Another oil thread!

[The FNG]

I have been considering switching to synthetic oil for my next oil change just to try something different. Up to this point, I have been using Deloitte or NAPA 15w-40 regular Dino oil. I have heard good things about Shell Rotella T, so I've been considering that.

However, a guy I work with recently became an Amsoil rep and has been trying to sell me on it. That stuff is expensive! He's telling me I can go 9k (over double that in his new dodge) on an oil change an it's the best the industry has to offer. How f-ing crazy is that! I have a hard time believing there is some "magic" oil out there that lasts that long and improves your engine and that Amsoil is the only one that can do it.

Sorry for the millionth post about this, but school me! I'm not doubting it is good oil, but seriously.

 

[chris142]

Imo the only safe way to extend your oil changes is to send in a sample every *** miles.

 

[The FNG]

That would defeat any cost savings of oil changes in general. Oil lab tests are pricy. Seems like a better idea to just change on a regular interval.

 

[theguruat12]

I run the Rotella and it works great for me. I always wait for AutoZone to run their sale on it. They cycle what oil brand is on sale, and Rotella is normally $17.99 a gallon. On sale, it's $12.99 a gallon. I always wait until that to buy three jugs. I mean hey, it's $39 instead of $54.

 

[PwrSmoke]

I think you can go 9K but you can't without oil analysis at least the first few intervals. If your truck has a stable operational cycle that doesn't change muchfor the worse, once you establish some baselines, you don't need to UOA every time. But every truck is different... how worn it is, the driving cycle, climate... all effect how long the oil can run, regardless of type.

If you add bypass filtration you can go lots farther but you have to factor in all the costs (the oil the bypass system, etc). Anyway, crunch the numbers. The Amsoil for a 9K OCI (make it 10K to number crunch easier) vs a 4-5K interval on Rotella, Delo, or some other conventional oil. Factor in the number of quarts you KNOW the engine will use over that distance. If you use a FL1995 Powerstoke size filter, it's got the capacity to go the 9-10K distance.

The numbers didn't crunch for me. Mainly, the syn will last longer in service IF you have the filtration to go with it and a decent driving cycle. I have 3 micron bypass on my '86, with a semi-syn Rotella (10W30 T5... a group III syn vs Amsoil's "true" group IV PAO syn) and am currently on a 8K OCI after an engine overhaul. The oil tested good after 3K and I will test again at 5K. Might run 10K on conventional and maybe more. That will MORE than pay for the bypass... 10-15K on $3.70/qt oil vs $10/qt oil. I ran 15K on conventional (with bypass) with my gas truck, for Pete's sake, and could have gone another 5K at least. The IDI... who knows how far it can go. We have a resident Amsoil snob here, who is likely to chime in on this. On occasion, he makes some good points but never good enough points to make me, or most others here, what to drink from that coolaid pitcher. Amsoil makes the most sense for people who are on the road all the time and run incredible numbers of miles in a short time... 25-30K annually like. Constant use is where an oil like Amsoil makes the most sense because that situation is the easiest on oil. Commuting, short hops, lots of cold starts and partial warmups, those are the situations that kill oil... any oil. As I said, in equal operational situations, the difference in wear between a good conv. and a top dollar synis not huge, so it's hard to justify it from that standpoint. The syn can take more abuse in extreme cases but most of us don't work our truck hard enough to justify more than doubling the oil costs. Bottom line... for most of us, an expensive syn just isn't going to give a good return on the investment.

 

[chris142]

I have tried several different oil brands to see which burn less. The best in mine is the mobil delvac followed closely by walmarts super tech that may be made by mobil so it may be the same as delvac. Or it may be a warren product. Mine drank rotella and delo though

 

[CDX825]

Amsoil makes some great stuff! I am currently using their gear oil, transmission fluid and grease.

Their oil is good too but as Jim mentioned unless you plan on running it a long time you won't see the return of investment. If your seriously interested in amsoil look into getting a preferred customer account with them. Its like $20 a year and you get stuff at dealer cost so it pays for itself quickly.

Other than that I will mention I am running Rotella synthetic in my truck right now. Ive done it a couple winters now and it makes cold starts way easier. It also helps some with fuel economy.

 

[HS108]

This is just my opnion, but I think there will always be an oil debate. It is all just a matter of personal preference, just as people choose between a ford/chevy/dodge. McD/Burgerking coke/pepsi/Dr P etc etc

Humans have this wierd thing about if we like something, we want everyone else to like it, and agree with us.

Ive never lost a car becuase I was using the "wrong oil" Its either been wrecked, rotted out, or just became more costly to repair then it was worth, Ive never heard anyone after getting rid of thier car or truck say to me "if I only used "insert oil brand" I could have drove it a few more miles"

Put in what you like, and change when you feel comfortable changing it... plain and simple

With that being said, I run Rotella T 15w40 in my truck change at 5k or 1 yr which ever comes first, and im a Pennzoil man when it comes to my jeep and car

 

[racin460]

Castrol 15w40 is what our fleet at a junk yard runs 8 road tractors, 15 roll off trucks change every 15,000 and still no problems with oil... guess whats in mine? autozone just had it on sale today for $13.99 a gal.

 

[PwrSmoke]

This is just my opnion, but I think there will always be an oil debate. It is all just a matter of personal preference, just as people choose between a ford/chevy/dodge. McD/Burgerking coke/pepsi/Dr P etc etc

Humans have this wierd thing about if we like something, we want everyone else to like it, and agree with us.

