FAQ: Engine Oil - What type and change intervals?

Yep.

Albertj

I do not drive my riviera 3,000 in 3 months. I have heard it is recommned to change your oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months. Is there any reasson for the 3 month change if 3,000 miles has not been reached?

No. Change every 3000 miles and you should be fine. h

This really depends on just HOW long it takes you to get to 3k? For example, you don't want to wait 3 yrs to change oil if you only put on 1000 miles in a year. The reason? As you drive, your oil accumulates contaminants and corrosives that are not exactly good for the internals. That's why a vehicle going into storage for months at a time should ALWAYS have a fresh oil change right before storing it. I change the oil and filter in my 68 right before storing it for the 5-6 months of winter. Drive it all summer, maybe a couple thousand miles give or take a few. Change it again before storing.

How many miles do you put on the Riv in a year?

Agreed. I would change the oil after a long period of storage.

I don't change out the fresh oil after winter storage. The old oil only has 1-2,000 miles on it when I change it before winter storage. So I have a clean filter and new oil going into storage. Changing it in the spring would be a big waste.

As for the OP's question... If you drive, say 6000 miles in a year, change oil/filter every 6 months, should be just fine. 3 months is not a magic time-frame for oil changes. Another option would be to have your oil tested by Blackstone Labs. They can give you a good idea if you are changing oil sooner or later than you should.

I probably drive like 20 miles a week.

If you loan it to me I'll make sure it gets enough miles for an oil change a few times a year!!!

riviera2454 wrote:

I probably drive like 20 miles a week.

DAMN, that's only 1,040/yr!

I'd have a look at the oil on the dipstick after 6 months/500 miles and change it if it's black. Order a sample bottle from www.blackstone-labs.com NOW (free up front bottle), take a sample when you change at 6 months, send it in for analysis and see what they say about the oil's condition.

I haven't changed my oil in almost year, but will soon.

probably haven't even driven it 1K miles, and only use mobile 1 anyways.

I say don't change until the 3000 mark. Oil's now a day are much better than they used to be. They used to brake down much quicker than they do now, which called for changing the oil after a period of time to prevent this. In my1973 240Z I would always change the oil before storage and if it was only in storage for one winter i would check it to see if it still looked like the proper viscosity and everything. If it was I wouldn't bother changing. If it sat in storage for 2 winters then I would change the oil.

20 miles a week ? You must be on unemployment like me ? Damn General Motors !!!!!

.The reason for the time table is because 3,000 miles isn't an accurate gauge of the current lifespan left in the oil's additives by itself as it doesn't take into account the idle time on the engine.

An oil test from Blackstone labs, that includes a rating level for remaining addititives, costs $32. They give pretty detailed info and recommendations on your oil change intervals and engine wear situations.

albertj wrote:

This set of posts about Mobil1 may interest you as much as the current thread:

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/mobil1.html

Albertj

This is very interesting... I have always gone 6k miles on a change with mobil 1 changing the filter at 3k...

I have also heard from a few people.. 1 being an extremely good engine builder that changing to soon is actually worse...

and theres a lot of major mfg like mercedes,porsche,mitsubishi,i think GM still does that recommend to only use mobil1.

I suspect, but don't really know, that the difference between always runing Mobil1 and running dino juice and then switching would have sometihing to do with how the engine was built.

In an engine machined to very specific tolerances I bet an initial Mobil1 fill helps.

In other engines, I imagine that the break-in period helps get things in line, and one might want somewhat higher fiction in break-in to ensure that.

Anyway, Rob, glad you got something out of the Mobil1 commentary. FOr the rest of you who have not taken a look at that yet, well, you might find it informative.

And you may be amused to know - Mobil1 (and AMSOil) is made from natural gas. An article mentioning that is here:

http://www.aceslandandsea.com/Pdf/PAObasedlubricants.pdf

Disclaimer: the article is in a web site that advertises a new generation of fuel and oil additives.

The same do-it-yourselfers ran a study of AMSoil. They prefer Mobil1 because the AMSOil changed viscosity (thickened) pretty quickly in the study. Some say this is a feature not a flaw. Mobil1 use yields better mileage. But read the article and decide for yourslef:

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/amsoil.html

Hope all this is helpful or at least interesting.

Albertj

Every New engine i have been around has been broken in on Dino... then your free to use whatever you prefer...

I have heard the horror stories of switching a higher mileage engine to full synthetic..seals leaking an seaping etc... i have yet to come acrossed this as i have switched a few 100k+ engines to synthetic without any issues..

I have also heard excellent things about shell rotella oil..big in the diesel market...

I have always used synthetic oil and the Riv is well overdue for an oil change. I have 148,800 miles but I've never bothered with that high mileage stuff. I was thinking of using synthetic 10W30, but would be curious of any other opinions. Here it ranges anywhere from 15 degrees to 50-60 degrees fahrenheit around now although as of late it hasn't been quite so cold. I don't remember the brand of the stuff put in it last time, but I don't gather that matters much. Any recommended brands?

I'm pretty sure synthetic is the way to go, I do lots of quick drives up to the store and back and the university is about 15 miles away so conventional oil would have no time to circulate in the car before I shut it off again. I don't even usually drive that far.

