Yep, filtration is key. I work at a power plant. We don't "throw away" oil. Our turbine uses thousands of gallons. This oil is constantly in use and contantly going through thermal cycles. It goes 24/7 for 2 years straight. Then the system is shutdown and sometimes the oil is run through a centrifuge and used for another 2 years. Still, even at the very end of the 2 year run the oil looks new. Granted, there isn't exhaust gases and such mixing with our oil but, the point is, the oil doesn't wear out. When properly filtered, the stuff lasts

 

I tracked down that Million Mile Truck story.

Apparently, their motivation in buying him a new truck was to get his OLD truck, specifically the engine, into their lab.


Pickup Truck Records One Million Miles on Pennzoil(R) Motor Oil


HOUSTON, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- William White of Lawrenceville, Georgia
pulled his 1995 pickup into Lube 3000 on Buford Drive today for its million-
mile oil change. He left Lube 3000 with brand a new pickup compliments of
Pennzoil.
William, who lives in Lawrenceville, has put close to 800 miles per day on
his truck, while delivering newspapers from Spartanburg, SC to Nashville, TN.
Every four workdays, William takes his truck to the same Lube 3000 to have his
oil changed, always insisting on Pennzoil(R) motor oil.
"Bill has been a loyal customer of Lube 3000 and Pennzoil(R) motor oil,"
said Dave Page, Atlanta market manager for Pennzoil. "His unwavering
dedication to oil changes with Pennzoil(R) every 3,000 miles, has kept his
1995 pickup in peak condition. We're more than happy to provide him with a
brand new pickup to do it all again."
Pennzoil is taking the million-mile pickup to its research laboratories in
Texas for a close look at the engine. Jeff Hsu, one of the company's senior
research engineers, will remove the engine from the vehicle, disassemble it
and perform a detailed inspection. Jeff is a CRC certified rater, recognized
in the industry for his ability to inspect engine parts and assign a numerical
value that describes how clean or worn they are for comparison purposes.
"We do a lot of laboratory tests on engines to simulate extensive mileage
under various conditions, but to have one that has actually been driven by a
consumer for a million miles is an excellent opportunity to study the real
thing," said Mark Ferner, manager of mechanical development at the Pennzoil-
Quaker State Company Research & Development Center. "A million miles for a passenger vehicle with a gas engine is quite an accomplishment."
Pennzoil(R) brand motor oils are manufactured and distributed by Pennzoil-
Quaker State Company (NYSE: PZL), a leading worldwide automotive consumer
products company, with 20 leading brands in more than 90 countries. The
company markets both Pennzoil(R) and Quaker State(R) brand motor oils, the
number one and number two selling motor oils in the United States. Jiffy
Lube, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pennzoil-Quaker State Company, is the
world's largest fast lube operator and franchiser. For more information about
Pennzoil-Quaker State Company, visit its web site at
http://www.pennzoil-quakerstate.com.





SOURCE Pennzoil-Quaker State Company
Web Site: http://www.pennzoil-quakerstate.com
Company News On Call: Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/684550.html

 

wow, i can't believe i remember the story as accurately as i did........95 truck, 800 miles, delivering newspaper. and it's been about 3 years since i read that story.

but yet i couldn't spell pennzoil.

 

Don't worry I thought that how you always spelled it too!

I have Mobile 1 Syn 5w30 in my stock motor. 134,xxx miles and no problems (minus cooling problem I have). Should I really think about switching over to M1 0w40? I'm mean, if it performs the same and has the same viscosity as the German Castrol...would it benefit MY motor with the miles it has on it?

 

Yes, with having higher mileage you'll often need to step up to a slightly thicker oil anyways. I bet if you did an oil analysis on the 5w30, then switched to the 0w40, you'd see a noticeable reduction in engine wear.

 

hmm, I think I'm gonna go buy some and just give it a try. Cant hurt anything, just help the wear down...maybe I will try an analysis.

 

If you get an analysis done (or if anyone here does) post the results here (or send them to me) as I'm interested in seeing other LT1 results (with any oil for that matter)

I just picked up 10 more liters of Castrol 0w30 this morning too, so my supply is good for a while. (I've now got 50L of it)

 

ive also been using the mobil 5w30 for quite awhile now........what would be the benefit of changing to 0w30 or 0w40?

keep in mind im in florida, and the temp never gets low here.
my car always maintains excellent oil pressure and doesnt leak/burn any.

 

The benefit of this oil for you is not because of it's 0w rating, but simply due to the fact that it's a better built oil that provides a higher level of antiwear protection, mainly due to it having a better HTHS number and a thicker viscosity at operating temperature than Mobil 1 5w30 has. Of course it doesn't hurt that it flows faster on startup than M1 5w30 either.