Ive never lost a car becuase I was using the "wrong oil" Its either been wrecked, rotted out, or just became more costly to repair then it was worth, Ive never heard anyone after getting rid of thier car or truck say to me "if I only used "insert oil brand" I could have drove it a few more miles"

Put in what you like, and change when you feel comfortable changing it... plain and simple

With that being said, I run Rotella T 15w40 in my truck change at 5k or 1 yr which ever comes first, and im a Pennzoil man when it comes to my jeep and car

In one sense I agree with you. Pretty much any oil is "adequate." Most will keep your engine operating well under normal circumstances, the operational situations for which it was designed. Until you move closer to the outer edges of the engine operational parameters, just about anything you choose will be adequate. That said, there ARE differences in oil and choices you can make to detract from or enhance the life and operation of your engine. There is a broad leeway built into most engines, so many things "work" but when you look deeper, you can fine tune better for particular circumstances. I prefer to think my way though oil choices, not feel my way. I fully understand that warm, fuzzy feeling of "giving my truck a hug" in the form of a fresh oil change but I know enough now that the feeling is spoiled if I dump oil that I know is only half used up.

No matter what, if you follow the manufacturers recommendations on viscosity, you will never stray out of the "adequate" area. In our cases, with engines that are between 20 and 31 years old, the original API, and therefore the oil change interval recommendations, are way, way out of date. Modern oils can generally run significantly longer than, say, a 1983 oil, for example. A 1983 truck with 1983 oil in 1983 might have been pushing to go 5K/1 year unless the operational circumstances were just perfect. For todays oils, 5K and a year is a breeze. In most cases, a modern oil won't be broken down at that point, though it might be loaded with soot. It likely can go farther than 5K even so.

I also agree with the psychological point you made in the second line. Just remember that some of us push the science and not a brand name.

 

[riotwarrior]

I'll speak to this with some experience however slim or much it may be.

Oils be it synthetic and or dyno are adequate for most every day use. I've not heard of engine failure personally from bad oil, cheap oil, expensive oil or any oil.

I've heard of gear box and differential failure from cheap oil though, and one reason is how those oils are used and the different environment between gears/diff and engines!

For engines, first a whole lot depends on age, leaking or not and condition of engine and vehicle as it is.

If your engine is in good operational order, and you follow a decent oil change interval, you should see long life.

If you play the odds with inexpensive oils and long drain intervals to keep costs down, sludge and other problems will occur, again..this is an odds game.

Something I did for shitzngigglz was to freeze two bottles of oil in a deep freeze one Amsoil 15/40 diesel synthetic and one cheap dyno of same viscosity.

Upon removal of the two bottles after 48 hrs BTW household deep freeze...I noticed one bottle was more rigid than the other.

I'm taking this to what a truck sees at say -25C in winter parked for say couple days on a weekend and you gotta go to work Monday....

So I open the two brand new bottles and begin to pour, well the dyno oil I had to actually FORCE out by massaging the bottle hard squeezing the damn oil out.

The Amsoil though thick, did pour out on it's OWN!

That was for me a huge seller right there...not clinically accurate, not anything fancy, just frozen oil from a house hold deep freeze, both bottles NEW unopened until I removed them from the freezer.

It was that point for me that I was sold, AGAIN on Amsoil, because here in Canada we see cold winters, like lots of you in the US.

As for heat, I did an impromptu test in a couple of old pots and just covered the bottom of the pots with oil and used a small two burner hot plate to heat the oil/pots one went for ***** on the bottom of the pot and burnt the other just bubbled and changed colour slightly...no big change...

AGAIN SOLD but again...not clinically accurate testing...just real world observations, the cheap oil flashed off and burnt bad the Amsoil did not.

Gear oils, I've seen a reduction in rear diff temps on a race car using amsoil where ghetto oil would totally be way to hot an be near cooking seals etc.

Bottom line I"m for Amsoil all the way for the added protection it offers.

When I get a bypass setup I'll get my amsoil in use it.

NO I"M NOT AN AMSOIL DEALER I've just played with it many times. I was a dealer in about 82/3/4ish but not since!

So I'm hoping that this speaks to you.

However don't take my word, do some testing yourself, to determine for yourself.

Al

 

[HammerDown]

I have tried several different oil brands to see which burn less. The best in mine is the mobil delvac followed closely by walmarts super tech that may be made by mobil so it may be the same as delvac. Or it may be a warren product. Mine drank rotella and delo though

What are the chances Walmart Super Tech is the same oil as Mobil Delvac?

 

[cheap bronco]

I use the super tech, in all my vehicles. No matter how expensive your oil is, its still black when it comes out

 

[chris142]

A few yrs ago i sent in a used sample of st and compared its addatives to delvac and they were very close. There used to only be 2 companies that supplied wm with oil and they were warren and exxonmobil. Looks like wm is using citco now too.

 

[needlenose]

FWIW, to echo RiotWarrior, I lived next door to a guy for 15 years as a youngster who's brother was an independant laboratory technician. He would not tell me what org it was, but said it's one that participates in those ambigious "studies" put out by the AARP and such. Something about exclusive access to manufacturing information. He told me that they found all filters are within a minute fraction of quality from each other. Unless you are running a completely separate aftermarket filtration system, any filter will do the job. The most beneficial thing they found was to change the oil on schedule and use a new filter every time.

He said that each oil company puts out these little "urban myths" about how engines which have used their oil have survived "dry" runs (someone forgot to refill it). He said none of these had ever been substantiated. Running an engine without oil will always result in significant damage. The fact it will run afterwards is a testement to the engineering quality of the engine, not the oil. According to his brother, excluding extreme conditions, clean ordinary oil in the appropriate viscosity performs just as well as a high-end oil with "additives". His brother told them that all their research showed that cleanliness, consistency, and responsible driving habits will determine the life of the engine. Not the $8 per quart vs the $5 per quart.