Newbie here, need help please? Pretty please!

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Oct 21, 2003
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Hey everyone. I found this forum by complete accident while browsing the forums over at clubgp.com. Since then, I have spent the last week or so going through alot of the forum posts. It is crazy the amount of information that is in here. It is going to take a lot of time at work to read everything
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Anyways, the question I have is about my 2000 Grand Prix GT. I have been running M1 in it since I bought it with about 48K miles on it. It currently has around 63k miles on it.

I am running M1 5w30 in it (I live in Wisconsin), changing the oil filter at 5k miles, and doing a full oil change every 10k miles. I have been using Fram Tough Gard filters, but it looks like I will have to stop doing that now wont I
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) My question is this, should I be running 10w30 like GM says? Also, what brand filter would you guys recommend? Thanks!
 
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I believe your doing fine with M1, 5W30 for the winter season and 10W30 for the summer.
Like you said -NO More Fram- use a K&N or Napa gold filter. My 02c worth
Jean
 
Amsoil vendors might disagree, but I wouldn't push any oil to 10K, especially without a UOA. I guess I don't pay attention to GM engines, I thought most of them recommended 5w30. 10w30 seems awful heavy for Wisconsin winters.

Most Fram hating started with Russ Knize's original web page where he berated Fram for lousy filtering materials and paper ends. Russ posted here once or twice but someone questioned his disparaging remarks about Bob's filter tests and he got mad and left. Too bad-- I like controversy-- and I'm always a bit turned off when people don't want to be questioned (in this case about THEIR questions). I'm not sure whether or not Fram is as much junk as they say, although I always ask for a Champion filter (ST) as a Fram replacement. People forget Russ was also disparaging of Champion in his original Minimopar study, and it was Champion Labs that threatened him with a lawsuit.
 
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well after reading the original post again...
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10K miles is a touch long between oil changes, depending on how many miles you drive in a year. eg: in my GM minivan oils get changed twice a year, spring and fall (as mentioned above).
 
quote:

Originally posted by csandste:
Amsoil vendors might disagree, but I wouldn't push any oil to 10K, especially without a UOA. I guess I don't pay attention to GM engines, I thought most of them recommended 5w30.

They do, but I believe the 3.8 V6 is the only one which actually recommends 10w30 over 5w30. I'm not sure what GM's reasoning is here though. It's the same with both the supercharged and non supercharged versions. It even says 10w30 right on the oil fill cap too.

By the way, welcome to the board Diablo! I used to hang out on clubgp a couple of years ago when I had a 97 GTP. Great bunch of guys on there!

(PS-when I had my GTP I ran 5w30 Mobil 1 in the winter and 10w30 Mobil 1 the rest of the time, and was doing 5k intervals)
 
Based on my UOA's and others, 10K is if-fy. Spend 20 bucks and get a UOA. That will answer a ton of questions in your mind (in case you don't sleep as well like the rest of us that constantly worry about all-things-oil
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) There are other filters out there that are just about as cheap and even better. Purolators have held up well in my UOA's on GM engines, especially my 3.3l, 90 model with 173K. I've used 5W-30 in the winter (like Oklahoma has winter) and 10W-30 in the summer. Turns out that engine did better with reg. ol' Pennz. purebase than the M1. Surprized me. If the wifes Accord doesn't show a better UOA this next time, then I'm going back to Pennz. purebase 5W-30 with 3.5K changes. Now I'm running 5W-30 M1 and had some questionable UOA's. Point being, not all engines will respond well with M1. Taking it out to 10K without UOA would be a concern to me, but that's my opinon, which you will find out by reading older posts, we all have one.
 
Thanks for the quick replies everyone. The reason I was going 10k miles is because the owners manual, and the Oil Change indicator lite always go to around 7k miles before deciding that it needs the oil changed. I figured that since that is for use with Dino oil, I could go a bit longer with the synthetic (also the reason I at least change the oil filter). I am thinking of doing a UOA soon since I have about 6k miles on this oil.
 
Does the manual recommend a 5W-30 or 0W-30 at lower temps? If you get cold temps in the winter I think you'd be better off with a 0W-30 or 5W-30 during the cold months. My mom's '99 Sunfire GT recommends 0W-30 for our winters (-29C and below), and I would take a guess that your manual specifies that 0W-30 or 5W-30 is OK or even recommended for the colder temps. With a quality oil, they'd be fine for summer temps too.
 
You shouldn't have a problem with 10k intervals and Mobil-1, but with a UOA you will know for sure. The oil added from the filter change should keep you protected up to 10k without problems.

My dad has been running Mobil-1 for years at 10k intervals with filter changes at 10k without any problems - over 150k miles on each vehicle.
 
I think 10K oil changes with M1 is about right, unless you have a really small sump. I imagine the factory change interval is 7.5K. With dino oil you'd want to change it every 5K, but M1 you should be able to go a lot longer. A UOA at 10K will give you a better idea.

I'd stick with the 10w30 and any filter but Fram.
 
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