Suggestion on brand and oci for fleet of chevy 4.3s

[Santo Fontana]

I have been asked to provide some advice for a friend of mine. He wants to know what would be a good brand, weight, and change interval for his fleet of GMC Safari AWDs with the 4.3 v6.

Id like to here suggestions for both dino and synthetic.

I think they want to extend the drain intervals past the 3k they are doing now.

Thanks!

 

[SteveD2]

Penzoil long life 15w40 is some pretty good stuff...

 

[rugerman1]

quote:

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Originally posted by ZmOz:
Penzoil long life 15w40 is some pretty good stuff...

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ZmOz,
I have no doubt that Long Life 15w-40 is a GREAT oil.BUT,how much experience do you have with it in this vehicle,in his climate?


Mark

 

[SteveD2]

I have a friend who uses it in his 4.3 actually...seems to do pretty well for him. With a fleet trying to extend drains 15w40 is allways a good choice, and Penzoil is a good choice in that weight.

 

[Jelly]

Pennzoil Long-Life would definitely be an acceptable oil to use in this engine (I use it in my 4.3L 1500 Chevy), but given the climate up there I'd go with Rotella-T 5w-40. Will give you a great year-round oil that will easily protect these engines, as well as keeping them very clean.

OCI will depend on usage...highway, city driving, etc...

Also, I'd highly recommend analysis...

For a a commonly, readily available filter, the best one I've used on my 4.3L has been the AcDelco (PF52) from Advance Auto Parts.

[ February 19, 2004, 11:54 PM: Message edited by: Jelly ]

 

[sbc350gearhead]

How cold does it get there in the winter? Is the guy willing to change viscosity during the winter?

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

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Penzoil long life 15w40 is some pretty good stuff

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Thants funny because that was my initial suggestion. Although I have no direct experience with it.

quote:

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OCI will depend on usage...highway, city driving, etc...

Also, I'd highly recommend analysis...

For a a commonly, readily available filter, the best one I've used on my 4.3L has been the AcDelco (PF52) from Advance Auto Parts.

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The usage is pretty varied. Some of the techs treat the vans well, others beat on them. They are allowed to take them home too so they see daily commutes of around 40-100 round trip.

As far as the filter goes I agree the 52 is better and always try to use them when possible, but it this case the 52 goes pretty low. Ill buy one and take another look first before I make any decisions about that.

They will be willing to do a few analysis.

[ February 20, 2004, 04:00 AM: Message edited by: Santo Fontana ]

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

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Originally posted by sbc350gearhead:
How cold does it get there in the winter? Is the guy willing to change viscosity during the winter?

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This winter has been very cold (for us). Weve had it down a little below 0F a few times with crazy wind chills, and all of the vans are parked outside.

Im not sure if hed rather stick to one vis or not, Ill have to ask him. 1 vis would definitely be more convenient though.

Thanks everyone for the input so far!!

 

[Bio-T]

With your cold temps in the winter and warm summers one of the best oils for this type driving and engine would be the Schaeffer's 10W30 series 700. If he would order $250 worth it is free shipping and less than $3 a quart, and with a small fleet, this would should be no problem for him. I would run this oil 5K and do an analysis to see if he could extend it further.
Another 10W30 oil that is CI/SL rated is Royal Purple and it is full synthetic. With the CI rating, the additive package should be more robust and mirror the 15W40 additive packages rated CI also. Again an analysis at 5K to establish an OCI interval.
With either of these oils, I would change at 5K the first time as they will do alot of cleaning of the engine internals.

 

[haley10]

Does he provide for the fuel cost also?? Would fuel cost be a factor in considering this?? I think the difference is significant enough to ask.

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

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Again an analysis at 5K to establish an OCI interval.

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Thanks 59, Lets say he had 10 vans, whats the least amount of vans you suggest doing uoas on to determine oci?

Also, I will add Schaffers to the list of candidates, but Im not too impressed with RPs consistent thinning out, and I didnt really love it in my wrx.

quote:

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Does he provide for the fuel cost also?? Would fuel cost be a factor in considering this?? I think the difference is significant enough to ask.

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Yes the techs get a company fuel CC, so that comes into play, but I think engine durability/reliability under "fleet" driving conditions is the primary concern.

THANKS EVERYONE

 

[msparks]

How long do they want to extend?

Amsoil's XL7500 line could be used at a 6 month change interval. If they drove more than 7500 in 6 months. I would recommend ASL/ATM.

If they are a commercial business, they can get Amsoil even cheaper than the wholesale price.

I can send pricing for that program. There are some qualification to it though.

[email protected]
877-464-8798

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

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Originally posted by msparks:
How long do they want to extend?

Amsoil's XL7500 line could be used at a 6 month change interval. If they drove more than 7500 in 6 months. I would recommend ASL/ATM.

If they are a commercial business, they can get Amsoil even cheaper than the wholesale price.

I can send pricing for that program. There are some qualification to it though.

[email protected]
877-464-8798

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Thanks Mssparks. Amsoil is tempting for me to reccomend because I use it in my family "fleet" with excellent results. Especially with an additional discount it just might be the way to go. I think I would want them to use the asl/atm for an added measure of security considering it is only slightly more expensive.

