Shortest OCI Ever....

[rewote500]

Hey guys. Being a little on the younger side I was wondering what some of the older members remember about OCI recommendations way back when. What was the lowest recommendation you remember? I found this link where Kendall claimed their oil could go 2,000 miles.

http://www.caresaantiques.com/servlet/the-2645/Kendall-Oil-Bottle-Cap/Detail

 

[gathermewool]

I may be at the ripe old age of 26, but I can still remember just like it was yesterday when it used to be 3mo./3kmi. Those were some crazy days back then...

 

[SrDriver]

When I started driving back in the 1950s oil change was every 1000 miles.

We ran a 10 weight in Wisconsin in the winter months as I recall and a 30 weight during warmer times.

They may have had a 20 weight too but the mind gets a bit foggy after over 50 years.

 

[LAGA]

Back in the late seventies, a mechanic who worked on the company trucks we drove, told me he changes the oil in his personal car at 1500 miles.

 

[jcwit]

Right, back in the '50's change every 1,000 miles. I had a 1950 flat head Studabaker Champ that burned a quart of oil every 2 to 3 hundred miles but I changed the oil and filter every 1,000 just in case. Also used to go to the local filling station and buy drippings from oil cans placed upside down for 5 or 10 cents a quart. Drippings were a combo of just whatever mfg. or weight.

I remember we had 10W10--20W20 and 30W oil.

This was even back before the cardboard can, the cans were all steel.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Shortest OCI ever ? Forgot to re-install drain plug and 5 quarts oil went through the engine in seconds to garage floor.

 

[GhostFlame]

Back 1966, I was 10. And my older brother, 16, and I had the job of changing the oil in all the equipment on our farm. We had a 55 gallon drum of Texaco 10w-40... I can still see the grey/green barrel and the black stencil on the side.

That oil went in everything from our 2 tractors OCI every spring. F-100 Pickup, Econoline, Dodge Monaco, Plymouth station wagon OCI was evry 3 months or 2500 miles. A car engine was shot with 80k to 90k miles. Some went further but, burning a quart every couple hundred miles was expected in the higher mileage cars and trucks.

later on My brother had a '58 Rambler 2 door that burned 5 gallons (yes I said gallons)of Wolfe's head every 2 or 3 weeks. We only ever bought 1 5 gallon can... after that we just filled it from the 55 gallon drum. Those were the days!!!

A greasy, oilly-[censored] engine was more common than a clean one. leaks were profound and numerous. I'm guessing the rambler had a few leaks as well.

 

[Robenstein]

I remember the 2k mile or 3mo recommendation vaguely. I always changed my old dino at 2k miles in my Nova SS just to keep her clean as a whistle and to flush her out a bit from sitting forever thanks to the previous owner.

 

[mechanicx]

I still don't think 3k miles/3 months for severe service is all that excessive. Sure you could probably extend that a couple months and a couple thousand miles and the oil will probably be protecting good. But if the car is doing the severe service cycle and doesn't have a sophisticated OLM like GM's, you aren't doing regular used oil analysis with TBN, then you really don't know for sure what condition the oil is.

Take for instance the used oil analysis on my old '97 Malibu. The engine runs like a top, no signs of coolant in the oil, no oil consumption really, etc. Yet at 2800 miles, much of it highway and in nice Fall weather, I have ~24ppm sodium and potassium, TBN of only 2.71, and supposedly >5% fuel dilution and a viscosity of only 8.2

.

Even an OLM wouldn't be able to directly predict the fuel dilution, any coolant contamination, or drop in TBN or viscosity.

Maybe a TBN of 2.7 to some especially Blackstone means you have a lot more oil life, but some source say it should be above 3. But my point is there was no signs of fuel dilution at all (maybe it's an error), viscosity drop etc. But I don't see how it would've been prudent to have taken this oil run much past 3K miles.

Also for as long as I put off changing the IMG on the 3100, had I went with 5-7500K mile OCI the engine probably wouldn't have even made it.

 

[Robenstein]

I despise the 3100 and 3400 GM motors. I always hated working on them and never thought they were that great. GM's good motor IMHO was the 3800 series. When I was still a GM fan, its all I ever owned and all of them lasted forever, had better power, better MPG, and lower maintenance needs than the 3100/3400 motors did that came into our shop.

 

[tig1]

In the early 60s I changed QS every 2000 miles and still had severe sludge in a 64 Valient slant 6.

 

[mechanicx]

I actually think they are a good motor if only they had decent gasket on them. If they are sealed up good, they can go 200-300k miles and about as long as the 3.8. They are somewhat hard to work on I agree. You can do worse than the GM 60 V6 though.

 

[UNC017]

The only cars we (my dad and I) ever ran shorter than 3k OCIs on were 1940s cars that had partial-flow oil filters. Any engine that had a full-flow spin-on filter went at least 3k miles if not more. This was back in the late 60s/early 70s when I was around 8-10 and started getting interested in cars. In the 80s I started pushing my own cars further (out of necessity- poor college student) and haven't ever gone much less than 5k since.

 

[mechanicx]

Yeah, it's a little hot in Texas in the Summer, but the cold weather in the North is brutal on engines in my opinion. I think 5k/6 months is a good OCI for dino, but you do have to consider in the engines running order, driving cycle and climate some.