i've been thinking about making the switch to higher mileage oil, and was wondering if anyone has done that?
i noticed some people stated what oil they were using in the thread "What brand oil filter do you run in your Vortec engine?" that bigdaddykane93 started, but no one has mentioned switching to anything other than synthetic. your thoughts and opinions........

**Update Sept 29** guys 'n gals, i'm not asking about what brand you would use, just what (if any), difference in performance, fuel mileage, cold start up (oil pressure coming up quicker?), etc. thanks again for everyone who has already posted, and tothe ones who will.

 

I've been using high mileage for a about the last 10,000. I have 150,000 + and didn't want to go right to straight synthetic (spin a bearing). I'll probably move up to it soon though. My uncle had a '94 astro van with a 4.3. He had 300,000 + on reagular oil and never used synthetic in it! He just traded it in on cash for clunkers. I sold my '94 blazer with 230,000 and never used synthetic either.

 

yeah, i'm not totally sold on synthetics. i know (from quite a few other 6.2 owners) that synthetic oil will 'cause a 6.2 to become "leaky", and they usually are know to leak already-mine's bone dry, and i wanna keep it like that.
but these 4.3's...............would it be a good idea to "wean" them onto a synthetic by using the high mileage stuff for awhile, first? my truck has 182K on it (or 113 miles), and i tend to be harder on it than most people are.

 

I've been running Penzoil High Mileage 10W30 since 100k. I've got 113k now and no complaints thus far.

 

I've been running 5W30 Penzoil since I bought my Blazer new, changing it about every 3000 miles, and I've got 184K. No problems what so ever.

 

I've put 10w30 penzoil high mileage in my truck since i have gotten it, along with Restore for v6. I don't have any complaints about it, but I have heard alot about synthetic and am going to see if it is really worth it. I need to change my oil this week anyways.

 

the best way to pick oil is by its Zinc antiwear package. i try use an oil of atleast 1400 PPM's of zinc in it. right now i have full sythetic Rotella 5w40 but they now lowered the zinc content to 1100 PPM's now....but it still holds up better to gas dilution if the fuel pressure regulator leaks out some gas inside the motor. the other options is the use valvoline VR1 10w30 pretuloum bas oil which currtenly has 1400 PPM's of zinc in it..and they just released a fully synthtic version on the VR1 10w-30 too now.....

 

ive run nothing but penzoil platinum full synthetic in all of my cars and i have yet to have a problem, i dont think that the high mileage oils even do anything to be honest same sh*t as the regular oil just with a marked up price as far as im concerned

 

see, again we come down to personal preference (regarding the brand).
i'm more interested in any benifits about any possible anti-wear properties.
as for the opinion that there is no diffeence between the "regular oil" and the "high mileage", i know that there are conditioners for your engine seals added to it. now how much of that stuff is in there, or supposed to be in there, i don't know.
i'm gonna start looking at the Zinc content like you suggested bigdaddy.

 

For those of you that are serious about learning more on engine oils, I recommend doing a lot of reading on bobistheoilguy.com, if you have not already been there.