Best oil?

[shady]

Alright, I know where this will probably go buuutt,,,,

Whats the best engine oil to use?

We had a thread a while ago about the best oil filter. Ended up WIX hands down. So now whats your opinions on oil.

 

[smier]

I vote for mobil 1, my uncle has been using mobil's synthetics in his fleet of service vans for close to twenty years and his company runs them until they get 250k to 300k miles without major engine problems changing the oil every 7500 miles. I change mine every 5000. You can usually get a deal at the chain stores (5 quarts and a filter for $25 to $29), if you watch for a sale. You can run more miles between oil changes than regular oil, so it actually is cheaper than regular motor oil. Mobil 1 is easily found everywhere, even some gas stations if your in a bind. I'm sure some will say there are better quality synthetics than mobil 1, but I don't want to deal with ordering them or the expense. This stuff works great from my experience.

 

[63chevyll]

Good points about Mobile.

I'll keep it simple and vote

 

[jekquistk5]

Delvac

 

[AJMBLAZER]

What's the engine and criteria?

I run Shell Rotella T in my diesel and currently either Valvoline or Mobil 1 synthetic in the Tracker's engine.

I generally prefer Valvoline for dino goo regular gas engines and used to exclusively run Mobil 1 synthetic in engines that required synthetic. A while back I noticed the Valvoline synthetic, that it was rather cheaper, and based on my past history with the brand decided to give it a whirl. Seems to be working well.
These Suzuki engines have issues with sludging and this creating timing gear issues. The most accepted form of prevention is 5w30 synthetic, a good filter, and 3000 mile oil changes. Has worked well for me.

 

[shady]

I personally use Shell Rotella synthetic 5w-40 currently. I'm willing to change if its not to a real expensive alternative. I'm old school about 3-5k mi MAX. I cant get myself to do the 8-10k thing no matter what the oil says.

The best examlpe of oil I've ever seen was my old T-bird It was an 88 serviced at ford and had Motorcraft its WHOLE life. My parents used it cause of the ferd thing. We changed the valve cover gaskets at 185k and the motor looked BRAND NEW. no crap or sludge, just pretty. Car drove its self into the scrap yard at 268k with a great v6 and heavy body damage.

 

[Cornfield creations]

I always find these interesting, as everything posted is based on opinion, and who said what about their engines.

Essentially, run a good certified oil, as they all have to meet specifications, or they don't get certified, run a maintenance schedule, change your oil, and be happy.

If you wanna get really technical, check out
bobistheoilguy.com

Those people have too much time on their hands the look beyond the specs.

 

[Bowtie85]

I run what ever's on sale usually.

It seems to work just fine, like fram filters............

 

[wasted wages]

Valvoline for all my gas engines....

Shell Rotella T for the Cummins...

Royal Purple in all the drive components....

Done.

 

[shady]

I always find these interesting, as everything posted is based on opinion, and who said what about their engines.

Essentially, run a good certified oil, as they all have to meet specifications, or they don't get certified, run a maintenance schedule, change your oil, and be happy.

If you wanna get really technical, check out
bobistheoilguy.com

Those people have too much time on their hands the look beyond the specs.

Your pretty much right about all oils and the maintenance schedule. I'm curious to see what the winner of the poll is though.

I run what ever's on sale usually.

It seems to work just fine, like fram filters............

Kinda what I've been doing till recently. including the frams Never had an engine fail yet. this'll still be interesting. Everybody has said shell for diesel, but why not gas? its fine for both and has the right zinc levels for flat tappet cams. comp cams even recomends it for them?

 

[gotblazers]

I work at goodyear and we use Valvoline exclusively (likely because we have a contract with them and they gave us the best price ) and carquest brand filters. No idea of the quality of the filters though. Anybody know anything about carquest filters? its likely a rebrand of someone elses filter i just dont know who.

 

[blazinzuk]

I find baby oil is the best, the others are harder to get out of the sheets..............................................oh wait sorry this is not the pig pen

 

[aceinco]

Got Zinc???

