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Back to Articles Featuring Amsoil
Rx for RVs To Change or Not to Change (Your Oil)
By Bill Farlow
Printed in Woodalls' Camper Ways
March 2000
If you are one of the thousands of RVers who prefer to perform their own oil change, then you know what a mess it is. Oil all over your arms and hands, oil on the driveway and what seems like 37 gallons of the stuff to get rid of. It’s illegal to pour it on the road or driveway. We used to think it was okay to "settle the dust," but we used to be a nation of 50,000 and we used to have a lot less information on what happens to oil poured on the ground. In case you’ve been asleep, the oil can end up in your drinking water. Even if you like Pennzoil cocktails, most of us don’t. Not to worry, though. All you have to do is pour all that oil into containers without spilling any, find the local disposal station and get it there without spilling more on your truck or in the trunk of your car. Lots of fun, huh?
Well, there may be a way out. Ever hear of synthetic engine oil? Sure you have, but it didn’t mean anything to you, right? Synthetic engine oil is the wave of the future — and the present.
When we started developing turboprop and jet aircraft engines, we quickly found that conventional engine oils were simply not up to the job. Lubrication scientists went to work and developed synthetic oils. We won’t go into how they’re made. What’s important to us is how they work.. In a word, great. They’re more slippery than conventional oils, resist high temperatures much better and because they don’t break down, they can last much longer before replacement is due. In fact, with proper filtration synthetic engine oils can last almost forever.
Some of us tried synthetic engine oils in our cars when Mobil I hit the market in the ‘70s. For the most part, Mobil 1 worked well. The Mobil people suggested oil change intervals of up to 25,000 miles, but they said nothing about filtration. Even with the best of lubrication there will always he some engine wear, and there will always be some accumulation of soot. And there will always be some changes in the acidity level of oil due to even a slight bypass of combustion products. All of these things suggested that Mobil 1 needed to be changed every 25,000 miles— not because the oil was worn out, but because the accumulation of all these harmful elements had excessively polluted the oil.
Then came Amsoil. The engineers at Amsoil reasoned that if a filtration system could be developed that would remove these contaminants, and if the oil could be made to resist acidity changes, oil change intervals could be drastically increased, maybe forever.
But the questions still remained: How can you know whether the filtration system is working properly and how can you know the extent of the acidity? The answer is simple: Analyze the oil regularly. Oil analysis was the third element in the equation. Use a high-quality synthetic oil with a quality filtration system and analyze the oil regularly.
Filtration was a problem. All engines used a full-flow filtration system. That means all oil goes through the filter in its way through the engine. To ensure that there was always an adequate flow of oil, a full-flow filter was limited to removing particles larger than 20 microns. If the filtration media were built to remove smaller particles, oil flow would be restricted to the point that there, was inadequate oil to the engine bearings and cylinder walls. But engineers had found that oil contaminant particles between five microns and 20 microns produced a significant amount of wear.
How to remove these particles and not restrict oil flow was the problem. The answer was to install a bypass filter downstream from the full-flow filter. Bypass filters sat off to the side of the oil passage and allowed a small amount of oil to flow through the bypass filter without impeding the main flow through the engine. Engineers found that with this system, all engine oil would flow through the bypass filter every five minutes or so.
Now we had a filtration system that theoretically could remove virtually all oil contaminants. If we started with a high-quality synthetic oil and removed all particles larger than five microns, wouldn’t oil last forever? Could we eliminate oil changes? Maybe, maybe not. That’s where oil analysis comes into the picture. Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing your oil was still good? I would. Your engine was made by human human beings, and any manufactured product is always subject to failure. If a bearing starts to wear excessively, oil analysis will pick it up and show something is wrong before a serious failure occurs.
How often should you have your oil analyzed? Just for your own peace of mind, I suggest the first analysis at 10,000 miles after you begin using synthetic oil. After that, 20,000 mile intervals seem proper.
How long can you expect the oil to last? And how long can you expect the engine to last? Every engine and every driver/owner is a separate case. There are records of engines running hundreds of thousands of miles on synthetic engine oil without changes and no significant wear. There is one case of an over-the road truck changed to synthetic oil at around 200,000 miles, torn down some 400,000 miles later and all parts were found to be within acceptable limits for reinstallation.
Which brings up the point of when should an engine be changed to synthetic oil and whether it make sense to change a high-mileage engine to synthetic oil. Most engines come from with the expectation of some wear in mating the parts. We call it "break-in." How long this takes varies from one engine to another. Some high-performance engines come from the factory with synthetic oil installed. In my opinion, if the engine is using no more than a quart of oil per 1,000 miles at the first factory recommended change, it would be ready for synthetic oil and a by-pass filtration system.
But how about my pickup engine, Bill? It’s got 120,000 miles on it and it doesn’t use any oil. Can I change to synthetic oil? Of course you can, but it might not make sense. If you’re driving a gasoline engine, it would normally be worn out at 150,000 to 200,000 miles. Changing to synthetic oil might – I said "might" – get you to 250,000 miles or even more. You can make the call. The same thing is true of the current crop of V-8 diesel engines, with one added factor: If you haven’t been testing the coolant every 15,000 miles and keeping the DCA at the recommended level, you can reasonably expect 250,000 to 300,000 miles with the help of synthetic oil. If you haven’t been testing the coolant and maintaining DCA level, your diesel has a life expectancy of zero miles. That’s right zero.
The heavier diesel engines routinely give 600,000 to 1,000,000 miles on synthetic oil. If your motorhome or medium-duty tow truck with a Caterpillar, Cummins, or International engine has 200,000 miles on it, it’s still an adolescent and installation of synthetic oil is recommended. (In case you can’t read the fine print in your engine manual, you also must keep the DCA level up as recommended or you will be needing new engine sleeves.)
There is one more warning: Diesel engines are different from gasoline engines in several ways,. One that is appropriate to this discussion is the accumulation of soot and other contaminants in the engine oil and their effect on oil acidity. Oils compounded for diesel engines are designed to resist and reduce acidity levels. Oils compounded for gasoline engines are designed with less acid-resistance. If you’re driving a diesel, use diesel engine oil. Period. What’s suitable for your gasoline engine won’t work well in a diesel engine regardless of what the "guy down at the courthouse" has to say about it.
There are several bypass filters on the market. Your engine may already have one in addition to the full-flow filter. If not, Amsoil makes an easy installation. Amsoil also is my preferred source for synthetic oil, and they also make oil analysis easy with their kits. Or you can get a kit from any big truck or diesel engine dealer. Just select a lab and stay with it, as the lab will build a data record for your engine and will keep track of any new developments.
One more thing. Synthetic oil costs more than conventional oil – significantly more. It’s easy to say that if synthetic oil is good enough for all those jets flying over, it’s good enough for my engine. That is true. But pure economics also justify the switch. If your Ford, Chevy, or Dodge diesel is using one quart per 1,000 miles and you have a 10-quart oil change every 10,000 miles (actually, you probably change more often but this makes the arithmetic easier), you’re really using 20 quarts of oil every 10,000 miles, or a quart every 500 miles, for a total of 200 quarts per 100,000 miles, and we’re not counting any additions for filter changes.
If you switch to synthetic oil in 100,000 miles, you will add 100 quarts of oil plus the 10 you started with for a total 110 quarts, or 90 quarts less than conventional oil. In addition, you will have less engine wear and far less used oil to dispose of.
Using synthetic engine oil makes a lot of sense. Your engine will last much longer and you will have only one batch of engine oil to dispose of. Change now for a longer engine life and a cleaner environment.
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