Synthetic OCI

[KPC]

We are selling our 2001 chrysler town & country van bought new in 2001, now with 212,000 miles 2010

every oil change was also with filter change

filter has been either
Advance autoparts house brand filter or
Walmart Supertech house brand filter

Here is the breakdown.

400 conventional & filter
1500 conventional & filter
2500 conventional & filter
5000 conventional & filter
7500 conventional & filter

10000 miles we switched to mobil 1 full synthetic with filter change

We stuck with mobil 1 with OCI's every 2500 miles up to about 150,000 miles.

Then a few years ago, I was on here (BITOG) and i was reading about how Pennzoil Platinum was better than Mobil 1, something about Mobil 1 additive package was 'cheapened' to save the company money.

So around the 150,000 miles, we changed over to Pennzoil Platinum and continued doing oil and filter changes every 2500 miles.



Now the van has 212,000 miles, and we are looking to sell it. The van doesn't burn a drop of oil, we never had the valve cover off, it doesn't tick or knock, doesn't smoke, engine seems solid.

That is with doing oil changes every 2500 miles.

Now we just bought a Buick Rainier with the inline 6cyl. We bought it used with about 30,000 miles. We want to continue using Synthetic as it seemed to make the Town & Country engine last without any problems.

However, it seems as though the OCI at 2500 is silly, and there are a lot of people talking about running at least 7500 miles and it seems like there are people even doing as high as 15000 miles.

Then there is talk about a 30,000 mile OCI

Frankly, it is all a bit confusing. My time is limited, and I did some searching, but as stated, there is just so much information, that is hard to take several hours to sift thru it.

So I hope that someone can chime in that follows up with the information on a regular basis, that can inform me what I can and can't get away with, when it comes to oil change intervals, if PP is still a good oil, or if they have fell to corporate wanting to cut back costs, so they no longer put the good additives in the oil, like mobil 1 supposedly did a few years ago.

I know 2500 mile OCI using full synthetic has kept this van engine alive and well for 212,000 miles.

We would like to be able to extend OCI's with this Buick Rainier if possible, but we do not want to sacrifice any harm to the engine.

It seems like 2500 miles for synthetic is like doing oil changes every 300 miles with conventional. From what I've read, it just seems like an excessive OCI.

I would greatly apprecaite any information you can give. Please understand that I did some searching, but the wealth of information is so much that I don't have the time needed to filter thru it all.

I appreciate your help.

 

[tig1]

You can't be serious you changed M1 every 2500 miles? If so, you wasted one huge pile of oil. Anyway 10K with M1 or PP is fine with most engines.

 

[Burt]

So you did 100 oil changes at a cost of say $3000? - at least 2/3 of which were unnecessary.

I think the $2000 could have been better spent elsewhere in maintenance or other. Just my opinion.

 

[CourierDriver]

Mobil 1 u can run 10k oci, its a great oil, but most of the synthetics if not all of them can run 10 miles now. Castrol Edge,M1, Motorcraft, Napa, PU, are just a few. Frequent oci's, just wear out ur drain plug..........

 

[Burt]

Too bad you don't live nearby. I could have taken your "used" oil and recycled it for you in my engine.

 

[KPC]

yes I understand, that is what I've been reading that 2500 oci is excessive.

We thought about going 7500 miles per OCI with PP. Is 10,000 ok?

Why do some people claim 15-30k?

We just really like the idea of not needing to change oil so often. My family does our own oil changes and to not need to crawl under the car so many times in the dead of winter would be wonderful. Permitting it isn't hurting the engine.

 

[Gary Allan]

You've averaged over 20k/year (212k/9years). You had to be changing M1 every 6 weeks or so. That's way too often, especially for synthetic.


Is the Rainier equipped with a GM OLM? Assuming so, I'd recommend any of Amsoil's 30 grades and just follow it. Test it upon reaching somewhere below 10%. I'd expect it to be somewhere in the 12k+ range if your driving habits haven't changed. You can then see if you want to go the full year.

