Oil change interval
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 105
Likes: 1
From: germantown tn
wow i am kinda surprised hearing people are changing the oil once a year if it needs it or not. i have a 72 and i drive maybe 1500 miles a year i change it every 3 months regardless. to be honest it aint that expensive or hard, about every month autozone offers the big 5+ qt jug and a filter which i get the guy to swap for a ac delco for 14.00 , thats 14.00 . it takes maybe 10 minutes to change . maybe its a good time to bond with my car i dont know. i drop in a bottle of the zddp from eastwood and dont have to worry. on my regular driver ok maybe every 5000 miles .
7th Gear
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
From: Tupelo Mississippi
My 4 regulary driven foreign auto's use synthetic, as prescribed by the company. The onboard computer calculates the oil change interval using drive miles per trip and # of starts to operating temprature. Therefore city driving gets the oil change sooner than long trips. I have noticed the mileage to be betweem 10,000 and 15,000 miles per oil change. They also have an 8 quart system.
My porsche turbo gets driven about 200 miles per year at most. I changed the oil in 2006. Synthetic. I will probably change it this fall.
The company I work for uses very very large recip engines. I talked in depth with our engine analyst about using synthetic in my Vette. He in turn called his contact with the oil company we use. He stated as the previous poster. He told us that I could get 10,000 miles per oil change. His only concern was that the oil filter would not make it without being changed out half way between oil changes to ensure proper filtration.
My porsche turbo gets driven about 200 miles per year at most. I changed the oil in 2006. Synthetic. I will probably change it this fall.
The company I work for uses very very large recip engines. I talked in depth with our engine analyst about using synthetic in my Vette. He in turn called his contact with the oil company we use. He stated as the previous poster. He told us that I could get 10,000 miles per oil change. His only concern was that the oil filter would not make it without being changed out half way between oil changes to ensure proper filtration.
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 105
Likes: 1
From: germantown tn
I dont know for under 20.00 it seems like a no issue i looked in the old owners manual in my vet and they say every 4 months or 5000 miles and every other time on a filter . ok maybe oil is better these days i dont know and i dont use synthetic in the 72 but i guess if you really wanted to you could get 20000 between oil changes or more. somehow it reminds me of when i was a kid and just changed the oil (and could figure out how to do it) and was part of the reason i bought the car now. but i will have to say once a year on a oil change on these model cars is a bit to me.
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
Likes: 3,116
From: Crossville TN
Anyone can change their oil more frequently than what's listed above. More frequently is not a problem....it may be unnecessary....but it's not a problem. The poster asked how often it needed to be done and that's what we've tried to share.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,231
Likes: 65
From: Seattle WA
St. Jude Donor '14
Dino oil changed every 3000 miles or every 12 months [whichever comes first] is a safe way to operate. Also, changing it just before periods of minimal use is a good practice. If you use synthetic oil, changing the filter at 3000 mile intervals [use WIX or other good quality filters] and changing oil at 6000...or even 9000 miles should be equally good. Synthetics don't degrade the same as dino oil, and they have a higher tolerance to heat so they will protect for a longer period of time.
The additive package in oil degrades with both use and time - so it makes sense to put boundaries on both. I follow this advice to the letter - I run dino oil in my GEN I's. 
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 952
Likes: 0
wow i am kinda surprised hearing people are changing the oil once a year if it needs it or not. i have a 72 and i drive maybe 1500 miles a year i change it every 3 months regardless. to be honest it aint that expensive or hard, about every month autozone offers the big 5+ qt jug and a filter which i get the guy to swap for a ac delco for 14.00 , thats 14.00 . it takes maybe 10 minutes to change . maybe its a good time to bond with my car i dont know. i drop in a bottle of the zddp from eastwood and dont have to worry. on my regular driver ok maybe every 5000 miles .
