Got about 200+ miles and am dumping the pennzoil and going to Mobil 1 10w-30. How often do you guys change oil in your street/strip cars? Thanks Dave

when it runs it gets changes ever 2-3 months which is about 500 street miles and maybe 50-60 quarter mile passes, dont know if thats good or not. but its been working :confused:

I changed mine twice this season,,,maybe 200 passes total this year.

Once the engine is broken in, take oil samples and have them analyzed. I'm paying about $11 for the service, plus postage. I've bought sample kits from Cummins and from Detroit Diesel. Cenex used to have them, but "apparently" not anymore.

I'm finding that I can go 6000 street driven miles between changes, and the lab results say the oil is "fit for further service".

This is on synthetic oil and AC filters. I've used Castrol 5 W 50, and various weights of Mobil 1.

I am using Mobil 1 5-30W and change every 5,000 miles with a wix filter.

My work sells Mobil 1, the recommended time is 5 to 6k street miles. There are also synthetic oil filters that are better at filtering then the normal ones. If I had to take a guess for street/strip I would say 4 to 5k depending on your situation.

In a carbureted street/strip engine with a big cam (compared to normal vehicles) and put under some duress from time to time I'd never go 6K+ like I do with my '03 Tahoe or the wife's car. Your oil will have more fuel contamination than what's found in an EFI engine for one thing. So change it often. That's why I don't run synthetic in my S/S vehicle; I'd rather have clean oil even if it's dead dino juice. The family vehicles go 6000-8000 miles between synthetic oil changes, even if they don't need it and no quick-lube joints for me either. Could probably run the family cars oil longer if I were to have analysis done but without oil analysis all I feel safe with is the ~7K interval.

Why bother taking the chance....every 3,000 miles, the new season after storage, or ever 3-4 months. so if its not a daily driver, once a season basically. Its cheap insurance. And thats whats recommended by all oil companies.

I put around a 1000 miles a year on my car, I change oil and filter in the spring and in the fall.


Rocky

I wrote an article last spring on this very subject for Northern and Southern Rodder Magazine. I did a myriad of research on this subject and moreover wanted to see how it played with my aircraft experience etal. I gleaned alot that I will paraphrase here....read on.

First, change intervals. When racing, you make the call. It varies from each run to many passes. Second, a high performance street engine. These engines do have some stresses that common everyday drivers do not experience, but I have tested my oils for years and can easily get 5000 miles out of ANY quality oil and filter (I use WIX or Mobile ONe). I usually run full REAL synthetics (PAOs...no Group III pretenders..usually Mobile One or Amsoil or Redline) in all my autos, so this can easily pushed to once a season or 10K miles in my performance cars. Third, everyday drivers. This oil company marketing BS that you have to change every 3000 miles is just that! LOOK AT YOUR OEM MANUAL FOR YOUR CAR! ALL OF THEM SAY 7000MILES FOR REGULAR SERVICE! You are throwing money away!I have done over 15K in my Dakota/PT Cruiser with the oil still "serviceable" by tests.

In fact, you can change your oil too often! That's right...I said toooooo often. The reason is that most oils gain acidity as they age with a combination of combustion products and moisture that collects in the system. This is one of the factors that oil testing looks at is the acid content. All of the manufacturers start out by adding performance additives that make the oil rigidly alkyline. So, the engineering thinking is that the oil will gain neutrality in a certain number of miles and really stay within a range that shares an mildly alkyline to slightly acid range. That's the perfect range. But, if you change your oil all the time the constant alkyline PH base oil (by design) will damage aluminum/copper/zinc/magnesium/ parts! Of course if it's too acidic it damages iron and steel! So, the compromise is to CREATE a range that's acceptable. Older oils did not have this performance feature FWIW. It's generally denoted that regular service cars will turn completely neutral in 2000-3000 miles.

Remember, by their own admission, oil companies produce oils that "MEET OR EXCEED" THE OEM/MANUFACTURERS specifications. The OEMs all recommend the 7000+ miles intervals for 90% of the cars. This means that all the oils meet or exceed that recommendation.

Finally, in my reseach I talked to many a oil company engineer to glean what I could about their use of additives, synthetics and so forth. When I confronted them on the 3000 mile recommendation two of three said, "Hey...we're in the business of selling oil!". The other one said, "no comment"?

One other last point that the engineers agreed on. NO ADDITIVES! They have researched and thought of everything and outside additives may interact with designed-in additives to produce adverse affects on performance and longivity.

I agree, I decided after reading tons of info on this subject, to switch to Mobile 1 and change evey 12 to 15k miles on my 2001 silverado.
I ran the petrolium oil to break in and switched to Mobile 1. I am at 47,000 miles now and oil consumption is one quart for 12 to 15K miles.
That is acceptable to me.

Dave

Steve, I agree that what you said would work for the people here that only use these cars for some street cruising and shows, on the other hand, the general motoring public more that likely needs to change the oil in the 3-4000 miles interval due to excessive idling in stop and go traffic and short trips that don't even get the engine up to operating temp and most people don't even check the oil due to the Gas and Go stations. Alternate views welcome.

well you know there is alot of opinions when to change the oil, i more or less go by feel and what my car motors oil looks like........i would have to say i change mine about 2-3 months...i dont go by miles but more on how hard have i been on it.......how much time did the thing idle when tunning.....how many trips down the 1/4 mile....and if i pull the dipstick and it doesnt look good then i would change it .. like i said more feel then anything else......now on my truck since its like way more of a stocker and everyday driver it seems like it gets about 2 maybe 3 oil changes a year........ and it too seems to go by some feel.if i did alot of towing the race car and beat on the motor i would change it.....but if it has just been going back and forth to work then it will go for some time......

i think to me anyway it is important to get your motor up to normal temp before shutting it down.....i dont like driving my cars half way across town then shut them off.....and they dont even get warmed up.....im a true believer in letting the motor get up to temp. it helps to burn off the bad acid chemicals in motor oil that cause motor sludge and what ever else comes from short dist. driving.....

thanks guys, When i dumped the pennz, i noticed it was no longer honey colored after 200 miles but rather dark as coffee. i did have a problem in the begining with a fuel problem though which may be why it was so dark. I just wanted to make sure it wasent a every 500-1000 mile deal. To much invested to lose bearings over a over extended oil. Dave