M-1 5W30; 3200mi, '01 Sienna 1MZ eng

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First post - new member. I've got an oil change coming up, afraid to extend beyond 3K miles due to the history of Toyota's 1MZ engine. Currently running Valvoline Synthetic. Opinions please.

toyotasienna.png
 
Your post says M-1 but you say it is Valvoline Synpower I assume.

Looks good from here.
 
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ThirdeYe is correct, the next analysis will be on the Valvoline SynPower in the crankcase now. I purchased the car in Sept. of 2007 at 87K miles and was doing some cleansing oil changes since I didn't have the full history. That's why the intervals were so short.

It's my wife's ride and she is currently driving about 9K mi per year. So can I stretch to 4,500mi/every six months, or be safe and keep changes at 3K? Can I switch to Penzoil YB or other high quality conventional oil, or should I stay with synthetics due to the reputation of the 1MZ engine?
 
Even on a 'sludger' engine, you can easily do 7500 miles on synthetic, so yeah, your planned 4500 miles works just fine.

Silicon looks really high for the miles - might want to look into your air filter.
 
Kevin,

I have a '98 Sienna (1MZ-FE). I bought it in 2001 w/ 62k miles on it. It now has close to 160k. Mainly shuttling the kids. For the majority of it I've done ~8k OCIs using Mobil1 (10w30, 0w30 and 5w30). A Toyota mech was in it at around 142k for valve cover gaskets and timing belt - said the engine was clean.

I heard about he sludge issue soon after getting the van. Did a lot of web research those first couple of years. The majority of vans seemed to be sludging in under 50k, and the '99 and '00 seemed to the the worse - some sludging in 20-25k - the earliest I saw was 14k. I've only seen a couple of post of Sienna's sludging after 50k. So, it seems to me if you have a sludger, you likely would have already sludged. There are a bazillion '98-'02 Sienna's that haven't sludged - many owned by folks that don't know about the issue, and forget to chg their dino for way too long. Just look at the numbers (from what I've read) - you had that surge of vans sludging that first couple of years, and now you don't hear much about it - even though these vans are getting old and high mileage.

And some of the sludge stories - there were numerous folks that claimed 3k OCIs (supposedly provided Toyota w/ receipts, etc), there was one guy that claimed doing 6k OCIs with M1 - and they sludged. So it seems if a person owned one of the sludgers, they were doomed almost regardless of the oil or OCI. (?)

What I take away from all this - these engines may be tough on oil, but something kinked on the production line (or from some supplier) that broke the camels back in a small percent. And if you haven't sludged by 90k, you're out of the woods (imo). Proceed with caution (but I think you could relax the 3k).

(Once again - my Sienna is clean and I've gone as far as 9k+ on M1)
 
Originally Posted By: stockrex
what was the root cause behind toyos sludging? narrower top end port sizes to raise head temp?


There are 2 concepts circulating around. Yours is one, and the other is the thermal delta (or temp difference) between the sump and the head, that stresses the oil.
 
Originally Posted By: ericthepig
Kevin,

I have a '98 Sienna (1MZ-FE). I bought it in 2001 w/ 62k miles on it. It now has close to 160k. Mainly shuttling the kids. For the majority of it I've done ~8k OCIs using Mobil1 (10w30, 0w30 and 5w30). A Toyota mech was in it at around 142k for valve cover gaskets and timing belt - said the engine was clean.

I heard about he sludge issue soon after getting the van. Did a lot of web research those first couple of years. The majority of vans seemed to be sludging in under 50k, and the '99 and '00 seemed to the the worse - some sludging in 20-25k - the earliest I saw was 14k. I've only seen a couple of post of Sienna's sludging after 50k. So, it seems to me if you have a sludger, you likely would have already sludged. There are a bazillion '98-'02 Sienna's that haven't sludged - many owned by folks that don't know about the issue, and forget to chg their dino for way too long. Just look at the numbers (from what I've read) - you had that surge of vans sludging that first couple of years, and now you don't hear much about it - even though these vans are getting old and high mileage.

And some of the sludge stories - there were numerous folks that claimed 3k OCIs (supposedly provided Toyota w/ receipts, etc), there was one guy that claimed doing 6k OCIs with M1 - and they sludged. So it seems if a person owned one of the sludgers, they were doomed almost regardless of the oil or OCI. (?)

What I take away from all this - these engines may be tough on oil, but something kinked on the production line (or from some supplier) that broke the camels back in a small percent. And if you haven't sludged by 90k, you're out of the woods (imo). Proceed with caution (but I think you could relax the 3k).

(Once again - my Sienna is clean and I've gone as far as 9k+ on M1)


Kevin, pretty good info above. The other thing with this engine is to keep the PCV valve and hose really clean.
I limit my OCI to 5k (w/GC) because of short trips and cold temps. 115k so far so good. Your plan sounds good.
BTW- Use OEM PCVs for the best results. IMHO
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I'm going to keep using synthetic only on this car. I'm also only using Toyota OEM filters. I did a few short interval changes with some gentle cleansing using Marvel's and Seafoam and dino oil when I bought the car. I noticed the pcv valve was gummed up when I bought the car, and I replaced it, and the throttle body where the pcv valve dumps its load was filthy, so I cleaned that too. It's been a year and a half since I looked at the pcv and throttle body, so I plan to do that this upcoming oil change. My wife only drives this thing about 9K miles per year, but I can't stand the thought of once a year oil changes, maybe every 8-9 months. I have three kids under age six so I don't ever want her stranded due to a maintenance shortcut on my part.
 
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