YACT: whats the best engine oil to use.

[mastertech01]

What ever brand you use, use the recommended grade of your engines manufacturer. Todays engines can be manufactured with extremely close tolerances and you dont want to just dump 20/50 in it. You could seriously shorten its normal life cycle. Driving conditions can be a serious factor as well.

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: mastertech01
What ever brand you use, use the recommended grade of your engines manufacturer. Todays engines can be manufactured with extremely close tolerances and you dont want to just dump 20/50 in it. You could seriously shorten its normal life cycle. Driving conditions can be a serious factor as well.

You must also consider the enviroment your car is in, for example, cold or hot. The manufactures recomendations are a good starting point, but not the sole thing to abide by. Most of the cars I see nowadays are taking 5w-30 and some are taking 5w-20 (ford and honda). Most 10w-30 from the same manufacturer will have a better sheer viscosity stability than their 5w-30. I agree that dumping 20w-50 into a car without the cars drving and environment conditions into consideration isn't the smartest thing to do. it's not reallt that the engines are made to such exacting tolerances, rather that the heavier weights of oil will not flow properly to certain parts of the engine, therefore creating a lubrication problem. This is especially important to regard when thinking about cold-startup on an engine. The first few minutes or seconds of an engines' start are crucial, as oil pressure must stabilize, and, the oil has to flow to the parts of the engine to lubricate them; a problem if the oil is too thick when cold.

 

[Lithium381]

Originally posted by: Vic Hell, the average person doesn't even wait 10 seconds after cold starting for the oil to circulate through the engine before starting off. And they certainly aren't going to pop the hood at a crowded gas station and check the oil every other fill-up!

I personally wait at least 30 seconds after a cold start, most of the time a minute or two; almost always done it, and i'm surpised when other people just start up and go....I've got a slight oil leak somewhere, about a pint every oil change, so it's not that much to it.....been changing my own oil for years now, just do it whenever i feel like it . I think i do it a bit more than i REALLY need to, but i'm running 240k miles on my engine......want to keep her lubed up :Q.
I've been using fram filters this whole time too! what's so bad about fram? just overpriced for what you get?

 

[CraigRT]

I use Mobil1 10w30 synthetic in my car... just changed it this morning infact

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: Lithium381

Originally posted by: Vic Hell, the average person doesn't even wait 10 seconds after cold starting for the oil to circulate through the engine before starting off. And they certainly aren't going to pop the hood at a crowded gas station and check the oil every other fill-up!

I've been using fram filters this whole time too! what's so bad about fram? just overpriced for what you get?

ntpog
Oil filter study

Not only overpriced for what you get, but of poor build quality.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Vic
The only real benefit of the 3k interval is that the average person never checks their own oil. Hell, the average person doesn't even wait 10 seconds after cold starting for the oil to circulate through the engine before starting off. And they certainly aren't going to pop the hood at a crowded gas station and check the oil every other fill-up!
So, while ALL cars will consume at least a small amount of oil, it is unlikely that any car in good running condition would ever burn more than 1-2 quarts in 3,000 miles, so the I-don't-check-my-oil crowd will never run dry and blow up their engine as long as they drive through the Jiffy Lube every 3,000 miles.

At 217,000 miles on a steady diet of Castrol dino oil my Accord was still not losing enough oil between oil changes (3,000 miles) for there to be a perceptible change in the level recorded on the dipstick. Dipstick read at the full mark one day after the oil change and it read at full right before I would change the oil.

When I bought the 924S, it was leaking about one pint every 1,000 miles through the cam tower gasket but as I began to drive the car (previous owner had let the car just sit) the leak slowed and it has since stopped losing oil. I was most happy about that since changing the $6 gasket requires all the same labor as changing the timing belt.

ZV

 

[trmiv]

I use mobil 1 in my street car (2002 Maxima SE). But in my race car (400 ci small block chevy on alcohol, close to 700 horsepower), we use 20w-50 Valvoline Racing dino oil. In the race car we change the oil after every race, so it get a little expensive to use synthentic when you're changing 7 quarts 18 times a season. Plus, only Royal Purple works with alcohol engines well, and that stuff is EXPENSIVE.

BTW, one of the best oil filters you can buy are NAPA Gold. They are made by Wix, excellent filters. We use the NAPA racing filters on the race car.

 

[flood]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: Vic
Valvoline Full Synthetic 5W-30 is what I use.

Weight varies by engine. Never a good idea to deviate from the recommended weight for the engine, nor to use one weight of oil just because someone else uses it.

Oil weight recommendations for my cars:

Mark VIII: 5w30

924S: 20w50

914: 30w or 15w50

Accord (sold): 10w30

Nighthawk 450 motorcycle: 15w50

ZV

Do you autocross those Porsches?

I run mobil1 in my daily driver and my track car (87 325is w/~190k).

