxx

It certainly hasn't. It was my father's girlfriend's car, he said she used Formula Shell 10W40 forever, but I think she probably didn't change the oil for the last 4-5 years she owned the car, and really really abused it, carrying gravel in the back seats and stuff like that. This is after 1500 miles of Supertech.

Looks better from where I'm sitting... which ST are you using?

Non-high mileage normal dino 10w40. But the bottle was old enough (I believe 2016) that it's not the newest designed bottle.

 

[celicaxx]

I'm reviving this sort of old thread here with some updates about the car, for anyone interested. I switched to Valvoline Maxlife High Mileage Synblend 5w30 earlier in about April. The car runs way better with it compared to Supertech 10w40. Using a 94 Jetta NAPA Gold filter, as I have a stockpile of about 5 and they fit in the threads. I had some oil loss during the first thousand miles, about half a quart, now it seems to be using none at another 500 miles. The car just felt immensely smoother with the Valvoline Maxlife 5w30, though. Really was a completely night and day difference in smoothness and ability to rev up. Bad news is, I do have an oil light staying on for about 2 seconds after startup, instead of immediately turning off. I think it's some combination of the oil filter getting clogged with sludge, the oil being a bit thin with it being so hot out and me taking longer trips/constantly driving it throughout the day now compared to in winter, since I have to drive for other family members now with the Corona situation and health issues. So my plan is to change it ASAP, and I bought two gallons of the NAPA Valvoline 15w40 during March when it was $10 a gallon with Corona craziness thinking the world would end and I'd be king with two gallons of 15w40. So I will likely change it with this 15w40 as I have it available and it's hot out. I'll probably still use the Maxlife 5w30 in fall/winter in it for sure, though. Hopefully the HDEO cleans sludge out well, too. For other good automotive fluid related news, I switched it to Valvoline Maxlife ATF and that made a world of difference in how smooth it shifted and just ran in general. I had Supertech high mileage ATF in there, with Lucas Stop Slip (trans was iffy feeling and jerky) and then Seafoam Transtune put in after to see if it made it better, which it did, so I think thicker fluid made it worse? Anyway, it shifts close to perfect now with Valvoline Maxlife ATF. REALLY impressed with it. Overall super impressed with Maxlife oil and ATF. A guy who works on BMWs on Youtube is a giant fan of the Maxlife ATF in those boxes, so I figured why not for $18 at Wal-Mart? Lastly, the biggest running related thing I did that seemed to help things out immensely as far as fuel economy (from what I can tell, but inconclusive) and power in general was spark plugs. I had NGK V-Powers in a 5 heat range in the car, I switched to a 7 heat range and it just made the car run absolutely fantastic with loads of power, quieter and smoother idle, and better hill climbing ability and some ability even to "lug" the engine like I could in a manual car up hills, which it would never do before. My sort of guess is besides maybe my timing being a bit too far advanced (when I got it, it was too retarded by a significant amount...) is that there's a lot of carbon on the pistons and head, so running a colder plug prevents me from detonating and the car can run stichiometric. It used to smell like gas everywhere it drove, and now with the colder plugs it's solved it and it no longer smells like that out of the tailpipe. So that's an update on the car. Unsure of the rest of the engine but I got about 170PSI out of all the cylinders when the engine is hot, testing out compression. So after 265K, it's still within the low end of a healthy compression range (164-190) and not something awful like 120-130 like I was initially thinking, and that's with 5w30 and not 15w40/etc to try to eek out more compression.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

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[ejes]

I too have had good luck with Valvoline Maxlife red bottle (syn blend). I'd give it a try in 10w30 for a couple of OCI's. If no noticeable difference is seen, I'd switch back to the SuperTech HM also in 10w30 year round.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

The cheapest one on sale will serve you well.

