How long can i go on maxlife in my truck?

[kool_zx3]

I have an 88 ranger 2.9L with about 130,000 miles or less and was wondering how long i can go on an oil change using maxlife 10w30...? I don't drive overly hard or anything, no antifreeze leaking into the oil or anything like that. No excessive idling, every is working great just wondering how far i can push this oil

 

[Durango]

kool_zx3,

I wouldn't go anything over what your truck manual tells you. This is regardless of the brand you have in the crankcase. Since you have only 130K the truck itself is pretty young so I wonder why you want to consider driving the oil over 3000 miles??? For myself I wouldn't even try it. My two car/truck is too precious and I would rather change the oil often and keep the engine at it's best. My truck is like yours as I too don't drive hard and try to keep the miles to a minimum. Regardless I use Mobil 1 5w30 and make sure it's OCI on schedule. Believe me it's not worth asking.

Durango

 

[glennc]

Durango how can you have 281 posts and still think that?

The standard advice is that any conventional should be good for 5k+ and any synthetic should be good for 7500+. That is conservative, unless there are particular problems with a given engine.

I don't know the 2.9L engine and maybe somebody who does will respond, but in general if you follow your manual you are very safe, and it is a good use of money to get an analysis done at some point to give you a better idea of what wear is occurring and how the oil is holding up.

 

[ThirdeYe]

I'd say 5,000 miles is safe.

 

[Black_Thunder]

5 or 6k should definitely be fine

 

[mitchcoyote]

You could stretch it to 7,000 to 8,000 miles or 6 months , whichever comes first....

 

[02zx9r]

I would do like others and stick with what the manual says for starters. If you wanted to push the oci's longer I would get a uoa done to see what all is going on. If wanted 1 year oci, go with amsoil and do uoa every 6 months to see how oil is holding up and how wear is going and decide from there.

I agree that "if" you do mostly short trips and oil/motor never get up to temps and stay there for a while to burn off fuel/water, then shorter oci's (3K/3 month or 5K 6 month) is still a wise thing to do.

 

[Gregory]

Without UOA it is all SWAGing.

 

[coffee]

I usually run 5k OCI on any oil I use as it feels like a safe range for extreme driving and easy driving.

 

[Ramblin Fever]

Just recently got done doing an *accidental* 8k oci run with GTX 5w30 dino oil on my Tacoma 3.4L with 60K miles.

Have decided that I'll just switch the truck to Rotella synthetic 5w-40 and feel safer running those accidental 8k oci's......

 

[kool_zx3]

If i had a manual i'd use it lol But back then all ford's recommend changing every 3000 miles like most vehicles seem to... except for now. When i first bought the truck 2 years ago, i changed the oil every 5000km's like clockwork maxlife and a good filter.... Now i am wondering if i could push that a little longer. My engine runs like a top and is always well taken care of... i also use lucas fuel treatment often along with redline fuel injection cleaner. Good oil and filters, it's a well taken care of engine. Just thinking 5000km's seems a little early with a oil like maxlife. I just checked it and it's still full and it has about 5600km's on this oil change.... It barely burns any oil maybe 2 liters every since i bought it, about 30,000 km's ago.

 

[Pete60]

Hey Kool, I have been running Maxlife 10w30 in my 89Toyota 4X4 (236K) for about the last 40K at 5K intervals. No problems so far. I tried Supertech HM this last time and so far at 3K its running great. Have you evr tried it. I may stick with it since I change oil about every two months. I also just put ST Full Syn in my 01 Sentra SE. I have been running PP in it since new but with info I have picked up here I don't believe we have to buy the high $ oils; just stick to a good maintence plan.

 

[richter1]

What usually kills the 2.9L is cylinder head cracking/head gasket failure. I had an '87 Ranger that gave me not a single problem until the head cracked at 220K miles. Don't overheat it!

 

[dave1251]

I would also stay away from an PURE ONE filter. I had an 89 ranger that I killed with 125K. It was due to oil stravation I never had an problem until that point and it died with less than 150 miles after the oil change. It was more than likely just concedentional. But I have not used an Pure One oil filter ever again.