Engine oil, whats your poison?

[Payback45]

I was wondering what you all think when it comes to engine oil. What do you recommend? What do you use? Is the more expensive better? What about Royal Purple's HP and TQ claims?

02 Legacy GT

[Reason]

I used Mobil 1 and Royal purple in my Legacy. Any brand can make claims. I say try using different brands to see what works best for your car, same with gas.

[Huffer]

I use Valvoline, Shell, Castrol, Mobil 1 in a variety of different vehicles and times of year.

My BD has had all of the above in 5w30, 10w40, mineral, semi-synth flavors.

I favor Castrol because it's semi-synth blend is typically cheaper than other major brands, and it does the job.

I'm currently running my wifes Accord on Castrol Syntec full-synth, same with my BK wagon.

Synthetic oil will allow a better release of HP/TQ because of the better friction properties - but ultimately you want an oil that will protect the engine and won't break down too fast.

[Payback45]

So does anyone notice a difference with different oils?

[Huffer]

Not really.
I notice a difference going from dino/mineral to full synth, and I did notice a difference going from a light viscosity oil to a heavier one. Less piston slap, no minor oil leaks.

[Payback45]

so this time of year what oil should I be running? I live in Maryland

[Huffer]

If your temps only go between -20 to 100deg, you could run 10w30 or 10w40 year round.

you could also run 5w30 year round too.

Are you even reading anything that I've written?

[Payback45]

yes i am

[warrior]

Are you even reading anything that I've written?

LOL.. oh Huffer, you can sound so mean sometimes!

I always used Castrol Higher Mileage but as of late Valvoline has released a max life higher mileage synthetic blend.. first time using it but lets see what happens!

I find with the higher mileage oils, my car doesn't 'eat' as much oil. :grin:

[Reason]

I use 5-30w in the winter and 10-30 in the summer. As for Castrol I'm using the syntec blend in my Neon. I usually use that or Castrol high mileage in all my other cars.

[Sarra]

I use Mobile 1 synthetic.

[vtlegacy95]

Valvoline high mileage 10w30 year around

[SPR]

i read something on royal purple on how its not good for normal cars. its designed for high performance race engines that get torn down often and rebuilt. something about the way its made to work doesnt do good on our "normal" engines. ive always strayed from it. and just ran a name brand synthetic, basically whatever is cheaper, oil is oil its not the biggest thing you need to worry about.

[Huffer]

Are you even reading anything that I've written?

LOL.. oh Huffer, you can sound so mean sometimes!

Yeah, I know. I guess I just get tired of the same old posts - especially when we're saying that it doesn't matter what major brand you use, as long as it meets the API specs, temp range and you use the right amount.

It's not rocket science! :)

[Reason]

Oil is just oil?? lol That's a new concept. :lol:

[AJM]

Conventinal sucks. Period.


I've used mobil 1 and it doesn't compare to the Royal treatment. :grin:

Really, I found that royal Purple does last longer for me anyway...

[SPR]

Oil is just oil?? lol That's a new concept. :lol:

what i ment was mobile 1 synthetic is just as good as castrol synthetic. its going to protect your car just as good as the next one.

[sharky nrk]

I use 15w50 Mobil 1 in the WRX and have for a while, has worked really well for me. The Leg normally gets a syn blend 10w30

I have tried pretty much every kinda oil you can buy in some form of vehicle or another and honestly almost every oil that is in the same price bracket seems compareable. Its just a brand and weight preference at that point.

[overl0ad]

i went from motul 8100 to the v300 stuff.

i think it revs a little better now. just seems to come up quicker when no load.

[TRUBLU]

becareful about running 10w40 in HIGH mileage. I ran it for awhile in my high mileage EJ25 (170,xxx) and it had trouble getting the thick oil uipto the heads and maintain a solid oil pressure.

[jeremod]

I just switched to mobil 1 extended life. 12 months or 15,000 miles is nice when you're in college.

[Huffer]

I just switched to mobil 1 extended life. 12 months or 15,000 miles is nice when you're in college.

Yeah, I doubt those claims... I'd like to see an UOA on the oil after 3000miles..

[dplacencia]

I use castol 10w-40 all year round and I use premium gas on my subie. :wink:

[sharky nrk]

I would never let oil stay in the car for 12 months or 15k, I swap my Mobil1 at 3k regardless of the claims. IMHO dino changed every 3k > synthetic changed ever 15k

[TRUBLU]

lol @ 15,000 miles. Shame a filter can't last that long! There is a company up here where you spend about 160-170 on the 15,000 mi oil change. But every 3-4,000 miles you need to bring the car back in so they can swap the filter and pour in an extra quart of oil to repllace the additive packages that should be in there....seems like a waste of time.

I pour full syn into the wifes Saturna nd screw on a heavy duty filter and call it quits for the next 5,000 miles.

