I change my oil in my 2010 Silverado 4x4 every 5K miles with regular oil.

Is it worth it to switch to synthetic? I live in Florida if that makes a difference.

I did a little reasearch and I found out you can cange your oil every 7K with synthetic oils and synthetic oils have less impurity meaning its cleaner.

I plan on having this truck for at least 100K and maybe much longer.


What say you???

If you're going to use synth, get the oil analyzed on a regular basis and just add a little bit of additive when required.

You'll find that with filter changes you can stretch the change lifespan to 20-25K easily, and the analysis will tell you whats happening in the engine.


 

With synthetic oils you can push the drain intervals out as long as the oil analysis comes back good to go. The biggest thing you can do is run a top quality oil filter and change it regularly.

so does my truck sensor tell me when I need it changed

how do i get the oil checked

Nope. You order a oil analysis kit and send a sample of your oil into a company. They will email/write you back with their analysis. It will tell you a lot of info but they will basically say if you can keep running that oil or if you should change it.

A lot of trucking companies do this to save on maintenance costs. Changing oil that still has life left in it is like throwing money down the drain.

You could ditch the analysis and just change your oil every 7-10k and call it good. Just remember to run a high quality oil filter.

how would i get a sample?

where would I send it?

10K miles? that would be 2x what I'm changing it now. That alone would be worth it...once a year!

Blackstone labs

i run mobil one and filter in my hemi. no problems

LINK

I change the oil in my duramax once a year (approx 3-5k miles). I was running amsoil but I will be changing to rotella 5w40. It is cheaper and I can get it locally.

If you are going to be changing your oil at 10k mile intervals I would not mess with an analysis. Unless you wanted to do one after a few years just to see if everything is going good internally.

I forgot to mention that some Caterpillar dealerships offer oil testing. The one closest to me does not.

how long do I have to change it for a synthetic blend oil?

is that different from pure synthetic oil?

I figure if I use regular oil I would change it every 5K and synthetic or blend every 10K... does that sound about right?

I'll be the voice of dissent here and say that you shouldn't switch to synthetic oil.  Not because synthetic oil isn't good, but because there is no need for it.  You haven't told us that your doing anything special with your truck that would require synthetic oil.  Yes, you can lengthen your oil change intervals, but doing it right require oil analyses and maybe adding additive packages.

You don't say which engine you have, so I'll assume it is the 5.3 as that is pretty common in Chevy 4x4s.  Do the math.  You can find regular oil for less than $2/quart (your engine takes 6 quarts), and a filter runs you $4 (you can probably find it cheaper).  So an oil change, if you DIY, runs you $16.  If you switch to synthetic, the oil costs more.  You need to do oil analyses at $25 per analysis, and you might need to buy additives.  Assuming you DIY, the savings just isn't there.  

The oil life monitor on your truck works pretty well.  The 5.3 runs fine on regular oil.  Then there's the warranty issue, assuming your 2010 is still under warranty (does the manufacturer say it is ok to lengthen your oil change interval?)  The oil change interval on my Suburban (also has the 5.3) per the OLM usually ends up being 5k to 6k miles.  I just don't see how switching to synthetic on a Chevy truck makes sense.  

BTW - My suburban has 235k miles on the original engine, has always run on dino oil, and the engine runs great.

I pretty much agree.  You live in FL, change the oil regularly, and its a good engine design that has no history of sludging up.

With that being said, I run synthetic year round and use standard oil change intervals.  I figure that with the cost of Mobil 1 at Walmart and changing the oil myself, I still come out ahead versus having a shop change the oil for me using regular oil.  I also justify it as that it often times gets very cold in the winter where I live so I want good winter oil flow.

I didn't realize standard GM 1/2 ton trucks had this now.

IIRC this truck needs a DEXOS certified oil.