MaxLife full synthetic 7500 safe?

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Hi, new to the forums. Iv visited in the past but can't seem to find any real answer to my question (many mixed reviews). Iv also checked UOA and wasn't able to find anything good.

95 Buick Regal 3.8 Series 1 92.5k miles
Car doesn't consume anything (beyond to much gas).

Bought from a one owner elderly lady.

Car runs good but I want to service the car myself and do typical maintiance and minor repairs.

I like MaxLife but iv seen many mixed reviews on it some saying 10k is fine and others saying it was shot at 6k via UOA.

I'm running 10w-30 full synthetic and a Fram ultra synthetic filter.

Never had any UOA done but I have requested a kit from Blackstone.

Any suggestions or recommendations on a good OCI (trying to save money since I can use great oil for even less then conv. when doing myself).

Not trying to squeeze every mile out just not looking to do 5k since that's what iv been doing with cheaper conventional.

Owner manual recommends 7500 for conv (doesn't list synthetic) in my driving conditions since all my trips are mixed interstate/highway 30+ miles.

Contacted Valvoline they said 3k miles or owners manual.
 
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Don't listen to valvoline. They say 3000 for synthetic or conventional. At least they say owners manual. Which translates to 5k/10k for me. But 10k is all I try to do.
 
I don't want to push 10k on my first try. I want to go to 7500 and do a few UOA's and hope to hit 9-10k.

Thank you for the quick reply.
 
mobil is only company that puts miles on their oil like that.
always go by service manual or whats your comfortble with.

I personaly see oil as cheap insurance, i do 3-4k for conv. and about 5 k for synth.
those are for non turbo , for turbo i'd take off 20%.


I always buy on sale and i dont drive more than 15ish per year so its not a big deal to me.
 
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I have a 3800 Series II in my '00 Buick and I'm still doing 6 months/3000 miles whichever comes first. I go to the salvage yard all the time and see what neglected engines look like. I don't want that happening to my engine.
 
The lady who owned the car used Castrol every 3k miles. But I know you can push the envelope some. I'm not trying to get 100k out of a OCI just a reasonable amount to justify the cost of the oil and higher end filter. Worst comes to worst I'll simply use conv. With 5k OCI

My last car was a 95 Volvo 850 it had 5k mile oil changes on it since we got it back at 120k miles. Junked the car a few months back at 289k ran fine but front end was falling apart and didn't want to sell it to someone who would ride it hard and kill it. But yeah the car ran perfectly fine and smooth.

Several occasions iv stopped and talked to someone and walked over to shut the car off and they said they never even heard it.
 
If I were you, id just run the syn blend Maxlife for 5000 miles and be done. Can it go longer ? Absolutely, otherwise it wouldnt be Dexos certified. But 5k is a good safe #. Napa also sells oil analysis kits btw. 3800 engines are not known to be hard on oil.
 
Why even use a high mileage oil if you're doing good without leaks or consumption issues?

I'd use a normal synthetic.
 
My 3.1 Buick shows low TBN from PP 5700 miles of use. That was with a hard winter and TBN was 1.5. Your 3.8 should be similar respect to the way it handles oil. I will only push synthetic to 6,000 miles in my Buick for now. Factory oci is 7,500 miles on conventional 5w30, which keeps the engine running but varnish does accumulate. I would stick with 6k too unless you donmore than 7500 miles / year.
 
If your sold on maxlife, id take it to 5-6000 max. But why not grab some mobil 5w30 conventional for, what about 12.75 right now at Walmart? That has given excellent PYB like UOAs.
 
Well in all honesty the cars new to me. Had it roughly 2 months but I figure it wouldn't hurt anything. That and they MaxLife was $4 off on top of my $7 off manufactory rebate. Seemed like a win win.

I feel very confident going 5k with normal oil. I'll just do 5k on the oil and send it in for a UOA and see what they say. If nothing short of spectacular I'll just go for a cheap conv. Maybe something good and on sale.

Iv never really had a chance to use a synthetic due to prior cars and bad oil leaks. Figured since I got a good motor I'll give it a shot just don't want to spent $35 on 7.5k when I can spend $15 on 5k
 
I actually like PYB but I wanted to give MaxLife synthetic a chance since its always treated me well. I'm open to other oils but I just have a jug of MaxLife on the shelf ATM.
 
Maxlife syn is good oil, i ran it a few times in the Taurus and was able to find it pretty cheap at either Walmart or Meijer for between $22-25 a jug depending on when i got it.

I always switched between Maxlife full syn and Mobil 1 High Mileage depending no if i could find it on the shelf or not.
 
Hello 3800Series and
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Instead of the cost of a UOA pick out a good conv oil and run it for 5k miles or a good full syn oil and run it for 7.5k miles and use a good quality filter and then change them out.

Your engine will have new oil in it, it will not implode and have problems due to oil issues and your wallet will be fine with that oil on sale.

As long as you are not trying to push the oil to the max limit, I do not think you will gain much from a UOA. That is just my
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Enjoy the new vehicle
 
On a full syn I go 10,000 miles with no issues and on reg oil I go 5,000
This is on the conservative side as you can go longer if you want
 
Originally Posted By: 3800Series
Nothing wrong with more filter. I'm going to look into it and see if I can fit it in.


Not sure if the setup is similar to the one in my Firebird with the 3800, but I have also run the larger filter and it seemed to work fine. It came pretty close to the front sway bar, but it never hit it.

Also, MaxLife Synthetic is a great oil. I've only used the synthetic once (currently in my Acura) and it greatly slowed the oil pan leak I had and the dipstick still shows full after 3,000 miles. I have used the blend (red bottle) more than once in numerous vehicles and it is great at slowing leaks and I have no complaints with the performance at all. Great stuff. My only nitpick with it is that Valvoline tends to use sodium in the add-pack, which can sort of mask coolant leaks, which my Series II is prone to.
 
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