My Oil Choices delivering pizzas

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What brand of pizza?
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Might also try a fill with some Delvac 1300 or Rotella T1 15w-40 - $12 a gallon at WM and some great detergents. It's what I'd try if I had the car. Perhaps with 1/2 a qt of MMO mixed in.
 
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Originally Posted By: AvoidTheNoid
OK I bought a 1999 Corolla back in February and have since put on more than 16k miles. It currently has over 206k and runs very well. The one problem is I'm burning a qt of oil between 1000-1250 miles. It has a 4 qt sump and I add 2-3 qts in between my 5000 mile oil change.

I'm currently using MaxLife 10w30, high mileage oil seems to help a bit, I usually just buy whatever oil change special there is at Autozone.

My question is should I just keep doing what I'm doing or switch to an expensive synthetic. My problem with synthetics would be adding a qt every 1100 miles or so, also don't want to change a synthetic every 5-6 weeks either.

I drive about 800 miles a week about 3-4 miles at a time. My gas mileage varies between 29-31 gallons. Our zone is suburban, rural but we do get the 5 o clock traffic jams.

OK I am rambling.
Should I just use whatever name brand high mileage and add oil as needed and keep with 5k change? Since at about 1250 miles I add a quart can I extend my OCI?

or

Use the cheapest oil and filter available? If so what OCI

or

Upgrade to a synthetic? If I still have the same consumption maybe top off with a good dino and change my OCI to about 7500 miles?


Of course I want to do whats best economically feasible, if synthetic can extend my OCI or improve gas mileage it may be worth it. I'm just looking for opinions as I'm hallway thru my OCI. I do want the car to run, I know its a "beater" but its excellent for delivering pizzas for sure.

My son has a 96 Corolla with well over 200K miles. He uses VML 10W40 and has to add a qt. about every 1300-1400 miles. Before that he was using ST HM 10W40 and was adding a qt. about every 1K miles.
 
Your Corolla is of the vintage that has the ring problem. You're delivering pizzas with this car, so spending a ton of money on it makes little sense. Buy oil on sale, using rebates, clearance, whatever and keep adding oil...that's your cheapest option...and simplest...
 
I would stick with MaxLife, high mileage oils don't always start working right away. Give it some time, plus MaxLife is at least syn blend, so you are getting some benefit of synthetic as well.
 
Thanks for all the input. I am running some MMO now to see if I can clean things up maybe unclog those holes, I just don't want to go crazy with additives and the like.

I will keep trying different HM oils on sale until I find the one which consumes the least. I'm thinking about QS Defy next time considering it isn't SN rated as my car is SJ rated so maybe that will help. I've tried Castrol HM, Havoline HM, now VML, so that leaves Pennzoil, Quaker State, and Mobil.

I think I'll go from 5000 to 7500 miles, I've been changing oil every 6 weeks so a break from that is decent. A buddy recommended Mobil 1 HM, maybe when I get some coupons or rebates I'll try it.

My Pilot gets synthetic but doesn't burn a drop between 7500 miles so obviously a big difference.

As far as the transmission, I do change the fluid, its the 3 speed auto, shifts fine.

All around the car is solid no leaks under the car, no strange noises, plenty of acceleration. I changed the plugs, coolant, got a new battery. My only concern is the oil burning, but I've also heard anything less than a quart per 1000 miles isn't too bad.

After I work my way through the high mileage oils I'll go to the heavy duty ones and see if that works.

Thanks for all the quick replies.
 
Someone above recommended using a Fram Ultra and changing oil every 7500 miles.
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Let us know how things go with the QS Defy. If that doesn't help, consider trying an inexpensive, non-HM 10W-40 like QSGB.
 
Originally Posted By: AvoidTheNoid
Thanks for all the input. I am running some MMO now to see if I can clean things up maybe unclog those holes, I just don't want to go crazy with additives and the like.

I will keep trying different HM oils on sale until I find the one which consumes the least. I'm thinking about QS Defy next time considering it isn't SN rated as my car is SJ rated so maybe that will help. I've tried Castrol HM, Havoline HM, now VML, so that leaves Pennzoil, Quaker State, and Mobil.

I think I'll go from 5000 to 7500 miles, I've been changing oil every 6 weeks so a break from that is decent. A buddy recommended Mobil 1 HM, maybe when I get some coupons or rebates I'll try it.

