engine oil
 

i have tried castrol GTX drive hard that was recommend by the dealer but that **** started to crap my engine up. i had clogs fuel jets and all types of ****.

what are your thought on shell full syn. That the oil that i am putting in my car nowdays and it's running smooth as ****.

RE: engine oil
 

I run Castrol GTX 10W-30 motor oil in my four Toyotas. 04 Camry, 04 Solara, 03 Tacoma, and a 03 Matrix XRS. I also ran GTX in my 94 4Runner when I had it. To this point I have had no problems with the operation or the running of any of those vehicles. Granted these are all new cars and don't have a lot of miles on any of them but the Runner had 130,000 on it when I traded it in on the Tacoma. Oil changes have been done faithfully at 3000 miles along with a new Toyota oil filter. I've heard that many people don't think the Toyota oil filter is any good but again I have used them faithfully on all my Toyotas. An 85 Toyota PU and a 1971 Toyota Corolla used American aftermarket filters. The Corolla spun a bearing and the PU had 125.000 when I sold it.

Oil should not make your motor run lousy unless there is something else going on in the motor. Things like head gaskets, intake gaskets, oil seals on the valves, etc. If you do your own service, you'll find out that the Toyota intake system is susceptible to gumming up. Remove the air filter intake at the throttle body and open the butterflies and look inside. The gumming happens just inside the throttle body. With the engine OFF, take some Gumout spray cleaner for FUEL INJECTION and spray the inside of the throttle body then take a clean soft cloth and with out the inside and see how much gunk you can clean up. This could fix a sticky throttle and make the car idle a little better. Again, this is from past experience.

Also maybe a simple tune up could help. New plugs, if you have a distributor a new cap and rotor and maybe new wires. Unfortunately, there aren't many aftermarket parts that I would trust for this tune up other than spark plugs. Like many manufactures nowadays, the Toytota parts just fit better and work better.

I'm not a professional mechanic nor profess to be one. These things I have learned from experience and research as to how to fix them. I do know a little about cars to the point that I'm not afraid to work on them. If you have any doubt about doing the work yourself take it to a mechanic.

I'm new to this forum but I'm glad to see it here because I plan on getting more information about my Toyotas to help me save money and make them run better and longer.

I'm done now. I hope this helps.

RE: engine oil
 

how can you run with 10w-30 in your cam 04 isn't the engine built for 5W-30 or something. check the manual of the car i am quite sure that what it will say cuz a higher viscocity oil will end up messing the engine

RE: engine oil
 

The 10w-30 weight oil is ok for the car. The 10w means that it is a weight of 10 when it is cold, and the w means winter weight. The oil doesn't get as thick when it's really cold out. It's better for cars in cold climates. The 5w does the same thing. I really don't think that that amount of difference is really going to make any problems. The 30 weight is really more important because of the heat element. I ran 10w-440 in my 94 4Runner and never had a problem. I usually run Castrol GTX motor oil and I find that it is a very clean running oil. I have used others (Valvoline, Quaker State, etc) and find that they get gummy and leave dirty deposits inside the valve covers. That area being the easiest to see. I see very little color change in the Castrol from oil change to oil change. That goes for my other vehicle also. 04 Solara, 03 Tacoma, and a 03 Matrix. Granted they all have under 30,000 miles on them, but the 4Runner had over 130,000 miles and the oil looked the same. I change my oil faithfully at 3000 miles with a change in oil filters. I use only Toyota filters.

That's my 2 cents and from my experiences of oil changes for about the last 10 years.[sm=hiya.gif]

RE: engine oil
 

I use royal purple 10-30 I didn't read all of the guys post that is above mine,but by seeing how long his post was,im sure he explained that the only difference in the oil is the freezing point.If your not familiar with a synthetic oil (royal purple,mobil 1,etc) here is what it basically does other than lasting longer.The different additives within the oil enable it to stay throughout the engine when the engine isn't running.The oil drips down towards the oil pan when the car is off,synthetic does a better job at staying throughout the engine so when you start the car up,oil is everywhere it needs to be

RE: engine oil
 

i've used Pennzoil (Pennzwax to all haters) in all of my cars, and appearently, it's worked just fine with all ov 'em...

93 Ford Escort : 369,XXX miles before it croaked. ( damn thing croaked w/a new set ov tires and a full tank ov gas.. )
93 Plymouth Voyager : 200,XXX Miles on it, still haulin' ass.
99 Toyota Camry : 203,XXX Miles: still HAULED ASS.. i'm sorry to say but i was still chasing Civics w/that 5S motor at that age.
99 Toyota Camry : 63,XXX Great Car! ( next project car )
00 Honda Civic : 67,XXX hasn't seen the repair shop since purchased in 99.
02 Toyota Camry : 26,XXX miles; show car, hasn't seen much hard driving.. or any hard driving for that matters.
03 MBZ C32 AMG : 43,XXX miles; Amsoil : i just wanted to let ya'll know that yeah .. we have one ov those too!
05 Honda Civic LX: 20,XXX - Can't complain.

I've used Valvoline on my work horse camry and it ran hellah sluggish and heavy. So i stayed away from it.
I tried Castrol, color change was ridiculous: so i stayed away from it.

RE: engine oil
 

It's all good if you change it when you should. I have a Tundra I drive on trips and it gets the oil changed at 4000 miles. The vehicle I drive around town gets new oil and filter every 2500. Inside the valve covers are clean as a whistle on both vehicles.