Oil change advice!!!

[BRUTE FORCE]

Is the make Fran synthetic oil and filter good for our 3800 and what grade do you suggest?

[Jfridge92]

Not sure on the oil, but the fram oil filters are usually frowned upon unless they're the gold filters. Go with a wix or something high quality for a filter. It's cheap insurance.

[redzmonte]

I run Wix (napa gold is same) or Purolator on mine with valvoline oil. dont like Fram or store brand oil/parts. there is a cut away of all different filters online and articals about it.... and fram suck.

S

[00Beast]

I've never heard of Fran, but Fram's oil filters are junk, and are known to fail, both externally, blowing all your oil all over the highway, and/or internally, literally stopping the flow of oil through the filter. Wix/NAPA Gold, Mobil 1, Purolator PureOne and K&N are my list of recommended filters. You should be able to find one of them at any auto-parts store. Any 5W-30 oil that meets SN qualifications will suffice, my preferred oil is Pennzoil Platinum.

[CMNTMXR57]

Can we put a sticky somewhere on this site, maybe a pop-up that any new member HAS to read before registration is complete in regards to oil/oil filter questions?

Oil: As long as it meets GM6094M at a minimum (which will cover pretty much 90% of the mainstream oils on the market both conventional and synthetic), or GM4718M (high performance oils, typically all synthetic), you'll be fine. It has been tested and has been certified by an independent lab, that it meets GM's spec for use in their vehicles, and once it does, the oil manufacturer can advertise that it meets those specs. Doesn't matter whether it's conventional, blends, or synthetic. Buy what fits your budget and lets you sleep better at night.

Oil filter: I like blue, you like red, some like white. Point is, the vehicle left the factory with an AC Delco filter. GM cuts corners in a lot of areas, but their lubrication systems usually aren't one of them. The warranty claims for grenaded engines from lubrication system faults would put them out of business if they did. So they obviously feel ok on it leaving the factory with it. In many cases, the volume, psi, and backpressure of their lubrication systems are designed with AC Delco filters in mind. Can you use others? Absolutely. Much like the oil, use what fits your budget and lets you sleep better at night.

Two points. 1) No one here will never, ever, ever, ever push the limits of even the most base of conventional motor oils that meet the minimum GM6094M oil spec. If you do, I want to know what you're doing! No one here, will never, ever, ever, ever push the engine's past the limits of whatever oil filter you screw on. So with that said, arguing over which oil is better, and which filter has .00000000001% better filtration is like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic. Don't fall into the marketing trap(s).

Point 2) what's really important is maintaining consistent and regular change intervals. You can put the best of the best in, but if you don't change it consistently and regularly, it's all for naught.

Buy what meets those specs, fits your budget, and lets you sleep better at night. It's a 3.8L GM V6. You could pour Wesson oil in and it'd run for 200k. You're not talking about a mega-horsepower, tight tolerance, balanced/blueprinted/spec'd motor here...

[00Beast]

With the exception that we've seen numerous Fram filters fail. Avoid them. Pretty much everything else is fair-game...

[CMNTMXR57]

Oh, I do agree on that. Fram = engine failure.

[Jrs3800]

Just for Sh**s and giggles I may cut a few filters open... Puralator Pure One, wix, store brand, AC Delco and AC delco E Core... Maybe I could stand to drop a few bucks...LOL

I run what oil I get on sale at advance most of the time... I have used Havoline, Castrol, Penzoil, Mobil... Currently have a stock of all of these in my shed... Never had any issues with any of them... I just try to keep the oil changed..

I have friends that run Castrol or Valvoline depending on price...

Like stated above, anything should work, just stay away from the fram filters...

[BRUTE FORCE]

Thanks for the great advice!! I will stay away from Fram products.

[redzmonte]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

has cut away's, tests and oil tests.. no need to spend the coin. but this should give you an idea of what is inside of the 2

[Nocrank]

Kinda makes me wonder though as I had always used a Fram filter on all of the vehicles I've owned until recently. I never had a problem engine wise with any of them due to lubrication or filtering. As I always changed the oil and filter with in 5,000 miles usually used Pennzoil and Fram filter. I sold all of my vehicles with over 150,000 miles and all of them ran great. I bought a 2002 wrx new off the lot and put 274,000 something on that before selling it. I say at least 50%-60% of those miles were hard beaten miles too. As it was always a blast to drive. Never had any engine related problems with that car. In fact all I really did to that car could be considered as basic maintenance. But hey that's a Subaru.

