Question on Engine Oil

cj · January 27th, 2003 02:05 PM

Question lang peeps, specially to our resident chemist rsnald:

Yung change oil every 5,000 kilometers make sense kasi nasusunog naman talaga ang langis as you use it and its lubricating properties deteriorate. Ang tanong ko lang, advisable ba talaga magpalit nang langis (for both gasoline & diesel engines) every 3 months kung bihira naman magamit yung sasakyan? Sabi kasi sa kasa eh 5k or 3 months daw (whichever comes first) dapat palit na.

salamat..

**1D4LV** · January 27th, 2003 02:52 PM

ihmo, i agree dun sa 5k or 3 months or whatever comes first.

no sense of changing your oil every 3 months kung naka tenga lang naman yung car mo sa house.

**Elijah** · January 27th, 2003 04:44 PM

it depends on the condition of the oil , you'll know when it's time to change it regardless of the mileage or month.

**roydok** · January 27th, 2003 11:53 PM

Ako I changed mine every 5k.

**garyq** · January 28th, 2003 01:12 AM

I wud suggest every 5000km. IMO safe ka dito. Everyday car ko is a Civic HB. 195,000km na ok pa engine. I changed timing belt 2x na and 1x ng water pump. Wala na aside from that. Sa mga diesel engine mas mahalaga regular ang oil change. Kung di mo masyadong ginagamit di change oil ka na lang and keep the filter. This is my experience. :lol:

**Olive Drab** · January 28th, 2003 08:42 AM

i change mine on or before 6 MONTHS.
di kasi ako umaabot ng 5,000 KMS. in six months.
sometimes earlier than 6 months if i did a lot of OFF-ROADING
because the engine (including the OIL of course) was put under a lot of stress.

**rsnald** · January 28th, 2003 02:27 PM

to cj:

regarding changing oil sa engines, ako din di aware why they advise 5000 km or 3 months whichever comes first as the best interval for changing oil. siguro, the best inference I can make was when we used to run our 1 megawatt genset. yung plant engineer namin who was in charge of running that genset always had the genset oil checked for viscosity, TBN (total base number) and ash content. Yun tatlong properties na yun ang pinaka importante sa lubricating oils (at least to my knowledge).

the viscosity (in layman's term, this is a measure of your "lapot or labnaw") will govern whether your oil would provide sufficient lubrication to your engine parts. as you use your oil in the engine kasi, it tends to break down and the viscosity decreases in time. when it becomes too "malabnaw" it may not do its work of lubricating your engine parts. di ba kaya nga may recommended viscosity grades for our engine.

yung TBN naman, it is a measure of the amount of chemicals that can neutralize acidic by-products of burned fuel. sa diesel fuel, eto yung sulfur which gets converted to sulfur dioxide on burning--- a very acidic and corrosive by-product. so again, as you use your oil, bumababa din ang TBN nya kasi na-u-use use up sya. ewan lang kung naka-standby lang yung engine --- siguro na-de deplete din sya through time. ang mga amines kasi (which I suppose are the chemicals that impart the TBN property) are not stable chemicals. they easily oxidize.

and finally, yung ash content -- these are the unburned/not burneable (if there's such a term) by products that are present in your engine oil. it may be present as minute particles -- in fact may be very tiny grits that can cause abrasion sa engine parts.

siguro, they determined that after 5000 kms. or after 3 months of regular use, either all or one of these properties are not at the optimum level kaya they advise changing oil.

pero kung once a week mo lang ginagamit sasakyan mo, siguro it won't hurt if you extend your change oil interval. pero, kung ako sa yo pre, let the warranty expire muna before doing so. tapos gumamit ka nung Rev-x Trekker- yung multigrade diesel engine oil ng Petron. mukhang ok sya. tried it once and I noticed na parang mas maganda takbo ng engine. Better yet, kung mabobola ko si kumander, gumamit ka ng synthetic oil like Mobil Delvac ba yun or the Rev-X all Terrain-- ginagamit ng ilang kasamahan natin yan dito for their trooper.