Synthetic Oil Discussion / Which Synthetic Oil?

Verrucktwolf · Post by **Verrucktwolf** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:51 am

Not sure if this has been asked and answered or not as I basically skimmed through this thread, but does anyone know how Royal Purple Synthetic performs in our cars? One of my buddies has a '06 Cummins pushing 900 rwhp and all he's used it Royal Purple.

I change my oil and filter ever 3500 miles religiously, so would it be worth the extra $ or just stick with Mobil 1 and a Purolator filter?

SCXJ220 · Post by **SCXJ220** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:32 pm

IMO, the most worthwhile upgrade would be to use Lucas oil stabalizer. It replaces 1 QT of your oil and is supposed to help minimize dry starts. I know my car always seems quiter with it, although that could be the $16 spent on it plugging my ears.

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:01 pm

The Lucas stabilizer makes it cling to the surfaces better, but inside the bearing caps/journals, it will be there without additives at cold start up, just not immediately under pressure.

Casper, my 1gn, has not been started since March 26th. It is still dripping oil from the engine. I pulled the pan, and it looked bone dry in there, so I took the pan to work and cleaned it up. Got back the next day, and there was oil everywhere. The sides of the block are still bone dry.

It all must have drained from the pick up, or the bearings. I let the plug out of the pan, and put a catch pan there, and even 3 days later oil was dripping out.

So most of the crap they say about there being no oil at the bearings on cold starts is pretty much BS. It is basically a marketing tool.

If you want true protection at cold starts, get an accumulator, and open it just before start up. you will have pressurized oil in the lube system, before it even turns.

For those that don't know, an accumulator is a tank with a bladder that holds pressurized nitrogen, or air. The engine oil pump fills it with oil pushing the bladder back. On turbo applications, it pushes the oil back to the pan after shut down. To use it for pre oiling, a solenoid valve would need to be installed to hold the pressurized oil until you want to release it. (Unless you want to open the hood and turn a valve)

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 1:07 am

So I just went about 12k miles on the mobil 1 high mileage oil and the bosch distance plus filter. Been running good with very little oil consumption, never had to add any.

I noticed my gas mileage dropping this month so I guess it's time for new plugs and an oil change. Going with the mobil 1 extended this time since it was $25 for a 5gal. jug at walmart, the high mileage was sold out.

Gonna use the regular bosch filter this time and just change it out after 5k miles or so.

Post by **racer12306** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:51 am

I like Lucas, the company (can't go wrong with a man like Forest Lucas) and the products, but on a modern car that oil stabilizer is useless. Like Bill said, there really isn't such a thing as dry starts when using modern oil.

SN oil is some serious stuff. Almost makes it pointless to go synthetic.

Personally, I'm using either Pennzoil Platnum or Quaker State Ultimate Durability or Horsepower on 1 year intervals in my Neon. Think I used a Purolator PureOne, could have been just a Purolator Classic. Can't remember since it was months ago that it was changed.

Now in our Town and Country, I am using Pennzoil Ultra. Just completed a 5000 mile interval and plan to run another 5000 mile interval and sample to see how the engine is and how the oil is holding up after 5000. Then I'll kick it out to 7500-10000 depending on the results of that sample. Currently using Wix filters because Wix is awesome and there are about 4 filter options for the Pentastar engine.

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:05 am

So most of the crap they say about there being no oil at the bearings on cold starts is pretty much BS. It is basically a marketing tool.

To clarify, that was not specifically directed at Lucas, more towards some of the other products out there, that make it sound like you are grinding metal to metal on every start up. OMG, WTF are you doing to your engine! Idiots, buy THIS. Hurry!

But then, a lot of those products are no longer around....

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:11 am

occasional demons wrote:
So most of the crap they say about there being no oil at the bearings on cold starts is pretty much BS. It is basically a marketing tool.
To clarify, that was not specifically directed at Lucas, more towards some of the other products out there, that make it sound like you are grinding metal to metal on every start up. OMG, WTF are you doing to your engine! Idiots, buy THIS. Hurry!

But then, a lot of those products are no longer around....

Yep.

In 1997, three subsidiaries of Quaker State Corp. (the makers of Slick 50) settled Federal Trade Commission charges that ads for Quaker State's Slick 50 Engine Treatment were false and unsubstantiated. According to the FTC complaint, claims such as the following made in Slick 50 ads falsely represented that without Slick 50, auto engines generally have little or no protection from wear at start-up and commonly experience premature failure caused by wear:

"Every time you cold start your car without Slick 50 protection, metal grinds against metal in your engine."

"With each turn of the ignition you do unseen damage, because at cold start-up most of the oil is down in the pan. But Slick 50's unique chemistry bonds to engine parts. It reduces wear up to 50% for 50,000 miles."

"What makes Slick 50 Automotive Engine Formula different is an advanced chemical support package designed to bond a specially activated PTFE to the metal in your engine."

In fact, the FTC said, "most automobile engines are adequately protected from wear at start-up when they use motor oil as recommended in the owner's manual. Moreover, it is uncommon for engines to experience premature failure caused by wear, whether they have been treated with Slick 50 or not."

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:25 am

The infomercial I liked best was the one that they ran water in/through an old slant six. I don't think it was Slick 50 tho.