[redzmonte]

im not saying your car will blow up if you use fram.. im saying they are cheaply maid and are restrictive. for the same price i buy a better quality filter.

[Nocrank]

More restrictive= better filtration which then equals longer engine life. In the event the poorly made filter fails it could be catastrophic. The only reason I stopped using them. Even though I can count over a million miles on various vehicles total and never had a issue. Internet media changed my mind to change in the event of the rare failure. Still makes me wonder how many out of billions of Fram how many have failed and how many of them that failed was due to not being changed at or near the recomended interval.

[00Beast]

There's a HUGE difference between using cheap, restrictive media, and high-quality, high-flowing, high-filtering media. I'd much rather spend another few bucks on the latter.

Also, restricting the oil means you can get less to the top end, since the oil pump is working that much harder to push it through the filter, instead of pushing the oil where it needs to go, which over time will kill the valvetrain, and likely reduce bearing life. Oil is no good if the system needs aren't met by it.

Having seen them cut apart, I'm surprised they don't all blow. The metal case is about the thickness of a soda-can, the media is garbage, and the end-caps are glued cardboard. Even the next step up filters are MUCH better made.

[gweg_b]

As I've mentioned before, from experience, I had a Fram filter explode on me in the LeSabre on the highway. Oil light came on, I pulled over, and oil was just dripping from were the filter used to be. I looked down the road and saw where it happened, and all that remained of the filter were little bits of metal. I was in the middle of nowhere, so that became an almost $200 tow - all because I was in a hurry and went with the only filter the store had in stock.

All I can say is never again - that was too close of a call for me and the engine.

[951Indy]

I'm with the "whatever is on sale" crowd. I had 6 years of Walmart oil changes (until they raised the price), then started doing my own. I've tried Fram orange, silver, M1, K&N, and purolator pure 1. Oils have been WM bulk, Edge, Syntec, and various others that tend to come in 5.1 quart jugs with filter for around 29.00 All were 10W30

Observations over the 273,000 miles:

1. K&N filter caused a reduction in gauge oil pressure. Wasn't tested with external tester, but the difference in indicated pressure was obvious, especially as the oil got longer into the run. Replaced filter at 3K miles and pressure went back to normal (at all rpms).

2. Castrol Edge showed a drastic consumption increase. 2 full runs of Edge were leading me toward bankruptcy (adding make up oil every 750 miles). Oils all performed as expected, with a small pressure decrease as the oil neared its service life (5-7K miles).

[Mechtech]

I've been an auto tech for years. I use OE Delco filters on my two 3.8l cars. Mobil 1 oil. It's cheap enough to use good products on something as important as oil/filter.
The thing is NEVER EVER NEVER NEVER let someone install a quick lube filter on your car. If you must use a quick lube hand them a quality filter to install. I hate seeing cars with those cheap white cans on them.

[Jrs3800]

Agreed, I almost crapped myself when I saw the quick lube filter on a few nissan 3.0-3.3 motors... Figured out that cold start tick real fast... Glanced at the filter and laughed( not so funny but I laughed )... Saw that little play school filter... I had a few of the correct Nissan filters and showed them the difference, then set my Briggs and Stratton filter next to it just because... Amazing they could put a filter that small on a car/van engine and my 20 Hp Briggs filter would dwarf it... after installing the Nissan Spec Filter no more cold start valve train chatter...

I have seen Hyundai's with the same problem...

I have a good friend that had a Honda, traded it in on a Hyundai... It was traded with 254,000 miles running only dino 5-20 and a Honda filter, Never had any problems... Ran good, engine made no noise..

The same person has 3 Hyundai's I work on, only oil filter he will put on it is a Hyundai/Kia filter... For the price he gets $5 each its not much more than an aftermarket..

I still say at the very least, Wix or Puralator if you aren't using an AC Delco...

Just my thoughts..