www.bobistheoilguy.com has a great forum for anything about oil.

 

I would say that is had more to do with the hard driving that with anything else. Excess blowby due to worn rings may have created pressure within the engine if your PCV valce is clogged, and caused the oil to be pushed out the path of least resistance. Another side effect of this blowby may be a thinning of the oil due to it mixing with the air-fuel that "blew-by" your worn rings) Check if your oil smell like gasoline, if so, you'll want to replace it ASAP.

 

I just switched at 120 000 km to Mobil 1 5w30 .At 1k later no noticable problems .Next job is to switch all other fluids to synthetic .

 

I switched from Castrol Syntec 5W50 to Mobil 1 10W30 on my 97 BMW at 80,000 miles and the oil pan gasket started leaking about 1500 miles after the switch. It's a real pain to change the oil pan gasket on that car too, the whole engine has to be lifted up half an inch.

 

but your the man dale, so that wasnt a problem.

 

I haven't fixed it yet, want to help hold the engine up for me?

 

I'm with LX302 synthetic oils clean better than a convetional oil. You are better off to just have the seal replace or were ever your oil leak is coming from.Then you can use synthetic oil with out a problem. I use the AMSOIL and never had a problem.They offer what ever weight you care to run and it's a full synthetic. Check it out.
www.puresynthetics.com

 

Guess I must be one of the lucky ones

When I purchased my Runner I switched it over to Syntec three years ago and it now has 251k miles and not one oil leak.

Coolant is a nother issue though.

 

Well, I just took it for a drive over Donner pass and back (I-80 between Reno and Sacramento). It's long and steep and I pushed the runner as hard as I could. I stopped at the summit both times to check for leaks. I found none. Hopefully the problem is solved.

 

Here is an interesting article that addresses some of these myths from the perspective of selling the switch to synthetic oil.

http://www.cp.duluth.mn.us/~ennyman/syndoubt.html

 

What a load. In my case anyway.