Why changing oil timely/frequently is good for your engine (1 Viewer)

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Nice video leading to a clear explanation why changing oil timely/frequently is good. Challenges 10k intervals depending on use (lots of shorter trips like probably many of us do, towing etc) and conditions (low outside temperatures). I can see our 3UR-FE does not have these low drag piston rings given the era it was designed in (and the MPG it gets...), nevertheless the oil ring needs to move and comply.

Added a link to a nice explanation of various piston rings involved.

And picture of a 3UR-FE piston. Note oil return ports.
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P.S. AMD is a Toyota Master Technician. He seems to have good knowledge, certainly experience and I like the way he explains things providing some confidence. He has a good one on the Land Cruiser 200 itself, as posted in another thread on this forum. By the way I have had Toyota change my oil at 5k and 10k to date. Will stay the course with 5k changes and look forward getting past 36k miles warranty to start changing myself.
 
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5k oil changes are a waste on these trucks. The 5.7 is easy on oil. I’m switching to 10k oci and m1 extended performance. My last truck had 300k miles with lots of 10k oci.
 
5k oil changes are a waste on these trucks. The 5.7 is easy on oil. I’m switching to 10k oci and m1 extended performance. My last truck had 300k miles with lots of 10k oci.
Agreed, especially with 8 quarts total. Unless you tow or use your LC as an Uber in the city 10k is fine.

I've sent in oil samples to Blackstone where I've towed in 4th gear for 4000 miles and then spent the remaining 2000 miles in heavy city traffic on my lifted and armored truck and they said "oil looks great, plenty of TBM left, run it to 8k next time and send us a new sample". By rights the above should've been a 5k oil change but I did it a bit over 6k because I was on a trip, yet they said it could've gone 8k. For normal suburban and highway driving 10k is fine, and you can likely stretch further without any harm.
 
For the blanket recommendation that the factory has to make, 5k is not wrong. Understand that it has to cover everyone's use case, at every point in the engines lifecycle. From new where there's potentially lots more break-in and metal wear, or older engines with worn clearances leaching more fuel and combustion byproducts into the oil. To off-nominal engines that may have a developing issue or some form of irregular wear.

It's small potatoes to change the oil at a regular intervals to keep the engine healthy long term. All the second guessing Toyota with metal filter housings, creative oils or additives, filters, etc. The easy button is not to second guess the factory and perform maintenance to spec.

Does the 3UR-FE have lots of opportunity to extend oil life? Sure! Its low stress and low revving nature is easy on oil, especially doing more mundane and low effort cycle commuter duty.
 
The 3UR may be easy on oil but I've noticed consumption goes up markedly if I go past 7500 on my OCI with both Pennzoil Platinum and Mobil1. And this is with a pretty mild use case.. no towing, majority freeway miles between home and the mountains for my trips.

Not worth the hassle of collecting sample for UOA.. I just keep my changes under that number.
 
The 3UR may be easy on oil but I've noticed consumption goes up markedly if I go past 7500 on my OCI with both Pennzoil Platinum and Mobil1. And this is with a pretty mild use case.. no towing, majority freeway miles between home and the mountains for my trips.

Not worth the hassle of collecting sample for UOA.. I just keep my changes under that number.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a 5.7 consuming oil. I’ll watch it for sure.
 
Per the Maintenance Guide:
"For customers who primarily drive their vehicle under any of the listed Special Operating Conditions, the motor oil and filter should be replaced at 5,000 miles or six months, REGARDLESS OF THE OIL USED (OR CERTIFICATION OF THE VEHICLE)."
Such as:
Driving on dirt roads or dusty roads.
Driving while towing, using a car-top carrier, or heavy vehicle loading.
Repeated trips of less than five miles in temperatures below 32°F / 0°C.
Extensive idling and/or low speed driving for a long distance such as police, taxi or door-to-door delivery use.
 
Lol.... "If you use your vehicle in any practical way..."
Sounds like that to me. Just reading through that list I qualify for towing, dirt roads, and heavy loading. Heck, any moderate build is probably considered heavy loading.

Oil is cheap, even that fancy elitist Amsoil stuff my wife makes me buy is affordable when considering the alternative repairs associated with stretching those intervals out.
 
I always usw the cheapest oil for diesels I can find but I change it like my friend I was buying my 200 from every 4000-5000.
Car and engine are now at around 200k
 
Yeah I’m not sure what’s with all this oil analysis. Aircraft? Commerical vessels? Commercial / fleet vehicles? Sure. But it seems like a lot of navel gazing when you can just get your oil changed on the recommended schedule.

However, if lubrication engineering is your hobby, have fun!
 
