which oil do you use?

[Solorange]

I use mobil semisynthetic, I was told by a toyota mechanic that its pointless to use fully synthetic unless you start the car with it brand new or start using it when the milage is less than 50k. My car was at 61k when i got it so i am just taking his advise and using somthing a bit better than regular oil. Butt he is probably right. I change the oil exactly every 3k so it shouldn't really matter.

[DatSRBoi]

Mobil 1 Full Syn.... 1.3K mile over due and will continue to be for a long time.. No money....

[Strider327]

Mobil 1 Fully Synthetic 5w30 with 76 Pro 91 Octane

[Fletch]

Local oil shop SAE 30 (texaco oil) in summer, reduces oil consumption but hurts gas mileage 1-2 mpg. Amoco / BP 93 octane

[JAYDEE23]

while on this topic i would like to know

is 93 octane ok for 2000 v6? I assume it is..and what would be a max octane rating to use safely?

and what would be the problems associated w/ using octane that is to high for a particular engine..?

that said i tried $15 of 93 octane in an empty tank this morning and it really seems like the idle is super smooth

is it me or would i get results like this from using high octane gas?

anyone have a good link to octane explanations/uses?

[Jon11582]

while on this topic i would like to know

is 93 octane ok for 2000 v6? I assume it is..and what would be a max octane rating to use safely?

and what would be the problems associated w/ using octane that is to high for a particular engine..?

that said i tried $15 of 93 octane in an empty tank this morning and it really seems like the idle is super smooth

is it me or would i get results like this from using high octane gas?

anyone have a good link to octane explanations/uses?

I dont think theres any such thing as too high an octane rating. A higher octane just means the gas combusts less easily, ensuring that it only combusts when sparked, rather than before the spark (which causes knocking). The higher you go, the more expensive it gets, expecially when you get over 94. Then your in racing gas realm, which can cost upwards of 5 bucks a gallon.

They dont sell 91 in Jersey - its 87, 89 and 93 only, so 93 has to be OK since we dont have an option in premium gas. Its only cost-effective to use as much octane as you need to prevent early combustion. Anything higher is preventing knock that wasnt going to happen anyways.

5SFE and 2AZ need 87+ by spec, and 1MZ/3MZ needs 91+. Cars are more prone to knock as they get older, so it might be wise to increase the octane rating as a car gets on in years. Telltale signs your knocking is slower acceleration than usual (Knock sensor should sense the knock and retard timing as to not knock, saving the engine).

Ive been putting 93 in my 5SFE since I got it 5 years ago. It hasnt balked at me. The extra octane is probably a waste of money, but its an old habit of mine.

[JAYDEE23]

there is no limit to what you can put in a small 4 cylinder as far as octane rating goes?..i did not know that

well guess it will be 93 from now on..mo money mo money mo money!!

[Solorange]

The 1mz doesnt need 91. I use 87 in my car and it runs great. In the owners manual it says use premium to inprove performance. But its 87 is the norm.

[toy4x4boy]

Unless your V6 is supercharged, you don't need anything more than 87. Waste of money.

[Jon11582]

The 1mz doesnt need 91. I use 87 in my car and it runs great. In the owners manual it says use premium to inprove performance. But its 87 is the norm.

How do you think it improves performance? You think theres more than 200 horses in that engine? Truth is that engine is not performing at peak with less than premium gas, thats why using premium will "improve performance"...improve it to spec.

If you dont mind running a bit slower, then use 87. I recommend it actually, it wont hurt the engine at all since the engine is smart enough to run a bit slower so non-premium fuel doesnt hurt it at all, and itll save you some cash when it sall said and done. I would not say 87 is the norm though. Premium is what the engine was built for, and anything less than premium will cause it to lose some performance depending on how much knock it would have experienced. (knock is also affected by air pressure, heat, etc as well, so 87 may acutally not cause as much performance degradation in ideal conditions as other environments).