 

[Jackson_Slugger]

Originally Posted by celicaxx

... Bad news is, I do have an oil light staying on for about 2 seconds after startup, instead of immediately turning off. I think it's some combination of the oil filter getting clogged with sludge, the oil being a bit thin with it being so hot out and me taking longer trips/constantly driving it throughout the day now compared to in winter, since I have to drive for other family members now with the Corona situation and health issues.... .

Thank you for the update, have you checked into the oil sensor or sending unit? I have an intermittently faulty one that sends a false positive when it's very cold out at temp idle. I keep forgetting to change it

 

[AdamZ]

On my 95 Nissan pathfinder, the oil light will do that when using certain brands of filters. Napa Gold 100% does it for example. I could switch back and forth between it and a Fram TG and see the immediate difference. I assume the stock filter for your car is a TG3682 using fram's numbers? I've also used my VW (04 golf 2.0) filters on the pathfinder with no ill effect. They are slightly larger capacity as well. The Nissan spec filter doesn't have a bypass because the bypass is on the filter mount on the block (look for a little ball when you have the filter off).

 

[celicaxx]

I'm using NAPA Gold Jetta filters. Forget the number at the minute, but they're for the 2.0L 8V engine. The same filter with the Supertech 10w40 didn't do it, even in winter when cold. I think it's just clogged as the engine was so sludged up and the thinner oil makes less pressure. I could try Motorcraft's PH3600 equivalent (old Taurus filter) I was also thinking of using the NAPA Gold 1068, the Ford big block filter that I used to use on my Celica Supra. My Celica Supra would also do weird things with various small oil filters, but never with that one. I'd like to keep using my Jetta filters as I have a stockpile of them, though. I have a bad feeling about FRAMs as I believe I actually had one collapse on me in one of my other Celica Supras, though this was from running way too much MMO/Seafoam/etc and probably desludging the engine way too fast, along with numerous times running it through vacuum lines. In that case, too, Toyota actually switched oil filter specs to a smaller filter, the 4 cylinder Camry one, when the original was the 1068 Ford big block filter. So I'd prefer zero FRAMs on my cars, I've only used Motorcraft or NAPA Gold since. Could try Supertech filters? Anyway, when weather is good and I have time, I'll probably just dump Valvoline Maxlife and throw in the 15w40 and a new filter and see what happens, run it for 3-4K hopefully, then change back to the 5w30 in winter again when hopefully it's more desludged. I also bought the rocker cover gasket yesterday. Inflation's a pain now with Corona and the general situation. :///// When Nayov linked it, it was $6.88, now it's $11.88 from the same seller, and the cheapest on ebay is $10 now. So when it comes I hope I can get the valve cover pulled again and paint it nicer, then get that in and hopefully any oil leaking issues get solved, as it seems to leak out of the front of the valve cover inexplicably.

 

[celicaxx]

I changed it for the NAPA Valvoline 15w40 today. I noticed with a lot of CK4 15w40s, they run close to most 10w40s according to PQIA viscocity indexes, some are even thinner than some 10w40s, and I noticed by feel they seem thin when shaking the bottles/etc. Anyway, oil pressure light at startup went out. Everything seems fine. 5w30 Maxlife I do think revs a bit freer, but overall this oil feels good, smooth, and quiet. I'm hoping to just run this now until October/November and then switch back to Maxlife 5w30 again. I'm hoping I don't have bearing wear that's causing the low startup oil pressure, too. I did cut my NAPA Gold filter open, and it wasn't terrible inside, though there were a few 1mm or so sludge rocks in the bottom of the pleats, sort of like an old car air filter, but it wasn't some completely solidified mess. I only have one Jetta filter left, so I bought a Motorcraft FL400S today for my next oil change to try. I'm hoping when I get the rocker cover gasket in a week or so and get time to repaint my valve cover I can see if any more sludge clean up happened. The oil I dumped at 1500 miles wasn't the worst, but it was about 80% as dark as my mother's car where it's had mostly religious 5000 mile changes. I guess if this all works out, I'll just run 15w40 in summer and 5w30 in winter.