Preferred Choice of Motor Oil
Moderator: volvite
-
sandman7445
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:05 pm
Opening up a box of worms with that question...but I run synthetic and have had it sampled several times. At 7,500-10,000 mile intervals, everything from Mobil 1 to generic brand (NAPA) synthetic have all tested extremely clean and with plenty of life remaining. I do a mix of highway and suburban/rural driving. Very little city. Even with 140k miles, the last oil change came back so clean it looks like this motor could last forever.
Nissan recommends 5W30 conventional oil and 7500 mile service intervals. If you use an API certified oil and a quality brand filter, your engine will be fine. Today's oils are so much better than what they were 20+ years ago and engines are running very efficiently due to technological advances over the decades and tighter clearances.
That said, synthetics have their advantages over conventional oil and almost everybody has their brand preferences. If money was no object, I'd probably go with either Royal Purple, Amsoil or Pennzoil Ultra-platinum full synthetic. That said, I do take cost value into consideration.
For at least the last eight years, I've been using Walmart's Supertech Full-synthetic 5W30; first, on my 2003 Toyota Tacoma 2.7L and currently on my 2006 and 2008 Pathfinders. At $17.50 for a 5-gal jug, it's hard to beat the cost! It used to be said that it was made by Royal-Shell, the makers of Rotella, but Walmart does change suppliers for its products, so I don't know if that's still the case. Anyway, I recently had Blackstone Labs do an oil analysis on the Supertech full-synthetic oil drained from my 150,000 mile 2006 Pathfinder which I'll post the results below. It had 7500 miles on it and I was using a genuine Nissan oil filter, which I typically use, but will sometimes substitute a Purolator Pure One in a pinch. They did find a slightly high reading of silicone, which they said could be from dirt bypassing the air filter or a recently repair using silicone RTV. When I inspected my truck, I discovered the air ducts were split due to dry rot and letting outside air (and probably dirt) bypass the air filter, which explains the reading. Otherwise, the results were great and they recommended going 9200 miles on my next oil change.
Filters are another hot topic of debate. I like the genuine Nissan filters. I've used Purolator Classic and Pure One filters, Mann filters, Bosch (also made by Purolator), AC Delco, Motorcraft and Advance Auto Parts' Driveworks and never had a problem with any of them. I do tend to avoid STP and Fram oil filters based on their construction, but I've never witnessed a problem due to them on an engine. But as for now, I have a big stock of Nissan and Pure One filters on the shelf and those are my filters by choice. There was a very good article on oil filters years ago; it's a little dated, but still good info:
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfil ... rence.html
Here is my analysis results:
That said, synthetics have their advantages over conventional oil and almost everybody has their brand preferences. If money was no object, I'd probably go with either Royal Purple, Amsoil or Pennzoil Ultra-platinum full synthetic. That said, I do take cost value into consideration.
For at least the last eight years, I've been using Walmart's Supertech Full-synthetic 5W30; first, on my 2003 Toyota Tacoma 2.7L and currently on my 2006 and 2008 Pathfinders. At $17.50 for a 5-gal jug, it's hard to beat the cost! It used to be said that it was made by Royal-Shell, the makers of Rotella, but Walmart does change suppliers for its products, so I don't know if that's still the case. Anyway, I recently had Blackstone Labs do an oil analysis on the Supertech full-synthetic oil drained from my 150,000 mile 2006 Pathfinder which I'll post the results below. It had 7500 miles on it and I was using a genuine Nissan oil filter, which I typically use, but will sometimes substitute a Purolator Pure One in a pinch. They did find a slightly high reading of silicone, which they said could be from dirt bypassing the air filter or a recently repair using silicone RTV. When I inspected my truck, I discovered the air ducts were split due to dry rot and letting outside air (and probably dirt) bypass the air filter, which explains the reading. Otherwise, the results were great and they recommended going 9200 miles on my next oil change.
Filters are another hot topic of debate. I like the genuine Nissan filters. I've used Purolator Classic and Pure One filters, Mann filters, Bosch (also made by Purolator), AC Delco, Motorcraft and Advance Auto Parts' Driveworks and never had a problem with any of them. I do tend to avoid STP and Fram oil filters based on their construction, but I've never witnessed a problem due to them on an engine. But as for now, I have a big stock of Nissan and Pure One filters on the shelf and those are my filters by choice. There was a very good article on oil filters years ago; it's a little dated, but still good info:
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfil ... rence.html
Here is my analysis results:
Lol.. Yes can of worms! Lots of good advice and opinions on this one... Funny I will tell you that my 75 year old father has run cheep Fram Orange can filters and what ever conventional cheep on sale oil for as long as I can remember and always gets 150-250,000 miles out of everything he drives. I also have a friend that had a "98" Nissan Hardbody truck with the V6 and he was not good at all with his oil changes prob every 10-15,000 miles and he still got 225,000 miles before he sold it!
My point is I think we often overthink this any quality conventional or synthetic with any decent filter changed at regular intervals and you will do fine. Now as for interval it depends on your driving I drive lots of miles just about every time I start my truck so the oil heats up and burns off all the moisture and impurities in the oil. If you make lots of short trips and your motor never heats up and you don't change your oil often you are going to have sludge and issues.
