Oil - What's Recommended

[KG4LHQ]

Hey I've got an 04 Silverado 4.8L Reg Cab 4x4. Everyone in this forum I see recommends using Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil. I myself have used Valvoline Regular Oil 5W30. I try to be in the habit of changing it every 3000 miles but once again some of you in the forum recommend waiting until the truck tells you that oil needs to be changed.

 

Am I using crappy oil - If So what do you recommend and will it hurt it going from regular oil to synthetic and is it good to wait for the truck to instruct you to change it.

 

Thank Ya,

 

John

[elboberino]

Hey I've got an 04 Silverado 4.8L Reg Cab 4x4. Everyone in this forum I see recommends using Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil. I myself have used Valvoline Regular Oil 5W30. I try to be in the habit of changing it every 3000 miles but once again some of you in the forum recommend waiting until the truck tells you that oil needs to be changed.

 

Am I using crappy oil - If So what do you recommend and will it hurt it going from regular oil to synthetic and is it good to wait for the truck to instruct you to change it.

 

Thank Ya,

 

John

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

I've been using Mobile 1 5w30 syn since I bought the truck in July of 01. I don't know any of the scientific stuff behind the difference between synthetic and non-synthetic oil. I do know that if you are using non-syn for a long time and you switch to synthetic, and blockages caused by the regular oil are going to be loosened and if a leak in the system was not there before, it might start because of the synthetic oil breaking up the regular oil. I also think the manual reccommend synthetic oil so that's what I use. I am sure there are some guys on this forum who know much more about oil than I do.

[foghorn23]

I do not profess to be an oil expert either....but here's my 2 cents:

 

First of all I use Mobil 1 in my current truck as well as the previous one I owned. I'm not sure if I qualify for sainthood for doing so, but I feel good about giving my truck what is supposed to be the best. Honestly, I doubt you're going to have a problem with any name brand modern oil. I've used Pennzoil, Castrol, and Valvoline in previous cars over the years. No problems with any.

 

My thinking is simply this. Currently conventional oil: Pennzoil, Valvoline, etc is selling for about $1.90 a quart in my area. I can get M1 at Walmart for 3.49 a quart. Six quarts X $1.60 quart is less than $10 dollars difference. Lord knows I've blown $10 on trivial things before, if M1 is simply trivial when comparing to other oils I'm no worse off than if I bought a couple lottery tickets a month. If M1 is truly better, I'm more than $10 ahead. Besides, using the M1 makes me feel good about the truck. If there's no difference then I'm a for the oil companies.

 

So its your call. Will Valvoline hurt your truck. NO! Would M1 be an improvement? Maybe--maybe not. It's your $10 bucks spend it ever how you want.

 

vroten

[KG4LHQ]

Well - I don't believe it would hurt it but I just want to give the truck the best I can possibly give it.

 

I usually get my Oil Change done at Walmart but I'm kinda starting to get tired of taking it there and waiting forever to get it done. I watch them to make sure their doing it right and actually putting oil in.

 

I really need to start getting into changing the oil myself and I think I feel comfortable enough in doing it. Only 19 years old but I get tired of paying extra for people doing work when I could do it on my own and I know it be right.

 

So ya think I should change and go to Mobil 1 Synthetic or Stay with Valvoline 5W30 Regular Oil?

 

[MS3DALE]

You will be fine using Valvoline 5W-30 and changing it every 3,000 miles.

I have never used anything but conventional oil (Pennzoil 5W-30) and I have almost 225,000 miles on my "beater" '88 Corsica work car and had almost 100,000 miles on my '99 Silverado when I traded it in June for my '04.

I just think synthetic oils are a waist of money and unless the factory fills them with it such as in the Corvettes,The new SSR's and GTO's with the 6 liter LS2 and some Cadillacs,I wouldn't waist my money buying it. Just my .02 cents.

And the owners manual for the trucks does not recommend synthetic oil,It only says that you can use it and its allright to use it as long as it meets there specifications and you change it as required.

[KG4LHQ]

Well - Some people in this forum has recommended every 3,000 miles or 2 - 3 months and some has recommended waiting until the truck tell you to.

 

Your thoughts?

[MS3DALE]

3,000 miles for me and no more, But I suppose if you had to go a little more it won't hurt, I have changed my oil on my trucks a couple of times and not reset the oil life monitor just to see when it would come on and it came on around 6,500 miles!! I would never go 6,500 miles between oil changes

[KG4LHQ]

Well - Giving 6500 be the maximum I had it changed at 16000 and I'm at 21500 right now and the oil monitor thing never has came on yet. It has once so far last oil change.

 

Guess I need to change it today.

[MS3DALE]

Just to let you know,The oil life monitor is designed to come on no earlier than 3,000 miles and no later than 7,500 miles.

And to go back on something I said earlier the owners manual does recommend either 5W-30 synthetic oil or conventional 0W-30 oil in "extreme cold temps." being -20 degrees below zero or colder.

[KG4LHQ]

Then it ought to be coming on soon then lol

 

 

Thanks

[ness5575]

i switched over to m1 at about 30k (now at 116k) and have been very happy with the change. i like the extra protection with M1 when i am up north snowmobiling where its common to have cold starts at -10 and colder. also i like extending the oil change interval beyond the usual 3k - not something i was comfortable doing with conventional oil...

 

check out Bob is the oil guy - lots of great info on the question you are asking...

[SoCarZ71]

I'll add my $.02 as well. I use synthetic in all my vehicles (Mobil 1 in the car and truck, Amsoil in the motorcycles) because I make a lot of short trips. Synthetic oils will not cause carbon stacking which is common with conventional oil blends when the vehicle is operated on short drives (i.e. if it takes you less than twenty minutes to get to work) and the engine never really reaches optimum temperature range. And like elboberino said, it will break up any carbon deposits in the engine left by the use of conventional oil.

 

And, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the Oil Life Sensor work off of engine hours, not mileage?

[carguru]

The biggest differences between dino and synthetic is the increased performance at low and high temperature and better cleaning of the oil passages and extended drain intervals. At low temperatures the synth will still flow where the dino would gel. At high temp, the synth oil will not cook off like dino oils will.

 

Using regular dino oil is fine if changed regularly. The change interval would depend mostly on how the vehicle is used. If it is lots short trips where the oil just barely warms up, then 3000 mile is a must. If you do a lot of highway miles, you could go longer intervals (up to 7500 miles).

[MS3DALE]

And, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the Oil Life Sensor work off of engine hours, not mileage?

 

 

 

 

Yes,Thats why it can come on anytime between 3,000 miles and 7,500 miles,It goes by your driving habits and conditions.

[496 CUBIC INCHES]

Go with the M1,and change it every 6K miles. Anything less than 6K miles and you're throwing money away. If you don't think M1 is good for 6K miles you don't know as much as you think you do. I've read hundreds of UOAs,and 99.9% of the time if the engine is sound, M1 will be good till 6K.

 

The oil life monitor takes more than hours or miles into consideration. It also uses oil temp and RPMs. It WILL come on before 3K and stay on past 7.5K.

 

The U.S. needs to get away from the 3K miles oil change. All its doing is lining the pockest of the oil companies. The oils of today are far better than they were in the 60's,70's and 80's. The 3K mile oil change should be a thing of the past.