My Pilot gets synthetic but doesn't burn a drop between 7500 miles so obviously a big difference.

As far as the transmission, I do change the fluid, its the 3 speed auto, shifts fine.

All around the car is solid no leaks under the car, no strange noises, plenty of acceleration. I changed the plugs, coolant, got a new battery. My only concern is the oil burning, but I've also heard anything less than a quart per 1000 miles isn't too bad.

After I work my way through the high mileage oils I'll go to the heavy duty ones and see if that works.

Thanks for all the quick replies.


I don't wanna spend your money, but I did have some luck with Mobil 1 HM cleaning out an older engine a bit and reducing consumption, but that's rolling the dice a bit with a few bucks. Mobil 1 is on "rollback" right now for $23 a jug, so maybe a couple 5K OCI's to see if it does something to reduce consumption with some cleaning might not hurt, but that will be a bit more money than using the cheapest oil on sale...
 
HM oil really isn't going to do anything for your car unless it's got leaking crank or valve stem seals on top of the clogged oil return hole problem. And even then, the effect that HM oil has on those seals is probably negligible. And since the clogged holes don't see a lot of oil flow through/past them, oils known for their supposed cleaning prowess won't really do anything either. Same goes for synthetic.

Really, you want to focus on buying decent oil in quantity as cheaply as you can, not for what they say than can do for your engine.
 
i would like to see you try a bottle of z-max just to see what happens.

also with your car needing so much to top off i would just keep adding and not do a filter change until maybe 10K or 12K

I once went 23 months and I believe was more than 18K miles on one filter and it was spotless on inside. i have to add 1 qt at least every 3K. using full syn of course. and car is still going strong
 
Thinking about those clogged holes and oil flow, would a thin oil be better at cleaning flowing through the holes?

My only concern with thinner oils id I do drive 100 miles a night 3-4 miles at a time, and I let my engine idle a lot. I'm afraid of putting to big of a beating on a thin oil, though I would like better MPG's.
 
My 2 cents
if its burning oil due to sludge, run a good oil you can get for cheap and don't worry about it till it either dies or you can have it rebuilt.
Any difference an oil is going to make in the cleanliness of that engine now that its already dirty is going to take a lot of short oci's over a long period of time (50k+) if at all.
 
Originally Posted By: AvoidTheNoid
Thinking about those clogged holes and oil flow, would a thin oil be better at cleaning flowing through the holes?

My only concern with thinner oils id I do drive 100 miles a night 3-4 miles at a time, and I let my engine idle a lot. I'm afraid of putting to big of a beating on a thin oil, though I would like better MPG's.

If your consumption is that high, the holes are probably clogged shut so there is no flow through them which means no 'cleaning' being done. A lighter oil will probably just increase the consumption if anything.
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Your Corolla is of the vintage that has the ring problem. You're delivering pizzas with this car, so spending a ton of money on it makes little sense. Buy oil on sale, using rebates, clearance, whatever and keep adding oil...that's your cheapest option...and simplest...


Originally Posted By: SirTanon
Might also try a fill with some Delvac 1300 or Rotella T1 15w-40 - $12 a gallon at WM and some great detergents. It's what I'd try if I had the car.


Originally Posted By: eljefino
I'd run supertech 15w40. This car has low tension rings and will burn oil no matter what.


I like all the above...HDMO, on special if possible, Supertech if not...don't burn your pizza income on stuff that you will be burning off.
 
Originally Posted By: 2sld3kf2bt
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2529856

A few people in this thread solved the problem in this engine, the problem comes from the piston oil return holes plugging up with sludge, because toyota originally suggested 7500 mile OCI and that in combination with dino oil caused the piston return holes to plug up with sludge. Once you clean the holes and use synthetic oil, the consumption issue goes away.


Actually, if you read the follow up in the thread linked in that thread, friendly_jacek returned to say that the Kreen cleaning was not a permanent solution; consumption returned again after one OCI. ToyotaNation forum posters confirm that the only fix for this gen Corolla/Prizm is removing, cleaning or replacing the pistons.

Personally I'd go with the finest, cheapest oil you can find. I used to use HM in my car, now I use $2/qt Ace Hardware. I've tried Rotella T5 in my dad's '99 Corolla, no appreciable difference.
 
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