Subaru gets Hi Mi oil with the same filter and is swapped out every 2500-3,000 miles.

[jey]

I use Mobile 1 synthetic.

Same here.

[AussieDan]

I've used both royal purple and mobil 1. I can't really say that there is a difference either way with certainty, though the royal purple does seem to quiet down the valvetrain a bit compared to the mobil1.

I tend to stick to 10w30.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Just toss in 3.whatever quarts of 10w-40 and a quart of marvelous mystery oil and call her done. I need the thicker oil or my HLA's will start clacking at 2000 miles.

Oh and purolator filters FTW.

[Reason]

You toss in a qt of Mystery oil?

[Sarra]

lol @ 15,000 miles. Shame a filter can't last that long! There is a company up here where you spend about 160-170 on the 15,000 mi oil change. But every 3-4,000 miles you need to bring the car back in so they can swap the filter and pour in an extra quart of oil to repllace the additive packages that should be in there....seems like a waste of time.

I pour full syn into the wifes Saturna nd screw on a heavy duty filter and call it quits for the next 5,000 miles.

Subaru gets Hi Mi oil with the same filter and is swapped out every 2500-3,000 miles.

Supposedly, if you were to run a much larger filter, you could run a 15k oil change interval. I have yet to find an oil filter with the same threading and gasket as the stock one, though. Wish I could.

[Huffer]

Supposedly, if you were to run a much larger filter, you could run a 15k oil change interval. I have yet to find an oil filter with the same threading and gasket as the stock one, though. Wish I could.

That doesn't make sense. Even a bigger filter will still only filter the larger particles - when the oil turns black, that's because the oil has been contaminated. If filters really did a great job, you would find much less discoloration in the used oil - because the filters would catch everything.

Filters can't filter everything because they would restrict oil flow too much.

[Sarra]

Supposedly, if you were to run a much larger filter, you could run a 15k oil change interval. I have yet to find an oil filter with the same threading and gasket as the stock one, though. Wish I could.

That doesn't make sense. Even a bigger filter will still only filter the larger particles - when the oil turns black, that's because the oil has been contaminated. If filters really did a great job, you would find much less discoloration in the used oil - because the filters would catch everything.

Filters can't filter everything because they would restrict oil flow too much.

Well, that's the weird part. The larger filter has more surface area, so it would filter better. I don't think real world performance matches theory though. I've never tried it, and probably never will. But, a larger filter distributes the oil pressure more evenly, so at a higher rpm, you still get filtering. It would be more efficient than a smaller filter, but I have no idea to what degree.

[Huffer]

Supposedly, if you were to run a much larger filter, you could run a 15k oil change interval. I have yet to find an oil filter with the same threading and gasket as the stock one, though. Wish I could.

That doesn't make sense. Even a bigger filter will still only filter the larger particles - when the oil turns black, that's because the oil has been contaminated. If filters really did a great job, you would find much less discoloration in the used oil - because the filters would catch everything.

Filters can't filter everything because they would restrict oil flow too much.

Well, that's the weird part. The larger filter has more surface area, so it would filter better. I don't think real world performance matches theory though. I've never tried it, and probably never will. But, a larger filter distributes the oil pressure more evenly, so at a higher rpm, you still get filtering. It would be more efficient than a smaller filter, but I have no idea to what degree.

The larger filter might have more filtering surface area, but the actual FILTERING is still the same as the regular filter - this is because of the filter process. It's the same as a fishing net. Using a bigger net with the same size holes just means you've got a better chance of catching more of the big fish, but because the holes (filter) aren't "smaller" then you're still going to miss all of the smaller fish.

The black oil that comes out of the pan is all the smaller particles the oil filter misses.
having a larger filter that has a greater capacity to filter MORE oil is still going to have the same problems filtering as a smaller filter.

[Strakes]

2002 GT Wagon: Lubro-Moly Voll-Synthese 5W40 full synthetic. My BMW friends swear by this stuff and my GT has been very happy with it. Our 93 Legacy gets 15W40 Chevron Delo 400. I use WIX or Napa Gold filters. Used to use Mobil 1 in my old Volvos and that was a good oil as well.

[Plays_with_Toys]

Wait... you're using diesel oil on your 93 legacy?

[Huffer]

Wait... you're using diesel oil on your 93 legacy?

Not a problem if the diesel oil meets API specs for gasoline engines.

[Strakes]

Wait... you're using diesel oil on your 93 legacy?

Yup...been using it for about 90,000 miles now. It is approved for gas engines as well.

[Plays_with_Toys]

I imagine your car doesn't get lifter tick does it?

[Strakes]

Nope...no lifter tick. In our climate the 2.2 has been really happy with this oil. And it falls in the range of what the owner's manual calls for. For the 93, it says the low range is 10W and the high 50W. The 2002, the owners manual allows 5W on the low viscosity side of multi-viscosity oils.