[Dutch Master]

Whatever the dealer uses.....89 is the juice

[lazyboyz69]

castrol 10-30 with lucas...... gas 91 with outlaw octane booster....... addicitvies are my friend.....

[DatSRBoi]

Just pee into your gas tanks... Works the best and combustion is the best too....



Cant really say which gas is the best... Of course premium will be the best...How ever you spell it... Up to you to F up your car the way you want it.. I say give the V6 the 91 at least and up octane it deserves or be cheap and give it the abuse of lower octane..Just dont come to us asking why it knocks or never kits the 200K mile mark. You get what you pay for....So just remember its Premium Recomended as it states in your book you get when the car is new..

[saxophonoia]

Right now I'm using Royal Purple in my car, but next oil change will be Mobil 1 since I can get it for free now. Free > $5 for a quart of RP.

[Hefty]

Actually I would highly recommend that all Toyota 3.0L V6 and 2.2L I-4 owners use synthetic oils in their engines. Consumer reports released an article indicating that our engines are prone to failure caused by engine oil sludge deposits.

Quote from CR:"The Center for Auto Safety says it has received about 1,300 sludge complaints since 2004. Toyota, the company with the most engines in question, cited 3,400 complaints through 2002 but hasn't provided an updated number since. And while about 4.7 million engines sold in the U.S. may have sludge-prone designs, the problem rate as reflected in our reliability data is very low. But that's little solace to those affected by it. "

Synthetic oils are less prone to producing these engine clogging deposits. Plus, they improve fuel economy, cause a smoother running engine, and can go longer between changes.

5w-30 is good for fuel economy. 10w-30 will work fine. Some say that if you live in hot areas to use 10w-30 in hotter months but 5w-30 has been shown to work just in well in equally harsh environments as 10w-30.

One thing to watch out for when using synthetic motor oil is that they can suddenly cause oil leaks to occur especially around the oil pan gasket. Synthetic oils lack the esther compounds that are found in conventional oils and this increases the synthetic oils capillary action through the gasket material.

If you build two identical engines and set them both at the same timing advance the engine with the lower octane will potentially create more power. Ask the small block chevy owners of the 80's and they will tell you they made good power on 87 octane fuels running in their lower compression 8.0:1 - 8.5:1 engines. Back in the old old days of the automobile the gas they used back then wasn't nearly as regulated and wass much much lower octane then what we use today but their engines were only 4.5:1 compression ratio so they had to build those cylinder pressures by using extremely fast burning and hot fuels.

Now here is the trick, you take those same engines and you start advancing the ignition timing aggressively and you will quickly hit a wall in how far the timing on the lower octane fuel can advance. The higher octane fuel engine can continue to advance its timing potentially producing more power. The sooner your engine can ignite the fuel and start the propogation of the cylinder flame front wall then the higher a cylinder pressure you can build and potentially the more power you can make. Your cars engine management computer can to some degree make variations in the fuel mapping and ignition timing to push the edge of boundry before knocking starts to occur. Normally however we need a "chip" upgrade to adjust the fuel/air ratio and advance the timing that higher octane fuels will allow for. Unless the manufacturer explicitly intends for the vehicle to use high octane fuels and therefore already builds it into the ECU management.

Now the knock sensor is not just some arbitrary component that can somehow sense when knocking is going to occur before it actually occurs or know when you put lower octane fuel in versus higher octane. My 1995 5.0L Mustang was prone to severe knocking even with higher octane fuels. What would normally happen is you could here 2-3 knocks come out from under the hood and then it would go away. This is something you can actually feel, you can actually hear it as well as the knock sensor can and the ECU acts accordingly. But in those situations where you don't encounter knocking then potentially your engine could be making more power on lower octane fuel. As it is, I have a 1999 Solara V6 and I use the 87 octane and I have not thus far detect any noticeable knock or vibration. So, in actuality it can become a question of, how low can I go on my octane rather then thinking of how high I can go to produce the most power when all things under the hood remain the same.