 

so considering that it never gets cold here....would i want the w40 or w30?

 

I believe the Castrol 0w30 or the Mobil 1 0w40 would both offer similar results, so you can't go wrong with either choice. In my case the Castrol thickened up to a 0w40 anyways.

 

Hey Patman! This isn't entirely related to your topic but I wanted to post a follow-up to this

My bud finally got some pics about the car I was talking about above. I had some of the details incorrect. It's a 1996 Toyoto Camry 4 cyl. Car has 632,000 miles on it and has never been rebuilt. Oil changed every 3,500 to 4,000 miles. Mobil 1 15W50 has been used since new. This same buddy works at a tranny shop and the two owners there are brothers. They each have 91 Ford Ranger trucks. 2.9L V6. One truck has 310,000 miles and the other has 360,000 miles. Ones wife has a 4.0L V6 Aerostar van that has 380,000 miles on it. All these vehicles were purchased new and all have used Mobil 1 15W50 since day one. None have been rebuilt.

Now, I am NOT an oil expert... I just have data But, my question to you, the oil expert would be...

I know many on this forum are against the Mobil 1 15W50 oil because they say it is too "thick". Do you think this oil seems to work so well for people around me because of my area... the warm Florida climate? Or, do you think it has something to do with the V6 or 4 cyl "smaller" engines as compared to our larger V8 engines Also, typically, would you say a thicker oil is better in a smaller engine like a 4 cyl or in a larger engine like the LT1? If it should be "better" in an LT1 then that is even more impressive because all my data is for smaller engines

Just curious because I hear a fair amount of negativity towards running 15W50 oil yet the real world results I see around me would seem to indicate the stuff is pretty good! Just a bit confusing because the people who don't like 15W50 are respectable posters.

Here are some pics of the car

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/highmiles1.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/highmiles2.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/highmiles3.jpg
http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/misc/highmiles4.jpg

 

Brent, for a lot of engines 15w50 can be too thick, although with the warmer climate you guys see a lot of engines can use it without too much trouble. You'll lose power and MPG though. Another thing to keep in mind here too is that those Toyota 4 cylinder motors are durable as can be, it's almost impossible to kill them no matter what you do.

In cooler climates such as where I live, and where a lot of readers in here live, 15w50 is simply too thick on the low end in order to flow properly, so higher engine wear is the result.

At the same time, I do believe the LT1 is more tolerant of a 15w50 oil than most new import engines would be though (since the LT1 is a relatively loose design motor compared to a lot of stuff out there), but I still would not recommend running it. As you can see from my oil analysis result posted at the beginning of this thread, my LT1 loves this 0w30 Syntec, which as I mentioned, starts out as a thick 30wt and finishes up as a thin 40wt. I still believe this to be the best viscosity for most LT1s in terms of both engine wear and horsepower.

Every situation is slightly different though, so someone who uses their LT1 for road racing, or has a blower on it, might see much higher oil temps than I see, so their situation would call for a slightly thicker oil as a result. (or they could simply put in an oil cooler to bring their oil temps down also) That's a factor a lot of people don't consider, because if one person is running a 5w30 oil but never sees higher than 225F oil temps, he actually has a thicker oil film than another guy who runs 10w40 but sees 275F oil temps regularily.

This is why I like oil analysis so much, because then you can see for sure if the oil you've chosen is correct or not, and then you can adjust accordingly.

I also think that your friend has been changing his oil far too often. He still would've gotten just as long engine life with 10,000 mile oil changes as he's gotten with 3500 to 4000 mile changes. That type of driving he does, all highway like that, does not degrade the oil as fast as people think. So he's basically draining out perfectly good oil at every oil change.

 

Great info, Patman! Thanks!

I'm going to be doing some oil analysis too. My father is trying some "snake oil" stuff in his less than 10,000 Avalanche. I had a full blown analysis done before. He is now driving it with the additive and I'll have another analysis done at the exact same miles on the oil. I'll send you the results of the two and you can interpret it for me. LOL!

Also, while I have often heard changing the oil at 3,000 or 4,000 mile intervals with synthetic isn't really necessary, I know many who do and, heck, I do too. I guess I consider it "cheap insurance"

Thanks again!

 

It is hard for a lot of people to break the 3000 mile oil habit, especially if it takes them 6 months to get that much mileage on their vehicle. But those people who begin getting oil analysis done usually begin slowly increasing their intervals too, once they see that the oil they've been draining out is still in excellent shape and the wear metals are very low.

Definitely send me those oil analysis results when you get them, I love reading them! I'm a sponge when it comes to these oil analysis reports!

I'd love to see more LT1 owners doing them especially.