who has the best oil out there for our blazers especially higher mile ones?

 

The 4.3L engine is not at all picky about its oil. Any name brand will serve it just fine. Personally, I run Havoline non-synthetic, but your choice will be fine. High mileage - differnent folks have differnent opinions on the oil. If your not burning, leaking, or otherwise using oil, it really isn't an issue. If you are having these problems, Valvoline MaxLife is a popular choice, but once again probably any oil designated for high mileage vehicles will do. The idea behind the high mileage oils is that they have additives and conditioners that supposedly work on the engine seals to make them more pliable once again to control leaks. They also tend to run slightly higher within their rated viscosity range and that can help with oil burning issues. Hope this helps.

 

Very well said rriddle.

In my old Bravada, I used Mobil 1 full synthetic and was going around 6-8k miles between changes without any change in the oil level between changes.

Now on my new-to-me Rainier, I'm using conventional oil until I'm out of warranty. If anything happens to the motor, I do not want to give GM any excuses so I'm changing the oil/filter every 3k. With 7quarts of oil, that would get expensive with synthetic. Another 9k miles or 15 months and I'll be over to synthetic and start using the oil life monitor. Even with my short commute to work, at 3k miles I was only down to 73% oil life, suggesting that I could have gone to +10k miles on and oil change! Still don't think I'll be going that long, but I'll definitely be around 6k mile.

 

Kyle, I believe you can have more faith in the OLM. They are proving to be quite dependable and accurate for safe oil change intervals. When you get ready to go to synthetic you might want to look into Pennzoil Platinum since it is showing very good results for lots of people. There are a couple of oil analysis services I can recommend if you want to know exactly what is going on inside your engine.
www.blackstone-labs.com
http://www.dysonanalysis.com
I have learned one heck of a lot about motor oil from this site, if you are not familiar with it:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

 

I used to have my oil analyzed at a local lab when living out in western NY, but I am now in the Finger Lakes and don't have anyplace local. They only charged like $10 per sample so it was quite economical. I drive in my sample and get the analysis in the mail a few days later. That was in my Bonneville where I'd go much longer between changes, only changing the filter every 5-6k miles and changing the oil whenever the analysis started showing signs of degredation.

I have a sample submittal bottle from Blackstone Labs, but at $20+ per sample, it's pretty steep. With theexpense, it is just more economical to change it at shorter intervals. I'll try one or two extended drains first off with the Rainier just to get a baseline, but then stay fairly conservative from there on out.

And yeah, I am very familiar with BITOG.com. Great site!!

 

i used the mobil 1 extended performance 300 miles ago. Its suppose to last 15k miles

 

What about royal purple do you really get horsepower from them?

 

No HP gains from any oil. HP comes from an engine. Some oils may give you an almost immeasureable increase in mpg, but the purpose any any oil is to protect the internals of an engine. There just is not that big of a difference between any of the good oils these days.
The main difference between synthetics and non-synthetics is that you can usually go longer between changes on synthetics and may get slightly less wear with them.

 

I use Castrol Synthetic, no problems there.

 

most synthetics are in the same boat there are very few that are much better then others i personally use Mobil 1 5w30 in the silverado and have had no complaints the place i used to go used castrol in my silverado and blazer and i never had problems with that stuff both normal and high mileage. i am not a huge fan of pennzoil but i like quite a few brands...mobil andvalvoline are my fav though. and if your thinkin about filters i HATE FRAM! that is one brand i stay away from there cheap and cheaply made and i have seen countless filters falling apart after only 3k miles of use so i atleast have reason haha. but if you get one of there nicer filters there ok. otherwise i use ac delco, purolator, pure one, and wix. im sure M1 filters are good to but there 10 bucks so ill pass