Castrol GTX HM 10W/30 3,368 88 Toyota Pickup 22-RE

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Here is my UOA I got from Blackstone today. My Pickup is a 1988 Toyota Pickup with the 2.4L 22-RE engine. The truck has about 200,000 miles on it. The oil is Castrol GTX High Mileage 10W/30. I used this oil for 3,368 miles, about 10 months which includes a whole North Dakota winter. The truck uses a quart of oil every 800 miles or so.

I bought the truck about 5,000 miles ago with a blown head gasket because the thermostat stuck closed and overheated the motor. We had the head machined and installed a new head gasket (along with other top end seals and gaskets). The oil was changed right when I bought the truck, again at 100 miles after doing the head work, then again about 1,500 miles later, then this oil, so all of that should have been flushed. I'm using a new Toyota air and oil filter. The engine runs great and does not seem to loose any coolant. I really like this truck and didn't exactly like the results of this test. I want to keep it for a very long time and do not want the motor to wear out before it's time (500,000miles?).

So yeah, thoughts, opinions, comments? Feel free to post them.

Blackstone called and said the wear is a bit more then average and these 22-RE typically do pretty well even with many miles on them. He also said Castrol GTX HM has a bit of Sodium in it but it shouldn't be that much, I'm not loosing any coolant.

Regardless I'm not going to get rid of my pickup or rebuild the motor, I'm going to just see how long this 22-RE will last. By the looks of my truck, it had a very hard life and while I do take care of it, I do like to have my fun too.

10-27-10ToyotaUOA.jpg
 
This truck must see either very infrequent use or a ton of very short trips for such low mileage in 10 months. Try a good synthetic 5w-30/5w-40 and see how it likes that.

If it were mine I'd toss some Rotella T6 5w-40 in it. Good, cheap synthetic.

Then again, I put Rotella T6 in everything I own.
 
++1 on JRed's T6 comment, I would do 2 OCI's 3-4k and get a UOA on the second run. (you could get UOA's on both if you have the $$) I just mentioned the second one so the engine gets a chance to flush a little more.
 
Well the truck is my winter beater/utility vehicle. I drive it in the winter and in the summer when I'm hauling stuff or when its raining. I have a company vehicle that I drive to and from work everyday, so this truck isn't driven a whole lot.

So you think I should use 5W/40, never thought of that. I think the 10w/30 gets a little thick in the winter and a little thin in the summer, maybe 5W/40 is just what I need. Too bad I just changed the oil and used GTX HM 10w/30 again and bought a 5 quart jug of oil just for make up oil.
 
The Achilles heel of the 22RE is the timing chain. At some point in time Toyota went with plastic/nylon guides. They failed like clockwork before 100K miles. Yours may be old enough not to be a problem. Still with that mileage I would be checking the thing. It is an interference engine.
 
My timing chain was replaced right before the head gasket went out before I bought the truck. Previous owner said it got really noisy and put a hole in the valve cover and they replaced the chain along with the valve cover. The timing chain cover has some evidence the the chain rubbing on it, but wasn't wore through. The guides looked good yet. I shouldn't have to worry about the chain for another 100,000 miles. I also did the belt in my Integra about 10,000 miles ago, so I should be set.
 
Originally Posted By: ryotto
M The guides looked good yet. I shouldn't have to worry about the chain for another 100,000 miles. I also did the belt in my Integra about 10,000 miles ago, so I should be set.

I assume you replaced the sprockets.
 
What sprockets?, the ones the timing chain rides on? I never messed with them, I have no idea if the previous owner replaced them, I would guess they didn't if they weren't broken. That truck was their beater parts runner truck that had a hard life and I doubt they'd do anything other then whats the minimum to keep the truck drivable. It's been a great truck for me the entire time I had it since we got the head back on. The only problem I had was the brushes in the alternator wore out after 200,000 miles of use, so I put in a couple new brushes and the alternator should be good for another 200,000.

I do want to try a 5W-40 oil. In the winter when It's like 15-25 below zero the engine would crank over very slowly, but it'll always start. I think the 10w-30 gets too thick in the ND winter and maybe thats where this wear is coming from. I never drove it much when it was real hot outside because thats when I ride my motorcycle or drive the Integra, but the "thicker when hot" 5w-40 should work better in the summer. I also added a oil separator (for an air compressor)in between my valve cover and intake manifold for the PCV system to catch oil. When I had the intake manifold off and apart it had a lot of oil in it, so I cleaned it up very well and installed the oil separator to keep it clean. I have to empty it every time I add a quart of oil.
 
Originally Posted By: ryotto
I do want to try a 5W-40 oil. In the winter when It's like 15-25 below zero the engine would crank over very slowly, but it'll always start. I think the 10w-30 gets too thick in the ND winter and maybe thats where this wear is coming from.

