How To Deal With Frequent Engine oil Changes?

VEHICLE ENGINE OIL

Q: Own few different vehicles and these are its oil details.
My oil of choice is Quaker State with AC/Delco filters. I drive one of our cars eighty miles per day and change both the filter and oil at 3000 miles, 1.5 months. The other is around town and it gets changed at 3000 miles, the 3-month mark. The last one is a ‘72 Corvette, engine overhauled just before I purchased the car 5 years ago. This one I change the oil and filter when it's placed in winter storage. The Corvette is driven anywhere from 1.5k to 2k miles per summer. The oil is changed once per year. How should the classic car owner handle oil changes? I've never used full synthetic oil in any of my cars and would like to know your thoughts about this issue, pros and cons. In what conditions would you recommend the use of full synthetic oils. Should you upgrade to high efficient filters when using the synthetics?


A: At our Auto garage we make the use of synthetic engine oils and as a mechanic i myself also use them in my owned vehicles. But with that said, what you have been using (regular engine oil) is a cost effective and has been proven over the long haul. There are many vehicles on the road with over 200k miles that have used regular engine oil. I feel that the maintenance choice that you have made on your primary vehicles is sound. About the only thing I would do different with the Corvette is change the oil a minimum of 2 times a year. Why? The inside of the engine, even when the vehicle is not being driven, is a chemical lab at work. The oil that is in the engine is being assaulted in a variety of ways that causes the additive packages to break down and reduce the protection.

As per my auto garage repair experience i suggest, when you first bring your Corvette out for summer fun give it a good drive and really warm the engine up. Then shut the engine down and drain the oil immediately. Running the engine causes the oil to pick-up contaminants that have formed over the winter and suspend them in the oil. Draining the oil while it is hot proves to be more effective at removing these contaminants. Then install fresh oil and a new filter for the summer.