Valvoline Syn good for 10k OCI??

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K20FA5

K20FA5

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I remember reading in the old days that Valvoline was a 3,000 mile OCI oil. It was only good for short OCIs.

I'm trying to pick an oil for the new 4Runner. Toyota has its OCIs at 10,000 miles on a 0w-20 oil. TGMO is not easily available, and I was looking for something I can pickup at Walmart. I was thinking M1EP since the bottle says good for 15,000 miles. Would I be pushing Synpower or PP with those miles? 7,500 is the longest OCI I've ever done, and those are even hard for me. Just feel like I need to change it sooner 😄

Thanks for the advice guys!
 
Toyota says 10k on any syn, and Synpower is as good as any other synthetic, and PP is also very popular on here, so you can do 10k on Synpower or PP with no problems
smile.gif


Although the M1EP is capable of 15k, don't do that during the warranty period. So for now, just stick to the best deal synthetic for 10k. Along with a quality filter like Wix.

A few times a year, Napa puts their house brand synthetic on sale for $3-4/qt. In fact, they just did the sale last month. Napa Synthetic is rebranded Synpower.
 
Use M1 you can find it everywhere and its on rollback at walmart plus a rebate and its one of the best synthetics and so i hear...
 
Originally Posted By: K20FA5
I remember reading in the old days that Valvoline was a 3,000 mile OCI oil. It was only good for short OCIs.

I'm trying to pick an oil for the new 4Runner. Toyota has its OCIs at 10,000 miles on a 0w-20 oil. TGMO is not easily available, and I was looking for something I can pickup at Walmart. I was thinking M1EP since the bottle says good for 15,000 miles. Would I be pushing Synpower or PP with those miles? 7,500 is the longest OCI I've ever done, and those are even hard for me. Just feel like I need to change it sooner 😄

Thanks for the advice guys!


Your not close to a Toyota dealer to pick up TGMO?
 
Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
Use M1 you can find it everywhere and its on rollback at walmart plus a rebate and its one of the best synthetics and so i hear...
QSUD was on sale for $19.xx when i was at my local walmart a few hours ago..
 
Any of the major brand full synthetics that are listed on the oil finder or guide page of the applicable web site are capable of doing a 10K OCI, assuming your oil is not subject to fuel contamination, coolant contamination, excessive blowby, poor air filtration or is simply spending too much time at idle.

If in doubt, get a UOA with TBN done!
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: UltrafanUK
....

If in doubt, get a UOA with TBN done!


^ This. Probably, but be sure.
 
In the 0W-20 grade, M1 AFE is probably your best bet among readily available oils.
Synpower would probably be okay but I can't see any compelling reason to use it.
TGMO is nothing special and there are plenty of threads here that support that notion.
The main rap on Synpower as well as other Valvoline oils was poor TBN retention. Looking at more recent Synpower UOAs, that limitation appears to have been remedied.
You could just pick up a couple of jugs of the M1, take the $12.00/jug MIR on both and you'll be set for a while with some really good oil at a really cheap net cost.
For those who fear MIRs, those from Mobil are utterly reliable.
 
Based on the recent UOA I did on SynPower in a 2004 Lexus I'd be more than comfortable running it out to 10k in your truck considering that's the OCI Toyota calls for. I'm not really sure why there are so many Valvoline haters lately but in my recent personal experience it is a very good oil that returned very low wear numbers for me with iron around 0.4 ppm/1k miles. You can see the UOA over in the gasoline uoa forum if you're curious. I'd personally use the Valvoline with confidence.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
In the 0W-20 grade, M1 AFE is probably your best bet among readily available oils.
Synpower would probably be okay but I can't see any compelling reason to use it.
TGMO is nothing special and there are plenty of threads here that support that notion.
The main rap on Synpower as well as other Valvoline oils was poor TBN retention. Looking at more recent Synpower UOAs, that limitation appears to have been remedied.
You could just pick up a couple of jugs of the M1, take the $12.00/jug MIR on both and you'll be set for a while with some really good oil at a really cheap net cost.
For those who fear MIRs, those from Mobil are utterly reliable.



fdcg27:
You sum up my thoughts exactly. I have always considered Synpower a very good oil but not a longer OCI oil because of UOA's I read several years ago (poor TBN retention). It always gave great wear numbers but didn't seem capable of 10K runs....I'm glad that's been remedied.

Also, I think NAPA syn. is a very good oil at a great price (when on sale)....I always pick some up during the sale.
I don't believe it's exactly 'rebranded Synpower' due to the difference in cold weather properties in the PQIA tests. My guess is they use the same additive package but Synpower adds some Gr. IV (PAO) while NAPA has a totally Gr. III base stock. It's still an excellent oil and an excellent value.

