Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum

There are lots of Mythical tales about Synthetic oil out there, such as "dont change to synthetic untill you have 5000 miles on the dino oil" and similar, that might have been true a long time ago but With todays technology its just not true anymore, In fact Toyota are now shipping the new FJ with synthetic from the factory, If you go to Mobils website they will guarantee their oil in any new engine and im sure the other manufacturers will also, So i say change to a good synthetic as soon as you want but put a good Filter on also, preferably a synthetic one like a M1 102 or 209. (the 102 is kinda small) Im saying Mobil because that is what i use but Royal Purple ect are just as good

I thought that the engine had to reach equalibrium first-essentially a seating of the metals. Since synthetic is so true the mliecules dont allow it. So, if you wait dont you stand to gain better engince effiency than switching to fast?

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John in Sacramento

Not any more. There's a boatload of vehicles that come from the factory filled with synthetic. These all come with Mobil 1

• Acura RDX
• Aston Martin
• All Bentley Vehicles
• All Cadillac Vehicles
• Chevrolet Corvette C6 and Z06
• Chevrolet TrailBlazer SS
• Chrysler 300C SRT-8
• Cobalt SS S/C Coupe
• Dodge Caliber SRT-4, Charger SRT-8, and Magnum SRT-8
• Jeep Cherokee SRT-8
• Mercedes-Benz AMG Vehicles
• Mercedes SLR
• Mitsubishi Evolution
• Pontiac Solstice GXP
• All Porsche Vehicles
• Saturn Ion Red Line and Saturn Sky Red Line
• Viper SRT-10

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Please Click for Sarah's Wish

Here is an interesting link from a guy with a slightly different spin on engine break in. Worth the 10 minutes to read it for sure...

Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power

He never does say how many miles or hours he has on these 300 engines and also doesn't address the drive line?

If you're racing I agree with him because race engines are tore down all the time and HP is the name of the game, but with street bikes and your Auto longevity rules, so I'll stick with what Harley, Ducati and Toyota tell me to do.

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Please Click for Sarah's Wish

Squid, aren't you the guy who uses 0w-30? You'll follow the factory break-in, but won't follow thier recommended viscosities? Actually, I agree with your points about racers, tear downs, and squeezing every ounce of power out of an engine. However, as an official "old guy" I've used his technique and so have my friends on H-D's, R1s, GSXR100s and more. No issues yet, but no one has serious miles either (37k?).
I was chatting with one of our powertrain experts at work about 0w-30 and he noted that you should get about 3-4% more horsepower, but if the engine wasn't designed (toleranced) with that viscosity in mind you'd lose about 20% engine life. More companies are looking for the extra bhp or mpg these days. I would expect a few more to go to that viscosity. So, if your getting 150k out of your engine now imagine what you'd get by sticking with the mfg recommendations...

I used 0w30 in my Titan because an oil analysis showed that it worked better in my 5.6L Nissan Titan then the 5w30 Nissan recommended. This was also Mobil 1 synthetic and not Dino oil so what made the difference was the additive package used. With Mobil 1 extended 0w30 I can go 13,000 miles before the TBN gets to low. (total base number) measures the amount of active additive left in a sample of oil.

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Please Click for Sarah's Wish

Your oil isn't breaking down, but your engine is. Because the 0w-30 flushes past the parts more easily they are rattling around and wearing themselves out (according to my engineer pal). 5w should blanket the part the way they were designed. I guess this is only about cold engine wear because both have the same high temp viscosity.
Didn't you say you have some 150k miles on that Titan? I'd sure like to hear some testimonial about long engine life coupled with the lower viscosity oil. Anyone?

Hmmmm, If what your engineer friend says is true wouldn't there be excessive metal in the oil analysis? Any way, we have over 115,000 miles on the Titan.

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Please Click for Sarah's Wish

Point taken. I'll ask him about metal in the sample next time I bump into him at work. I'm guessing a Titan is targeted to last at least 150,000. Minus the 20% my engineer friend states you are nearing your limit. But again, the 0w is only for the first few minutes and then the 30w takes charge. If you did a bunch of cold starts, and my friend was right, you'd see metal in the analysis. However, if you start it and run it for many miles it would be negated.

I'd still like to hear from someone who uses 0w-30 and has a long engine life story to share.