Impact of short trips on engine with regular oc's?

[rjacket]

I was wondering what you think the impact on an engine of just doing daily short trips would be, say at the rate of 3000 miles a year? The oil would be changed every 6 months and there are no signs of sludge or anything.

Would the engine get sluggish over time and be in need of a good run out once in a while to clear out the cobwebs so to speak?

Or, if you just make sure you change the oil regularly enough, would the engine always retain it's performance capabilities?

 

[Hessen]

I'm not the expert here but my understanding is that frequent short trips (without reaching normal oil operating temp) is the worst kind of situation for engine wear. IIRC this is true regardless of low annual mileage or religious oil changes. I'm interested in what the forum gurus have to say about this.

 

[SERonBLAST]

You would have to worry about the gas and the carbon as well.
but yes the engine needs a good run weekly IMO.

 

[FL_Rob]

I'm in the same boat,my usual oci is somewhere around 6mo on dino OR syn.The fuel contamination is just to much for me to go longer.Since I switched from motorcraft 5w20 to rotella T6 5w40,Ive noticed quieter cold starts ,being that I've got 200k mi on the engine (the 5w20 was thin enough for me to hear a slight cold start knock)my clearances are big enough to need that thicker oil but it'll do just fine on 10w30 dino all the same.Ive got 3.08 gears in the rear so I'll cruze with it in drive rather than O/D to prevent bogging in these short trip conditions as well as using Chevron (top tier) gas.On the occasion I'll blow it out with a run up to 95 or so once in a while .We used to decarbon with water,(Carburated)that does work just be carefull.With modern F/I there's much less to worry about, the factory systems are well optimized,just a recommended oci ,which is conservative to say the least, should suit you well even on short trips.It seems the new GM OLM(Oil Life Monitors)do a good job of bringing 5k to 7500k even on high oil abuse operating conditions,Some might say a year is too long, most may say a good syn will offset this short trip effect.I run T6 with a Pure one just so I can feed my personal ocd,but overkill is good enough for me.