DIY Engine oil change - which oil?

[wes_614 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close wes_614]

204,000km 1GR-FE
Castrol Edge Titanium 0W-40 (Engine)
Castrol Syntrax 80W-140 (Front & Rear Diff)
Castrol Syntrax Universal Plus 75W-90 (Transfer Case)

[mdprado Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mdprado]

Which engine oil to use on GRJ120L????!!

Hey Guys

I bought my Prado 2003 V6 160k 3 months back, the previous owner used Toyota synthetic oil for the engine and told me to use the same as it lasts for 10k kms..... Usually after every 5k kms the oil filter and oil is changed, I am concerned if the oil filter can last for 10k kms and is it permissible to use the oil filter for 10k kms?
I welcome and appreciate opinions on which oil should I use and how many liters?

Thank you in advance mates

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

I'm thinking of getting some Penrite 10W-60 HPR 10 SN oil for my 120 but still not really sure. Plus, only got 117,000km on the clock right now. What do you guys think?

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

10w 60 would be out of spec wouldn't it ??? The 60 side of it I would think to be way to thick for a vvti engine. I use genuine oil which is 10w30 which is the recomended viscosity for my engine which is the same as yours (4L V6).......I would think a 60w would be for an older style engine that is fairly worn and using oil ??? I may be totally wrong.... Cheers Steve

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

Yeah I just think that the 10w part is a nice thickness for this engine and 60 for the temperature thickness because something like 5w-30 for example would just turn into water slipping through al the gaps,especially in the coming summer. 10w-40 though would make a very good thickness for the coming summer though now that I think about it.…yeah 10w-60 may be a little too thick for a low km engine. I was only thinking the 10w-60 to compensate for the summer heat. Guess anything within genuine spec oil would be best to use.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

All these new engines have such fine tolerances compared to the old clunkers that they need a nice free flowing oil. 10w 40 would be fine, my mate has been using that in magnatec for years in his 120 no issues. With regular oil n filter changes running correct specified oil, I don't see why these engines wouldn't do 500 thou without major parts failure. Friends of mine sold there 95 V6 with just over 400k and still going today, yes its had water pump etc but same bottom end and heads....... Cheers Steve

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

MD, 10 thousand K for oil and filter using full synthetic would be no worries doing it every 10k no issues if you do say a rough 10k every 6 months. I do mine every 10k using mineral oil and filter every 10 as well, I've always done this on every petrol engine I've had and never had an issue. My old diesels I had I did every 5k oil and filter.
Nothing to worry about my friend. I reckon with full synthetic you could push it to 15K no issues. Either way it needs to be done due to moisture as well that gets in the engine oil hence why most servicing is 6 months or 10k. Although my wife's new mazda is every 10k or 12 months but as we only do on average 10k a year in her car I will be doing it myself at the 6 month mark as im fussy .....cheers Steve

[YamahaDOC Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close YamahaDOC]

Every oil is too thick when it's cold. Personally, I'd be using mobil 1 0w40 @ 10k intervals

[Wtrxprs007 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wtrxprs007]

So, 10w40 or 0w40 is good. Now is the question of synthetic, semi or mineral

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Good old mineral oil changed every 10k along with filter in a petrol engine would be sufficient. Ford, and a few others are pushing to 15k intervals on mineral oil !! Personally I think 15 would be too long on mineral oil but using synthetic you would get away with it. When I had my VX Commodore supercharged Spack I thought I would give it the best and use full synthetic from new. I let it do 5000 on mineral then changed over. Man it rattled it arse out, dumped it, refilled again with synthetic (same brand) and still rattled it arse so I dumped it and went back to mineral, nice and quit. I did some research and found not to use synthetic with roller rockers which the commodore had BUT in saying that HSV specified synthetic yet they ran the same roller rockers as the V6 ??? Might be why the old 5.7L LS1's rattled their arse out and drank more oil then petrol... Cheers Steve

[Stratos Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Stratos]

Engine and drive train oils

I have installed one of these and hassles with oil changes are now history.

It is very well engineered and very secure, worth every dollar.

http://autospeed.com/cms/title_The-Fumo ... ticle.html

I have been doing my own services on my 120 series auto diesel. I have been a Castrol man for many years. I made contact with the technical department of Castrol and received the information that I required about the oil of choice. Castrol recommended to use the Magnatec Professional 5W-40 which is a fully synthetic oil.

I have also drained the front and rear diffs including the transfer case and replaced the oils in those again with a fully synthetic Castrol oil.

The reason for fully synthetic oil is it can handle the heat and forces applied to either engine or drive train components much better plus you can extend your time between services.

If you choose to use another brand of oil the only way to get the correct information is to deal only with oil company's technical department only and they will give you what information you will require about their product.
Do not wast your time enquiring about oils or greases with automotive outlets, they are no different than reading the label on the oil container yourself which may lead you in the wrong choice of product, a good oil is just as important as is good fuel. Cheep insurance on your vehicle, hope this bit of information was helpful.

The only other thing to watch out for is when changing the engine oil filter make sure that the oil drain tube is not blocked other wise the oil when removing the filter will flow over the side of the oil filter assembly and give you a mess to clean up. Easy test use a bit of water with out spilling it and see where it drains out from.

[iantz Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close iantz]

Although I do not have a petrol, I thought this was the appropriate thread to bring up my recent experience. I have an 06' 1KZ. I have nearly always used Valvoline Super Diesel which is 15w-40 and never had any issues. It's a mineral oil. At my last change, I thought I would treat the old girl to something a bit better so put in Penrite HPR DIESEL 15 SAE 15W-50 which is recommended for this vehicle on their website/vehicle selector tool.

I actually think that this oil is affecting my engine temps. My 1KZ has always been 'cool', with the gauge sitting well below the squiggly marks on the temp dial unless I really push her had up hill with loaded camper. However, since putting in the penrite, the gauge regularly sits on the squiggly lines when she is under any sort of load with no camper trailer (so urban driving). I've pushed it pretty hard up hill on a hot day and it never goes over so it's not affecting the peak temp much it just seems to be impacting on standard running temps under acceleration.

The question is, have I gone mad? or is this something that can happen with a thicker oil? To be honest, I'm half tempted to dump it all, throw out $75 worth of oil and refill with the Valvoline Super Diesel!

Thoughts??

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Found out yesterday that my dealer that services the beast has been using Toyota recommended oil in my diffs. Thats fine, except I have front and rear lockers that require different oil (*thicker and highr=er temp I think). Now I have to hand write this on the bloody log book so no inexperienced labourer gets it wrong.

Probably need to supply the oil too given they wont stock it.....

[wes_614 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close wes_614]

FYI for anyone interested, I was using Castrol Edge Titanium 0W-40 but was getting weird weird problems. The car would almost go into limp mode at random times (lack of acceleration, sporadic changing of gears). Quite dangerous if you're pulling out onto a highway etc and need to move a little.

I have since moved to the castrol lube chart recommended oil (Edge Titanium 5W-30) and have had no repeat issues at all so it was definitely the oil. It's weird because the specs of the 0W-40 were within range but there's something in it that's made it go weird.

I am a little worried about the 5W-30 in extreme heat here in Perth and country driving occasionally, but many others seem to be doing it nowadays so must be that oils weren't oils back in a day :P

Also ironically, we have oil leaks on the timing chain cover and valve cover gaskets which apparently costs about $3500 - $4000 to replace all the main seals cause they have to get the engine out to fix Going to try and manage and monitor for the time being.... sucks if it was the change in oils that has caused some deterioration in the seals or something

Wes