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: flood
Weight varies by engine. Never a good idea to deviate from the recommended weight for the engine, nor to use one weight of oil just because someone else uses it.

Oil weight recommendations for my cars:

Mark VIII: 5w30

924S: 20w50

914: 30w or 15w50

Accord (sold): 10w30

Nighthawk 450 motorcycle: 15w50

ZV

Do you autocross those Porsches?

I run mobil1 in my daily driver and my track car (87 325is w/~190k).[/quote] *imagines autocrossing the 914, parts falling off everywhere*

The 914 is not in condition to autocross. Right now the master cylinder is just beginning to get flaky (firm/soft/firm/soft/etc) and I'm basically just trying to keep it driveable and have some fun with it until I can take it all apart once I get out of college and have a place of my own instead of my grandfather's barn.

The 924S was my daily for a long time and it's going to be my winter car since the Mark VIII is incredibly bad in rain/snow. I'd autocross the 924S if I could afford tires for it all the time. But I can't, so I don't.

ZV

 

[flood]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

I'd autocross the 924S if I could afford tires for it all the time. But I can't, so I don't.

ZV

Falken Azenis Sport - $40/tire at vulcantire.com
9/10 dry traction
3/10 wet traction :frown:
Incredible traction in the dry, and they wear pretty well too. Being in Seattle, I know all about the wet traction shortfall of this tire though.

 

[m2kewl]

5w30 mobil1

oil/filter change per 5k miles

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: jumpr
If you've been using dino (non-synthetic) oil for a long time and your car's pretty old, then putting synthetic in could (COULD, not WILL) cause oil leaks, since it's much more viscous and lubricating than regular oil.

?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I use whatever the shops give me. They know more about it than I do.

 

[flood]

Interesting...
My 325 was losing oil at a rate of 1quart every 1k mi. Previous owner noted it and ran dino oil. I switched to synthetic as soon as I got it... but was still losing at the same rate.
I was prepping for autocrossing tomorrow and noticed that since my last oil change, I havent lost a *single* drop of oil. This is on the 2nd synthetic oil change.
It has always driven very well, pulling very hard from 3.5k to redline, does not drip in my garage, exhaust is clear,and when I got it emissioned, it was very clean. Coolant looks good too.

 

[LAUST]

unless you got forced induction or a 12:1 compression engine I would not bother with Syn.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: jumpr
If you've been using dino (non-synthetic) oil for a long time and your car's pretty old, then putting synthetic in could (COULD, not WILL) cause oil leaks, since it's much more viscous and lubricating than regular oil.

?

This has been proven due to the detergents and whatever.

As an engine ages the seals slowly open up...as this happens oil slips in and 'seals' them (bad analogy...but in practice you find this).

Now add a nice syn oil and it cleans you up nice and also those 'false' seals. Quite often with a dino-oil only car of 100k+ and the first or second change of synthetic, a leaky main or rear seal, more oil consumption, and possible even a head leak. This doesn't mean it's bad, it fact it means the oil is quite good.

However with a 3000 mile change interval you could probably get equal performance from the worst of oils.

 

[KK]

Astroglide. j/k I use valvoline 10w30 on the taurus and ranger, and castrol 5w20 on the windstar.

KK

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: flood
Interesting...
My 325 was losing oil at a rate of 1quart every 1k mi. Previous owner noted it and ran dino oil. I switched to synthetic as soon as I got it... but was still losing at the same rate.
I was prepping for autocrossing tomorrow and noticed that since my last oil change, I havent lost a *single* drop of oil. This is on the 2nd synthetic oil change.
It has always driven very well, pulling very hard from 3.5k to redline, does not drip in my garage, exhaust is clear,and when I got it emissioned, it was very clean. Coolant looks good too.

how was it losing it before? a Leak or Burning it off?

 

[flood]

Originally posted by: LAUST

Originally posted by: flood
Interesting...
My 325 was losing oil at a rate of 1quart every 1k mi. Previous owner noted it and ran dino oil. I switched to synthetic as soon as I got it... but was still losing at the same rate.
I was prepping for autocrossing tomorrow and noticed that since my last oil change, I havent lost a *single* drop of oil. This is on the 2nd synthetic oil change.
It has always driven very well, pulling very hard from 3.5k to redline, does not drip in my garage, exhaust is clear,and when I got it emissioned, it was very clean. Coolant looks good too.

how was it losing it before? a Leak or Burning it off?

I could not tell. Underside of the car is oily, but it's always been that way. It does not drip on to my garage floor.
I'm guessing that means it was burning it off, but the emissions tester guy said he was suprised how cleanly it was running. No purple smoke of any sort.
A possibility is that it was leaking at freeway speeds.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: her209
synthetic. mobil 1

Best,is synthetic,

Amsoil is real good too.