I've used this site in the recent past as a reference as there is LOTS of great info here... I bought my first ever Blazer last week... a 1978 K5 Cheyenne... it's a great little truck and I'm super proud of her, but it runs like crap... so I decided the best fix was a top end rebuild with new cam, intake, and headers... and a complete tune up and carb rebuild (my wife thought it was overkill but seemed reasonable to me)... the lady I bought it from put an Edelbrock 600cfm quadrajet on it but didn't tune it and left a few vacuum lines off or loose... so, I picked up my new Comp Cams camshaft and lifters yesterday and the dude at the shop said I couldn't use ANY of the off-the-shelf oils to break it in or run it after break in... he informed me that the API (American Petroleum Institute) changed standards about a year ago that reduced the zinc and phosphorus content by half in order to extend the life of the catalytic converters in newer cars (and didn't tell anyone about it!), and since the newer cars all run roller cams or over-head cams, the wear isn't a problem with these cars... now, I thought the guy was just trying to be slick (pun intended) to upsell me on some exorbitantly priced oil because he knew he had me by the short and curlies... so I shelled (another pun) out another $150 for 5qts of break-in oil and a case of 15w-50... when I got home, I fired up the old internet and started researching it... turns out, the guy was right (I figured he probably was, he runs a reputable machine shop here in "the Springs")... in the past 12-18 months engine builders have been seeing an alarming rate of camshaft failure due to the low zinc and phosphorous content in the new API standard oils... the engines most at risk are older flat-tappet (hydraulic and solid) cam motors with a valve lift beyond stock or a rev range beyond stock... basically any pre-2000, high performance push-rod motor... which, I assume, most folks on this site likely own... so, just a heads up... here's a link to a decent article on the topic (doh! ... you'll have to search for it, I'm not allowed to post URLs here yet because I'm new)... enjoy, and happy wheeling!

... the site is called enginebuildermag dot com... the story is called "Performance oils and additives: Got Zinc?"...

by the way... the oil I bought was called "Joe Gibbs" racing oil... another decent oil seems to be something called "Brad Penn"... both available at retailers in C.S. and Denver

 

[blazinzuk]

I've used this site in the recent past as a reference as there is LOTS of great info here... I bought my first ever Blazer last week... a 1978 K5 Cheyenne... it's a great little truck and I'm super proud of her, but it runs like crap... so I decided the best fix was a top end rebuild with new cam, intake, and headers... and a complete tune up and carb rebuild (my wife thought it was overkill but seemed reasonable to me)... the lady I bought it from put an Edelbrock 600cfm quadrajet on it but didn't tune it and left a few vacuum lines off or loose... so, I picked up my new Comp Cams camshaft and lifters yesterday and the dude at the shop said I couldn't use ANY of the off-the-shelf oils to break it in or run it after break in... he informed me that the API (American Petroleum Institute) changed standards about a year ago that reduced the zinc and phosphorus content by half in order to extend the life of the catalytic converters in newer cars (and didn't tell anyone about it!), and since the newer cars all run roller cams or over-head cams, the wear isn't a problem with these cars... now, I thought the guy was just trying to be slick (pun intended) to upsell me on some exorbitantly priced oil because he knew he had me by the short and curlies... so I shelled (another pun) out another $150 for 5qts of break-in oil and a case of 15w-50... when I got home, I fired up the old internet and started researching it... turns out, the guy was right (I figured he probably was, he runs a reputable machine shop here in "the Springs")... in the past 12-18 months engine builders have been seeing an alarming rate of camshaft failure due to the low zinc and phosphorous content in the new API standard oils... the engines most at risk are older flat-tappet (hydraulic and solid) cam motors with a valve lift beyond stock or a rev range beyond stock... basically any pre-2000, high performance push-rod motor... which, I assume, most folks on this site likely own... so, just a heads up... here's a link to a decent article on the topic (doh! ... you'll have to search for it, I'm not allowed to post URLs here yet because I'm new)... enjoy, and happy wheeling!

... the site is called enginebuildermag dot com... the story is called "Performance oils and additives: Got Zinc?"...

by the way... the oil I bought was called "Joe Gibbs" racing oil... another decent oil seems to be something called "Brad Penn"... both available at retailers in C.S. and Denver

It was alot longer than a year ago they did that. I use Delo in my motors for the most part, the diesel oils still have the zinc in em.

 

[fallguy]

It was alot longer than a year ago they did that. I use Delo in my motors for the most part, the diesel oils still have the zinc in em.

