Posted: 1/2/2013 7:51:40 PM EDT
| Hey guys, ill start out by saying I am in no way an automotive rookie. I was thinking about doing oil changes at the specified 3000 mile interval, which we all know is bogus with today's modern oil. I use 10w40 royal purple HPS with a wix filter in my Ramcharger. It's a 318 ci: '72 block with '91 heads from a mopar truck crate motor. It's .030 over, 262 XE cam, I ported and polished the heads etc... I think that with quality of mordern synthetics and a quality filter one should be able to go 10,000 miles before an oil change is warranted but you should replace the filter at every 5,000 miles provided its not operated in a high dust environment. What say you ARFCOM? |
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I've never ran synthetics and have always changed my oil at 5k. Every vehicle I've owned (lots of them and lots of miles driven) have never had a oil related engine problem. As far as me being ok with a 10k change I really don't know...I guess it would depend on the type of miles I drove. Most likely I would maybe go 7k at the max. My wifes Pilot schedule is 7.5k on dino oil...I still stick to 5k. Guess I feel better with the small amount of money and time spent. |
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Have your oil tested at 3000 miles and see what they say. I see used oil everyday, some is burnt jet black after 3000, some is still gold at 5000+, there are so many variables.
And to note on leadnbrass, some of the schedules are based on perfect condtions to try and get the cost of ownership down, the "normal" schedule is general anything but what we would think as normal. Many of the older Japanese cars recommended changing the oil filter every other oil change, for what it's worth. |
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It's all about your driving habits and driving conditions. Stop and go traffic, change at 3000-5000K. If you're gentle driving (no rabbit accelerations and constant racing), synthetic will get you 10,000 no problem. I am a gentle driver and drive a lot for work. My 2003 Toyota Camry has 288,000 on it and it's had synthetic in it since 10,000 and I've been changing it every 10,000 since it went out of warranty at 36,000 miles.
On a side note, the thing still runs like it's new. Haven't done anything to it besides a couple of batteries and a new serpentine belt at 190,000. First set of brakes went to 180,000. I guess I'm fairly easy on it. 
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Quoted: It's all about your driving habits and driving conditions. Stop and go traffic, change at 3000-5000K. If you're gentle driving (no rabbit accelerations and constant racing), synthetic will get you 10,000 no problem. I am a gentle driver and drive a lot for work. My 2003 Toyota Camry has 288,000 on it and it's had synthetic in it since 10,000 and I've been changing it every 10,000 since it went out of warranty at 36,000 miles. On a side note, the thing still runs like it's new. Haven't done anything to it besides a couple of batteries and a new serpentine belt at 190,000. First set of brakes went to 180,000. I guess I'm fairly easy on it. Nice. I have a 2001 Honda accord V6 with 270k and I've changed the oil with the cheapest brands money can buy every 5k whether it needed it or not, done 2 serpentine belts. It's still on it's original spark plugs-- I think. The only problem it has is a minor oil leak.... |
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A carburetted flat tappet engine that sees much short not quite warmup driving
No way I'd go much beyond 3k and an oil analysis would be useless because your engine will never be in the same state of tune due to weather or even seasonal and altitude variations. Extended service intervals we're only made possible with the advent of EFI. You need to keep in mind that most cars and trucks have been fuel injected for almost 30 years. Lots of advice given here is likely being offered by folks who've never owned a carbed vehicle and thus don't understand how fundamentally different maintenance is. |
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Quoted:
My commute is fairly short (5 miles) but I drive it 4 times a day (I'm lucky I get to come home for lunch). I have the same type of drive to work. I had to drop the pan 2 times to clean the crusty shit out of my oil pump pick up, 94 F-150, 302, I changed the oil (non synthetic) and filter every 4000 miles.  It ran perfect, but the screen would get restricted and give me oil pressure problems.
Short trips, the oil never gets hot enough to evaporate the moisture in it. My new truck has a oil temp gauge and it rarely gets over 140 degrees on my drive to work. I run synthetic in it and change about the same interval. We'll see how it works out long term. |