90 Lumina 3.1 Oil Change Choices

[ibbobud]

Hello,

My 90 Lumina 3.1 has 159k miles on it, does not smoke or leak oil, uses about 1 qt per 3k miles. Im curently running Quakerstate 5w30 conventional and fram filter (cheap walmart oil change) on a 5k oci.

Im due for a oil change and wondering what i should do to help the longivity of this car. Is there a advantage of going to high mileage oil on a car that does not use much and has had all the upper gaskets on motor changed in the last 2 years?

Choice 1: Same as last time - quakerstate 5w30 but with purolator classic filter 5k oci ($13.99)

Choice 2: Valvoline 5w30 high mileage and purolator pureone filter on 5k oci ($19.99)

Choice 3: Valvoline 5w30 high mileage and purolator classic filter on 5k oci ($16.88)

Choice 4: Rotella T6 5w40 Synthetic and purolator pureone filter on 7.5k oci ($35.00??)

[jeffcoslacker]

Personally i think 5w30 is too light for anything with over 100,000 miles on it. Your manual would say you could use either 5w30 or 10w30, depending on how low your winter temps go.

I switch to 10w30 after 100k, but that's just me, if it works for you, don't change anything. Sounds like it is wearing nicely, that's about the same oil loss I see in my '97 at 155,000 now.

Also I have issues with Purolator filters. We won't go into that here. I use what a car came with, in this case AC/Delco oil filters.

You don't want to use Rotella in a car...it doesn't have the friction modifiers that regular oil does. It's for diesels, and works well for motorcycles because of the wet clutches. Don't use it in your car....it's designed to hold particulates in suspension (diesels are dirty creatures, and motorcycle wet clutches shotgun wear chaff into the oil) but it has no benefit in a gas engine in a car, and might accelerate wear, because it doesn't have the anti-wear additives car oil does (due to emissions restrictions on diesels)...sulfur, potassium and molybdenum are common ones, but they use none or real low levels in diesel oil.

I'm a little scared of "high mileage" products, because things that claim to stop or prevent leaks usually contained compounds that would rehydrate, but also swell gaskets and seals, which works for a while, until they begin to fall apart from it. I don't really know if this applies to "High Mile" oil products currently offered, I honestly haven't looked into it. But in general I feel this was just a clever marketing ploy to boost stagnant sales figures, most likely. Again, just my opinion.

Oil threads are tough, you'll get so many different answers you'll be more conflicted than you started. Everyone has their own recipe for making their car last.

So I'll tell you what I do, and leave it at that. I use Motorcraft Semi-Synthetic with an AC/Delco PF47, from O'Rielly's. I started using the Motorcraft Oil a long time ago because it was the cheapest semi-syn at the time, and it worked so well for me I just kept going with it. I run over on intervals, sometimes 5-7000, and it still feels like oil when it comes out, and has better clarity after all those miles than straight oils I've used.

It sounds like what you are doing is working for you, why not just stick with that? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

BTW why did you notify me that your own thread was spam?

[jeffcoslacker]

PS yours uses a different Delco filter (PF52) but my route would cost you about $25

[ibbobud]

Thanks for the info!

Ive been on the fence on this.

It got pretty cold here this winter and i know when i put in the 5w30 from 10w30 the cold starts sounded alot better and its also whats recomended in the cap.

Right now she has quakerstate 5w30 bulk and fram filter from walmart in her and currently has 5k on the oil change. In that time period i had to put 1 quart in it at 3k and now she is about 1/2 qr low if even that.

No visable leaks or spots on my pavement.

Advance auto has the same oil (quakerstate 5w30 advanced durability) and a purolator filter for $13.99

Walmart has the 5w30 valvoline max life 5 qt jug for 13.99

Whats your opinion on supertech oil filters?

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by ibbobud

Thanks for the info!



Whats your opinion on supertech oil filters?

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oil...reference.html


I'll let you draw your own conclusions...Supertech is made by Champion Labs, although they don't use it specifically in this study. But the other brands they do make are pretty good.

If I remember right, they seemed to think they were comparable to OE.

[ibbobud]

Im considering to save time and money the following options now.

Option 1: Quakerstate 5w30 and fram filter (walmart oil change - $24.00)

Option 2: Valvoline Maxlife 5w30 and supertech filter (install myself - $16.99)

I just really distrust fram filters.

[ktetch]

Autozone has a bunch of oil change specials right now.

http://www.autozone.com/images/MEDIA...Y11-rebate.pdf

good until june 27th