Motor oil recommendations, '04 Toyota Sequoia

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Ohio
1. What kind of vehicle you have

2004 Toyota Sequoia 4WD, 180k on there clock, unknown maintenance, but it seems to have been taken care of.

2. What your owner's manual says

5w-30, "API grade SL 'Energy−Conserving' or
ILSAC multigrade engine oil"

3. Where you live

Columbus, Ohio

4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)

Pretty easy usually, my daily commute is through the country, so I'm not exactly doing battle. I do go about 10 over the limit, but I'm in no hurry to get there.

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)

My daily drive is about 15 miles each way, 45-55 MPH country roads, sometimes I get into about 5-10 minutes of stop-and-go on the way out of town in the evening.

I do plan to tow my FR-S around the Eastern / Midwestern road courses starting next year, si that will end up being a fair chunk of the mileage on this car.

6. Whether your car has any known problems

As far as I know nothing major. It could run a little smoother for a 2UZ. It had an evap leak when I bought it, but I fixed that. Can't see much down the oil fill tube, but it doesn't look bad.

Other thoughts:

So far I've bought some Pennzoil Platinum 5w-30 to do a couple short OCIs to clean it up. After I run through that I just want to maximize longevity of the engine, and especially minimize wear when running with the car trailer up and down the hills in the summer. I do prefer synthetic.
 
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Pennzoil Platinum Full Synthetic High Mileage Formula, or Pennzoil Ultra Platinum or abit of both.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Nothing wrong with PP, but Napa Synthetic is on sale for only $2.99/qt. It is rebranded Synpower. Pick up a Napa Gold filter while you're there.

What is your intended OCI?
 
This is probably a boring answer, but the 4.7 is a fantastic engine and it will live a long life on anything you feed it that meets the Toyota specs. I'd say run anything that's on sale that's a GF-5 and SN and forget about it. Even with the towing a 5,000 mile OCI is not a stretch. I'd use a UOA to confirm that longer is ok. You could buy a few cases of Napa Synthetic and that'd last you until something else goes on sale. Or run any conventional that meets the above listed specs. You shouldn't have any issue making it to 250k provided it doesn't break a timing belt. I'd be more concerned with the transmission and axle service.
 
PP is on sale until end of year - $2.47/qr with rebate. M1 sale until end of October, $2.17/qt with rebate. I think Valvoline synpower are Max Life are on sale + rebates with some members reporting $3-$5/5 qt jug. Whatever you use, get it on sale + rebate. Quality synthetic motor oils shouldn't cost you more than $2.50/qt in 2016.
 
Thanks guys, sounds like any reputable synthetic will do, but I can't go wrong with the PP I've got.

To respond to some comments:

The car was traded in on a new 4Runner at 178k. I'm assuming that the previous owner, who bought the car new, brought it in for the 180k service and decided to trade-in rather than do the t-belt. I just did the t-belt belt job myself yesterday with an aisin kit and Toyota pink coolant. I got the guy who sold me the car to knock off $250, which is about what I spent on parts and fluid to do the job, so that worked out nice

I have close to $200 worth of Amsoil ATF here ready to fully replace what's in the trans now this week. just waiting for the FR-S to come back from the body shop so I can take the Sequoia out of service.

I've also got supertech gear oil (correct weight and spec for the axles and transfer) to do a short flush on their respective systems. I'm thinking about redline for the long term fill on those, though I haven't really looked into it at all yet. I'll probably be soliciting opinions on that next!

Thanks!
 
Been running Mobil 5w-30 synthetic in my '05 sequoia lately. Sequoia seems to like it.
 
Originally Posted By: FlyNavyP3
This is probably a boring answer, but the 4.7 is a fantastic engine and it will live a long life on anything you feed it that meets the Toyota specs. I'd say run anything that's on sale that's a GF-5 and SN and forget about it. Even with the towing a 5,000 mile OCI is not a stretch. I'd use a UOA to confirm that longer is ok. You could buy a few cases of Napa Synthetic and that'd last you until something else goes on sale. Or run any conventional that meets the above listed specs. You shouldn't have any issue making it to 250k provided it doesn't break a timing belt. I'd be more concerned with the transmission and axle service.

Most Toyota V8 engines are bullet proof. The V8 engine in early 90's Lexus LS400 1UZFE is indestructible too. Any correct grade name brand oil will take the engine to 300-400k miles easy.
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Napa Synthetic .. is rebranded Synpower.
It is not. But it is a decent oil for the application
 
Sorry, I missed your OCI interval question. I really don't have a set mileage or time frame for OCIs. I'd prefer not to do more than a couple a year, but I'm not sure how many miles that's going to be.

Use is going to vary a lot from season to season, with winter use being 99% commuting to work and summer use being maybe 25-50% hauling a car trailer.

If I can safely rely on PP and there other good synthetics for 5k miles OCIs I think I ought to be able to keep it to twice a year.
 
This is actually the 2UZ-FE, a descendant to that LS400 engine. If you're familiar with '90's Toyota powerplants then the 4.7 in this Sequoia will be nothing new to you
 
Any name brand synthetic on sale - you have a conservative plan so get a good price ...
 
Originally Posted By: ShadowSix
This is actually the 2UZ-FE, a descendant to that LS400 engine. If you're familiar with '90's Toyota powerplants then the 4.7 in this Sequoia will be nothing new to you


LS400 is aluminum block; 2UZ-FE is cast iron; "descendant" in family name only... lol
 
I suppose "related" might be a better term. Both in the UZ family is what I was getting at.
 
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