Million Mile Chevy

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and it's a sales site....hmmmm.

Seen the million mile Chevy (and the Schaeffer million mile teardown) before.

IBTL
 
And using Amsoil had very little to do with it, More of a testament to how rugged a Express/Savana van is. Same can be said for the Ford Econolines!

These "Euro" style vans that are being pushed today don't seem to hold-up near as well!! The Mercedes Sprinter is a really good concept, But powertrain repair bills that rival an S-Class doesn't work for businesses!!
 
We have been switching our fleets to sprinters. The oldest ones have 300k+ and still run great.

The cost per mile to run the sprinters is the same as the GM vans. Sprinters get 19-21mpg hwy. The GM vans get 12-13.

The sprinters also have longer service intervals so the maintenance cost is actually reasonable. Our company buys prepaid maintenance and it only costs $3800 for 120k miles worth of services on sprinters at local dealership.

Running cost per mile calculations out it's a wash, with sprinters providing a lot more room to work out of.

GM vans drive and stop like garbage compared to the sprinters which handle as good as a modern pickup with excellent braking.
 
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Originally Posted by clinebarger
And using Amsoil had very little to do with it, More of a testament to how rugged a Express/Savana van is. Same can be said for the Ford Econolines!

These "Euro" style vans that are being pushed today don't seem to hold-up near as well!! The Mercedes Sprinter is a really good concept, But powertrain repair bills that rival an S-Class doesn't work for businesses!!


yup, we had some Savannas in our taxi fleet with broken odometers at around one million mile mark still running long-long after that, nobody really knew how many miles were on them, oil changes were done by fuel spent calculations.

Sprint can be OK, depends on your business models. Not after those exhaust manifold/pipe octopus bills, they tended to come in clusters right after 'savings' - their engines were fine, had to watch those small diff sumps though.
 
Originally Posted by Johnnybud
Went 930,000 miles on the first engine. Still have the original transmission.





You might want to explain technically why this is the case.
 
What Chevy??..my early 90's Camry had +300k miles. Original engine, no rebuild, burnt about a qt of oil every 3k miles and the tranny was rebuilt at about 200k.

Still ran like a champ when I sold it. Most "durable" car I've ever owned.
 
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How many starters, alternators, sensors, water pumps, gaskets etc did you change in the process? I'm sure I could make it to at least 500k miles but on many engines it's just not sensible financially For example a water pump was $30 on my engine and I have the ability to change it myself. Most auxiliary engine repairs on THAT engine follow that trend (cheap parts, not too complex to do yourself). Now if I have a 3 valve 5.4 Ford do you think I'm going to do all these $1000 jobs (cam phaser every 100k, worn roller rocker arms every 150k etc...stuff that breaks so often you are fooled into believing it's maintenance) to keep one with high miles going. No it's getting junked even if it runs because nobody wants to repeat $1000 jobs to keep a 400k mile engine and car with no value running.
Don't tell me you did nothing but change filters and oil. Things wear out in 930k miles no matter how reliable the engine is.
 
Originally Posted by stanlee
How many starters, alternators, sensors, water pumps, gaskets etc did you change in the process? I'm sure I could make it to at least 500k miles but on many engines it's just not sensible financially For example a water pump was $30 on my engine and I have the ability to change it myself. Most auxiliary engine repairs on THAT engine follow that trend (cheap parts, not too complex to do yourself). Now if I have a 3 valve 5.4 Ford do you think I'm going to do all these $1000 jobs (cam phaser every 100k, worn roller rocker arms every 150k etc...stuff that breaks so often you are fooled into believing it's maintenance) to keep one with high miles going. No it's getting junked even if it runs because nobody wants to repeat $1000 jobs to keep a 400k mile engine and car with no value running.
Don't tell me you did nothing but change filters and oil. Things wear out in 930k miles no matter how reliable the engine is.

I had to replace all those regular wear and tear items on my 300k Toyota...but starters, WP, alternators, belts, hoses, plugs, cleaning throttle body, pcv... were all super straight forward on that i4 engine. It even had a top mount oil filter when they weren't that popular back then. Everything is like right there staring at you. ðŸ‘... super easy engine to work on and because it was a Toyota you could find parts everywhere cheap.
 
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Originally Posted by stanlee
How many starters, alternators, sensors, water pumps, gaskets etc did you change in the process?
Great question
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@Mad_Hatter
No one part than is plastic, outlasted 930000 miles
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Originally Posted by stanlee
How many starters, alternators, sensors, water pumps, gaskets etc did you change in the process? I'm sure I could make it to at least 500k miles but on many engines it's just not sensible financially For example a water pump was $30 on my engine and I have the ability to change it myself. Most auxiliary engine repairs on THAT engine follow that trend (cheap parts, not too complex to do yourself). Now if I have a 3 valve 5.4 Ford do you think I'm going to do all these $1000 jobs (cam phaser every 100k, worn roller rocker arms every 150k etc...stuff that breaks so often you are fooled into believing it's maintenance) to keep one with high miles going. No it's getting junked even if it runs because nobody wants to repeat $1000 jobs to keep a 400k mile engine and car with no value running.
Don't tell me you did nothing but change filters and oil. Things wear out in 930k miles no matter how reliable the engine is.


Right, and I can't stand it when people gloss over this stuff and make it seem like they did "nothing but fluid changes" on their way to super high mileage. Not possible.

I took a Honda Accord to 300,000 (well actually 289,000 before I sold it). Great car, owned since new and meticulously maintained, but it took some work to get it that far....
Engine mounts twice (and 3 times for the front mount)
EGR valve, vtec solenoids, O2 sensors, 3 timing belts/water pumps, hoses, belts, radiator. When I sold it the thing was burning 2 quarts in 3,000 miles despite 3,000 mile oil changes.

