racertracer wrote:
geordi wrote:
It isn't like the oil change is that expensive.
I agree. $529.00 + shipping will buy 12 do it yourself oil changes and if you multiply that number by a 5000 mile OC intervals, it amounts to 70,000 miles and that is a lot of miles.
I installed one of these too on 8/24 with 153K miles on the odo. The reason I did is that I'm moving from MI to VA. I don't know if I'll have a garage or a convenient place to work on this thing for a while...lots of rules in the Richmond area. I'm also going to run miles up a lot faster (over 4000 miles is a little over 3 weeks) while I'm working in VA and going to visit the family in MI the next couple of months while our house there sells and we get stuff moved down here. ...like the apartment I'm currently in forbids one to work on their car.
The thing is about 5K oil changes, which I've been doing too, is that you accumulate a lot of used oil that you have to take a trip and have disposed of somewhere. I'm hoping to go at least 30K miles between changes. I calculated that the break even point is about 100K miles. This is comparing the cost of the FS2500 system (nice kit), filters that get changed at 10K intervals and the make-up oil needed
to the cost of oil and filters for doing changes each 5K mile interval. The main difference for me is the convenience of not having to take 30+ gallons of oil in for disposal. Since the kit is designed for vehicles with engines twice the size of ours, I figure I'll do the first change of the bypass filter at 10K miles...that critter probably has 4 times the filtering area of our full flow filters.
I agree that one can expect to lose some of the additives and some of the TBN as the oil is used over the long interval. The thing is, one will add 2 to 3 quarts of oil over 10K miles between the make-up of what the crankcase blows though the intake and the fact that filter cartridge increases the oil capacity by 1 to 1.5 quarts. The additives will get replenished to some degree, which may help facilitate the longer interval between drains. The Blackstone analyses will tell the tale.
I will say that when I check my oil after the first 1000 miles, I was initially shocked. It was dusk and there wasn't a lot of like outside and I couldn't see any oil on the dipstick. My heart sank for a moment thinking I had some massive leak somewhere. So, I rechecked multiple times and finally found a good angle in the light to where I could see the oil on the stick. It was just so clean that it wasn't showing up. The GDE tune does a nice job of keeping oil clean and the filter system kicks it up a notch. I can say that after 2500 miles, the oil still looks clean on the stick and only appears light gray on the towel used to wipe the dipstick.
I do have a bit of confusion, however. The vendor of the FS2500 claims that the cleaner oil can result in a increase in fuel economy. It does seem that I've gotten a bump of 1-2 mpg on the highway. However, I'm trying to figure out if it's an anomaly or something real. My area of MI generally has crap diesel. The diesel in the Richmond area here may be a little better quality, and I historically tend to see better mileage when I've filled up in KY or OH after visiting my parents. I also notice that there isn't a terrible amount of wind in this area whereas I always seem to be driving in a headwind in the flat lands of mid-Michigan. I was also one of those people that had a catch can between the CCV and intake and had the hose freeze up on me which resulted in a bunch of oil being sent through the exhaust a few years ago, so I don't know if the cat had been coked up all of this time and has finally burned out or what. I will say, prior to relocating here, I generally saw 26-28 mpg on the highway and now I've seen 29-31 my last few long trips...and this is running 70-75 up and down hills in WV or across the PA turnpike.
So, I'm not saying the bypass filter will result in better mileage. I don't have enough data points to make that conclusion. The above is about a 10% increase which makes me skeptical and I'd probably vote for better fuel. It will be interesting if the other members who have a bypass system see a change in their fuel economy.
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