Is 5K on conventional a waste?

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I run 5K OCI's with PYB and NAPA Gold filters in my trucks, which are used with near 100% highway cruising for 40 miles a trip.

I know I "could" push it to a longer OCI, but is it really worth it? Am I really wasting the PYB and NG? Or is the 5K OCI the best? All thoughts welcome.
 
That ng can go 10k easy. I'd probably run it 2 ocis or 7.5k on the oil/filter if you know the motors are clean.

EDIT: These aren't diesel trucks are they?
 
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It really wouldn't be a "push" to go 7.5K. In your almost ideal circumstances (long drive, warm temps, good oil and filter). 10K is possible. I advise 7.5K immediately with a UOA at the end of it if you need confidence building.
 
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
I run 5K OCI's with PYB and NAPA Gold filters in my trucks, which are used with near 100% highway cruising for 40 miles a trip.

I know I "could" push it to a longer OCI, but is it really worth it? Am I really wasting the PYB and NG? Or is the 5K OCI the best? All thoughts welcome.


How can you waste PYB if its gone 3K or more? Its cheap dino that cost pocket change.
Toss it at 5K and sleep well, engines are to expensive to fiddle around trying to get the last mile out of cheap oil.
The NG maybe a little overkill for that oil.

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Originally Posted By: Trav
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
I run 5K OCI's with PYB and NAPA Gold filters in my trucks, which are used with near 100% highway cruising for 40 miles a trip.

I know I "could" push it to a longer OCI, but is it really worth it? Am I really wasting the PYB and NG? Or is the 5K OCI the best? All thoughts welcome.


How can you waste PYB if its gone 3K or more? Its cheap dino that cost pocket change.
Toss it at 5K and sleep well, engines are to expensive to fiddle around trying to get the last mile out of cheap oil.
The NG maybe a little overkill for that oil.

49.gif



How can you waste PYB if it's gone 3K?- by dumping it out for no good reason other than because it's "pocket change" to you. What a waste under the circumstances stated by the OP. This was the attitude about oil products in general when I was a kid. They're cheap-let's just use 'em up! I would have thought we'd have moved beyond this type of thinking by now.
 
5K for 100% highway is probably early to dump, but I usually dump around 5-6K according to my OLM and I sleep easy at night.
It's not as bad as when many of us used to do 3K on any type of oil regardless of driving style or anything.

Things have come a long way.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
The NG maybe a little overkill for that oil.

How so? There's nothing special about a NAPA Gold filter.
 
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
I run 5K OCI's with PYB and NAPA Gold filters in my trucks, which are used with near 100% highway cruising for 40 miles a trip.

I know I "could" push it to a longer OCI, but is it really worth it? Am I really wasting the PYB and NG? Or is the 5K OCI the best? All thoughts welcome.


What make/model trucks are these?

You operate them under ideal conditions that's for sure. However, I wouldn't take them out past 7,500 miles on conventional oil. What does the owner's manual recommend?

If your objective is oil cost per mile then I wouldn't rule out synthetic for the extra few dollars (at Walmart prices). You can do 12,000 if you go that route with the obvious benefit of having to change the oil less often.
 
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Originally Posted By: Trav
The NG maybe a little overkill for that oil.

How so? There's nothing special about a NAPA Gold filter.


Maybe not but its still almost twice as much retail as a Purolator classic.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
It really wouldn't be a "push" to go 7.5K. In your almost ideal circumstances (long drive, warm temps, good oil and filter). 10K is possible. I advise 7.5K immediately with a UOA at the end of it if you need confidence building.


Agree. The best way to optimize the care of your truck is to spend more time and money keeping up its appearance and less time on oil.

I'd say it worthwhile to go to 7K if you can, (which you almost certainly can do). Your time is worth something. If you only drive a little, that's not a big deal, but if you drive a lot, and it sounds like you do, that's significant. One thing that I think that has been established is that pretty much any brand-name synthetic oil is terrific. So If you change yourself, you might as well get whatever synthetic happens to be on sale for nearly the same price as regular. Then you can extend your OCI for another couple of thousand miles at least, I would expect, saving even more time.

So, if it were me, I'd switch to "sale" brand synthetic, test at 8K getting TBN. (Blackstone sells a real handy pump thingy) and assuming its good, run to 10K-11K and test again. Recalibrate from there. If its great you might want to go even further, but if its average, you have your change interval.

You can go nuts paying for these tests, but reassuring yourself that you have a good, conservative, but not absurdly so, change interval is worthwhile, assuming you drive enough to justify it.
 
I also agree with above, except that I'd run 6000 miles on conventional or 7500 on synthetic. Then do a UOA. There is no need to guess about these things -- the UOA will tell you if you can run even longer intervals. Maybe follow up with a second UOA afterward, to see how your longer inverval worked out. Then you'll know where you stand, and no further UOA's should be needed (unless you want to do a general health-check on your engine every couple years).
 
I run to 7-7.5K with my truck and the UOA looks stellar and my dusty conditions are liking just as bad as yours with a lot less highway miles. This was with Formula Shell and a Motorcraft filter.

What kind of trucks are you talking about?
 
My trucks are a '97 Chevy with the 4.3L V6, and a 2000 Silverado with the 5.3 Vortex V8. I have an abundance of PYB stored away, and the reason I use Napa Gold is because thats what is sold in my small town.

I chose 5K OCI because of the round numbers, and of course its still much better than the ridiculous 3K. Also, I think the V6 works a little hard to cruise at 75mph everyday, but maybe not.

I am not seeking to just be "cheap", but to find that optimal OCI point that balances protection and economy.
 
I'd run PYB 7500 miles/6 months any day with no second thoughts.My FIL runs VWB @ 10 k miles/3 months on his 04 Sierra for 200 K miles/5 years of towing and commuting he has owned the truck.
 
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