Winter oil for the old toyoya.....

[leaves and lawns]

well,its almost winter up here in new england.the snow and the cold

i have a 89 toyota truck V-6 3.0L that is my work truck that hauls firewood and so on.my question is last year i ran pennz 5w-30 this time of the year becouse of the cold but i sure did burn up the oil (i quart every 500 miles under heavy loads) in the summer i ran pennz LL 15w-40 and that stopped the problem but thats a little to thick for this time of the year. any input on this would be great.

i can believe the red sox-going to play the big game.

 

[pitzel]

I would personally suggest you try German Castrol 0W-30 or one of the other high-viscosity oils with excellent low-temperature characteristics. GC 0W-30 provides 15W40-like characteristics at operating temperature, but gives excellent cold-weather starting performance. Unfortunately, it is a bit pricey, but has an almost cult-like following on these forums.

As an aside, it might be useful to deal with the underlying reason why you are experiencing oil consumption. I'm not an expert, but a good Auto-RX cycle might be in order, especially given your pre-existing consumption issues, and undoubtedely, sludge deposition as a result of 'consuming' so much 5W30 oil in the summertime.

 

[Bogatyr]

leaves and lawns,
Why not try one of the synth diesel oils, like Delo or Rotella in 5w40? My brother in law has a 1992 Civic that's an oil drinker which he runs 15w40 in. I'm trying to convince him to run 5w40 in the winter...ha, I'm also trying to convince him to change out the oil sooner than 4k miles to flush some junk out, but he seems to think that he has to add enough anyway...argh.

Bogatyr

 

[vvk]

Any 10W-30 non-synthetic, preferably Group I, if you can find it. I have had good results with Mobil Drive Clean in the past but lately they seem to be using Group III base (which is cheaper -- supply and demand) so perhaps no. Shell 10W-30 seemed to reduce consumption in my oil using cars most recently. Currently on sale at PepBoys.

 

[TEXDOG]

suggest you compromise and use penn. 10w30 HM to cut burning and give ok cold starts.

 

[Drew99GT]

I'd be cautious of 10w-30 Pennz HM in the winter. It's cold specs are not great to say the least. If it's an old truck that your not willing to throw 5 buck a quart synthetic into, I'd recomend regular 10w-30 dino, whichever's on sale! It'll be good to 0 degrees F.

 

[Sin City]

A conventional 10W-30 API SM/ILSAC GF-4 motor oil should be OK. Castrol already has all of their passenger car motor oils meeting the API SM requirements so perhaps you might even try their 10W-40.

If I had your truck I would give Auto-Rx a try with a name brand ILSAC GF-4 10W-30 motor oil and try to clean out your engine. Some people have reported significantly less oil consumption after performing an Auto-Rx cleaning.

With a newer vehicle in your climate I would normaly suggest using a thinner oil (when cold) such as something in the range of 0W-30 thru 5W-40.

[ October 22, 2004, 12:25 AM: Message edited by: Sin City ]

 

[eljefino]

Can you put a block heater on it? Even just a magnetic temporary one on the oil pan?

The coldest days of the year, will you be outside working this truck? Mine gets used on "trash day" but with cold weather, the trash doesn't get funky all that fast... so I can put it off.

If you plow, remember it doesn't snow much below 15'F above zero. Most snow comes with warmer, moister air at near freezing temps.

I'd go with regular, not high mileage, Drive clean 10w40 with a quart of M1 0w40... nonscientifically, just a gut thing.

 

[MustangGT]

Any 10W-30 will do, especially now that you can get SM oil, castrol, pennzoil or chevron would be my choices. Before 5W-30 came out 10W-30 (and to a lesser degree 10W-40) were the oils of choice so even in the coldest areas of the world cars were getting by without 5W-30.