I bought a crate motor from blueprint engines. They said to use Rotella T 15-40 triple protection. They said it had the zinc in it as well.

 

[ryoken]

yup, this isn't a real fair comparison.. you really can't compare an Amsoil, Redline, Royal Purple with friggin Quaker State.... you shouldn't be, they cost way more, it should be better...

we run lot's of Rotella T by the 5 gal pail at work.. and all our gas motors get Merc's 25-40.. very, very nice oil...

we've run lot's of Delo in the past, good oil, but i like the rotella a bit better..

most of the parafin based oils tend to not do as well imo, thus their cheaper price...

 

[shady]

I've used this site in the recent past as a reference as there is LOTS of great info here... I bought my first ever Blazer last week... a 1978 K5 Cheyenne... it's a great little truck and I'm super proud of her, but it runs like crap... so I decided the best fix was a top end rebuild with new cam, intake, and headers... and a complete tune up and carb rebuild (my wife thought it was overkill but seemed reasonable to me)... the lady I bought it from put an Edelbrock 600cfm quadrajet on it but didn't tune it and left a few vacuum lines off or loose... so, I picked up my new Comp Cams camshaft and lifters yesterday and the dude at the shop said I couldn't use ANY of the off-the-shelf oils to break it in or run it after break in... he informed me that the API (American Petroleum Institute) changed standards about a year ago that reduced the zinc and phosphorus content by half in order to extend the life of the catalytic converters in newer cars (and didn't tell anyone about it!), and since the newer cars all run roller cams or over-head cams, the wear isn't a problem with these cars... now, I thought the guy was just trying to be slick (pun intended) to upsell me on some exorbitantly priced oil because he knew he had me by the short and curlies... so I shelled (another pun) out another $150 for 5qts of break-in oil and a case of 15w-50... when I got home, I fired up the old internet and started researching it... turns out, the guy was right (I figured he probably was, he runs a reputable machine shop here in "the Springs")... in the past 12-18 months engine builders have been seeing an alarming rate of camshaft failure due to the low zinc and phosphorous content in the new API standard oils... the engines most at risk are older flat-tappet (hydraulic and solid) cam motors with a valve lift beyond stock or a rev range beyond stock... basically any pre-2000, high performance push-rod motor... which, I assume, most folks on this site likely own... so, just a heads up... here's a link to a decent article on the topic (doh! ... you'll have to search for it, I'm not allowed to post URLs here yet because I'm new)... enjoy, and happy wheeling!

... the site is called enginebuildermag dot com... the story is called "Performance oils and additives: Got Zinc?"...

by the way... the oil I bought was called "Joe Gibbs" racing oil... another decent oil seems to be something called "Brad Penn"... both available at retailers in C.S. and Denver

Rotella and valvoline VR1 are both off the shelf oils and are WAY cheaper than the Joe gibbs. Both are fine and have the 1200+ppm of zinc that the flat tappet motors need for breakin and use

 

[496truck]

I think it depends on the application...

In my 8.1 that I bought new, from about the 15k mark I started using Mobil1 and I swear it got a bit better mileage (gaswise) and used a bit less too as the 8.1s are known for consumption.

The wifes car gets normal 5w30 dino juice. Usually Castrol from the bulk tank at work or I'll buy a 5qt jug at Walmart.

The K5 I run 10w30, Mostly Castrol or whatever is on sale at the time. I'm not picky with that old pig. It didn't like the 5w30 from work, horrible lifter tick after I got off the highway. Made sure to change that the next day. I figure this engine isn't destined for long term life anyway. Plus, the quicker it gives me a reason, the quicker I'll be puttin in a 5.3 .

 

[K5_Fla]

I have trying the Shell Rotella 15/40 and Pennzoil high mileage 10/40 lately. Never thought I would say it.. but actually liking the Pennzoil.

 

[Cornfield creations]

I work at goodyear and we use Valvoline exclusively (likely because we have a contract with them and they gave us the best price ) and carquest brand filters. No idea of the quality of the filters though. Anybody know anything about carquest filters? its likely a rebrand of someone elses filter i just dont know who.

Wix makes the car quest filters, even the lower RED level, It should say Affinity on the box.