05 DMax 8K on sample Amsoil AME 15W-40

[dnewton3]

Let's see, I'm doing the math in my head and I've come to the conclusion that one of two things will happen here.

1) You'll continue to get excellent peformance out of this current fill, and blaze past the " ... or one year ..." mentality because you only did 8k miles in 6-7 months, thereby presumably only attaining 15k miles in a year, and not near the limit of this product combination, seeking out the fiscal payout of your investment

or

2) You'll let conventional wisdom and peer/market/internal mental pressures get the better of you, and you'll dump it long before it's truly used up, thereby negating any true value to the AME/bypass and relying solely on the warm-n-fuzzy feeling that only hype and conjecture can provide.

Here's where the math comes in: You run the AME only for 1 year. You probably spent at least $6/qt plus the cost of the bypass filter element, plus the FF filter element. I'm going to rough this out at $85 for 12 months (which does NOT include the cost of the bypass system itself). The reality is it's probably a bit more, to be sure.

Or, you could do two 7.5k mile O/FCI's with any decent dino HDEO at $2.50 qt, plus a couple of $5 filters (from say, fleetfilter) for around $60 for the 12 months. You have to accept that it's very reasonable for a Dmax to go 7.5K miles on a dino-based OCI and get very good wear results. Plenty of UOA's here to prove that. So it's feasible to say that the wear protection will be basically the same with either plan.

And if wear is a wash, then only the fiscal attribute is left.

Only time will tell!

 

[pickled]

The proverbial other side of the coin must be discussed, "What is one's time worth?". What's it worth to not have your wife come out in the garage every 5 minutes during an oil change and ask, "are you done yet"? What's it worth to not have to try and juggle the leaking recycle container all the way to two different stores because their tanks are, "Full"- but they'd still sell you more oil in a heartbeat!! I'm with you on the total cost picture, but there are intangibles to just pulling a UOA every once in a while (incremental costs are there as well) and smiling because you know the vehicle is good to go. Plus I love the looks on the faces of people when they complain about iffy lube and others costing a lot while you proudly exclaim that you haven't changed your oil in 15 months and probably won't for a while yet! Science is so cool.

 

[bbslider001]

dnewt, probably more the first for me. I plan going until the UOA says "you must change at this time". My whole reasoning for investing in the Dual Bypass and Amsoil was for longer intervals.....say 30k-40k if UOA says so. I don't really care about the 1 year mark. [censored], I'm going for longevity on this truck. If $180 for the Bypass does it for me or gives the peace of mind for my truck that is SEVERELY used for towing heavy loads, etc....then so be it. I just paid $180 for a little peace of mind knowing my oil is getting filtered as much as possible and the oil I use is as good as it gets. That's where its at for me......unless I have a free Saturday and I am just REALLY bored with nothing to do and extra money to spend.

Not really though.

 

[dnewton3]

cowhorse01 - I commend you on the probable route of ignoring the 1 year OCI mentality. You'll see much benefit from the Amsoil lube and filtration system, that way. Still, the long term question is: can you resist the call of the wrench??????

I purposely ignored the UOA costs. It's not necessary for the 7.5k mile OCIs and therefore helps hold the cost down, but it certainly would add merit and knowledge. Most of us BITOGers cannot resist a good UOA! As for the long term OCI, it's absolutely required, and would drive up the cost in that vein.

As for the intangible of time for an OCI, there's some merit to that, as well. Unfortunately, no matter where I'm at, my wife will find me and I'll get a "honey-do" dropped on me. With that in mind, I might as well be tinkering with something I enjoy.

 

[Steve S]

The Amsoil 15w-40 consistantly shows good UOAS.

 

[bbslider001]

Dnewt, I am not sure about being able to resist the call of the wrench....you got me on that one........not to mention a good reason to crack open a cold one as we get just a little dirty and smell the oil pouring from the plug

With that being said, I agree that UOA's don't really need to be done at 7.5k. I will prob. do it around 10k, but that mileage gets there on my truck rather fast. It gets used a lot being a ranch truck/daily driver. I am sure you will see another UOA pop up in about 5-6 months and then we shall see.......until then, let it flow through the 2 micron!!!!!