1996 Prado Diesel 3.0T engine oil grade?

[Airbornepotato]

Getting my 1996 Prado soon 1KZ-TE engine,
I am from Alberta, wondering what kind of oil you guys all using? do you switch oil type between summer and winter?

 

[Morrtac]

I have a '97 and I use 15w40 Diesel oil from Costco & OEM filters from Toyota dealer... I live in Florida.

 

[KiwiBogan]

15w/40 all year round. Mineral oil only. Never synthetic.

 

[javelinadave]

Rotella 15w/40 conventional here but it never freezes where I am. If it did I would do a summer/winter oil swap.

 

[Finn1997]

Rotella 15w/40 conventional here but it never freezes where I am. If it did I would do a summer/winter oil swap.

Would you recommend T4 semi synthetic or T3?
T3 is hard to find on this side of the ocean.

 

[Finn1997]

15w/40 all year round. Mineral oil only. Never synthetic.

Whats the danger of running Rotella 15w40 T4 semi synthetic? In Ireland you can't really find T3 anymore

 

[javelinadave]

I’m running Rotella T-4. It doesn’t say synthetic anywhere on the jug.
Plenty of opinions both pro and con on the internet regarding synthetic oil in older engines. I change my oil often enough that I’ll stick to with dino in my Prado.

 

[Airbornepotato]

15w/40 all year round. Mineral oil only. Never synthetic.

I am not very good at reading manuals, understand some of the "old" vehicles were built for mineral oil only. is 1KZ-TE this case?
Is any where in the manual saying 1KZ-TE engine should better stick with mineral oil?i thought synthetic is always better? no?

 

[KiwiBogan]

I am not very good at reading manuals, understand some of the "old" vehicles were built for mineral oil only. is 1KZ-TE this case?
Is any where in the manual saying 1KZ-TE engine should better stick with mineral oil?i thought synthetic is always better? no?

Yes I believe it is the case. I can't remember specifics. I've just got an old engineer friend that knows his s*** and drills these ideas in to me haha I'll try and remember to pop down the shed tomorrow and have a look at the manual for you, see if it offers alternatives.

 

[KiwiBogan]

Yes I believe it is the case. I can't remember specifics. I've just got an old engineer friend that knows his s*** and drills these ideas in to me haha I'll try and remember to pop down the shed tomorrow and have a look at the manual for you, see if it offers alternatives.

So here's my manual. I just had my engine rebuilt and the engine builder used 15w/40.

 

[Finn1997]

View attachment 3511190
So here's my manual. I just had my engine rebuilt and the engine builder used 15w/40.

I use T4 15w40 for my 1965 Lincoln continental with its original MEL 430 Cam in block V8 and I have no leaks running T4.

 

[Finn1997]

I’m running Rotella T-4. It doesn’t say synthetic anywhere on the jug.
Plenty of opinions both pro and con on the internet regarding synthetic oil in older engines. I change my oil often enough that I’ll stick to with dino in my Prado.

My bad mate! Rotella T4 is conventional. I must have mixed it up with T3 rotella. Anyone stateside ever use T3 before? I used to be common in Ireland until a few years ago.
T4 is the way to go for sure.

 

[Finn1997]

Synthetic won't really help this engine as it produces large amounts of soot and ash in the oil. I believe this engine needs 3K or 6K oil changes. In engines with longer oil change intervals you can really see the advantage of synthetic.