First post here...but I am ditching Conventional Valvoline after 22 years and 650K miles on 3 trucks and need a sanity check. I currently have a 2008 Dodge Ram Half-ton 2WD MegaCab with 2220K miles on the original 5.7 Hemi. Yes, it has a 1-ton drivetrain, giant rear differential, and 8 lug wheels. It is the cross-over year when everything was built as a 1-ton and they just switched the springs and steering gear out before they discontinued the half-ton line of the Mega Cab.
Religiously changed oil at 3K miles and MDS worked perfectly. We can get into the 3K conversation later. There are only two 1-year periods when the MDS did not function correctly. First, when I put Cooper H/Ts on instead of the Michelin tires built for the truck, and the 2nd time is over the last year and a half when I was flip-flopping 5W-20 oils due to availability due to the pandemic.
I removed the like New Coopers after 1 year and put Michelins back on, MDS did not work before the tire shop, and then MDS worked perfectly after new tires were put on. This makes sense because the Coopers weighed about 30 pounds more per tire and had a more aggressive tread making the engine work harder with the same tire size.
When Valvoline Conventional was back on the shelf I switched back from the Valvoline Synthetic, Rotella Truck Synthetic, etc I ran during COVID shortages. Boom.....MDS functions normally except for later when I noticed Valvoline no longer sells a Conventional 5W-20, just a Synthetic Blend that looks like the old Conventional bottles and the MDS stopped working. I called Valvoline customer service and they explained that there is no change in the formula and legally they had to switch all of their "Conventional" labelings to "Synthetic Blend" for legal reasons but it was the same oil.
So I drained out the Valvoline Conventional aka "Synthetic Blend" 5W-20 at 2K and filled it up with the Green Bottle Quaker State Conventional 5W-20 and now the MDS works perfectly as of this week. So I guess whoever sells conventional oils the longest is going to keep the 3rd gen MDS going on the Hemis?
I had to hunt for conventional oil. So Quaker State, Lucas, Tractor Supply Traveller, STP, and some sore brands are holding one strong to conventional oil. It's just weird that I have to run the cheapest oil I can find, sorry Quaker State, to get my MPG back to 16-19 MPG vice the 11-14 MPG it gets with synthetic oil. I am pretty sure next time I am just going to order Lucas or get the $13 for 5 Qts Traveller at Tractor Supply because the others are even getting hard to find.
Religiously changed oil at 3K miles and MDS worked perfectly. We can get into the 3K conversation later. There are only two 1-year periods when the MDS did not function correctly. First, when I put Cooper H/Ts on instead of the Michelin tires built for the truck, and the 2nd time is over the last year and a half when I was flip-flopping 5W-20 oils due to availability due to the pandemic.
I removed the like New Coopers after 1 year and put Michelins back on, MDS did not work before the tire shop, and then MDS worked perfectly after new tires were put on. This makes sense because the Coopers weighed about 30 pounds more per tire and had a more aggressive tread making the engine work harder with the same tire size.
When Valvoline Conventional was back on the shelf I switched back from the Valvoline Synthetic, Rotella Truck Synthetic, etc I ran during COVID shortages. Boom.....MDS functions normally except for later when I noticed Valvoline no longer sells a Conventional 5W-20, just a Synthetic Blend that looks like the old Conventional bottles and the MDS stopped working. I called Valvoline customer service and they explained that there is no change in the formula and legally they had to switch all of their "Conventional" labelings to "Synthetic Blend" for legal reasons but it was the same oil.
So I drained out the Valvoline Conventional aka "Synthetic Blend" 5W-20 at 2K and filled it up with the Green Bottle Quaker State Conventional 5W-20 and now the MDS works perfectly as of this week. So I guess whoever sells conventional oils the longest is going to keep the 3rd gen MDS going on the Hemis?
I had to hunt for conventional oil. So Quaker State, Lucas, Tractor Supply Traveller, STP, and some sore brands are holding one strong to conventional oil. It's just weird that I have to run the cheapest oil I can find, sorry Quaker State, to get my MPG back to 16-19 MPG vice the 11-14 MPG it gets with synthetic oil. I am pretty sure next time I am just going to order Lucas or get the $13 for 5 Qts Traveller at Tractor Supply because the others are even getting hard to find.