Never Change Oil - Delvac Challenge

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Jan 20, 2020
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Location
nebraska
I know I've seen old discussions regarding this but I'm not sure it's ever been executed. I have a 2006 Prius that's about to roll over 240k miles within the next month. This car is basically completed depreciated out, the paint is burnt off, and the undercarriage/body has a fair amount of rust. However, mechanically the runs like a top.

At the upcoming oil change (240k mark) I'm going to put in 4 Quarts of Mobil Delvac 1 5w40 and a Supertech Filter, which is what this vehicle has been using for some time. From that point on I'm going to change the filter every 10k miles and top-off with Mobil Delvac 1 as needed (Generally I burn a quart every 5k miles).

I will update this thread as the experiment progresses, I really have no idea how long the old girl will hold out. I will drive this vehicle until death at which point I'll replace the car. The wife hates my old beater Prius that just wont die, so she has endorsed this plan. I'm confident I can get at least 100k more miles out of her, feel free to throw down prognostications.
 
I know I've seen old discussions regarding this but I'm not sure it's ever been executed. I have a 2006 Prius that's about to roll over 240k miles within the next month. This car is basically completed depreciated out, the paint is burnt off, and the undercarriage/body has a fair amount of rust. However, mechanically the runs like a top.

At the upcoming oil change (240k mark) I'm going to put in 4 Quarts of Mobil Delvac 1 5w40 and a Supertech Filter, which is what this vehicle has been using for some time. From that point on I'm going to change the filter every 10k miles and top-off with Mobil Delvac 1 as needed (Generally I burn a quart every 5k miles).

I will update this thread as the experiment progresses, I really have no idea how long the old girl will hold out. I will drive this vehicle until death at which point I'll replace the car. The wife hates my old beater Prius that just wont die, so she has endorsed this plan. I'm confident I can get at least 100k more miles out of her, feel free to throw down prognostications.
What filter? I'll give my prediction after I know....

Battery? Put in a refurbished battery ($1299) and I think you would get 100K more.

:)
 
I 100% get that logic. I'm highly confident whether I kill it slowly like this or wait out the rust it'll be dead around the same time. This car has 5 years of serviceable life left in it tops. In the meantime I have a 40 mile round trip commute each day so I do enjoy the gas savings.
 
I have a hard time deliberately damaging something. If she doesn’t like it, this is a great market for selling a used car, particularly a frugal one like a Prius. Gas is still $4/gallon.

Sell it, pocket the cash. Start shopping.
Actually a great point, and I do think you could get another 100K out of it.
 
Subsequent post mentioned rust - that might be a final nail in its coffin.

Mechanically sound powertrain, but unibody rotting away is a common fate in the salt belt.

Still, before the rust is bad, I would sell - people will snap that thing up - rust or no rust. Pocket the cash.

The Delvac plan ensures zero value in a shortened timeframe.
 
I know I've seen old discussions regarding this but I'm not sure it's ever been executed. I have a 2006 Prius that's about to roll over 240k miles within the next month. This car is basically completed depreciated out, the paint is burnt off, and the undercarriage/body has a fair amount of rust. However, mechanically the runs like a top.

At the upcoming oil change (240k mark) I'm going to put in 4 Quarts of Mobil Delvac 1 5w40 and a Supertech Filter, which is what this vehicle has been using for some time. From that point on I'm going to change the filter every 10k miles and top-off with Mobil Delvac 1 as needed (Generally I burn a quart every 5k miles).

I will update this thread as the experiment progresses, I really have no idea how long the old girl will hold out. I will drive this vehicle until death at which point I'll replace the car. The wife hates my old beater Prius that just wont die, so she has endorsed this plan. I'm confident I can get at least 100k more miles out of her, feel free to throw down prognostications.
I love the idea of you doing this. I'm in the school of something else that will kill this car off first. Keep the reports coming!
 
Not a good idea .Actually, never a good idea.
Precision engine need to have the entrained particulate flushed out. The bug catcher filters don't do this.
also put some 10W30 in there at least.
 
There already a guy here who did something similar.

A gen 2 Prius is spec'ed for 5/30, 5/40 is not going to hurt it, with a quart added every 5K miles I predict the rust will still get it before anything is wrong with the motor from this plan and probably could be put in another prius and driven until it too rusted away...

Let the BITOG hand wringing begin.
 
Worked with guy in the 80s bought new dodge pickup 318 just changed filters and added a qt never changed oil. Drove it 110k before engine failed.

That is not a good result.

The two keys to this is that it has to either leak or burn enough oil to need a top up, and it needs to be good oil, Delvac 1 is excellent oil and 1 QT per 5k is not to bad on a 4 quart sump (and i was actually thinking the it was more like 3.5 or 3.7). The filter on these is minuscule and the filter change IMO does not result it significantly more top up, If i was going to do this I would probably just run a much better filter and change it much less frequently.

This isn't too far off of SOMs idea of changing the filter even 5 or 10,00 and the oil every 30, though they claimed their filter was something like 5 micron.
 
if the Prius owner is really trying to ruin his car, just drain the oil and drive it. You can get further than you imagine with no oil in a loose engine. Then your done with it. Wife is happy. Just scrap value is probably all you will get. Or…as mentioned by others here, sell it now. Wife is even happier because you made some money that can serve as investment in a replacement vehicle. That’s too simple but since you’ve posted you are testing your logic on others….
 
Like some others have stated I predict a rust failure before an engine failure especially if you are replacing 25% of the oil capacity every 5k miles. This thing will run until something else gets it.

Just my $0.02
 
I'm not intending to destroy the car per say but it has limited life left in it at this point. One way or another I figure it's got about 5 years tops. I suspect as others have said that it'll be the rust that does it before the drivetrain. That is the whole purpose of the experiment... if it dies in two years due to drivetrain failure I haven't lost all that much.

I will upload some photos of this thing later so folks can get a better idea what we're working with, it's not much. Maybe others might soften their stances a bit after. It's literally a drive A to B beater that's been destroyed by a mid-west life. I figure if ever there was a time to test something like this out it'd be on this subject.

This is just a fun little experiment I wanted to try on a car that's dead one way or another.
 
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