And those ^^^were more engine related things...that doesn't include...
tranny switches
rack and pinion, axles, control arms (4 times), tie rods, ball joints, brake and fuel lines, gas tank, evap charcoal canister TWICE, struts, engine cradle (that was a real fun one), five mufflers, several bandaid repairs to the rest of the exhaust system, brake calipers (twice), recalls, countless bulbs, radio, 3 windshields and at least ten other things I'm forgetting.

The only thing I never had an issue with was the transmission, but that's because I did drain and fills every 15,000 miles - which sounds ridiculous but Honda suggested frequent changes because their transmissions were prone to failures (class action suit, extended warranty, etc).

And this was a great car, it really was. But it did need "stuff" along the way. And no, it didn't "run great" the entire time. I also hate it when people say that, because it's either not true or they're just not paying attention. The braking system in the Accord never acted 100% "like new" after I reached 100,000 miles. It'd pull a little. Replaced calipers, hoses...pads, rotors. Nothing ever seemed to get it to that "new feel" again. It was safe, so I lived with it. And the car also had a slight vibration when I reached 150,000 miles...never could figure it out...rotated/balanced tires, replaced rims, replaced tires, replaced axles. Never figured it out. And at around 200,000 miles the idle became a little "touchy", it would stall on occasion if the AC was on if you weren't paying attention...tried everything...replaced the IAC motor, took the intake off and cleaned the EGR ports, made sure the coolant level was where it was supposed to be, cleaned the throttle body. Nothing. Never could get that right.

Oh, and for all the Seafoam lovers out there...don't waste your time. I Seafoamed this car as part of my regular maintenance schedule, it did absolutely NOTHING. ZERO. ZILCH. When I removed that intake it looked like I had never EVER ran a cleaner through it. Or when I removed the throttle body or IAC? Same thing.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
I hate to be the party pooper but 930,000 is not one million.

It must be the new math they teach these days.


It's snowflake math, just like participation trophies instead of winners and losers.
 
Originally Posted by donnyj08
We have been switching our fleets to sprinters. The oldest ones have 300k+ and still run great.

The cost per mile to run the sprinters is the same as the GM vans. Sprinters get 19-21mpg hwy. The GM vans get 12-13.

The sprinters also have longer service intervals so the maintenance cost is actually reasonable. Our company buys prepaid maintenance and it only costs $3800 for 120k miles worth of services on sprinters at local dealership.

Running cost per mile calculations out it's a wash, with sprinters providing a lot more room to work out of.

GM vans drive and stop like garbage compared to the sprinters which handle as good as a modern pickup with excellent braking.

Like to know who has Sprinters and has good luck with them here, in the Cincy land of rust-we had sliding doors falling off, serpentine belts shredding $2000 engine wiring harnesses, bodies rusting from the inside out around windshields where they couldn't be repaired-and outside of a specialist indy in Norwood, nobody wanted to TOUCH them, outside of Freightliner & a couple Dodge dealers. This was before MB took them back from FCA, maybe the MB dealerships were better (big $)?
 
I have noticed that Amazon has been changing out their Sprinter vans for Nissans. Talking to a Amazon employee, it was mentioned that they had quite a bit of mechanical problems with the Sprinters. This was a year or so ago.
 
I remember reading an article probably 15+ years ago about a million mile chevy pickup. If I'm remembering right, it was a mid 90's Chevy c1500 (2wd). The owner had a job distributing magazines or papers on the east coast. Had over a million miles on the original engine, owner changed oil every 3k at Pennsoil quick lubes.
Think he had been through a handful of transmissions.
 
Originally Posted by cronk
I remember reading an article probably 15+ years ago about a million mile chevy pickup. If I'm remembering right, it was a mid 90's Chevy c1500 (2wd). The owner had a job distributing magazines or papers on the east coast. Had over a million miles on the original engine, owner changed oil every 3k at Pennsoil quick lubes.
Think he had been through a handful of transmissions.


I have to chuckle when I read the Amsoil testimonials. They make it sound as if the vehicles would never have reached that mileage if any other brand of oil was used, only Amsoil, because it is so good, keep the vehicle running to reach that kind of mileage.

Other vehicles using other oils have reached a million miles. Schaeffer's has the video about it. There was a story about someone doing using Valvoline. There is the million mile Tundra.

Another factor is that the vehicles reaching a million miles, the owners are driving a LOT of miles. The normal, average owner doesn't rack up that kind of mileage in a year. Living in the salt belt, most vehicles, the bodies will rust away before achieving really high mileage. The high miles driven by these million mile vehicles means the engines and oil were driven mostly at fully warmed up running temperatures a lot of the time. Not stop and go, city driving all the time.

Also, these were well designed and built vehicles, not having major design issues in design or materials, like timing chains, etc.

Finally, the owners also changed the oil, they didn't let it go so far that it caused issues like sludge or deposits, etc.
 
The life of an engine is due to the engines operating parameters. For an example a line haul truck engine will greatly outlast a city delivery truck engine. Once an engine reaches operating temps wear is minimal as compared to the starting and warm up cycle.
 
Originally Posted by ThirdeYe
I'd bet my Accord would make it that far if I drove that much. It's semi-retired now. Still on the original engine and trans as well.


That's some killer mileage! Is this the Gen 7 K24 version? Have you always used a 20wt? What are your transmission regiments, fluid used and mileage increments?
 
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