High mileage stories using dino or synthetic oils

[gmchevroletruck]

awesome story...that's a lot of wear that's not accounted for on the odometer, with the extended idling, not to mention it's direct effect on oil dilution....

also interesting to me is that the 01 or 02 6.0 made it that far without burning oil, on m1, and the factory recommended viscosity (which I believe in that case is 5w30, the same as for my 5.3 motor of the same era) , because I've been debating in my mind whether a 10w30 would be better overall, suspecting that the 5w30 recommendation was to meet the fuel economy standards than it was to make the engine last. I'm sure choosing the best weight in any motor may depend on where you believe you incur the most wear (startup or high load at normal temp, or high temps, etc)...and I've been debating which applies to me, but I still can't make myself move away from the factory recommended weight, in good conscience, so that was at least reassuring to see a high mileage story in that weight, with m1, for me personally.

Awesome high mileage stories...these are so interesting to read, and somewhat informative

 

[gmchevroletruck]

awesome...that engine must be pretty durable...never had one but have heard a few similar stories. there really are a lot of good engines out there, made my many different manufacturers

 

[gmchevroletruck]

wow...that Maxima sounds like it would have gone much longer, and probably did...

Any idea the OCI's on the 5.7 Suburban?

 

[gmchevroletruck]

awesome story on the f150 302 motor...were either of these vehicles mostly highway mileage by chance? or at least, few cold starts?

I wonder how long that 5.0 would have gone...

Incidentally, I have a 94 2500 truck with the same tbi 350 that made it to 278k on ....? (bought it used, suspecting it may need a motor soon, and I got it cheap). Looked like it had been very abused, very black inside the motor, with a 5th wheel and trailer brake controller, as well as a 5th wheel tailgate, so it was used hard and not maintained from the looks of it. Burned lots of oil, dropped a reman in recently, we'll see how long it goes, but it won't count for much - not the original engine now

 

[gmchevroletruck]

Wanted to correct my previous post: the 85 Escort Diesels were not an Isuzu Diesel as I had previously stated. We had an 85 Mazda 626 Diesel with the same engine, which we were told by a mechanic was an Isuzu motor, but in fact, I stumbled upon some information online that proves otherwise...it was a Mazda-built, Mazda design.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
we run a fleet of Savana 3500's in some of the toughest duty imaginable.

One of our vans has 335,000 miles on it, driven daily at 9000 pounds. 2004 6.0 Gas V8 with oil changed by OLM with Amsoil SSO and Ea filters exclusively.

Our best van ever was wrecked at 400K miles, 2000 5.7 gas V8, and the engine and trans are in my sons friends car now for a year! Still runs perfect and no knocking or oil consumption. This motor ran Amsoil SSO and had their filters and a bypass set up. We sometimes ran this engine an entire YEAR without draining the sump. Just change the filters and add oil required.

We are Amsoil fans because it saves us money.


Do you run an expedited freight business or something? There are lots of expediters out there with very high miles on late model vans/trucks! Pretty amazing, but again proves the point that when an engine is operated at operating temp most of it's life with hardly any short trips/multiple cold starts a day, it will generally live a very long life.

 

[Drew99GT]

We still have out 98 4.3L Blazer with 230,000 miles. Still runs great and gets better then EPA fuel mileage. Has run whatever's on sale conventional it's entire life.

It has had 3 trannies and numerous other items to get it to 230K, and the chassis and suspension is basically shot, so we plan on running it until the next major thing breaks. I highly doubt it's going to be the engine. At that point, I plan on selling it as a mechanics special or something, so someone can at least pull the motor and use it. Or I might just drain the oil and coolant and blow it up if I'm in a bad mood. It's worth under a thousand bucks so it won't be a big loss.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT

Do you run an expedited freight business or something? There are lots of expediters out there with very high miles on late model vans/trucks! Pretty amazing, but again proves the point that when an engine is operated at operating temp most of it's life with hardly any short trips/multiple cold starts a day, it will generally live a very long life.


No, we run a carpet cleaning biz that cleans more ceramic tile and grout than anything else. Our trucks are made by BUTLER (www.butlersystem.com) and are very heavy. They typically weigh in at 9200 pounds or so! They run at 1500 to 2100 RPM during cleaning.

It should be noted that we pull massive amounts of heat OUT OF the engine during stationary operation via a water/water heat exchanger. But the coolant volume is greatly increased, which leads to a slightly longer warm up period.

 

[Drew99GT]

Oh, so that system uses the vehicles engine to run the equipment instead of having a dinky little gas engine in the back? Wouldn't that mean the engines in your vans would have the equivalent of even more miles on them???

