should i change?

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well, I'm itching to change the oil on the 97 Camry. In there now is a 50/50 blend of XD-3 20W20 and Tech2000 (S-K) 0w30 with 7400KMs (less than 5K miles). It was just installed end of summer 08 and went right through the dead cold winter. 90% is city, 10% hwy. The valve cover gasket has been repaired twice; first I tried resiliconing the old gasket, but it was hardened and flattened, so it was replaced again with a new one. I poured two cans of "Wynns Engine Tuneup" in there to thin the oil during the coldest months and maybe clean some of the mess. All it is, is some type of Ketone or something. I noticed there was some major cleaning happening when I had the valve cover off, you could see the verious layers of varnish coming off, like layers of the earth seen at an archeological dig, it was really facsinating. There were at least 5-7 separate layers coming off, from what I assume were 5-7 diff oil changes with VII loaded oil before we got our hands on the car. This engine does fall under the sludger umbrella. The EGR had a problem with one of the switching solenoids, and the car randomly idled high, surged, stalled etc with the check engine light being on most of the OCI. Just got that [censored] fixed a couple days ago. Oh, I also experimented with blending diesel into the tank to see if it made any effect on mileage
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(it increased it a bit, actually) And I've been doing my trademark forced downshifting in full effect during this time. :D What do you guys think, is this enough abuse for the current fill? I mean despite the conditions and mileage, this particular oil blend has the valvetrain it's quietest, and the cold piston slap is virtually gone, even the -25C starts, out of all the oils I've tried in the past. The oil looks quite normal for this kilometrage, not soot black or anything, although it smelled a little bit like used diesel crankcase oil when I was mixing in the diesel!

I'd like to get a UOA done, but not sure i wanna spend undue money behind this beast. Thoughts?
 
I would change out to fresh PP right now, and use a quality filter (not Fram). PP has more cleaning agents than YB, and is an overall great oil.
 
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
I would change out to fresh PP right now, and use a quality filter (not Fram). PP has more cleaning agents than YB, and is an overall great oil.


+1
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- DO IT ASAP!
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
I would change out to fresh PP right now, and use a quality filter (not Fram). PP has more cleaning agents than YB, and is an overall great oil.


+1
thumbsup2.gif
- DO IT ASAP!


+2
 
My thoughts. Synthetic for any sludger. 5k-6k mile oil change with an OCI to see how the oil is holding up (if it's a badly known sludger, aka Chrysler 2.7 V6).

PP 5W-30 or GC 0W-30 is what I'd use.
 
you've got the best motor oil in the world up north, a real PAO/ester synthetic. no VI's to fail
if it won't tame a sludger, nothing will
Esso XD-3 Extra 0W-30 At UFA, it's relabed as Polar Plus 0W-30
 
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thanks for the suggestions fellas. well, I guess I'll do it then, and now I wanna do a UOA to see what's done to it. I got PP 10w30, but thats going in another car. gonna try MaxLife 5w20 in the camry this go around. hey steelhead, what's UFA? Since walmart doesnt sell the 0w30 and NOCO is pricey, it' be great to grab some for a decent price.
 
Originally Posted By: Max_Wander
Oh, I also experimented with blending diesel into the tank to see if it made any effect on mileage



Putting a bit of diesel into a gas engine?? Are you sure this is a wise move?
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The only way to find out what effect diesel blending has on a gas engine is to try it!! The subject of experiment was the beater camry. I've gotten as much as 40% diesel in a tank of gas. There was actually no discernable difference in the way the car ran, other than the exhaust smelling more like diesel exhaust. Actually, the only effect was at greater than 40% concentration (!), the engine hesitated once accelerating after cold start and that was the end of the experiment. At any concentration greater than 10%, I was just trying to find a threshold to any noticible difference in how it ran, and it finally showed up at 40% and was a mild one-off event. I wouldnt have tried that in just any engine, the 5sfe seemed as ideal as any. First, it's a beater and it's low risk, second is the way the engine is designed: surprisingly CC's are cloverleafed on both the head and piston face. Another "OK" I though is the extremely low rod ratio on this engine; since very short rods tend to cause the piston to "punch" the top of the cylinder instead of a more sinusoidal decel/accel to and from TDC. As there is less dwell time at/near TDC, there is less time for any possiblity of detonation (for the record, there wasnt even any knocking) and the quicker pressure rise and drop of the short rod may lend itself to ignite the diesel completely, which is probably set off by the initial flame front of the gasoline ignition. Diesel, doesnt nessecarily ignite all that easily as a homogenous charge in low compression gas engines at gasoline mixture ratios, surprisingly. I'll try Kerosene one day...eventually
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