High mileage stories using dino or synthetic oils

[Clark6]

1996 Chevy silverado ext. cab 249,000 mi. still drive it today , this and my GN.

Oil in the truck
245-125,000 miles --valvoline 10-30 DINO
125,000-200,000 miles----M1 10-30 SYN
200,000-249,000 miles--- back on DINO Valvoline first 3 oil chnges; lately mobil clean 5000 for the last 49,000 mi.

All on Fram filters...
At 248,000 miles i just put on a pure 1 filter with the Mobil clean 5000.

oil changes on the Dino was every 3000 miles
the Mobil1 syn was every 4000-4500 miles.

 

[af0h]

In spring of 2006 I bought a used '88 Toyota Camry - 2.0 FI - with 220,000 miles on it. Was cheap and needed front-end work.
Grand total (with work) was $1,500. 3 1/2 years later and with 268,000 miles it's still going strong.
Had a few problems with it, but none were engine-related.

Fed a stady diet (since I've had it) of Kendall 10w30 (local Quick Change service) and Fram (orange can) oil filters - changed
every 3,000 miles. Occasionally, i'd give it a dose of MMO about 1k before oil changes.
Of course, i'm often accused of driving it 'Like an old lady drives a Lincoln to church'....

Anyway, 48,000 miles and 3 1/2 years later on a $1,500 dollar car isn't bad.
It does use a quart of oil every 1,000 miles (doesn't leak) - but I just keep running it.
When it drops, i'll replace it.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: chad8
I was going to dump it but I guess I'll keep it until it dies.


Timing belt failures won't take out the valves (non-interference). If you keep the oil level reasonably full, it'll keep going.

Your best bet for death is rust or running the engine dry of oil!

 

[crazyoildude]

Hey! as an engine rebuilder we don't like those ford 4.6 engines although there are millions of them on the road most of them go well over 350,000 miles without a problem than if there is by chance a problem it dont pay to fix because the rest of the car is usually shot by then or not worth fixing...LOL i own two 4.6 fords and they both run great just like the taxi's and police cars and most ford trucks great engines

 

[hpichris]

Originally Posted By: 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.


That's just down right ignorant. Ugh.

 

[rich0001]

211K 98 Windstar

Super Tech oil and filter 5W30

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: hpichris
Originally Posted By: 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.


That's just down right ignorant. Ugh.


Built Ford Tough!! LOL I had a buddy whose father changed his Buick Park AVe (IIRC) oil filter once a year and topped it up. He'd check the oil from time to time and add it when needed. The car had well over 100,000 miles on it when I met him and was going strong years later. His dad said oil doesn't go bad, it was the filter that went bad. He treated all his cars that way.

 

[gmchevroletruck]

any more stories out there? This has been one of my favorites to read

 

[BigJohn]

My brother bought my Mom a 2001 Ford 1/2 ton pickup with 254,000 miles on it. The truck lived its life in the West Texas oil fields and probably idled 100's of hours beyond its odometer. The pickup still has good engine strength and I suspect we will keep it for a ranch beater for another 5 years.

For it's whole life, it was fed 5w30 out of 55 gallon drums.....dino fleet oil.

Since we have had it, it has been fed Delvac 15w40....and the engine purrs like a kitten.

 

[gmchevroletruck]

I hesitate to say this, as it is a subjective and not factual scientific study of the cases that have just been presented (themselves unscientific and lacking much detail), but the general impression that I am getting from these stories, unconfirmed of course, considering that a majority of these stories are on dino oil (possibly just because it's more popular anyway), and many are on "thicker" oil (lots of 10w30, 15w40, etc, rather than 5w30 and "below"), is that thicker oil and dino oil specifically may be more conducive to long engine life than synthetic, given the right circumstances? Surely this is a vague statement, and a controversial one at best, and would need much more info and study to mean much, but with that in mind, it's the general impression I'm gathering so far.

Anyone care to add any useless information to my useless statement above? Or better yet, some useful info?

 

[Soobs]

1995 Subaru Legacy L 2.2 5-speed

Over 413,000 miles

3,000 mile oil-change-intervals with 10w-30 dino oil and it has seen a mix of aftermarket / genuine subaru OEM oil filters over the years; however, I've stuck to genuine Subaru oil filters and parts the past two years.

I've never had to do any engine repairs, just regular manufacturer recommended fluid changes and tune-ups. It very slowly drinks a bit of oil over time, but nothing serious.
I'm still driving it today!

