Oil recommendation

[Lucas]

I have a Camry 97 V6 (1mz-fe) With 260k miles. The car runs great and it has no problem passing the 5k rpms.

As of right now, the car has Maxlife 10w30 synthetic (not the blend). It has served me well and it is the first OC with "synthetic" the previous was Maxlife 5w30 Blend.

A little background, as you all know the car is what Bitog calls "the Sludge monster", because of this i do not want to pass the 3k-4k oci. The car consumes oil, about 1q for 800-1000 miles (depends how i drive it)[No smoke or anything coming out of the exhaust]. This is my problem, because of this, i been searching and reading what oil would be "best" my car.

The Maxlife 10w30 synthetic has held well but i would like to know if there is something else that would fit my car.

More info:
I drive the car like a v6, no problems passing 4k-5k rpms to pass a car etc.

I am about to hit the 2000 mile mark on my oci and i will be applying "Kreen" to the car to see if this helps.
(Search kreen in the forum and youll get more info about it)

Forgot to mention that the PCV is changed at every OC.

Sorry for the long post but i am all ears

 

[kr_bitog]

I think you better worry to spend some money on complete fuel system cleaner/combustion chamber cleaner rather than worrying to change other brand of oil.

A lot of synthetic will leave deposit when it is burned, so this will end up somewhere either on the pistons, valves or combustion chamber.

 

[CompSyn]

You may have fuel dilution problems that's zapping the life out of your motor oil prematurely. Get a Used Oil Analysis done by an accredited lab to see how much fuel is in your oil if any. At 260k your fuel injectors might be dirty and not atomizing correctly. This may be harder to do on the Toyota V6, but if you can take your car out of commission for a couple of days, and take out your fuel injectors to have them professionally flow tested and cleaned, it might make all the difference in the world.

 

[CourierDriver]

Why do they call ur engine the sludge monster? Any engine will sludge without care..If it does sludge, run the old tried and true MMO once a month in ur oil or every 3 months. Or just add 8 oz to ur oci at each oil change.

 

[bullwinkle]

I've heard the Camry 2.2 4 cylinder is actually worse for sludge than the V6-how are things looking inside the valve cover-anything visible? If you get up to operating temperature for at least 15 minutes regularly & drive off moisture, you'll reduce your odds of sludge. How's your blowby? Chances are you have a lot of things wearing out @ 260K-the catalytic converter is probably burning off the oil smoke, that's why you don't see it-in my experience, if you had badly leaking valve seals, you would see the blue cloud @ start up because the cold cat can't burn it. I'd keep on doing what you're doing, possibly doing a shorter OCI in winter (when the condensation would be worse). Unless you want to spend $$$ on UOAs! And,

 

[TomYoung]

There really is no justification for changing the PCV every oil change. No offense, but those PCV's have much, much longer life spans.

 

[sangyup81]

Originally Posted By: TomYoung
There really is no justification for changing the PCV every oil change. No offense, but those PCV's have much, much longer life spans.

Bad PCVs are the cause of sludge in Toyota 5SFE and 1MZFE engines and since they are so cheap, it's one way to eliminate that issue. But perhaps once a year not every OCI

 

[lexus114]

Originally Posted By: sangyup81
Originally Posted By: TomYoung
There really is no justification for changing the PCV every oil change. No offense, but those PCV's have much, much longer life spans.

Bad PCVs are the cause of sludge in Toyota 5SFE and 1MZFE engines and since they are so cheap, it's one way to eliminate that issue. But perhaps once a year not every OCI



That and the oil return holes being too small. And high head temps.

 

[Lucas]

Originally Posted By: CompSyn
You may have fuel dilution problems that's zapping the life out of your motor oil prematurely. Get a Used Oil Analysis done by an accredited lab to see how much fuel is in your oil if any. At 260k your fuel injectors might be dirty and not atomizing correctly. This may be harder to do on the Toyota V6, but if you can take your car out of commission for a couple of days, and take out your fuel injectors to have them professionally flow tested and cleaned, it might make all the difference in the world.


I never thought of that, ill invest some time in seeing if fuel is affecting the oil in any manner, also i have to agree with the people saying that changing the pcv in every OC is overkill.

thanks for the responses!