Brown28

I have a 94 4Runner SR5 V6 4X4 with 138k on it

Is Lucas Oil treatment good for these 3.0 V6 engines? What type of oil is best in these engines?

Thanks

infiltrator

138K is not too bad.
I tried Lucas because I was getting bad oil burnoff. It worked like a charm and stopped all my burning. People will tell you not to put stuff in your oil. It is very dangerous.

Oil Topics Have Been Covered! Search!!!
I use Castrol GTX High Mileage... w/ Napa gold filter.

Spanky

whats oil ?

olharleyman

I use LUCAS with CASTEROl HIGH MILAGE every other oil change and have 230,034 miles and have no problems with my motor or the oil after a change.

Really what is doe's is thick'in up the oil so it don't break down as fast when running in the motor. It also coats the main bearings really nice to help keep them from premature failure.

MMA_Alex

I wouldnt put lucas in unless you're really burning oil, and are using it to put off a rebuild for a while. Its really thick like honey, and doesn't flow well.

Either way make sure you dont spill any of that on your driveway...it doesen't come out

86tuning

Use any oil other than reclaimed oil. It's best to stick with the bigger brands instead of 'house' brand oils. Additives are not recommended nor are they required for healthy engines. You wouldn't take low bloodpressure medicines if you didn't need them, would you?

Use a genuine Toyota oil filter.

Viscosity depends on your climate more than anything else. Most people will run 10w30 year round on the 3.0L engines. Some will require 15w40 (use diesel oil, Shell rotella is good) in hotter climates.

Cheers.

MMA_Alex

do not under any circumstance use diesel oil in a spark engine. its diesel oil for a reason

Georgiadave

It is true that oil discussions have all been made many times on this site; however, new people do ask these questions and so it is appropriate to keep discussing the issue. My view of the matter:

1. I would not use an oil thickener. Engines are lubicated via hydrodynamics, namely that the oil has to flow in order to provide film strength for lubrication. A thick oil does not flow as well as a thin oil. Film strength is determined by flow, not viscosity. A higher oil pressure due to thicker oil does not mean you are getting better lubrication or cooling.

2. Oil also cools the moving parts in the engine, more flow means better cooling.

3. Lubrication is more important than oil consumption.

4. Water cooled engines operate at the same temperature year round; there is no reason to switch viscosities in street engines for the season.

5. You want the thinnest oil at startup that you can get, because you need the flow when the engine and oil are cold. That is a 0W-something, which is usually a high grade synthetic.

6. For a Toyota, in dino oils, use a 5-30 like Max life in a high mileage engine. For Synthetics, I like Penzoil Platinium 5-30 or German Castrol 0-30.

7. If you can tell what is causing oil consumption, usually worn valve guides or seals, or the rings, or both, you may benefit from an Auto RX treatment. Auto RX may clean up your rings if they are packed with sludge. Or you might just change the oil every 200 miles a few times to clean up sludge. I don't think the value guides would be helped by either of these procedures. You can tell if your valve guides are bad by looking at the exhaust after the engine has idled for a few minutes, like at a light, and then accelerate. A cloud of whitish smoke at that point indicates that oil is leaking past the guides. The rings may also be bad, but the guides or seals are definitely worn.

8. There is evidence that excessvie oil comsumption accelerates catalyltic converter failure, due to the zinc and other metals contained in the oil being burned and subsequently poisoning the cat.

Brown28

Between conventional (or high mileage) vs. synthetic, which is better? My 3.0V6 with 138k has never ran synthetic, so would it be wise to stick to the high mileage oil?

MMA_Alex

how much does it burn. the synth may burn off quicker, but its not really an issue as long as you check the oil level frequently. If you switch to synth and it burns off too quick then switch back

Brown28

It burns a little, there is small leak coming from the valve cover gasket. Wouldnt it be bad switching from synthetic back to regular?

Also, with the valve gover gasket leak it happens to be coming from the more difficult side to reach without taking additional parts off temporarily...do you know if these gaskets are cork or rubber? I dont want to tighten too much and break the cork, I was told they can only have a slight turn on them.

thanks

Brenjen

I'm a believer in fully synthetic oil since over heating an engine a few years back with no obvious damage, & we drove about ten miles in the middle of summer (well over 100F) with no radiator at all; the fan had completely destroyed it.

This was a cast iron 360, not an aluminum block so that is a big difference but the oil wasn't too burned up when I changed it so that's saying something. I'm neither here nor there on oil additives, the original Slick 50 was some amazing stuff when it was nearly 100% moly but after it was bought & swapped to teflon it was useless. The maker of the original formula Slick 50 made a new product after all that takeover mess called Excel plus, which then became Lubrilon. I've been wanting to test it for a while in an old engine I have on my property but I just haven't seen the need other than to quiet my curiosity.

Here's a link to an Excel plus test for the U.S. Army:

Excel Plus torture test

My granny always told me, believe none of what you read & only half of what you see *shrug*

MMA_Alex

not sure about the valve covers on the 3vze. No it makes no difference switching back and forth between regular and synthetic. Dont bother putting additives, the oil comes with additives (unless you buy SA oil) and the additives you can buy can interact negatively with the additives that come with the oil. Better oils tend to come with better additive packages, but the minimum standard is regulated by API, and depends on the grade (SL, SM, etc)

Brenjen

The valve covers are rubber on the 3vze & they need a dab of silicon form a gasket sealant on the four edges where the cam bearing cap is located, apparently the gasket doesn't seal well at that 90 deg angle. The gasket I just took off my drivers side was hardened & had no elasticity to it at all. I still need to do the passenger side (*nightmare*)

PCE91V64x4

I have leaks out of the rear of my valve covers and the oil pan. After findout out what a PITA the valve cover gaskets are to install I will just check my oil more frequently. I will probably do the oil pan this summer.

As far as the dino vs synthetic, it depends how much you want to spend. If you go through a lot of oil, maybe stick with dino, since it is cheaper. If it does not burn/leak that much you can benefit from the longer change intervals that synthetic provides. And you can get high mileage synthetic (Mobil 1 at Wally World) for $21 and change per gallon.

infiltrator

I have heard that the general rule of thumb is under 100,000 miles to safely swap to synthetic. Needless to say, I have seen many people go over that mark with good results. I have the 3vze and have drips and burnoff so synthetic is out of the question to me. I think normal oil is fine for these engines.

MMA_Alex

I swapped at 83k (mileage I bought the truck at 2 years ago) and i'm at 100k miles now, and I dont notice a change in the level between 3-4k mile change intervals.