I will email you to get those commercial business prices.

thanks again everyone

 

[TooSlick]

The 4.3L, Vortec V-6 is not well suited to extended drains, due to fuel contamination and high rates of oxidation/nitration. I would strongly advise oil analysis if you want to extend past 7500 miles, even with ASL or ATM ...Pull up all the UOA's and you'll see what I mean.

Mike knows his stuff ...I'm sure he can help you out. However, I'd "step out" drain intervals very carefully in this case.

 

[Santo Fontana]

quote:

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Originally posted by TooSlick:
The 4.3L, Vortec V-6 is not well suited to extended drains, due to fuel contamination and high rates of oxidation/nitration. I would strongly advise oil analysis if you want to extend past 7500 miles, even with ASL or ATM ...Pull up all the UOA's and you'll see what I mean.

Mike knows his stuff ...I'm sure he can help you out. However, I'd "step out" drain intervals very carefully in this case.

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I think they would be satisfied with 7500 drain intervals. I will definitely reccomend UOAs.

Come to think of it an OCI based on time rather than mileage would probably be more convenient. Is this a common practice? How about 6 months on asl, 6 months on atm?

It a fleet, do people typically analyze the oil from every vehicle or just a few of them? I think I could pick out a pretty good cross section because I used to work there and I know how each tech treats his van.

 

[dickwells]

You might want to have him consider hours as the OCI trigger once you find a good number. By the way my 02 4.3 just had to have the distributor replaced at 49K due to "corrosion" so you might want to tell him to look under his distrubutor caps once in a while. They put on a foam "sleeve" that I thought was some kind of seal around the shaft but I see it was just an insulator around the air cond tube that goes over the distributor. I don't see how water from it could get inside, the stupid distributor has to deal with rain all the time.

 

[Motorbike]

quote:

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Originally posted by TooSlick:
The 4.3L, Vortec V-6 is not well suited to extended drains, due to fuel contamination and high rates of oxidation/nitration. I would strongly advise oil analysis if you want to extend past 7500 miles, even with ASL or ATM ...Pull up all the UOA's and you'll see what I mean.

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Yep , absolutley correct.

I would never advise to beat the EGR valve shut on a 4.3

but to continue this topic :


Considering these motors also consume a bit of oil at above 5k miles " probably due to using dino's that thin down " do the Amsoil guys agree this might be viable where these vehicles live .

To try for annual changes starting the intervals Dec 1 , my favorite Amsoil Groovy 10w-40 for this application will be fresh and should work well in the pushrod motor through winter if they stay running most of the day and by late spring they should be a quart low , top-off and spin new O/S filter " have employee do it in lieu of lube center " and go with it . The cost would be 7 quarts of oil annually if it worked out , small additional if the motor burned more .

This really is a tough motor oil and these motors are tough on oil . We've gotten awfull picky with our wear numbers here but surely this oil would keep Iron below 50ppm , lead below 30 ppm or therabouts should it not ? I'd be happy with that considering these vans are not keepers.

EDIT for 10w-40 testimonial

A clueless friend of mine in terms of motor oil and the heaviest procrastinator for doing oil changes I've ever met bought some of the 10w-40 a couple years back and used it in a 5.7 Chevy " 1997 model " that had spent all it's life on dino . No flush , that tiny little filter those use and when we got together for our annual X-mas deal I asked how long the oil was in . He could not figure exact miles but it was at least 8k and a whopping 13 months if memory serves correct! No lie, I did a field test and it was still motor oil in there

. He said it used one quart . I don't see him often , last spoke he had returned to using dino.... the dummy considering his oil change habits or lack of

He should have bought some more .

[ February 21, 2004, 06:03 AM: Message edited by: Motorbike ]

 

[msparks]

quote:

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Originally posted by Santo Fontana:
I think they would be satisfied with 7500 drain intervals. I will definitely reccomend UOAs.

Come to think of it an OCI based on time rather than mileage would probably be more convenient. Is this a common practice? How about 6 months on asl, 6 months on atm?

It a fleet, do people typically analyze the oil from every vehicle or just a few of them? I think I could pick out a pretty good cross section because I used to work there and I know how each tech treats his van. [/QB]

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You could run a base line on all the vehiles just to be sure they are in good working order.

Then I would do say 1/2 or even 1/4 of the vehicles every other or every 3rd time. This will insure all stay pretty good and you will be able to catch any problems before they become too severe. As long as all the vehicles get an oil analysis at least once every year or 18 months you should have no problems.

Like Ted said, 7500 would be a good target in a fleet vehicle that is driven by different people and some that don't really treat a vehicle right. If you set a target of 6 months you will have plenty of leway on the miles--Some might have 5,000 and some might have 8,000. But with the ASL/ATM you will not have to worry.

It's good to use the SDF filters. They are recommended for 12500 miles or 6 months. They are made to heavy duty specs. I would change botht the oil and the filters at the same time, (this is for a fleet recommendation only) If it were a personal vehicle, then you could extended even futher with a filter change at 6 months with the oil being good for 1 year.

Be sure to do an engine flush on all vehiles prior to changing over.

Good luck.