I currently am running Mobil 1 and a Fram Ultra filter (the only Fram I will use) there are plenty of quality oil filters on the market for our trucks right now the stock Nissan filter is a great filter choice. I am with SMJ and have used the Wall Mart oil in several cars and trucks including my current Pathfinder with great results. As a matter of fact that's pretty much all I ran in my 2006 Toyota 4Runner V6 for 200,000 miles so it's good cheep oil.
On that note there is some evidence that switching oil brands all the time creates more wear then just sticking with one brand so you may want to stick with your favorite brand. Two other real good oil choices that often show real good low wear results are Napa synthetic and Valvoline synthetic (Napa synthetic is made by Valvoline) both can often be found on sale quite often.
My point is I think we often overthink this any quality conventional or synthetic with any decent filter changed at regular intervals and you will do fine. Now as for interval it depends on your driving I drive lots of miles just about every time I start my truck so the oil heats up and burns off all the moisture and impurities in the oil. If you make lots of short trips and your motor never heats up and you don't change your oil often you are going to have sludge and issues.
I currently am running Mobil 1 and a Fram Ultra filter (the only Fram I will use) there are plenty of quality oil filters on the market for our trucks right now the stock Nissan filter is a great filter choice. I am with SMJ and have used the Wall Mart oil in several cars and trucks including my current Pathfinder with great results. As a matter of fact that's pretty much all I ran in my 2006 Toyota 4Runner V6 for 200,000 miles so it's good cheep oil.
On that note there is some evidence that switching oil brands all the time creates more wear then just sticking with one brand so you may want to stick with your favorite brand. Two other real good oil choices that often show real good low wear results are Napa synthetic and Valvoline synthetic (Napa synthetic is made by Valvoline) both can often be found on sale quite often.
Going back a while, when I still worked for dealers, I had a 97 Hardbody SE King Cab that I purchased brand new. I used Nissan filters, but for oil I used whatever conventional 5W30 oil I could get for free at work. I changed oil on the KA24E every 3750 miles, give or take a few. I put 200,000 miles on it without any issues. The lifters did get a little noisy, which was common for these engines, but I replaced the rocker arms under warranty. Anytime the valve cover was off, the top of the head looked as clean as could be. If it wasn't for a short between the fuel injection harness and the top of the head that caused the main harness to melt down, I might still be driving it!
Man them trucks were tough! My friends 98 Hardbody went everywhere he bought it new and beat it from day one and it never broke! What a great truck that was. Yes his V6 was real noisy late in life I often felt it was his lack of regular oil changes that was the cause of the noise? I came close to buying one myself but $$ and timing were not on my side then.smj999smj wrote:Going back a while, when I still worked for dealers, I had a 97 Hardbody SE King Cab that I purchased brand new. I used Nissan filters, but for oil I used whatever conventional 5W30 oil I could get for free at work. I changed oil on the KA24E every 3750 miles, give or take a few. I put 200,000 miles on it without any issues. The lifters did get a little noisy, which was common for these engines, but I replaced the rocker arms under warranty. Anytime the valve cover was off, the top of the head looked as clean as could be. If it wasn't for a short between the fuel injection harness and the top of the head that caused the main harness to melt down, I might still be driving it!
Last week I was delivering a copier machine to a rather large construction company in my area and somehow in the conversation with the owner we got to talking about motor oil changes and maintenance on his fleet. Long story short they just finished with a 4 year oil change study. He said every oil change on the fleet of everything from big Cat dozers to bucket loaders to the 24 GMC pick up trucks (most gas engine models) they took an oil sample and sent it off to be tested. They found no difference in wear between synthetic oil and conventional. The most wear they did find between several trucks is from switching between different oil brands. I thought that was interesting.
My company has a huge fleet of equipment (smallest are D10, 988, 365, 777, most much bigger). We went through a major shift in '07/08 to test various options and for the equipment settled on a semi-synthetic (Castrol) program. I don't recall the specifics of which combination of fluid and change intervals worked out the best, but we were able to slightly extend our intervals with the semi-synthetic while also cutting down on wear. We realized tangible results within two years because our average engine life on D11's went from ~10,000 hours to 14,000+. We've had a couple go 17,000 even. When you're talking about a $100k+ engine that's a big deal. Similar results on other yellow iron.Kestral wrote:Last week I was delivering a copier machine to a rather large construction company in my area and somehow in the conversation with the owner we got to talking about motor oil changes and maintenance on his fleet. Long story short they just finished with a 4 year oil change study. He said every oil change on the fleet of everything from big Cat dozers to bucket loaders to the 24 GMC pick up trucks (most gas engine models) they took an oil sample and sent it off to be tested. They found no difference in wear between synthetic oil and conventional. The most wear they did find between several trucks is from switching between different oil brands. I thought that was interesting.
For our pickups and other smaller equipment, we've stayed with conventional oil. They're idled extensively and we didn't find much benefit from extended intervals or synthetic.
I think it's overkill for most consumers and not particularly cost effective but it does allow me to go longer between changes. A few bucks difference on one vehicle every six months isn't a big deal. Incremental cost of 500+ pieces of equipment adds up fast.
Find Your Forum!