Extreme drain intervals

[doublebase]

Originally Posted By: pitzel
Originally Posted By: MrQuackers
Is that the Z24 Cavalier?


No, its a W-body, ie: Grand Prix, Lumina, Cutlass Supreme, Buick Regal. Although the same engine did make an appearance in the Cavalier I believe (as I've seen a few in the junkyards over the years).

Yeah, I know, not even worth a grand anymore, but sure beats devoting capital to a new car. And we plate + insure 5 vehicles for less than $1000 all-in here annually. Lots of people spend more than that just on 1.
Originally Posted By: pitzel

Is that the Z24 Cavalier? [/quote

No, its a W-body, ie: Grand Prix, Lumina, Cutlass Supreme, Buick Regal. Although the same engine did make an appearance in the Cavalier I believe (as I've seen a few in the junkyards over the years).

Yeah, I know, not even worth a grand anymore, but sure beats devoting capital to a new car. And we plate + insure 5 vehicles for less than $1000 all-in here
annually. Lots of people spend more than that just on 1.


Holy mother of God! You've done 40k OCI's on that engine? I've seen those things have so many problems that I'm surprised it went 40k, never mind 40k between oil changes.

 

[GMFan]

My brother goes anywhere from 8k to 12k miles on conventional Valvoline quick lube 5w20 and valvoline oil filter since new. He drives at least 160 miles a day. Thus far he has 165k miles on his 08 Accord Coupe 5spd and I drove it just a few weeks ago and the car drives great. Looking into his oil fill cap I only see slight varnish typical of engines run on conventional. There is no doubt in my mind we over think oil on this forum and drain oil way too early.

Now that my Mazda warranty is up and my previous UOAs running 7,500 miles have shown plenty of life left in the oil I plan to take my OCIs to at least 10k miles. Ideally I would like to go 15k miles and change my oil once a year.

I laugh when I hear people say they take "great care" of there cars and change there oil every 3k miles, yet have never serviced there transaxle, differential, PS, Brake fluid, radiator, PCV valve etc.

 

[WobblyElvis]

I have to agree with pitzel. Those that make money from selling us oil changes and the like have done a good job of scaring the average person into over maintaining their cars. When I see someone post that they have been changing their oil every 3,000 miles with some expensive synthetic product I find it hard not to call them tupid. This site regularly posts information showing oil lasts far longer and yet most of the members here won't go anywhere near as far as the vehicle manufacturer stipulates.

I find the whole thing odd.

 

[volodymyr]

Originally Posted By: GMFan


[...]

I laugh when I hear people say they take "great care" of there cars and change there oil every 3k miles,



[...]

Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis


[...]

When I see someone post that they have been changing their oil every 3,000 miles with some expensive synthetic product I find it hard not to call them tupid.



Well, you even have a "3,000 mile myth" campaign: Wikipedia and yet this is still happening ???

 

[fdcg27]

I look at longer drains more as a convenience than a cost saver.
I change most or our cars around 5-6K, but I also have done outliers of up to 8K on GC and G-Oil in a couple of cars.
Did this do any harm?
I doubt it and with a synthetic oil, you may have more leeway with unintended extended drains, more so with GC than with G-Oil.
The '12 Accord gets changed whenever the MM hits 15%, since I figure that Honda knows more about oil life in their engine than I do. This has ranged from 6.8K to 8.7K.
Can you go way longer?
Your experimentation, along with that of the mod Dave indicates that you probably can.
I have at least sixteen oil changes of FAR syn in the garage along with many more of really cheap syn and blend, so I'm not that worried about extending drain intervals.
It's nice to know that you can in many cases, though.

 

[dlundblad]

40,000 miles on an oil change? Why?

There's extended OCIs and then there's insanity. Yeah its cool seeing oil stretched that far, but why would anyone do this besides experimentation. Even from what I have seen, extremely extended OCIs look decent given the circumstances. They are by far not stellar.

I'm a broke college kid who relies on my vehicle for school and work and other DD duties. Saving $50 a year on oil changes while potentially destroying my engine somehow doesn't seem worth it to me.

I agree that most UOAs have a lot of service life left and if I drove 80 miles a day round trip, I'd be more inclined to give an extended OCI or even AMSOIL a try, but that's about it. Of course, don't go into something like this blindly without a few UOAs with TBN counts to back it up.

 

[virginoil]

OP do you have an inline oil filter system installed ?

 

[mike7139]

I have a 2001 Grand Am GT with the 3400 motor and I havent changed the oil since November 2010. I probably put 12k-15k miles on it in that time and have added maybe 1 quart of oil to it. The oil does look slightly dirty and if I still have the car by Spring I will try to change it then. The car is mainly used for short trips and I do take off very slowly like around 2k rpms which is just enough to keep with the flow of traffic.

