Pickup Truck Records One Million Miles on Pennzoil(R) Motor Oil

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Any 1995 GM engine would not survive more then couple hundred thousand miles without major overhaul even if you change your oil daily. What's a B.S. story...
 
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Any 1995 GM engine would not survive more then couple hundred thousand miles without major overhaul even if you change your oil daily.

I don't agree. My ol' '88 C2500 w/ 5.7L was running great when I sold it with about 200K mi. on the clock. The truck should go 300K w/o teardown. And I was using 10w30 dino!

My '95 C2500 5.7L is still running strong, albeit with fewer miles.

There are many more examples of long-lived 5.7L Chevy pickups out there.
 
I'll cruise Buford Dr and try to find that Lube 3000 place. I'm sure they'll have a pic in their shop somewhere. If so, I'll take a pic of the pic and post it here.
 
The key to this engine's longevity is the minimum amount of cold-starts/miles. Just about any engine running under cruising load, continuously, stopping only for oil changes, would go 1-2 million miles, easy.
 
something doesn't sound right to me. 800 miles/day? even at 70 miles/hr which is 11.5 hours in a day. how's he throwing those papers when you have to drive slow and paper routes take 2-3 hours? I used to deliver home newspapers on a 30 mile route and it took me 2-3 hours a day of alot of stop and go driving. Someone's got to get out of the truck to fold those papers and get them out of the bed. the numbers don't add up to me. btw, how can anyone stand driving that much in a day?
 
CuteHumor,

I think he was doing BULK deliveries.

I remember this story well. I doubt it is an "Urban Myth" or internet story. I am pretty sure Pennzoil wouldn't do the publicity they did a few years ago about the truck if it were not true.

Someone posted the oil changes were $30 each. I would say most of them were probably closer to $22 each.

I do agree, he could have gone 5,000 mile OCI's and been fine, but who knows? Besides, he was using it for business purposes, and ALL of those oil changes were a tax deduction.
 
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ALL of those oil changes were a tax deduction

So we taxpayers subsidized his oil changes.
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It is a great story, but it does not "proove" anything about 3k oil changes. 4k oil changes may have been OK, or 10k oil changes might have been OK.

It also does not "proove" that 3k oil changes are frequent enough for anyone. He did 3k in 4 days.

Maybe it prooves that 4 day OCI will get you one million miles.
 
He's probably delivering large bundles of papers to distribution hubs, not individual copies to end-consumers.

I agree that the engine survived that long largely in part to the fact that it was running almost nonstop on the highway. That's one reason why 18-wheelers last so long (in addition to their diesel engines, of course).
 
Stunts like this are analogue to those diet commercials where someone gives a testimonial for "STRINGSATTACHED'S PATENTED WEIGHTLOSS MIRACLE" about them losing 150lbs in 5 months. Lame. This guy should have a "results may vary" sticker (in tiny print) plastered up against all those empty bottles. I can give you my personal gar-on-tee that not every truck that runs on 3,000 mile OCIs with Pennzoil lasts a million miles. End of story. Completely retarded marketing routine.

Oh, and the complete lack of documentation and details makes me a true believer. Maybe if my car had good genes and an exercise routine like that truck, the Pennzoil weight-loss program would work for me too.

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I'm sure he more than paid for a new pickup in oil changes alone.

Exactly.
 
That's nothing. I still have my Great-great-great-great Grandfather's axe. Of course, it's had 23 new handles and 6 new heads...but, it was still HIS!
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i drove a 95 chevy truck the other day that has 208k miles on it. actually pretty nice to drive. other than needing ball joints, not a bad ride.

the fact that he was hauling pretty heavy to very heavy loads of papers in it for most of of those miles makes the feat even more impressive. i wonder how many seats he wore out?
 
I bought my current '98 chev k1500 from my wife's company. It was a salesman's truck with a really spread out territory. It had 120k miles inside inside the first 20 months. It got an oil change every two weeks, I knew this because my wife was the accounts payable clerk and paid all the invoices. That's why I picked this one to buy. It's still going strong at 180k miles, but not without the axe/handle replacements that Titan referenced. The only thing that hasn't had trouble on this truck has been the driveline (diffs/trans/transfer case)..otherwise, pretty much everything has been on the fritz at one point or another.

This guy could have doubled his OCI's to 6k miles by going a whopping 8 days on an oil change. But he probably believed the 4 day OCI was "cheap insurance".
 
I find 800/miles per day to be on the edge of believability. That's nearly 13.5/hrs of drive time at a reasonably calculated 60 mph. (For those of you not familiar with estimating travel times -- drive time -- ask any trucker at what speed he figures; I was taught to use 50 mph). Not exactly the safe, "professional" driver on the road, this guy.

One million miles is nearly 90,000 miles/year if he put that truck into service in 1994 ('95 model).

90,000-miles/year is also about 1750/wk, or, at the indicated "every four workdays" it sounds like he ran this route twice-weekly and changed at the end of every other week; or, 3500-miles.

I agree with the above that some of the items on the vehicle not thought of, normally, ought to also be shown: worn-out seatbelts, broken seat cushions, sandblasted windshields, worn or corroded electrical terminations; fatigue on suspension/braking components, fatigued u-bolts, frames, bushings, etc, etc. I have strong doubts about the integrity of that vehicle, as even a Class 8 rig is thoroughly worn down after 750,000 miles and it is built for such work. No surprise that this is in GA, with no safety inspections.

All I see is a guy who risked the safety of the rest of every time he went to work,too mean to retire that vehicle at a decent interval, (as a depreciable capital expense).
 
would be funny if they tear down the engine and its sluged up lol.

is there anything on the penz site about this truck. I would think they would have it on their page beings they gave away a new truck just because a guy went 1 million miles on an engine using their oil .

would be even funnier if he replaced the engine and never told anyone. sorry 1 million is alot on an engine. I guess it could be done but the odds has to be stacked against it.
 
800 miles a day, even at 12 hours would be 66 miles/per hour AVERAGE. I don't know what area he's in, but he'd have to race between mailboxes. Usually the paper routes are only a few hours too. Seems a little hard to believe, but it's more believable then some. So many of these high mileage stunts are on japanese cars with 5 digit odometers, it makes it pretty easy to lie.

-T
 
Nice to see the story but you would think he would go 5k or 7500 miles on oil changes to save a little money. I guess it worked for him in the end though.
 
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