Oil Recommendation 2004 Astro Van?

[Manny_Ramirez]

Dad has the 4.3L with 72k. Has run dino 5w30 since new. Thinking about switching to synthetic. Location is So Cal and would fall under normal drive conditions I would think. Mom drives it 2 miles to work, then home, and it gets plenty of 15-40 mile highway trips thrown in. Thanks for suggestions!

 

[bradepb]

I had a 1990 astro w/4.3 and ran 5w30 Quaker state conventional for 130000 miles before selling, engine stayed in great shape other than replacing timing chain at 85000, pretty normal for these.I realy miss that van but it was a pile of rust after 15 years of Michigan winters.
I would stick to any good conventional 5w30 and change it about every 4000 miles

 

[Manny_Ramirez]

Really... only one suggestion? Thank you, brad.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Manny_Ramirez
Really... only one suggestion? Thank you, brad.


I'd agree with the previous suggestion. If a conventional 5w-30 has served you well, why would you want to change?

I don't mean that in an "Are you nuts?" kind of thing. Do you have a specific goal in mind? If you're going for extended OCIs, fine. It's obviously not turbocharged, nor do you have horribly cold winter starts, so synthetic won't help much there. Even California summers, contrary to the opinions of some, will not heat stress the oil in a 4.3L.

As long as you don't try to leave it in for 10,000 miles or something, a conventional should suit you well, and they're all pretty good. If you've got minor leakage problems, a high mileage oil might be worthwhile, but if it's not broken, don't fix it.

Those engines run very well for a very long time on ordinary conventional.

 

[cp3]

I had a '96, before I found the religion of oil! It was lucky if it got half the changes it should have and I got 305000km out of it. Orange cans of death and everything! I would agree, good conventional and 4-5k will probably get you to forever in that.

 

[demarpaint]

4.3L Vortec V6 is a good engine, my son had one in a Blazer. I ran PYB 5W30 in it with a Wix filter at the time. His saw lots of stop and go. I did 4000 mile OCI's, and sold it to a buddy. In 3 years he put 100K of his own miles on it. Now with over 180K my buddy still loves that truck.

I'm no GM fan boy but that was a very good engine. Wish I could say the same for the 4.3L V8 I had in my Caprice. What a POS that was!