No, I'm not idiotic. I'm more concerned with cost efficiency. Take my ranger for example, I paid 1000$ for it, book value is about 2k for it. I have about 700$ into it. So in essence, if motor or tranny went, I would replace it (with a JY one). So once I hit ~1500 in repair bills, I spend no more on it. I wrench my own vehicles, so no keeping mechanic working. As for oil changes, my first ranger made it from 190k to 278k with only two oil changes, once evey 44,000 miles. I paid 400$ for the truck, it's not worth spending money on it at that point. My 2003 Ranger never got an oil change from me in the 43,000 miles it had before I sold it, and it ran fantastic. My mercury sable was purchased with 96k, rolled over at 152k, never changed the oil, just added. So, just think, if i would have bothered changing the oil in those ~180k miles every 3k. That's roughly 60 oil changes @ ~15$. Doing so would have costed me 900$. While adding oil as needed resulted in no loss of money. (just added used oil from a buddy wanting to get rid of it). All three vehicles ran great, only needed tires/brakes
Well, that lack of PM doesn't work most of the time. Most people will eventually get a dramatic increase in oil consumption, a big loss of power, or a valve train or head failure due to the amount of sludge packed up under the valve covers.
Maybe you can justify that on a vehicle that you paid so little for, but most of us paid a bit more than $900 or $400. In my case, I don't look at the cost of the vehicle itself as much as the cost of a comparable replacement. Replacing my truck with one in similar condition would cost me at least $2k if I get a really good deal. That's about 80-90 PMs for me. It would take skipping PMs for the next 10-12 years with no major failures as a result to make that a cost-effective plan. I kind of doubt that would pan out.
Then, of course, there's the whole loss of fuel economy as the power train slowly dies. The fuel will add up faster than the PMs.
If you had experienced an engine failure on your '03, warranty would not have paid a penny due to the lack of PM. It would be obvious to them as soon as they pulled a valve cover or the pan. Your first ranger would not have made it to 278k if you'd been the owner for the first 190k.
I don't like to get stranded. Tow bills, massive repairs, and replacement vehicles cost a lot of money that could have gone towards a reasonable PM routine. Plus it's just a big pain in the ass to be stuck.
I've drained oil from an engine (Cummins N14) that only got topped off for the first 180k of its life after a rebuild. Of the 40qt lube system, only about 12qt was still liquid. The rest had to be scraped from inside the pan and under the valve covers. As a result the engine had a cracked head due to overheat and was eating the seals out of a new turbo after 3 hours. We pulled the pistons (had to ream off a hell of a ridge on each hole) just to check the rings, damn near worn out. With a real PM schedule, those rings can last upwards of a million miles. All of the main and rod bearings had very high wear, and evidence of starvation and severe heat. #5 rod damn near spun. Cam bearings were worn out, cam lobes and followers were pitted all to hell, and the oil pump gears were blue. The oil filter probably weighed close to 50 pounds and had been fully bypassing for who knows how long. Final bill weighed close to $12k, which could have bought plenty of PMs without all of the downtime. Had the engine been maintained it would have still been under extended warranty from the overhaul.
Oh, and the radiator was rotted out from the inside due to never maintaining the coolant.
A little gasser motor won't put near as much soot and filth into the oil, but it also won't have near as much oil or filtering capacity to absorb the sludge. The filter is to strain out the abrasive particles that accumulate in the oil; once it fills up and begins to bypass, those abrasives will grind the engine away and chew up seals. Also, the additives in the oil have a limited lifespan when hot, after which they turn into sludge. The primary purpose of actually changing the oil is to get the sludge out. Otherwise it builds up around the hottest parts of the engine's internals and keeps them even hotter than usual, which leads to failure.
Do what you want, it's your truck, but for anyone else reading this thread, change the damn oil once in a while. 5k-7.5k is fine for the vast majority of drivers. If you do a hell of a lot of hauling, idle your engine for hours on end, or want to try longer intervals, get a few oil samples done to determine a safe change frequency. Samples are cheap.
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