Recommendation Please: Toyota 3.3L

[Sidwinder]

Here we go again.
I have a 2004 Toyota Seinna van with the 3MZ-FE engine. I've owned this van since new and have done 3K dino oil changes the entire time.
The van has 43000 miles on it. The majority of the time it sees short trip local driving. There are a few multithousand mile trips in that total, so the actual average is about 6000 miles. In the Wisconsin winter it must be tough with all the partial warm-ups. About once per week I'll get it out on the highway. It will also do a few 600 mile round-trip weekends in the course of a year.

This spring I bought some (sale) Valvoline Syn Power 5W30 and that has been in there for a little over 3000 miles. I'll probably drain the oil over the holidays (after one of those 600 mile trips) and send it to blackstone.

With the severe conditions and low annual miles, am I better off running the synthetic and if so, how many mile OCI should I shoot for? What say the pundits?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[StevieC]

I wouldn't... I would Auto-RX it and then run a good dino like Pennzoil Yellow Bottle with a really good oil filter like a WIX or a Pure-one and keep changing it at the interval you are changing at.

I'm a synthetic fan, but Toyotas of today are almost bullet-proof and will run trouble free for many miles on any regular oil.

.

 

[rg200amp]

3000 mile OCI with Dino will get you as far as you want to go with that van.

I like synthetic, and like you I like short OCI. I use synthetic with a 5-6K OCI. You could run synthetic at that rate, or go to 7-8K very easy.

Its really personal prefrence.


What your doing now would get you VERYYYYY far!
200,000 miles +

 

[SilverC6]

I have the same van but my wife is a real driver.

It's got 125,000 mi. on the clock right now.

The engine is great and has been on a steady diet of 5W-30 YB Pennzoil until a couple of changes ago.

Last summer, preparing for a family vacation, I substituted 5 Qts of the Mobil 1 0W-30 for the usual crankcase full of Pennzoil.

The engine makes a little more noise with the Mobil 1 but the gas mileage improved about 1 MPG.

It's a great vehicle.

Just added a set of Bridgestone Turanzas and it drives like a dream.


Which oil?

I like the YBP but my wife can sneak 1500 miles on that van before I realize it. If you can stay on top of the shorter interval changes with your van, I'd stay dino.

I'll probably stay with the synthetic but switch to Pennzoil Platinum.

Good luck with your Sienna!!

 

[ZZman]

You could safely run a good dino oil for the manufacturers OCI which is probably 5,000-7500 miles. But if you want the best protection run the syn oil for 6,000-7500 miles.

 

[AzFireGuy79]

I have the 3.3 in my 05 camry SE. I ran some auto RX in it at 20K and it picked up some MPG's. I am now running SSO but am going to transition to Redline 5W-20 here in the next month or so. This is a great engine overall. The only thing I hate is the drive by wire that creates transmission flare which annoys the [censored] out of me. And toyota says its normal. What a crock! I would run synthetic after auto RXing it.

 

[StevieC]

AZFireGuy79 ... Why are you switching from SSO to Redline? Just curious...

 

[todds21]

I have the same motor in my wife's 04 Lexus ES330. Currently running PP 5w30 and its real smooth and stays clean at 5K intervals. When warranty is up I will run it longer.

 

[JDD]

I have an 05 Sienna with the same engine. It has 42,000 mi. I run synthetic 5-30 because of better flow at (cold) start up. Since most wear is on start and dinos just can't compete with synthetics in this regard, I will stay with synthetic. I ran M1 for about a year in it but since I have switched to Synpower for the last year and a half. I run right at 5 K OCI to keep the warranty happy. I found a bit less engine noise with the synpower vs. the M1, and since it is cheaper, I will stick with Synpower. Mileage is the same with both. I get average of 22+ in mixed driving. Run a quality filter as well. Some don't like denso filters on this site, but they are owned by Toyota and you can get them in bulk at sparkplugs.com pretty cheap. A lot of links on densos on this site are old and out of date and they are a good filter for the $$. They used to have cardboard caps on SOME of their filters back in the day and they got a bad rap. The new ones have a lot of surface area and are bonded well. Also you can get engine and cabin air filters for half of the dealer's prices and they are the same OEM filters.

 

[deven]

I have that engine in my 2006 Lexus ES 330. I have done UOA's on each interval after 10k miles. I used Pennzoil Yellow bottle for one oci of 5k and the wear numbers were ok and the engine did a number on the viscosity of the oil, sheared it down for a 30 wt to a low 20. I now use Pennzoil Platinum and change it out usually at 5k and the wear numbers are phenomenal and the oil always stays in grade plus oxidation and nitration numbers are always low usually below 20 which is excellent. I recently did a 7500 mile interval on this engine and everything came back excellent and the TBN was in the 4's so this oil could have easily done 10k run. I can conclude that this engine definately loves PP over other oils like PYB, Mobil 1, GTX or Syntec. Have not tried Valvoline yet though.

 

[AzFireGuy79]

StevieC- I can get the Redline cheaper right now from my uncle. I have also had quite a few good UOA's with Redline in Toyota V-6's. I need to get one done on this current fill but only have 3,000 on it right now. Time for a road trip!

 

[Tones]

Sidwinder, I think you are better off with what you've been doing. Do not do a long OCI with short trip driving. Keep fresh oil in there. Good choice with the Valvoline Synpower, an an excellent oil. I would not suggest spending the money on more expensive synthetics but if you feel then urge then you can't go wrong with Mobil 1 classic formula in your Toyota.