I'm using the Kirkland / costco stuff. sems to work great for the past 100K plus miles. I used castrol blend before that and hat worked great as well but the price shot up..


I'd say any modern day oil is pretty darn good and maintenance and change intervals are key

 

When I had the older 20r, 22r, 22re, and 3.0 in my toyota pickups, I always used castrol 10w30.

 

You will be fine, just check level periodically and service based on your driving conditions. I do the oci at 5K

 

What type of oil are you using these days? I can't find conventional oil anywhere.

I used pennzoil Conventional 5w-30 but now it comes as a synthetic blend.

Is it still good?


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Amazon has conventional pennzoil 10w30 for $22.48, but not the 5w30

 

nahh... I read that some people are complaining about receiving the synthetic blend instead of the conventional one, but I might give it a try anyway.

 

Same here, with difficulties finding conventional oil. When I find one, the price is the same as Costco's synthetic oil when on sale.

Gone are the days of 1$ per quart of conventional oil.

 

I've been using synthetic oil in my Camry engine for 25+ years. When I had the valve covers off the inside was as clean as a new engine. I've seen inside of engines which were run on conventional oil and their insides are always much darker / dirtier looking. So, although "cleanliness" isn't necessarily a must for the inside of an engine to last, it can't hurt and it makes me feel good so the extra few dollars every 5k miles seems worth it.

 

Actually it can make a big difference. The same build up in the valve cover, can be building up in the rings. Sticking rings is self exasperating issue that leads to engine failure.

 

I've been using synthetic for years, to me there is no good reason not to, especially since I own a 2002 Camry V6 which was one of the "sludge-recall" engines. I get Kirkland full synthetic 5w-30 for $18 per 5 quart jug, from Costco.

 

Been using the 10W-30 Penzoil conventional for the past 500,000+ miles and I think the previous owner also used it. As Norm mentioned, the color is very orange/dark under the valve covers. I do 5K oil changes. I have ordered the oil off Amazon but also not sure if conventional is available now....aggravated since I understand conventional is not as prone to "crawling" out of the engine via my older engine seals. I'm mostly using synthetic now but conventional clearly has done the job it was designed to do!

 

Broken record here but... there is no "full synthetic" oil in the US, just oils using Group II and III (Dino) base stocks with enough real synthetic Group IV base stock (PAO) added to meet a performance standard. Even the original synthetic (Mobil 1) does this because $.

The lowest "cold pour temp" is usually the highest proportion of actual PAO oil, but all we can hope for in US is a static formulation of the cheap Group II and III (Dino) base stocks and the expensive real synthetic Group IV base stock (PAO) that gives predictable performance.

BUT no US law requires this so any "good" oil is free to become "bad" if the company requires a higher profit margin. Sad but true!

You want "real synthetic" price it on Amazon Deutschland, or any synthetic oil labeled for EU sale, where its mandated by EU law to use the correct formulation. It typically costs 2-3 times what the US charges for faux "full synthetic"

 

I just use Mobil 1 synthetic, and don't worry about what percent of what is in it, because I see (over many 100k of miles) the benefit, in every engine I own.

 

Still using Havoline Conventiona Dino oil, 30th year!
T100 is still a happy camper.

 

I have been using different flavors of oils and filters on various car with different types of engines for years and miles and have yet to have oil related engine failure based on what was used. I just read the owner's manual and find the proper spec oil & change & check it regularly with known brands.

 

And as noted by some of the others in this thread so far: so long as you change it every 3k~5k miles almost any oil will work well.

 

Our labeling laws are generally horrific in terms of allowing the large print to say something that is simply not true. It allows advertising to intentionally mislead those of us who simply have priorities for things other than researching the fine print of every product we use.
The cost of oil changes, when done ourselves, is a minor percentage of the cost of automobile ownership (I think fuel is the highest cost over some of our older cars we drive for decades, and then (I believe) comes insurance and the original purchase price) so a "good" oil is a good investment. Thankfully "good" oil seems to include most mainstream oils...brands and dino/synthetic. We talk about how long our engines last with this oil or that oil but I wonder if the oil strongly influences how long the seals last....and it was mentioned above...the impact (or not) of varnish buildup. Another piece in that puzzle is how many deposits the oil that exists as an aerosol and escapes past the PCV valve and is burned via the air intake...are there significant differences we may see after 100s of thousands of miles??

I'm laughing at how any thread with the word "OIL" in the title is guaranteed to be very active! For something that is mostly looked at as a generally good product that does the job, we sure are picky about the brand we put in our own cars! Everyone's oil brand works great but you won't catch me switching! (I actually could....just LOOK at that varnish!...but I don't know if it's mostly related to the miles or the oil brand.)

 

Stuck piston rings is the main thing, and like heart disease can develop over long time without giving any outward signs until BAM.
Varnish visible under the valve covers is a really good way to tell what is going on.
Using synthetic oil (or whatever Mobil 1 has in it), the inside of my engines are squeaky clean, after 200k + miles (multiple Toyotas). But all have had changes every 5k miles, so that may have also been a factor.

 

I'm guessing varnish MUST be related to oil change interval since it shows up in poorly maintained engines but I think it must ALSO develop worse from some oils than others...as Norm is suggesting may be the case. I have kept a very religious 5k oil change interval and I have lots of varnish under the cam covers..and on the non-contact parts of the cam lobes.

I'm also burning some oil and have to add probably close to a quart every 1,000 miles. Don't know where it's going for sure since I have replaced front seals, cam cover gaskets, valve stem seals and have checked out with good compression (several years ago now).

PCV gases/aerosol might also be a big culprit since the cam cover with the PCV inlet often looks different....and the type of oil can certainly be a factor there as well. I know I have had some cheap PCV valves before I found out what was going on with those. I switched to the dealership PCV now but had to un-carbon some intake valves some years back. Perhaps getting a little far afield from the original thread question but I wanted to throw out some other observations and thoughts that may be related to the brand or type (dino or synthetic blend) we use.

 

I've used I believe it was castrol conventional oil and did 3K mile intervals and the internals were nice and shiny on my old car with aluminum heads.

However, when I switched to Penzoi. it would leave that same residue with the same 3k mile intervals.


I heard Penzoil has more of a dye or something in it. It DOES look to be more of a golden brown honestly when compared to other conventional oils.


As long as there is no grime or sludge build up I believe everything is ok. Just the nature of conventional oil.