 

[Bill in Utah]

More engines go down the road for many more miles using Conventional oils than Syn. Syn only has a small percentage of the market and 10-15 years ago it was REALLY small.

There is a need vs want. Most engines do not NEED syn oils. Most people that run it want to. Their engines would make it to the end running the recommended oils for the recommended OCIs with no worries.

Look at the people here who run syn even SHORTER than the recommended OCIs.

Cracks me up....

Take care, bill

 

[bigmike]

I had a 1986 Mazda go for 202,000 when I sold it. It only had Castrol GTX and Kendall dino oils.

Also had a 1994 Honda that had 184,000 miles and I only used Kendall dino in it.

I prefer dino in my Silverado as well.

 

[caravanmike]

brothers car: 252,000 miles on dino oil.
1992 toyota camry 2.2 5sfe
summer oil 20w-50 what ever on sale
winter oil 10w-40 what ever on sale
purolator filters
he owned the car for 10 years

he sold it in jan 09 in perfect running condition. motor made abosolutley no noises. did leak a little out the front seals.

 

[gmchevroletruck]

For all the talk about cold starts and its obvious wear on a motor, I'm still intrigued by the high mileage stories on "thicker" oils such as he used here. Do you know if they were primarily long trips, or at least, "few cold starts"?

 

[caravanmike]

Originally Posted By: gmchevroletruck


For all the talk about cold starts and its obvious wear on a motor, I'm still intrigued by the high mileage stories on "thicker" oils such as he used here. Do you know if they were primarily long trips, or at least, "few cold starts"?

he lives along the great miami river so it is colder than the rest of southwest ohio (do to the river breeze!) the camry sits right next to the river outside year round. it even puzzles me! their are no cold start noises and at least 10 times a year we get to 10 below (with wind chill).

as for long trips he has a 25 mile one way drive to work 5 days a week.

my brother has always been a thick oil nut! and he usually gets 300,000 miles out of a car. i believe it is his driving style. he drives like a grandma and is very easy on a drive train. mike

 

[MrWideTires]

I'm the kind of guys that swears by 0w30 and 0w40s... but my father's car is [censored] impressive with 20w50.

He bought this b13 sentra brand new when I was still in kindergarden... it's not USDM market car, this one is loaded with options... but the way it's modified has always mind boggled me. It has NO variable timing, and it's carburated! But it has been putting out TWICE the stock horsepower for all these years.. it's somewhere around 200hp at the crank. With its stupidly short gearing it can break the tires loose going into 4th gear with 205/60-R13s
It uses a Mobil conventional 20w50 (not available in the U.S.) and it's almost at 300,000 miles!

We beat on it all the time.. heck we have taken it around the South american Andes mountains revving the heck out of it (over 8000rpm) for hours. Heck this car has been jumped dukes of hazard style.. My sister and me learned how to drive in this car, it has driven through the entire south american west coast, and done some nice mudding and off-roading.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: caravanmike
i believe it is his driving style. he drives like a grandma and is very easy on a drive train. mike


I baby my 2006 Honda Odyssey, but I burn the rear tires off my 2000 Chevy Silverado on a regular basis. The Chevy will probably outlast the van, LOL.

 

[mark pruett]

Here's one more data point for high mileage & synthetics.

Bought a used 1995 Ford Ranger (3.0l Vulcan v6, w/standard gearbox) in about 2000 with about 55,000 miles on it. Gave it predominantly a diet of 5w-30 Mobil 1 TriSynthetic (API SL, I believe) that I bought when it was on sale at a Wal-Mart in 2001. About 3/4 of the oil changes were done using conventional oil in 5w-30 or 10w-30, including Trop-Artic, Chevron Supreme, Exxon Superflo and at least one change of 5w-40 Rotella Synthetic. My usual interval was between 5k and 6k, because at the time, I was driving about 60-70 miles per day to work and back.

It lasted until 240k miles, at which point it still didn't burn any oil between 5k changes, and still got 20 mpg on a mix of highway and city driving.

It looked like [censored], and the clutch finally went out for the second time, but the engine ran like a top.

 

[mark pruett]

Originally Posted By: mark pruett
Gave it predominantly a diet of 5w-30 Mobil 1 TriSynthetic (API SL, I believe) that I bought when it was on sale at a Wal-Mart in 2001.


After googling it a bit, I think it was SJ, not SL.