 

[RISUPERCREWMAN]

Yesterday, a University student showed me his 1993 Toyota Camry 3.0 V6 LE with 336,000K miles on the clock, just oil changes, & normal maitenance, stock tranny also!....Still gets him to school every day!

 

[PandaBear]

223k miles running whatever is on sale or free after rebate, 5k on Dino SM, 7.5k on Synthetic SM, any spec before SM was 3k on dino and 5k on synthetic.

Still daily driver.

 

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
223k miles running whatever is on sale or free after rebate, 5k on Dino SM, 7.5k on Synthetic SM, any spec before SM was 3k on dino and 5k on synthetic.

Still daily driver.


what car panda?

 

[gmchevroletruck]

ditto

 

[Thorzdad]

We had a '91 Nissan Maxima SE, 5-speed. We bought it new and, when we finally sold it in 2001, we had put almost 313,000 miles on it. Back then, I used Syntec Blend almost exclusively. 5w30. It ran just fine when we sold it, though other non-powertrain items were starting to show their age.

We now have an '01 Maxima SE. Bought new, to replace the '91. It's my wife's daily-driver commute car. Right now it has just over 314,000 miles. It's had a life of, primarily, full-synthetic oils. Various brands. I put Syntec in it for a good long time. Switched to MaxLife, both full-syn and blend depending on the price. Still going strong.

 

[SHOPete]

Quaker State (Q) mostly full $ynthetic, occassional dyno, since new. 164,000 miles Windstar V6. Spotless inside and zero consumption. 4000 mi/4 mo OCI. I'm a believer.

 

[Jeffro74]

2004 GMC Savana 1500 V6 with 241,000 miles. The 1st 36000 miles were Valvoline durablend every 5,000 at the dealer (for warranty). The rest of the changes have been mostly PYB in everything from 5w20 to 10w40. I have been reading this site (almost religiously) for 3+ yrs. This van has also seen PP, Rotella, Maxlife,even supertech once. The OLM has gone up to 13,000 miles. These are obviously highway miles.

So far replaced:

Water pump
Radiator (I cracked it while doing the water pump)
Upper Hose
Oil pan gasket
Battery
Plugs, wires, cap and rotor
tires

The brakes are all original. I check them every so often. No warping and the pads are not ready to be replaced. This van has been incredibly reliable. I've even towed 3500 lbs 1500 miles a few times.

 

[panthermike]

1992 Ford F150, 302 engine, sold with 252,000. Saw only dino it's whole life. Was fleet maintained in dad's company for the first 200,000. From then until sold, the truck had ZERO oil changes. My brother just topped it off w/ a quart of oil when it started knocking!

That truck just couldn't be stopped.

 

[sparkplug]

Well not my vehicles but I drive school bus and we run Rotella T 15w40 in our buses in the warm months and Mobil 10w30 in the winter. Shell Hydraulic fluid in the transmissions and Mobil 1 in the rear pumpkins. Donaldson oil filters too. The only major motor repair we've done is new piston rings on one bus. We average about 150k miles before we trade them for new buses so they aren't super high mileage but the abuse they take is phenomenal. The one bus that we overhauled the engine in the engine was spotless inside. Bulk Mobil and Rotella T is great stuff! FYI we have Thomas FS-65 chassis with Cat C7 motors and Thomas C2 chassis with Merceded-Benz MBE-900 motors.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: crinkles
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
223k miles running whatever is on sale or free after rebate, 5k on Dino SM, 7.5k on Synthetic SM, any spec before SM was 3k on dino and 5k on synthetic.

Still daily driver.


what car panda?


Integra.

 

[CErnst]

Our family has always been spread out, we are all in different states...so we rack up miles visiting for holidays and whatnot.

1977 K5 Blazer 5.7L - Speedo broke back in '95 or so at 286k miles..I drove it for another few years as my first vehicle. Dad changed every 3k miles with Quaker State 10w40. We retired it in '99 when it started leaking just about every fluid. It is sitting in a chicken coop waiting to be restored.

1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse 1.8L - Bought at 100k and ran it until 240k miles, about 20k miles per year. Changed oil every 3k miles with 10w30 cheapest dino & filter. Many supertech changes. Engine was rebuilt at 180k, didn't really need it. Dad parked it next to the Blazer thinking I'll want to hold on to it...I just want the Blazer.

1998 Ford Ranger 3.0L - Bought it at 150k miles, now at 165k. I am now putting it on at least 5w20 syn blend high-mileage type. Great truck so far, will likely run it for a very long time, barring ditzy ladies texting and putting on nail polish.