What would you do with oil changes?

Gday Dave,
Your 12H-T is direct injection so doesn't soot up as much as a 2H or a 1Hz, so going 10k between changes is nothing unusual.

What Phil says is right, the 12HT is incredibly clean.

After 500km I start to see a tinge of blackness and at around 4000km it's starting to be fully black.


I'm running high boost, intercooler, 3" exhaust, maxxed out fuel pump and a GTurbo and get no black smoke. Oh, that's on veggie oil too. All these things add to engine efficiency and reduce soot buildup in the oil, plus the basic design of the direct injection.

The concept of oil changing by testing rather than by km travelled I understand would be common in industry, so see no reason why it should apply to road going vehicles. Like most things, people stick to the manufacturers recommendations. Does seem a shame to chuck away a non renewable product when it still has plenty of life left in it.

How much are the tests?

Tim

I do think that it is always in the type of use it gets and that is where machines get changed on "hours" not Klms, yes you could easly do 10,000klms and test up fine and then do 5000klms city running and test bad, I would go by the tests and extend it according to the reports keeping in mind the "reports" cost money as well, unless you get em free, and money is I guess "oil" ....

I usually changed at 10,000km on my 12HT and used Sakura filters.

The oil didn't begin to go black until around 5000km.
Normal cruising 10,000km is ok, mine was.
22mpg moving 4tonnes.

Dave,
As Joe said it all depends on the condition of the motor and what application it is used for.

Towing and short running lower will straight away require earlier oil changes, so will using the vehicle in high dust areas.
It is is not the oil that breaks down, but the amount of crud in it. Carbon, acid, silica and water.
Some large engines I have had experience with, have not had oil changes for over 30,000 hours. Most car engines are dead by 10,000 hours. The reason the oil did not need changing, is the filtration it received during it's life. These engines have huge centrifuges to remove contaminates and heaters to evaporate water off.

G'day Dave and fellow members

You raise an interesting point regarding oil change intervals and more specifically engine oil quality these days.

As an owner of a relatively old technology diesel Toyota with a 1hd-t engine, the service book states 5000 km intervals between oil changes ~ using their brand of engine oil and filter.

My vehicle has clocked up close to half a million kilometres in its life to date and I've always stuck to the 5000 k manufacturers service requirement ~ right up to when I started using a full synthetic engine oil at the 235,000 k mark, I run the oil changes out to 10000 ks (ten thousand) but I do replace the engine oil filter, fuel and air filters at 5000 k intervals, depending on conditions I replace the air filter at around 1000 to 1200 ks.

I have replaced all mineral oils ~ diffs - transfer case and transmission with full synthetic oils, the initial change over costs are somewhat expensive but the longer life of the new technology oils soon makes up for the change, dollar wise.

In my 40 something years as a heavy machinery mechanic the move has been to synthetic oils for big machinery ~ for longer service life.

I did not name the synthetic oil or oil filter brands because I do not wish to start a debate about brand names.


Safe travels :

Where does one go to get the oil tested? I would be interested in doing so and am in Sydney.

Cheers.

Oil change and service intervals are based on the worst case scenario.

People think by changing oil sooner will give them more longevity, the only time oil needs replacing is when it starts loosing it's properties...... and the only way of knowing is with oil sampling.

Oil change and service intervals have been developed by the automotive industry to increase profits for all involved except the customer, I should know as I'm in this industry.

Most people still live in the dark age when it comes to when to change the oil, oil quality has improved 10 fold over the last 20 years.

Filters are another classic example, whey change the filter, a filter works better when it has been used and having black stuff in the filter doesn't mean it's stuffed...... it means it's doing it's job. A filter should be changed when it becomes restrictive but like most thing the general public have be brainwashed into thing a new filter is better than an old one...... and it has the be changed every service.

Look at many vehicles out of europe with 30-80,000 service intervals...... same goes for heavy vehicle, if they changed their oil every 10,000k; most would be doing it every week and a half..... sure there are a few other things why heavy vehicle diesel engines have bigger intervals, it's to do with the amount of oil they hold...... the more oil they hold the greater the interval.

Dave I would keep an eye on it and follow those in the know, oil samples don't lie..... if you can double or triple your interval think of the money you have wasted over the years and how much you will save from now on.

The other advantage of oil sampling is you can address problems before they become costly, it may be changing to a different oil or weight...... much like a doctor tell a patient to change their lifestyle to slow or stop something in the near future.

Hi Dave. Why not let the oil run to 10000klms and retest it.If it is similar to the first test then you have your answer. Cheers,Bob.

Firstly the choice of caltex dello is a good one, its rated as one of the top 4 diesel spec oils around....world wide...it just does not get much better.

As far as being expensive.....ya obvioulsy not buying well.

I buy it by the 20 litre from my local Caltex fuel depot and I pay well under $100 for the 20 liter of dello 400....but they will not give you the good price over the phone.
If you are buying well it can be had for less than cheap rubbish..shop where the truckies shop.

If you front up at a normal retail outlet you will pay $60 for a 5 liter, even twisting the arm of the local Caltex servo as an "order in" you will pay around the $130 for the 20 litre.

But its a top spec oil and beats most high priced fancy retail oils spec for spec hands down.
AND it meets or exceeds a heap of petrol engine oil specs too....like way exceeds them.
Lined up side by side with many of the fancy, expensive, heaviliy promoted reatil, petrol oils and compared spec for spec....it slaps em down easily.

As far as this whole synthetic oil thing.....worry about two things, Correct viscosity and the oil Specifications......the definition of synthetic is a quite rubbery....guaranteed spec is guaranteed spec......an oil like dello will not be achieving its spec without synthetic components.

As far as the drain intervals....dello is specifically designed as a long drain interval oil with a very strong additive package, some of the heavy vehicles that dello is designed for are running drain intervals of well over 20 000Km

In small diesels the single biggest issue is soot loading, many of the earlier small diesels in particular toyotas, where dirty little motors that allowed quite a bit of soot past the rings.
This causes the oil to load up with soot and go black fairly quickly and the filters to load up and flow to be restricted.

On these motors staying with the 5000Km change interval is wise...BUT if you have a later motor, fairly young, that runs pretty clean you could easily push the change interval out.

If you are at all concerned do a filter only change a top up the oil.

I've never paid for a professional oil analisis....but most oil changes I do a poor man's oil analisis, stick fingers in the drain pan & cut the filter open.

cheers

Just a side observation ... my mech whose been in the industry a long time working on mostly city-use cars reckons the long service interval recommendations coming with recent petrol-powered cars is a boon for the engine reco business. Talking 12,500 km or longer here. He's seeing a lot more clapped out engines as a result.

+1 to hunting for better prices on oil. Via a Club bulk buy I get fully synthetic stuff for $76 for 20l.