Oil Change Interval ?

[Ironhorse]

Curious what everyone's thoughts are on changing oil/filter on their vehicles. Be it a classic, rarely driven except for pleasure, or your daily driver, work truck or car. I've normally always been a change oil/filter every 3,000 miles guy since none of my vehicles see rough or serious hard use. I know the newer vehicles use a ''percentage of oil life left'' type alert for oil change intervals. So, what say you, 3,000 miles, % of oil life left, or what's your own preference for changing the oil in your vehicles? Oil and filter changes are needed to keep an engine running thru the years but what are the thoughts on intervals?

[72c20customcamper]

Never did the 3k mile oil changes on most of my vehicles . No car company recommends it unless it’s severe duty . My 68 owners manual says 5k and that was with old tech oils . The only vehicle I change the oil around 3k is my 62 Studebaker with the 259 v8 as it has no oil filter . Changing oil at low milage doesn’t hurt anything but I don’t think it helps all that much either . My newer vehicles are between 7500 and 10k full synthetic. Old cars get changed in the fall before storage for the ones I use .


Edit I was wrong the manual says 6k or every 4 months but that’s for a vehicle used daily

[1970cstblazer]

No wonder a majority of these old engines I have opened up are all sludged up with the crap quality oil of that period, leaded fuel, and 6k change intervals.

With these very limited used collector cars, I try to change every other season, but I use Z-ROD Amsoil. The mileage is under 1k for each.

The daily drivers get changed every 5k miles. I use Amsoil Signature series oil. My engines are AFM equipped, so the oil can't be dirty or low quality.

[1slo64]

4-5k miles for all of my modern vehicles.

[truckin 79]

I do mine once a year about the same time every year. Although I just changed my wifes oil in her vehicle. She rarely drives it very far maybe 10 miles back and forth to the grocery store. It has had sludge in the bottom of the pan the last couple of oil changes so I have to start changing more. I told my wife to drive around before going to the grocery store lol.

[72c20customcamper]

Originally Posted by 1970cstblazer

No wonder a majority of these old engines I have opened up are all sludged up with the crap quality oil of that period, leaded fuel, and 6k change intervals.

With these very limited used collector cars, I try to change every other season, but I use Z-ROD Amsoil. The mileage is under 1k for each.

The daily drivers get changed every 5k miles. I use Amsoil Signature series oil. My engines are AFM equipped, so the oil can't be dirty or low quality.

My bet would be as they got older the oil rarely was changed . Just more poured in as the level dropped .

[Accelo]

Newer cars are fine with 6000-mile intervals—computerized A/F controls, roller cams, low tension rings, improved steels and better oils than before.

Old carburetor engines with terrible A/F ratios dilute the oil with hydrocarbons and contribute to wear. Cylinder wear after 100K was typically .007 to .011 in an old SBC. Modern LS motors can still show the hatch marking at the same mileage.

Bottom line it I would recommend changing the oil every two years no matter the mileage on a Sixtys/Seventy's vehicle. And 3000 miles if it gets driven that far within two years.
I don't have an opinion on Synthetic oil verses standard oils. I believe clean is better.

[Dead Parrot]

For my 75, I picked 5k a long time ago. And I shifted the change interval to match the odometer thousands digit changing to either a 5 or 0. No more wondering when I need to change oil.

The recommendation for my 09 Escape is 6 months or 7500. I often reset the 6 months counter once as I don't put that many miles on it and most are highway miles.

But I do 2nd the idea that if the oil has been in there 2 years, won't hurt to change it. Cheaper then an engine rework.

[weq92f]

.

For the classic, I look at the dipstick and smell it. It's once a season usually, but depends on how much I drive it. My daily drivers for the last 20 years have had calculated intervals and so I followed those...5000 up to around 10000 miles.

Back in high school and early college, I didn't change the oil at all on my '68. When I noticed the oil pressure gauge dipping too low, I'd add another quart or two. It burned some and leaked some.

-Kevin

[Tom]

It amazes me how different the factory intervals are vs what we like to do. My best example is my CBR. 600cc, revs to 14,000rpm, cruises the highway at 7000rpm. It recommends dino 10-40 [a grade that used to get warrenties denied because of how un-stable it was] every 7500 miles. 7500 miles on non synthetic oil in an engine screaming its lungs out everywhere it goes. Crazy.

Everything I own gets synthetic and its changed at 6000miles. Except the trackbike, that gets it every couple of years with how little I can afford track time.

[mongocanfly]

Back in the 80s I did every 3k oil change..
With the LS I switched to synthetic and started going by change oil signals which was around 7k
When I got my 23,the dealer told me every 5k, and I can see why,this new recommended oil is thin as water

[Ironhorse]

For my three classics, will stick with the oil change every two years as they all see less than a 1,000 miles per year. For my daily driver Tahoe will do the 3,000 mile change and the wife's Tahoe which uses synthetic will do a 5,000 mile change interval. Just a habit but I normally check oil at least every week to 10 days. Even at today's prices, oil is much cheaper than a new or engine rebuild for sure.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by 1slo64

4-5k miles for all of my modern vehicles.

This, with full synthetic.

Every year on my chevy, w full synthetic. About 500 miles in between

[bnorth]

My daily has an oil life monitor in %. I always reset it to 50% at a change instead of 100% and change when it notifies me so I am changing oil roughly twice as often as spec. It's an Ecoboost so known to be sensitive to dirty oil and I don't mind having it changed more often for some piece of mind on longevity. For hobby vehicles that aren't driven often I usually just change once a year.