Synthetic Oil Change

[thomasduncan]

My truck has 23,000 miles on it and I recently changed to Amsoil 5W-30. I don't tow very much and when I do it is pretty light. I average 15-20K per year. How often do you think I should change my oil?



Thanks for the help



Tom

 

[jwilliams3]

That oil grade is too light.

I would advise 5w40 ie Rotella Synthetic or Mobil 5w40 synthetic.

 

[ShannonHarris]

I go 3000 miles between changes, I use 15w40 royal purple and like it well.

But their is a lot of good synthetic oils out their.

 

[BHolm]

That oil is NOT too light. That Amsoil 5w-30 was designed specifically for applications like ours. That is the oil I have in my truck. There are other members here that have been running the Ams 5-30 for a long time. It was designed to reduce friction and improve economy. Besides the "light" end of it is 5, just like in 5-40. The 30 wieght end of it is fine. It is certainly more temp resistant that a 15-40 conventional. I understand that it isn't listed in the owners manual, but that doesn't make it a bad choice, wrong, or too light.



The way to really take advantage of the synthetics, or any oil is the use of bypass filtration. That will allow 20-30k miles on an oil change. It really cleans the oil. With just a stock set up, I think 10k is perfectly reasonable. Oil analysis is the best way to gauge it though. Take a sample at 5k miles and see what it says. Chances are it will still come back good at 10k but I wont be pushing mine beyond that without a bypass system.

 

[ShannonHarris]

Can you tell me what a Bypass system is?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

That oil is NOT too light. That Amsoil 5w-30 was designed specifically for applications like ours.

Some caution here.



I had mediocre results running it in my '01. For the most part for those in cooler climates and in the winter I'm sure it's a great oil. Many have great results with it. Not me when it was 110 degrees here a couple summers ago . . . my truck wasn't too happy with it. More oil usage and blowby on a 40k mile engine. All wear metals went up to the highest I ever had by a fair margin on that truck, worse than when I was running dino during break-in (drove truck to just under 90k).



The 15W40 did great in cold weather, and costs less, and I've never been tempted to buy 5W30 again. If I lived in Michigan or something I'd probably run it Nov-April, but not in eastern Washington.



Vaughn

 

[RDietze]

i too would like to know more about the bypass sytem -- an amsoil product?

does it compare to the premo system? http://dieselpowerproducts.com/premo



does the premo system work on synthetic oil?

 

[JJW_ND]

15K changes min .....

I have been running 24K changes with a filter change every 6K on my 96 for over 200K miles. I also sample every 6K. No problems with Amsoil or Mobil Delvac1 out to these miles.



I do not have bypass.



Bypass should get you out to 30 - 50K+ changes. I have not had a bad oil sample (oil out of weight, wear metals to high, TBN to low... . ) with 24K changes related to the oil.



If I got a new truck again I would do 15K changes with a filter every 7. 5K without any analysis to back it up. Anything past 15K should have a sample pulled now and then. This is severe service or not. My 24K intervals have been under very severe service (700 mile runs with boost on +20psi and EGTs at 1100 the entire run or arctic cold and oil temps never getting above 170 for weeks at a time)



Regarding the 5W30... . I ran it four 24K intervals. I did have the highest wear metals one interval but this was on the heals of a high silicon (K&N) issue. The other three intervals were no worse the 15W40. This was at a time I hotshotted stock trailers pullinghard summer and winter. The 5w40 I run now "seems" to have alittle less blow by but it also runs alittle warmer (engine oil temp). I feel better with 5W40 but not sure analysis would back it up.



jjw

ND

 

[DPKetchum]

Call Amsoil TECH LINE at 1-715-392-7101 ask them.

 

[joeyou]

My truck has 23,000 miles on it and I recently changed to Amsoil 5W-30. I don't tow very much and when I do it is pretty light. I average 15-20K per year. How often do you think I should change my oil?



Thanks for the help



Tom

If you want to maintain your warranty, you must change it within the prescribed service intervals in your manual. If maintaining warranty is not of concern, and you want to run extended change intervals, then oil analysis is the only objective way to know what interval is appropriate for your vehicle.