 

[dgee]

Sheesh!
maybe 5k OCI so that you'd still be able to sleep peacefully but still save HALF

but seriously. M1 is a great oil.
i run it for 8k in my Jeep 4.0

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: KPC

I would greatly apprecaite any information you can give. Please understand that I did some searching, but the wealth of information is so much that I don't have the time needed to filter thru it all.

What does the vehicle's owner manual have to say on this subject? I'd use that as a starting point.

How many miles a year do you drive? If the engine isn't particularly hard on oil, I'd change it every 10k miles or once a year, whichever comes first, assuming you use synthetic.

 

[CourierDriver]

I think he spent to much money, but he had fun and thats what counts gang. Me,,now Im perfect, just ask me...lol

 

[KPC]

i have thick skin, and now realize that oci was too soon.

FWIW, i just want to take care of my vehicles. I know it was money potentially wasted, but for me, the vehicle has been good to us, with no engine problems. We got our moneys worth out of it, even with factoring in the cost for oil.

I just want to make sure that if I go to 10k oci that it isn't going to prematurely wear the engine.

 

[DieselTech]

lots of wasted money right there

 

[chad8]

i have a corolla with 281000 . st and bulk dino and 3-5000 oci's . runs perfect. My point is that sometimes its just the motor. you get a good one.
Most fellow bitog readers agree that 7500-10000 miles on synthetic is fine. I have gone 15000 on coastal synthetic with an oil filter change at 7500 .
For you , I would use m-1 , it works for you, and go 7500-10000 oci and change the filter half way. Peace of mind.

 

[CourierDriver]

good advice Chad8, I dont always go 10k on an oci, but have done it some

 

[bigdawg74]

I would bump up your OCI to at least 7500 miles, and take some of the money you saved and get a good filter...PureOne, Wix, Napa Gold, etc., then sleep good at night.

 

[Nyquist]

KPC, I think one of the best routes to go here would be to sample the oil and run a few used oil analysis while you work your way up. If you bought the car used, there may be some crud that gets cleaned up with synthetic. If It were mine, I would probably start one change at 3k then go to 5k and run an analysis. Then decide if you want to go further.

 

[KPC]

who would I contact for oil analysis? I know there are several places mentioned on here, is one lab testing place better than the other. obviously if I were to go this route, i'd want a good lab test, not some fly by night place that hires 16 yr old kids to run the tests.

On the other hand, truthfully, I'm really not that interested in working my way up to maxing out the oil by lab testing it.

I'd rather just go with a known safe level of OCI vs lab testing.

It seems 7500-10k is the range.

At 10,000 without actually sending out for testing, is this pushing the limit of maxing out the oil?

i'd rather run safe at 7500 than pushing 10k with needing lab testing to verify that it is still ok or pushing the limit.

I've been doing some more reading on here over the past 1/2 hour, it seems that people say go with 7500 if you want to know for sure (without lab testing) that you aren't maxing out the oil.

 

[stranger706]

You can do 10,000 without doing any harm. Make sure you use synthetic. I'll suggest these in no order:

Mobil 1 Extended Performance (everywhere)
Castrol Edge (everywhere)
Redline (harder to find, most get it online)
Amsoil (same as above)

Make sure the engine is sound and not sludged. If you want you can do a used oil analysis just to make sure you not leaking coolant or some other internal problem, and then do 10,000 OCI from then on.

 

[KPC]

It seems just in this thread alone, there are several people recommending M1

As stated earlier in this thread, a couple years ago, I was reading on here where people where talking down about M1 because they were trying to cut costs, so they took out some of the good additives in their product.

That is why I went from M1 to PP a couple years back. Everyone was saying that PP was the best way to go for the price.

Now there is a lot of talk again about M1. Did M1 recently realize they were selling an inferior product causing them to lose customers so they decided to go back to putting the good stuff in their oil?

Just wondering why so many people are talking it up now?

 

[stranger706]

Nobody knows anything for sure. Lots of speculation. The oil companys are very secretive with their oil. This upsets a lot of people. That may have been why a lot of people switched brands.

I pretty much don't care what is in the oil. I use any brand name synthetic with the right specs. When SN/GF5 comes out I'll probably go back to conventional since it will be so close to synthetic in performance.