How I got 200,000+ miles on my engines and trannies.

[old mechanic]

I have a Buick Roadmaster and a Ford Truck. I change my oil and filter every 7500 miles with the cheapest oil I can buy.
The only thing I do different then most guys is that I always idle my vehicle for a few minutes before driving when cold. The last 30 seconds or so I put the vehicle in gear to let the fluid flow thru the trannie too. Its a tough thing to do sitting there for a minute or two but it seems to help. I have the original motor and trannie in both and have never had any smoking or knocking and have never changed the trannie fluid OR filter since new.
I bought my Buick and Ford truck new. Anyway, just my thoughts.
Now I know that the 1st gen EXs have trannie troubles. I bought my 92 EX with 81,000 miles on it to only use for a few miles a week, however, now my wife seems to want to drive it too so we have it up to 94,000 miles in just one year. I do the same with the EX and my wife also idles the vehicles when cold. We'll see how that does. Altho I may soon be selling it to buy a newer one just to maybe get a V8 with AWD.

 

[410Fortune]

Nice. Yeah I always see these kids with their imports as soon as the engine cranks over "vrooom" floor it so the exaust fills the air with noise. I sit there thinking, man start up is the haardest on engines and the LAST thing you want to do is revv it up.
I always let my vehicles sit for a minute or so and always take some time between park, N and reverse to let the fluid start to flow Good tips!

 

[Creager]

Nice. Yeah I always see these kids with their imports as soon as the engine cranks over "vrooom" floor it so the exaust fills the air with noise.

That reminds me of a friend of mine.

He had a 97' Volkswagon and he thought it was the freekin ****. He put an intake on it, and a muffler and would dog that thing around. the second he crank that motor over he sit there FLOOR it "VROOOM." LITTERALY EVERYTIME he started the car. i would just look at him like, "god your an idiot, see that gauge right there? thats your oil gauge, dont TOUCH the gas until it says you have pressure!"

So what would he do? say "Yeah whatever man you dont know what your talking about"

But thats not it, he would do the exact same thing when he would turn the car off. he would FLOOR the gas and let it rev down as the motor shuts off.

Everywhere he would go, it was so painful to see him do something so retarted

best part? he ended up having to spend 6k to have the motor rebuilt at 90k!!!!!


guess how much he sold it for? 4k!! HA!

 

[old mechanic]

That reminds me of a friend of mine.

He had a 97' Volkswagon and he thought it was the freekin ****. He put an intake on it, and a muffler and would dog that thing around. the second he crank that motor over he sit there FLOOR it "VROOOM." LITTERALY EVERYTIME he started the car. i would just look at him like, "god your an idiot, see that gauge right there? thats your oil gauge, dont TOUCH the gas until it says you have pressure!"

So what would he do? say "Yeah whatever man you dont know what your talking about"

But thats not it, he would do the exact same thing when he would turn the car off. he would FLOOR the gas and let it rev down as the motor shuts off.

Everywhere he would go, it was so painful to see him do something so retarted

best part? he ended up having to spend 6k to have the motor rebuilt at 90k!!!!!


guess how much he sold it for? 4k!! HA!

90K doing that? Not bad. I thought you were going to say 40-50K. LOL.
BUT 6K for a rebuild? Geez thats a lot of cash for any rebuild.

 

[old mechanic]

Nice. Yeah I always see these kids with their imports as soon as the engine cranks over "vrooom" floor it so the exaust fills the air with noise. I sit there thinking, man start up is the haardest on engines and the LAST thing you want to do is revv it up.
I always let my vehicles sit for a minute or so and always take some time between park, N and reverse to let the fluid start to flow Good tips!

Like me you must have patiences. Yup, I see the same thing, start and go and fast too.

 

[nascar_intimid]

When cold I always allow my rpm to come down before putting it in gear...this is for two reasons, oil and universals. Summer time...well about 30 seconds or so. Old Mechanic re-iterates an old thread we were disputing about changing tranny fluid. I think we all have seen the thread and I won't open another can of worms.

 

[Eneurb]

I believe (scary, isn't it??)... The slower an engine warms up in cold temps, the more condensation collects in the oil. I only idle for 30 seconds, and drive to warm up the engine up, and plug the block heater in if the forcast is too cold.

 

[kfkodiak]

I believe (scary, isn't it??)... The slower an engine warms up in cold temps, the more condensation collects in the oil. I only idle for 30 seconds, and drive to warm up the engine up, and plug the block heater in if the forcast is too cold.

Same here, 30-60 seconds most of the time, then I try to stay under 2000 rpm until it warms up. It takes forever to fully warm up idling in park.

I hadn't heard that about condensation in the oil; I'm mostly concerned with getting oil to the top of the pushrods before I take off.

 

[blueox]

Very good advise.

This is our third vehicle with over 200k and I like to change the oil every 3k to 5k but we have put more money into the explorer than any other vehicle by far. I have always used cheap oil in the explorer and change the tranny fluid when it needs it, both have held up very well (haven't had to tear into the engine or tranny yet).
I do use synthetic fluids in my f350's tranny and a good grade oil for diesel engines can't remember the mileage right off hand but working on 200k.
The other explorer only has a little over 51k on it and I only drive it to go muddin and drop the kids off at school they like to climb down out of the truck in front of the other kids(again just cheap fluids).
The monte carlo I put a small block into and only have about 40k on it with a junkyard th350 tranny that I had rebuilt by a friend that has his own shop in spencer. The old v6 gave up the ghost at well past 200k with a little help from me, hopefully I can get the same out of the small block.
My old honda prelude rusted to the ground and I could still turn the engine way past 6k with well over 200k on the rebuild but I did rebuild it myself (machinist in another life making parts for the ford plant in Bedford) and again cheap fluids although I did run synthetics in it for about a year when I worked in Indianapolis I used to get 30-33mpg out of that car (5spd).

I could never get 200k out of my race engines but I didn't build them to do that.

 

[Glacier991]

I'm with Eneurb.... I NEVER push my engine hard from a cold start no mater what, but I never extended idle it. The worst wear is on cold startup before oil pump lube... a pre oiler would help the most (2nd time I have brought up pre-oilers). Start mildly on a cold engine and you are doing it the best favor. That is my motto. I change my dino oil and filter every 3000 miles. I have an 81 Mercedes Diesel (300D) a 92 Explorer (210K) and a 93 Mercury Sable (110 K).... and NO car payments. Works for me.

(ok I DO plug in the Diesel if the temps fall below about 45 degrees)

 

[SmokeGrinder]

168,800 and still going, same motor but 2 new trannys.