I also agree with you that it's hard to beat Mobil 1 AFE 0w20 for price, availability, cold weather performance and overall performance.

PS: Do you know approximately when Valvoline corrected the TBN retention issue? I ask because I some older Valvoline in my stash.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
Based on the recent UOA I did on SynPower in a 2004 Lexus I'd be more than comfortable running it out to 10k in your truck considering that's the OCI Toyota calls for. I'm not really sure why there are so many Valvoline haters lately but in my recent personal experience it is a very good oil that returned very low wear numbers for me with iron around 0.4 ppm/1k miles. You can see the UOA over in the gasoline uoa forum if you're curious. I'd personally use the Valvoline with confidence.


My recent UOA with Maxlife cherry (5w20) in my CRV at 7800 miles indicated plenty of life remained and should easily be capable of a 10k OCI, I have no doubt that full SynPower could do at least as well if not better.

A lot depends on your engine though, a UOA at 7-8k would tell you if you could stretch it out to a full 10k.
 
Originally Posted By: K20FA5
I was looking for something I can pickup at Walmart. I was thinking M1EP since the bottle says good for 15,000 miles.

All of Walmart's name-brand synthetic oils sell for within a few bucks of each other. If you're even remotely worried about it, just use M1 EP and forget it.
 
A UOA would provide piece of mind. However as long as you're using an oil that meets the minimum Toyota Spec of 0w20 and SN/GF-5 I'd be hard pressed to believe that youd ever have an oil related failure for the life of the vehicle provided it's serviced at the recommend interval and not run low on oil. So at the end of the day any oil that meets the minimum spec should be fine. Within that range, use whatever oil makes you the happiest and helps you sleep better at night.
 
I posted a UOA in 2012 from a 5K run of Synpower SM 5W-30 in our Forester.
Wear metals were okay if not spectacular while TBN was 2.15 after only five thousand easy miles.
The oil did stay in grade.
While this oil was of the grade the OM lists as "preferred" and met the required API spec, its TBN retention did not inspire confidence that it would be equal to the task of lasting for the 7500 mile normal OCI Subaru recommended for this engine.
If you look at some later Synpower UOAs, you'll see much better TBN retention, so the change may have come with the SN formulation.
I also posted a 2012 UOA of Maxlife Nextgen SN 10W-40 that had been run 4K in my old BMW. Wear metals look spectacular and TBN looks good at 5.11.
The oil did shear an entire grade in the 4K I ran it, although the 2.9% fuel dilution explains that in part.
 
I wonder what a full syn MaxLife run of say 10w30 in your BMW would've been like; maybe same or...

Just thinkin out loud
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I posted a UOA in 2012 from a 5K run of Synpower SM 5W-30 in our Forester.
Wear metals were okay if not spectacular while TBN was 2.15 after only five thousand easy miles.
The oil did stay in grade.
While this oil was of the grade the OM lists as "preferred" and met the required API spec, its TBN retention did not inspire confidence that it would be equal to the task of lasting for the 7500 mile normal OCI Subaru recommended for this engine.
If you look at some later Synpower UOAs, you'll see much better TBN retention, so the change may have come with the SN formulation.
I also posted a 2012 UOA of Maxlife Nextgen SN 10W-40 that had been run 4K in my old BMW. Wear metals look spectacular and TBN looks good at 5.11.
The oil did shear an entire grade in the 4K I ran it, although the 2.9% fuel dilution explains that in part.


Here is a link to the recent UOA of SynPower on a nearly 7k run in my Lexus.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4195080#Post4195080

TBN shows usable additive remaining, had I sampled before I drained I would've left it in out to 10k and re sampled.

Wear metals were spectacular with only 4 ppm iron @ 6923 miles on the oil, lots of idling (remote start) and lots of cold starts below 0F when the car was still in Michigan.
 
TBN is kinda weak to run another 3K.
Other than that, this UOA looks really good, although I'm sure that you're aware that low wear metals in a UOA do not signify low wear in the absence of particle counts.
What did you run prior to this oil?
That moly didn't come from Synpower.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
TBN is kinda weak to run another 3K.
Other than that, this UOA looks really good, although I'm sure that you're aware that low wear metals in a UOA do not signify low wear in the absence of particle counts.
What did you run prior to this oil?
That moly didn't come from Synpower.


The fill immediately before this OCI was actually Lubrication Engineered (LE) 5w30 synthetic installed by my friend at his shop when he did the struts, rear brakes, and transmission service for me prior to the car coming down to Florida. I didn't drain the LE but I wish I had as I would've loved to have done a UOA on it.

TBN is a little weak but I think it would've made it, hard saying without knowing. I will try it again soon with Napa Synthetic 5w30 and sample at 7,500 to evaluate if it can stay in place for 10k.
 
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