Originally Posted By: SRR
Searched 8 pages looking for oil info...
What synthetic oil would you choose between these three for a toyota 4.0 v6. Pennzoil, Castrol or Mobil 1 in 5-30.
I thought oil was oil until I found this site..Now I am really confused. Thanks for the help!!
I had a 2005 Tacoma with the 4.0L( bought new ). From my time on the Toyota Tacoma message forums Mobil 1 synthetic seemed to be the most popular. I only had it 7 months as it was a big ol' pile of buffalo dung however. Couldn't wait to get rid of it. Only did 2 OC's on it. FWIW I will relate my experience to you.
One thing I learned about the 4.0L while on the Tacoma forums( at least on the early models ), and experienced myself, is the 4.0L's were very picky about the oil filter used or you got a lot of engine noise in the valve train area while under load( a flow issue ). Some did it and some didn't but it was a pretty common thing. Maybe they have fixed it by now?
My 05 had the condition to some degree with the factory oil filter( dealer told me it was "normal" ). I changed out the FF oil and filter around 1000 as the noise was driving me insane. I used Castrol GTX and a name brand filter and the noise was actually worse. At approx 2500 I swapped to Mobil 1 synthetic and a Mobil 1 oil filter after reading on the forums that the combo of the 2 seemed to do the best job of making the noise go away or at least lessen it. It went away for me with the M1 combo. IMO however it was the high flow M1 filter that did it more so than the oil.
This is the advice I would give you. Using a full synthetic of any quality brand is always what I recommend. Conventional oil is good these days too however so if you use a good quality conventional you will be ok. I just prefer synthetic. However, use a premium filter( Purolator, Wix/Napa Gold, Bosch, etc... )with good flow characteristics regardless of the type/brand of oil you use. Stay away from the Fram's and STP's of the world. If you start to experience engine noise under load( valve train area )try an M1 filter or a K&N. Those 2 seemed to do the best job of dealing with the noise back in 05. I would think the new RP filters would do a good job too but? If just the M1 filter doesn't eliminate it or only lessens it a bit try the M1 5W30 synthetic.