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Gary:
My thoughts:
For quite some time I have been quite successful in getting good engine life using this formula: Change engine oil based on 1000 miles per every quart of crankcase capacity.
I don't see the sense in believing that one particular "magical number" of miles for oil change interval is appropriate. This is like saying that any car will run out of gas at 200 miles regardless of the gas tank size. It doesn't work that way. A car which has a 4 qt oil capacity should receive a change much sooner than one like a typical modern Mercedes which holds more like 8 quarts. There is more oil there to hold "crap" in suspension, so why not extend the oil change mileage? I have also used normal non-synthetic oils (I hesitate to call it "mineral" oil, as synthetics also start out as crude oil).
I do believe MB has good reason to promote the synthetics though.
I can't see the harm in extending the oil change interval out to 10,000 in a M112/M113 engine with 8 to 8.5qt oil capacity. If this seems unreasonable to you and you don't mind not getting any REAL benefit from purchasing the synthetic oil (such as extending the oil change out further), that's fine but I wouldn't do it any LESS than I would with non-synthetic (8000 to 8500 miles), after all, besides the benefit of not having to change the oil as often, the other benefit is to increase the durablity of the engine, but do you REALLY intend on keeping the truck much over 200,000 miles ? MOST people SAY they do, but don't end up with the vehicle that long anyways, so where is YOUR benefit?????? You still won't get that much trade-in value, even though you say you always used synthetic oil, etc etc..
Gilly
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