Engine Life and Oil Changes

[Snook]

Have a 99 XJ which has done around 85000ks. Overall the car is in terrific condiion and like most car enthusiasts I want to keep it that way and prolong its life paticularly the engine for as long as possible. I've seen many XJ's which have done 200000 + k's and are still on their original engine. I do understand that a major factor of engine wear is the way car is driven and the type of driving conditions that the car expereinces ovr its life. I would be interested in the thoughts of other forum members regarding the expected life of an XJ engine assuming say the car is largel unmodified except for say tyres and suspension mods and used as it was originally designed to do i.e. around town during the week with the occasional c - b grade weekend trip.

The quality of oil and the frequancy of changes etc is also important. At the moment I'm doing a oil/filter change every 10000ks ....and my car spends about 20% of its life off road. I'm thinking of change the frequancy of the oil/filter changes to 5000k ... is this being to pedanic.....could be expensive to considering I'm using penrite....

Any thoughts on expected engine life and frequancy of oil changes would be really appreciated.

Regards


Mark

[Wooders]

I think it says somewhere that for frequent offroad or towing the intervals should be every 6,000km......just can't recall where I saw that....

[Jeeps]

I think you'll find the engine will be the last thing to die. All the crap around it will go first. I've got the same engine, and i get it serviced every 10-12k as per the book. I expect to never have to deal with engine problems. Water pumps, radiators, gearboxes, well that's another story...

[Glenn]

I've had my XJ from new and its got close on 250000 km on it, doesn't use any oil and although the engine is a little noisy at idle it's been that way since new. I change the oil myself at 10000km intervals and use shell semi synthetic oil.
The first five years of its life it coped a fair amount of work, heavy towing and offroading etc, but since then I'm ashamed to say does mostely city work.

[95xjcherokee]

I remember reading somewhere that penrite oil was one of the worst for reducing friction in the engine. My personal preference in mobil 1 or shell helix (the grey, expensive one). both are 50-60 dollars but even after 10,000km's the oil still lokked new! ( cheaper option which I also found good was castrol magnatec (but I probably just like to think that it does what it says aboiut stickin to the engine from start up to reduce wear. (about 26 dollars when on special) the XJ ensgine will go forever (400-500km's and the way it sounds like you look after it maybe further!) but as mentioned before everything else will go first!

Best advice (from experience)
1. drive often
2. lubricate everthing often
3. service at required intervals
4. fix any probs asap
5. love the car (it's a jeep thing!)

[tonyl]

I do mine own services oil and filter every 5k plugs at 10k but the car does have 230ks on it I currently run penrite hpr30 but next change will go to hpr40 by the way 95cherokee the oil should be nice and black but still have it viscosity when you change it that is a sign of a good oil if it is still clean its not cleaning your engine that said mobil 1 synthetic is an excellent oil

[Cpage66]

I change mine in the Grand every 3,000 miles (Yeah, I know...) and I've been using the new Nulon Synthetic of late and use a K&N Gold filter every change. 10W-40 in the summer and 5W-30 in winter.