The reason why I havent changed it is I keep telling myself that I am getting a new car next month and when that month comes I put it off to the next month and then so on etc........I have been saying this for years. I bought the car new in October 2000 and has been reliable despite rusting issues with the tranny and brake lines which I had no choice but to get them fixed.

My biggest disappointment with the car has been the leaking coolant issues with the intake gaskets but bars leak has literally saved me over 1000 dollars in repairs

The oil used in it has been Mobil 1 EP along with the Mobil EP filter. I dont know how I would check to see if sludge has formed in this engine, although I did peak in the crankcase and all look great. The car has around 140k on it and gets around 24 mpg in city driving.

 

[volodymyr]

mike7139,

C'mon. Do something good in new year, change the oil!

 

[Koz1]

Originally Posted By: mike7139
I have a 2001 Grand Am GT with the 3400 motor and I havent changed the oil since November 2010. I probably put 12k-15k miles on it in that time and have added maybe 1 quart of oil to it. The oil does look slightly dirty and if I still have the car by Spring I will try to change it then. The car is mainly used for short trips and I do take off very slowly like around 2k rpms which is just enough to keep with the flow of traffic.

The reason why I havent changed it is I keep telling myself that I am getting a new car next month and when that month comes I put it off to the next month and then so on etc........I have been saying this for years. I bought the car new in October 2000 and has been reliable despite rusting issues with the tranny and brake lines which I had no choice but to get them fixed.

My biggest disappointment with the car has been the leaking coolant issues with the intake gaskets but bars leak has literally saved me over 1000 dollars in repairs

The oil used in it has been Mobil 1 EP along with the Mobil EP filter. I dont know how I would check to see if sludge has formed in this engine, although I did peak in the crankcase and all look great. The car has around 140k on it and gets around 24 mpg in city driving.


If you change the oil please do a video of the oil coming out, the container of said oil after it has settled a bit and the filter opened. It would be interesting, maybe even a uoa and let them know how long its been.

 

[mike7139]

Originally Posted By: Koz1
Originally Posted By: mike7139
I have a 2001 Grand Am GT with the 3400 motor and I havent changed the oil since November 2010. I probably put 12k-15k miles on it in that time and have added maybe 1 quart of oil to it. The oil does look slightly dirty and if I still have the car by Spring I will try to change it then. The car is mainly used for short trips and I do take off very slowly like around 2k rpms which is just enough to keep with the flow of traffic.

The reason why I havent changed it is I keep telling myself that I am getting a new car next month and when that month comes I put it off to the next month and then so on etc........I have been saying this for years. I bought the car new in October 2000 and has been reliable despite rusting issues with the tranny and brake lines which I had no choice but to get them fixed.

My biggest disappointment with the car has been the leaking coolant issues with the intake gaskets but bars leak has literally saved me over 1000 dollars in repairs

The oil used in it has been Mobil 1 EP along with the Mobil EP filter. I dont know how I would check to see if sludge has formed in this engine, although I did peak in the crankcase and all look great. The car has around 140k on it and gets around 24 mpg in city driving.


If you change the oil please do a video of the oil coming out, the container of said oil after it has settled a bit and the filter opened. It would be interesting, maybe even a uoa and let them know how long its been.



Ok I will see what I can do.

 

[UnclePeco]

I have a 1974 Jeep CJ 5 with 26k origional miles on it. I think it has been off the 8 mile island on which it lives 5 times over the last 20 years. I manage to change the oil once every 3-4 years. Drains looking like new oil - a little gassy as it tends to run rich. Runs as new. I figure it will last a few more decades.

 

[addyguy]

Pitzel! Good to see ya!

Most on here don't understand how stout the old XD-3 was...probably one of the strongest oils you could get.

I can believe it would do 35k miles +.......

 

[camrydriver111]

Originally Posted By: pitzel
Haven't been on these forums for a long time, but coming back, it seems that things are heading in the right direction, ie: OCI's are generally creeping up.

Is there anyone else here who runs a truly 'extreme' OCI? Like for instance, I'm closing in on 40k miles (64k kms) since my last oil change, on Esso XD-3 0W-30 oil, preceeded by a 56k km (35k mi) OCI on a mixture of XD-3 0W-30 and Mobil1 5W-30. Engine is a GM 3.1L V6 code LH0 built in 1992.

Most of the UOA results I see, for lack of better words, have oil that has oodles of service left. Or very serious mechanical problems in the engine itself. There's very little middle ground.


When I am debating whether or not to change the oil I find this post inspirational.