I always try to change every 3,000 miles but this time I've slipped and let it go to 4,500 - but I've heard some say 5,000 is a good interval to use for synthetic oil. Is it 3,000 or 5,000 or does it even matter as long as it's under 5,000? Also didn't someone recommend a different oil filter for our cars (something from a Ford truck)? What was the benefit of doing so?

The alternate filter is the AC PF52, same a s the PF47 but longer can - benefit is much more filtration area.

You would have to use a testing lab such as Blackstone to reckon what oil change interval makes sense for your car the way you drive.

Albertj

I have been running Mobil1 5W30 for years. Used to change it every 5000 but lately decided that 10000 should be okay. We'll see where that gets me... but you won't have any problems with 5000. Plus it's easier to remember on the odometer.

Quote :

I always try to change every 3,000 miles but this time I've slipped and let it go to 4,500 - but I've heard some say 5,000 is a good interval to use for synthetic oil. Is it 3,000 or 5,000 or does it even matter as long as it's under 5,000?

It depends on the condition of your engine, which you can't always know until you examine things such as the oil and plugs, and codes (many codes don't throw an SES light).

Last fall, I changed out my plugs, as I do about once or twice per year. I noticed #2 and #6 had some deposits, which I'd never seen before. I sent a sample of my oil to Blackstone, and they said there was coolant in the oil, a symptom of a leaking LIM gasket (common problem, $30 fix).

Blackstone would normally say run your oil for 5k miles or more, but in my case they said 3k would be okay for a while, until I got the gasket replaced. They said I could go for a while as long as I check the coolant level and kept the oil fresh. I am currently changing the oil every 2500-3000 miles.

Thing is, I would never have known about the problem if I hadn't changed out those plugs and gotten the oil analyzed. There was no code, no smell, no change in performance. The car runs absolutely the same as it always has. Even the best mechanic could not have known there was a problem. The leak is so small that it doesn't even affect the coolant reservoir level.

So you just never know until you look. Even using good, synthetic oil will not protect your engine from a problem that contaminates your system.

I also use the PF52 - bigger filter for about the same price.

AA, it appears you and I are in the exact same position with our engines, according to Blackstone. 3,000 and watch the coolant tank level....

I would have fixed by now, but decided to find a 2nd blower and LIM to port & polish prior to installing the gasket. Might as well mod something while you're in there!

Okay, a dumb question - I suppose I should've asked the brand. I stopped by the store and they had Fram and that was about it. It recommended XX3387A (And by XX I mean the prefix for High Mile [HM] Standard, etc etc.). None of them said PF anything.

So I ran down to O'Reiley's and they had more Fram, Microguard and Wix. So I picked up the Wix filter for the car (51040 I think - it fits damn near every Buick lol in the booklet it said the same thing all the way down the page). I picked up Castrol GTX oil after much examining I saw nothing on the jug that said conventional, synthetic, or semi-synthetic. It's in a solid white jug and I gathered when it mentioned cold start ups and stop and go that it was probably synthetic (although the 1 gallon jug was $15 and a quart was $4). I know Mobil One is synthetic and it was damn $26 for a gallon jug - what I paid for all the oil and the filter.

So given what I paid is this semi-synthetic? It's what I'm guessing at - I think the car has always had some form of synthetic not necessarily full so I don't want to dump pure conventional oil in there. You'd think this is something the jug would say SOMEWHERE. It wasn't labeled in sections either so I just took a best guess.

Shintsu: PF is the ACDelco prefix. Fram has, as you wrote, different prefixes for different filters. 3387A is the base number for the filter Fram makes for the 3800 engine including the Riv. As for the Castrol oil, it is not synthetic but does have an additive combination formulated especially for them by (I think) Lubrizol.

For the rest of you: Fram filters are shunned by many because the internal media ends are made of a fiberboard - some call it cardboard but it's really not - at least not in the sense of say a pasteboard backing for a writing tablet - but anyway people have written that their fiberboard elements do separate from the filter element after some number of hours of use under pressure. There used to be a web site up showing pictures of this where people cut open used filters and showed the problem. Don't know where it went.

Another site of interest is http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Filters.html#OilFilters, which has an explanatory letter from Scott Jacobs, a Fram service rep, as well as electron micrographs of filter media. By the way, it turns out the Fram X2 has metal ends instead of board ends.

You can see opened new filters at http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/index.html. And you can see discussions of the problems in various places, such as http://www.kia-forums.com/2g-2005-sportage/32248-fram-oil-filter-failure.html and http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69795. Again the point is - the problem people have is that the standard Fram oil filters are held together with glue, and people who cut used ones open say they tend to come apart after a while. I bet there's more to it, and I suspect that the filters don't come apart in say 3,000 miles - for most people that would be will under 100 hours of engine operation.

You might ask what I use. Answer: it depends. There are a lot of oil filters out there, Frams are not always the cheapest. I favor filters that seem to be sturdy enough to run long between oil changes, because I use synthetic oil and change myself to save money but can not always change at the drop of a hat.

Albertj