Car Care Nut is a good youtuber and give very good recommendations. For a small 4 banger with little oil capacity - 5k/6month is justifiable. Even if something small with high compression and turbos I would say do it every 3-4K.

However, 3UR-FE is a low stress engine with huge oil capacity that can easily get away with 10K oil change intervals. But again, as all favorite Scotty is saying: “Oil is cheap, engines are expensive”. I am doing oil change once a year, that is around 6-8k miles. (Only because I hate dropping skids every 6 month)
 
For normal driving you can easily go 10k miles.

If you have a built up rig or tow I would do it more frequently. I typically do 6k miles, but the number will vary a bit depending on my travel plans.

Changing your oil more often won't hurt your engine, it's just a matter of spending $ for (potentially) no benefit. (Or it could be a lot of benefit if your oil isn't doing its job anymore)

I had Blackstone do a TBN analysis of my oil. I drove 6300 miles in the oil change. About 20% of those miles were pure city driving around Chicago (first 1k miles), where you have a stop sign every block (and it's 8 blocks per mile). 60% of it was on the highway doing 75 in 4th gear (revving 3000-3500 RPMs constantly) while towing a 6000# trailer, going from Chicago to the Badlands, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone and Grand Teton and back (about 4k miles). The remaining 20% was driving around the national parks once we got there. I'd call this pretty heavy usage which Toyota would say do to an oil change every 5k miles, but the TBN analysis shows the oil had quite a bit of life left in it, and Blackstone said "try 8k miles next time".

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For normal driving you can easily go 10k miles.

If you have a built up rig or tow I would do it more frequently. I typically do 6k miles, but the number will vary a bit depending on my travel plans.

Changing your oil more often won't hurt your engine, it's just a matter of spending $ for (potentially) no benefit. (Or it could be a lot of benefit if your oil isn't doing its job anymore)

I had Blackstone do a TBN analysis of my oil. I drove 6300 miles in the oil change. About 20% of those miles were pure city driving around Chicago (first 1k miles), where you have a stop sign every block (and it's 8 blocks per mile). 60% of it was on the highway doing 75 in 4th gear (revving 3000-3500 RPMs constantly) while towing a 6000# trailer, going from Chicago to the Badlands, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone and Grand Teton and back (about 4k miles). The remaining 20% was driving around the national parks once we got there. I'd call this pretty heavy usage which Toyota would say do to an oil change every 5k miles, but the TBN analysis shows the oil had quite a bit of life left in it, and Blackstone said "try 8k miles next time".

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Thanks for posting. This makes me feel better about my approach. I usually do every 5k, but am not religious about it. To my way of thinking, oil changes are cheap and if I ever have to do an unplanned road trip, I know my oil is up to the task versus being due an oil change at 10k and also needing to hit the road to drive a few thousand miles. Drive across the country and back towing a trailer - oil change before and after. Otherwise I have gone longer, but don't wring my hands about it if I find it's been 6 or 7k.
 
My apologies in advance if this is a stupid question.

Does anyone know how time sitting in storage effects oil life? When I say storage in this case I mean climate controlled indoor storage. For instance, say you change your oil then drive your LC a couple thousand miles in a couple months, then store the vehicle for 6 months. Does the time count if its not being used? Given the fact that it wasn’t put in storage right after the oil change, does that mean there is harmful byproducts in the oil, or does it mean that the oil is somehow breaking down over time?

I have always been skeptical of the oil change stickers and the expiration dates placed on them by oil change techs. My LC doesn’t have those stickers because I’m doing my own changes!
 
My apologies in advance if this is a stupid question.

Does anyone know how time sitting in storage effects oil life? When I say storage in this case I mean climate controlled indoor storage. For instance, say you change your oil then drive your LC a couple thousand miles in a couple months, then store the vehicle for 6 months. Does the time count if its not being used? Given the fact that it wasn’t put in storage right after the oil change, does that mean there is harmful byproducts in the oil, or does it mean that the oil is somehow breaking down over time?

I have always been skeptical of the oil change stickers and the expiration dates placed on them by oil change techs. My LC doesn’t have those stickers because I’m doing my own changes!
Once you put the oil in your engine and drive any, you subject the oil to moisture, which dilutes it and contributes to corrosion over time.

If you haven't opened the oil and it's been sitting on a shelf, I think it does still break down over time but it takes a lot longer, and in theory if it's properly sealed it should last quite a while.
 
soo00, I decided to using BG MOA and BG Restore on every oil change going forward. (At 10k miles) and I thought it was an overkill.
although I heard this tip from car mechanics who mostly work on supercharged and turbo charged engines that doing this on engine really extends their longevity. I was thinking it was an overkill but now it makes sense.
I will reduce my oil change frequency to 7k miles or so instead of 10k.
 

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