I just want to point out that there's no guarantee a 5w40 will be thinner during the winter than a 10w30. It all depends on exactly which oils you choose. For example, Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 would actually be thinner than Rotella T6 5w40 even when very cold.

That being said, since you're using a High Mileage 10w30, and HM oils tend to be significantly thicker and have lower viscosity indices* than their non-HM counterparts, the T6 likely would be thinner for you. I can't say for certain, though, since Castrol doesn't list a 40C viscosity or viscosity index on the GTX HM datasheet I looked at.

*This is true for Mobil 1 vs. Mobil 1 HM and Valvoline Full Synthetic vs. Full Synthetic Maxlife, anyway.
 
What do you guys think would be best for my 22RE?

Option one: Drain my current oil and use Rotella T6 5W-40 year round and change it once a year (~3,000)

Option two: Drain Current oil and use FormulaShell 5W-30 for the winter and then change it out to FormulaShell 10W40 for summer. I'll probably drive the truck for 2,000 miles in the winter and 1,000 miles in the summer.

Rotella T6 is $22 a gallon and FormulaShell is $1.68 a quart at Menards.
 
I just recently saw Rotella T5 10W-30 synthetic blend at our WM for $12.50 a gallon.

I would use that in your Toyoda PU.

How many miles you got on that?
 
I don't like the lead numbers in your analysis, especially since you've flushed it several times since the engine work. 200K is a lot of miles, even for a Toyota! I'm not sure a change to another oil will do you any good and you certainly won't learn much by switching and doing a UOA. You need to trend oil analysis to make any useful determinations on wear metals and switching willy-nilly doesn't further that cause. The Castrol certainly held up OK based on viscosity. You really should pay extra for the TBN... it really tells a lot about how the oil is holding up. It will show how quickly the additives are being used up and old, tired engines tend to do that faster than newer, fresher ones.

The way I see this, if a failure is immanent, it's going to happen between oil changes so UOAs aren't going to tell you a lot. If your engine is burning oil, it's dumping a lot of junk (carbon) into the crankcase too (0.4 insolubles), so relatively short changes as you have done will keep the engine alive longer. Frankly, since it isn't a daily driver, I think it will go a long way as long as you are diligent keeping the oil level up.

I haven't worked on a lot of Toyotas lately, but I did when your truck was built and the blocks were super hard and the bores didn't wear a lot (generally... there were exceptions). That makes an overhaul a real possibility, as opposed to a full rebuild. Pull it out, apart, inspect and mike the cylinder bores, hone the cylinders if they meet spec, rering, bearings and repair anything else that needs it. Clean it well and reseal. Would stop the oil consumption and bring back any lost power. The head is the big money and that's already done.
 
Originally Posted By: ryotto
What do you guys think would be best for my 22RE?

Option one: Drain my current oil and use Rotella T6 5W-40 year round and change it once a year (~3,000)

Option two: Drain Current oil and use FormulaShell 5W-30 for the winter and then change it out to FormulaShell 10W40 for summer. I'll probably drive the truck for 2,000 miles in the winter and 1,000 miles in the summer.

Rotella T6 is $22 a gallon and FormulaShell is $1.68 a quart at Menards.


With the fact that you may still have some contamination in this engine, I'd vote to do the FS 5W-30/10W-40 routine at least for this winter/summer.

Once this is sorted out, T6 5W-40 once a year would be a good plan.
 
Thank you all for all your help. Yeah, I think this truck had a hard life (there are other signs of abuse). I watch the oil level and try to take care of the truck to prolong it's life.

Power wise the truck is on par with other 4WD 22RE Toyota's from what I've been reading. Such as 0-60 times and top speed (~13 sec, 90MPH).

So my motor is hard on oil and is the oil is accumulating junk. Therefore I'm thinking more frequent oil change intervals with a cheaper oil is probably going to be better then a less frequent OCI with a more expensive oil. (unless someone thinks T6 is that much better). Keep in mind I live in North Dakota and it gets colder then -20 degrees here. Last winter that thing would crank very slowly (thanks to the 10w-30 HM) but it would always start.

I am not going to rebuild this motor. It runs great and sounds like it should. I feel it has a bit of life left in it and would like to do what I can to prolong it.

Now I don't know as much about oil as some of you but I'm thinking (for my truck) that cheap oil that changed more often is going to be better then synthetic oil that stays in there longer. Either way that oil is going to get blow by [censored] in it anyway. I think its a matter of whats going to keep the wear to a minimum.

I also don't want to keep throwing money at UOA every time I change the oil. I did it once to see if I have a problem. Now that its done, I just want to do whats best.
 
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