4runners over 100K....what is the best grade and brand of engine oil, which do you use?

 

in all of the vehicles i have owned, i have tried dozens of types of oil (dino and synth) and have never noticed any kind of difference between them.

i might be naive but i just buy which ever name-brand 10w30 is cheapest.

 

I use toyota oil because thats what the engineers who made my motor said to use

 

Mobil-1 synthetic because I have overheated two domestic cast iron engines to the point they shut down & when I drained the oil on my chevy 350 with Castrol dino juice it was burnt up & felt like water between my fingers.

When I did that to my old Dodge 360 with Mobil-1 the oil still had a little amber color to it & still felt slick & viscous. The Mobil-1 got heated worse for a longer period of time as well. The engine went along fine afterwards; it was worn out before & was still worn out after lol. The chevy 350 needed rebuilt after that, it ran but smoked (rings), a little bearing noise & had a couple burnt valves.

 

www.bobistheoilguy.com

More than you ever wanted to know about oil. A whole forum of oil nerds, I'm one of them.

But the short answer is yes there are differences and some are better than others but it is more important to change it regularly than the type you run.

I would say any name brand is going to be fine in a 5w30 for your application. Generally the better oils just let you run them longer. So a synthetics main advantage is you can run it for more than 5k miles and it still does its job. Unless you are interested in extending out your drains stick to a conventional oil and change it every 5k or less and you will be fine. That is the cheap and easy way. Doing that you will not have an oil related failure.

Don't forget to use a quality oil filter. Those are definately not created equal. But some of the cheaper ones are great. And make sure your air filter is clean and change that often too.

 

good point, Taro.....the filter can be just as important as the oil itself.


Me? I'm weird and I use Lexus filters I have imported from Japan....Toyota OEM filters are the best there is.....

 

DTB I'm surprised you think that. (this is Dave BTW from the Marlin board, the one who bough the 4.56 4runner front diff)

I'd put money on it that if you call the service department at any Toyota dealer in this nation they are using drums of bulk 5w30 from whatever supplier is convienent and cheap for them. Could be Castrol/Valvoline/etc etc. That's the way it is for most dealers of any manufacturer.

Toyota doesn't make oil. So that stuff in the bottle of the parts department is made by someone for Toyota here in the U.S. They are not shipping in oil from Japan specifically for Toyotas. I'm not saying its not good. It probably is good, but its not worth paying a premium price for it since it's no better than the stuff at your local parts store.

 

Hey, Dave! yea, I know that..I get the toyota stuff for dirt cheap though....

If I can't get my hands on the "real" stuff lol...I usually go for Valvoline. I know Toyota buys from them and have no qualms about running it in my engine

 

Well there you go. If the price is right than definately use it. Maybe I was taking you too seriously. Should of known better

I love you sig

 

I like my castrol gtx high mileage. Works great, and it comes out cleaner than some of the other oil's I have used.

If I could I would use Mobile 1 Synthetic. Royal Purple and some others are also nice.

That and a good oil filter from Napa or Toyota and you are set for life.. or until your 3k are up lol.