Chevy & GMC Vans

to start I normally don't change my own oil, that's what dealerships and quick lube places are for, and I haven't for the past 16 years. so that being said:
my '95 Astro has 150,000+ miles on it and I'm doing the tune-up thing and was looking at the high mileage engine oils and wanted to know if they are worth it or are they just a gimmic? same thing goes for the oil filter, is the high mileage one any better then the normal filter? what do you reccomend from experience?

I have no problem spending more money if that means the Astro is better protected in the engine, but if there is no benefit why spend the extra money.

If you change your oil when you should (3mos. 3000mi) you don't need high mileage oil. You are much better off spending the extra money on synthetic. There is almost no chemical difference in the formulations of Mobile 1 and the high mileage Mobile 1. You are mostly paying for the name and the few engines that the oil company may have to replace when people use extended drain intervals. There are 3 synthetics I recommend. Mobile 1 and Amsoil are very good in my opinion. Valvoline Synpower is also decent though not quite as good. The others are a true synthetic but are formulated with lesser quality synth base oils (there are 3 types of synthetic base oils used).

Use a good quality filter. Wix makes the best. They are also sold as the NAPA Gold filters and both the cheap (red) and premium (blue) Carquest filters. Purolator would be next on my list followed by AC Delco. This is not pure opinion as there has been testing, you can google. Also I have cut apart over 50 filters of different brands in the shop over the years and that is what I base these recommendations on. I use the Carquest red line in my own vehicles. They are about the same price as the Fram (I get them cheaper - about $2.25 I buy a case at a time though for the shop) Avoid Fram, Penzoil, and Quaker State filters at all costs. All 3 of these are the same filter made by Allied Signal. Cut one open and see for yourself. The cardboard bypass valve starts leaking unfiltered oil after about 300 miles. The Lee brand is also extremely poor.

I do not recommend extended drain intervals regardless of the type of oil.

People like saving that extra couple bucks, but synthetic oil and a good filter every 3000 is much cheaper than an extended warranty plan. I say this as a driver who puts about 15,000 miles a year on two of our vehicles and another 12000 easy on the other one and the bikes.

thabks for the detailed reply. I was looking at the Fram oil filter so I will look at the Napa one or the Purolator.
I was always worried about going to synthetic oil on a higher mileage motor, I heard that the synthetic oil wil leak easier on motors that haven't used synthetic before. any truth to the rumor?

Here is the place to go for the long answers.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

Me, I use Castrol GTX dino and WalMart filters.
As the miles pile up I increase the oil weight.
I'm no chemist.
And I have no money.
The later mostly controls my decisions.

well I went with the Napa Gold filter and the Valvoline Maxlife oil. we'll see what happens. it couldn't be any worse then the black tar that was in it before.

I tried MAXLIFE from Valvoline. After almost a year two vehicles engine rubber seals and gaskets started leaking profusely. One my Caravan which was in good condition with regular changes of oil not exceeding 3000mi. I found my gargage floor soaked after parking it one morning. I lifted my hood and the entire engine was soaked, hood everywhere. I took it to my mechanic. Said we had to shampoo it first to clean it up then find where it was leaking. All upper seals, gaskets were ruined. On head gasket leaks slightly and not worth tearing down to fix it. The other vehicle was an Eagle Summit. Valvoline brushed the incident reported to them as poor maintenance and accept no responsibility.

Bottom line stay away from it. Especially Valvoline oil !!!

I'm sure people here on the forums have had mixed results with all types of oil. trial and error I guess. I keep looking at the driveway waiting to see some kind of leak, but so far nothing yet.

tripplec, Your problem wasn't the Valvoline oil. It was the Chrystler products you had. I have used Valvoline in all my vehicles with no problems what so ever. It was all my dad would use in his small engine shop. We didn't see too many comeback rebuilds.

Sorry Tripp, but I'm with e7 on this one.

What do you call a Chrysler that doesn't leak oil? A Cummins or a Mercedes (the tank like, beautiful, straight 5 diesel in the new full size vans). Even all of the mitsubishi engines that they used were the mitsubishi engines that were known for oil leaks, including the v-6 in the Stealth. We always used to say that was Chrysler's free at no extra charge, automatic undercoating and rust preventive system.



Of course if you had an Astro with an old iron duke 2.5L 4 banger you could get that option from GM as well... oh wait those leaked above the exhaust manifold and started on fire... sorry.

I find that when my mom put High mileage oil in her astro... the oil tends to say in there longer (ie: don't have to refill so often as compared to regular oil)

I do think that there is some truth to peoples claims that they experience oil leaks and increased oil consumption after switching to synthetic. This is more an issue of an existing problem surfacing due to a good thing. Synthetic engine oils have much more of a solvent effect due to the base oils used. I know that one of the base oils in Mobile 1, mobile actually adds to their drive clean oils as an additive for cleaning the engine in order to cut back on the amount of detergents they have to add as the detergents don't have lubricative properties. This effect cleans the deposits that have collected near the gaskets and seals and then the oil itself has much more contact with the seals and gaskets which have stiffened due to age.

This is what I think is going on, as like I said, I do think there is some validity about the complaints after switching to synthetic oils. I have heard many more complaints from people who switched with higher mileage vehicles, or people who let their oil change intervals go over.

DV

Yeap, In conversation with Amsoil putting some synthetic formulas in an older blocks which might leak due to cleaning properties of some of their products. Their 25k Mile oil was not recommended unless the engine was newer.

However, back to Valvoline High Millage. I would not try nor use it in any block again. It was a costly experience and having seal dissolvers in my block continually is not smart now that hind site has set in. If I want add an additive, Lucas or such I'll do it as I feel I have to address a problem.
Currently using Penzoil Platinum as Mobile 1 changed their forumla and is no long sythetic, pretend synthetic is what I heard or I call it. Modify a molecle a bit and it is no longer Dino oil but sythesized as is Castrol Syntec.

All the post on this and 1000's of other are lost when the other site went down. Did the not hear of backups! Oh well...