sandcrawler

hello all,

i was thinking that a thread where people with 2nd gen 4runners could post their preferred engine oils would be a good idea...

given the headgasket issues on the 2nd gen -- and the large number of miles these engines have likely been run for -- most of us are probably quite deliberate with the choice of oil we now run; i know i am.

so, that said, let me start it off:

when i bought mine the engine ran pretty rough. i think it always used regular dino oil, but who knows what the OCI was before i got it. i (stupidly) switched to mobil 1 10W30 at 107k and it started running smoother but the mild cleaning performed by the thinner oil exposed some leaks. bummer!

the leaks proceeded to get bad enough to prompt me to delve into the question of engine oils pretty vigorously...i ended up switching back to dino -- chevron 10w30 -- and running two treatments of auto-rx (www.auto-rx.com) to deal with the seal leaks. i have since that time finished the 2 treatments and am on my first run of straight dino (havoline 10W30) to, hopefully, reset the seals. i have seen marked improvement in the way the engine runs; much, much smoother now and much less leaking. the auto-rx application demands at least a 3k run of regular, straight dino oil (no high-mileage with seal conditioner additives, or otherwise) after treatment to help the seals restore to their original "memory."

after this run, i am considering a brand change. perhaps the valvoline maxlife, or castrol gtx high-mileage.

for anyone with seal leaks, i have had good results with this process. btw, my HG was replaced in 1998 (i don't know what the odometer read at this time, however).

cheers.

ChickenLover

I prefer Valvoline maxlife 10w-40. I ran castrol gtx highmileage for 3k and my valve covers started to leak (probably just coincidence). But it was enough to steer me away from castrol.

I too made the mistake of switching to synthetic (87k). I was pulling a decent hill on a mid summer trip back to Reno from L.A. when I noticed an alarming amount of smoke in my rearview mirror. I pulled over and was absolutley astonished by the amount of oil leaking (more like pouring) out of the rear main seal. Before the switch, my engine never leaked a drop. I switched back to Valvoline maxlife 10w-40 and she never leaked a drop again.

Overall, I am more than happy with Valvoline. It seems to work well in our engines.

freshman

nice post guys but it came late on my case because i shifted to mobil 1 synthetic with 250k kilometers and observed leaking on my rear main seal afterwards. I was pressured to go to a mechanic to fix it and there went my 350 bucks canadian. Do you think i should adapt the valvoline maxlife 10-40 next oil change or just go on with the mobil1. Sorry for the hijack but i know its related to the topic.

Silver_Truck

I ran Redline for a while before I burnt a valve and will probably go back to it once I change it again, seemed to work well I switched to it at 360,xxx running syntec now and am actually quite happy with it so I may not switch back...and always NAPA gold filter

sandcrawler

freshman; thanks, your post is definitely related -- not a hijack.

sorry to say that i have no experience with the valvoline maxlife...i'm running havoline 10w30 -- actually, a mix of 30 and 40. so far, so good. i always use the OEM toyota filters. at $4/ea it's worth it to me.

at least you know your rear main is up to snuff now!

sandcrawler

chickenlover; appreciate your chiming in re: the castrol gtx. i'm always surprised to hear how a simple switch in engine oils can result in such dramatic (negative, or positive) results.

i won't be going to any synthetics. the extended OCI is not worth it to me b/c i only drive about 7500mi/yr. i'd rather just keep it clean and change the fluids more often.

Tofer

i have ran Castrol GTX High-mileage since i got my 4runner 21k miles ago...

i have heard bad things about pennzoil/Quaker state. pennzoil really screwed up my dad's Dakota. the additives collected together after years of changes, and formed a Rice Cracker sized disk of crap which would float to the top of the oil and get sucked up against the hole causeing oil pressure to drop to zero.

yotarunner25

ok take this from a guy who has changed oil at valvoline and oil can henerys and jiffy lube and now a dealership... quaker state and penzoil are wax based oil.. great for lubing parts on high milage cars, but the waxed will not come out of the top end when you change the oil, it will slowly build up until it burns up your motor... valvoline and halvoline and castroil are detergent based.. they will keep your enging clean longer but the cleaners will cause your gaskets to dry out and leak after a while. both types of oil have their ups and downs. i would suggest to anyone running over 80,000 miles to run valvoline maxlife, its basically a standard oil with gaskets sealer added to it. but if you do start to use it.. stick with it, the stop leak additive will stick to your gaskets but if you put a standard detergent oil in with it, you will see leaks like you have never seen before. the standard oil with eat away the gasket sealer and take whatever its bonded to with it..... just a little info for everyone.

Jays4Runnin

Thats very interesting because recently I switched to Mobil 1, any ideas / comments on Mobil 1? So far, I like it

ctcost

Castrol GTX 20/50...SUMMER'S HERE!

gman72

I've always run 10W-30 plain ol' Pennzoil ... last week I switched to Mobil 1 Synth 10W-30 (main reason it was all I had in the garage at the time and had some parts off so figured I'd do a quick oil change). Annnyway, my rear main leak is WAY more noticeable now using this Mobil 1 synth ... will be draining it out and changing it back to either regular or possibly Valvoline MaxLife to see if I can get that leak back under control.

sandcrawler

Jays4Runnin; can't speak for everybody, but i think you will hear again and again that mobil 1 will encourage leaks in an older vehicle. (if it has been switched from regular mineral oil to synthetic late in life, that is.) mobil 1 is known to run thin, evidently, plus synth oils can soften seals and perform mild cleaning where dino oil has caked up over the years -- resulting in "false" seals.

take it from me; it happened, and there's no other reason why (no other variables to speak of)...i'm back on the dino stuff now and things are looking up.

Jays4Runnin

Thanks for the info, back to dino..!

CynicX

I ran pennzoil for 250k miles in a Jeep Wrangler...I've seen it around so its still running. I didnt feel or see any problems....

I run Mobil 1 in my truck now. Since I'm doing my own oil changes I figure I'll start using better oil and filter.

Anyway I think if you see a leak after switching, switching back to dino or adding additives is just a bandaid. You have a bad seal it needs to be replaced. Of course I do understand the argument, why replace a seal on an engine with 300k miles. But doing anything else is still a bandaid....

SolidDigital

Havoline 10w40 with a supertech filter from walmart.

gman72

Just drained out that synth stuff and put in 10W-40 Valv MaxLife (the non-synth version), replaced the filter too - even though I jsut replaced it like last week when putting the Mobil synth in.

Leak appears to have slowed back down some - only drove ~50 mi so far. Will keep you posted. I'm just so pissed that I put that synth in w/o thinking about the ramifications before-hand! Lesson learned the hard way here I guess --- hopefully the leak gets back under control.

(Bandaid, yeah probably so, but I've got other projects goin' on and don't need to drop the $$ right now on that rear main jobber!!!!!)

sandcrawler

gman72: if you are already seeing an improvement in ~50mi i would guess that you are doing well -- quite well!

that's excellent. glad this thread could help you out.

sandcrawler

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