I mean shit, it's a slant six. It ain't gonna die as long as there is something lubricating it. An old engine has enough oil saturated into the bearngs to keep it running for a while anyways. The water just kept it cool enough to keep the metal from heating up.

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:39 am

New bit of info published:

http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013PCMO ... efinl.html

Makes a strong case for Quaker State Ultimate Durability, Pennzoil Platnum or Pennzoil Ultra, in my opinion.

Post by **jonnymopar** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:55 pm

I'm actually quite surprised at how similar Mobil 1 is to Castrol Edge, considering the huge difference in results I've had between these two oils.

Mobil 1: missing enough oil at 5000 miles to trip an oil light under hard braking/corners.
Castrol: less than 2 quarts down in 7000 miles.

Post by **racer12306** » Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:23 pm

Especially considering that Mobil 1 has a better NOACK number

Post by **jonnymopar** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:15 am

No idea. I always had good luck with regular Castrol GTX, even in high-mileage engines. So I tried the Edge when Mobil 1 let me down. 40000+ miles later, I still have no reason to look elsewhere.

Random question, is it considered haz-mat to ship any quantity of petroleum products, or is there a certain minimum? Even though I couldn't chemically analyze used oil, I could do some viscosity tests with some used oil samples from people.

Post by **racer12306** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 12:45 pm

It is not considered hazmat.

It is fully legal to ship any of the oil sample kits that are available (about 3-4oz of oil) without special considerations.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/postal-letter.php

luke9511 · Post by **luke9511** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:56 pm

Is there anything that needs to be done if I wanted to switch from regular oil to synth oil?

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:25 am

Drain, change the filter (optional), and refill. All automotive engine oils are 100% compatible. It is not like the old days when synthetic was first developed.

Tho if you have any oil leaks, the synthetic oil will ether find them, or they will leak worse.

luke9511 · Post by **luke9511** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:19 am

occasional demons wrote:Drain, change the filter (optional), and refill. All automotive engine oils are 100% compatible. It is not like the old days when synthetic was first developed.

Tho if you have any oil leaks, the synthetic oil will ether find them, or they will leak worse.

right now no leaks though i do need to change the timing belt

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:14 pm

great info!

Post by **jonnymopar** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:33 am

Definitely some good info here. I'm glad this thread randomly makes it back to the top.

So, in my old age, I got cheap for a second and put in 5 quarts of Mobil 1 that I had a coupon for. Same damn crap as I saw over 60,000+ miles ago. The car doesn't leak. The car doesn't smoke. But Mobil 1 just magically goes away! Either it's junk oil, or the oil gnomes in my garage like Mobil 1 better and they steal some each night while I'm sleeping. Sneaky bastids.

Give me my Castrol!

renegade83 · Post by **renegade83** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:49 am

jonnymopar wrote:The car doesn't leak. The car doesn't smoke. But Mobil 1 just magically goes away!

Same issue I had when running mobil 1 in my Yukon XL. I had the mobil 1 Extended Performance that's good for 15,000 miles. I had originally planned to change it at 10,000 and send a sample in to be tested. Well....I kinda screwed up, I had the wrong number in my head when I got to 15,000 I thought it was 10,000, and I was like screw it I'll go the 15,000.

Well last week I realized I was actually at 19,000 on the oil! So I changed it and I'm giving the Pennzoil Platinum a try, put it in my neon as well (wife wasn't too happy about me spending nearly $80.00 on oil and filters lol.) I took a sample and I'm sending it in to see how good it actually was. I'll do the same with the Pennzoil (at 10,000 miles this time lol).

But in the 19,000 miles the mobil 1 extended performance was in my Yukon I believe I added 3 quarts. I hear I won't be having that issue with the Pennzoil Platinum. Time will tell.

theColonel · Post by **theColonel** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:57 pm

jonnymopar wrote:Definitely some good info here. I'm glad this thread randomly makes it back to the top.

Give me my Castrol!

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:58 am

ok. so i'm taking my car for an oil change next week =)

i've seen alot of good things about mob1 and thats what i'm currently running 5-30

the car is at 96k, i used to have a 1st gen neon and turned it to synthethic at 100k

I really want to go to synthethic, any tips or suggestions? =)

renegade83 · Post by **renegade83** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 8:52 pm

neongirl87 wrote:
I really want to go to synthethic, any tips or suggestions? =)

Yep, stay away from Mobil 1 synthetic. Unless you want to add a couple quarts between oil changes. I've read that a lot of people have that issue with mobil 1 synthetic and not with Pennzoil Platinum which is what I'm giving a try now.

neongirl87 · Post by **neongirl87** » Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:35 pm

renegade83 wrote:
neongirl87 wrote:
I really want to go to synthethic, any tips or suggestions? =)
Yep, stay away from Mobil 1 synthetic. Unless you want to add a couple quarts between oil changes. I've read that a lot of people have that issue with mobil 1 synthetic and not with Pennzoil Platinum which is what I'm giving a try now.

hmmm.... i take my car to a local oil shop (valvoline) and they put mob1 5-30 on the car =/ now that i think about it, when I crank the car to start, there's like a 1 second grind/screech upon start

after that the, car starts up, it drives fine

what could that be? it has brand new belts and tune up and anything you can think of lol