The Walmart Oil. I am going to use it in my 2.3 Topaz, and 1.8L Subaru, since they are pretty old cars not worthy of expensive stuff. Plus they burn (or leak) a lot of it.

 

I use the stuff in both my truck and my wifes car. I change the oil about every 2000 miles, but can do a whole oil change for about $7.00. The Supertech filters are made by Champion Labs which are alot better than fram. Virgin oil anylisis is very good for supertech oil for the cost. I believe there is a generous amount of Moly in it. The cost of the oil and filters is about half the cost of let say Valvoline so it doesnt bother me to change the oil sooner.

 

My F250 on the other hand, gets good "dino" oil.

Pennzoil 10w-30.

But it is not my daily driver.

 

Consumer Reports sates there is zero difference in conventional motor oils. It is the SAE rating that matters.

 

No difference between dino and syn. either during normal (5000 miles) drain intervals.

I believe that some oils are better than others, but if you change your oil and filter per manufacturers specs, it doesn't matter.

 

You can get a very good oil at walmart for only $1.08 per quart--Chevron Supreme. At that price, I can't see going to a lower cost oil.

 

Because there is no difference between dino oils during normal (5000 miles) drain intervals. So I can't see going to a higher priced oil.

I was one of the "brand name oil" faithful until I read the CR article. Very, very thorough. An excellent test. CR explains why they did what they did and what they didn't do and why.

Briefly, they took identical V-6 engines and had them rebuilt by the same engine shop. They measured all of the tolerances of the bearing/wearing surfaces as the engines were rebuilt. They then put the engines in a fleet of NY taxis and ran each engine 100,000 miles, changing the oil and filter every 5000 miles. The oil was given to the mechanics in unmarked barrels, so the mechanics did not know what oil they were using. They used several brands of dino oil and Mobil 1. They ran each oil in 3 engines to account for variabilities in the test.

After 100,000 miles they tore the engines down and measured all the tolerances again. They also noted the amount of sludge and dirt build up in each engine.

None, NONE of the engines showed any significant wear, sludge, dirt or other negatives. None, NONE of the oils was clearly superior or clearly inferior. Even the Mobil 1.

There is no way a reasonable person could read those test results and conclude that more expensive oil is worth the money.

 

While the taxis did see a lot of hard service idling, I'm not sure they had very many cold starts, nor what is worse, cold shutdowns leaving a lot of combustion byproduct in the oil. May not be representative of what our vehicles see. Super Tech oil is $0.84 at Walmart. Save about $1.25 per oil change? No thanks, not when for that piddling sum, I can be sure of having a Group II base oil stock. Do you know what the base oil is in SuperTech? Maybe a combo off Group I with some Group III to meet the spec. If so, the Chevron is much better and less likely to leave deposits. But if you want to get really cheap, try the Accel 10w40 SF oil at Walmart for only $0.74 a quart.

 

That's why you have to read the article.

CR concedes that its tests do not represent what happens to an oil on short, frequent trips in cold weather. Never really getting warmed up. CR pointed out that the primary negative of this type of driving is increases in sludge build up from the water not getting cooked off, not viscosity breakdown and wear. Also, most manufacturers still recommend 3000 miles oil changes in this kind of "severe" service. The test in taxis was the most demanding that CR could reasonable design to test for wear and tear on an engine. Heavy idling during summer months in heavy stop and go traffic with the A/C running full tilt. A pretty severe test.

Oil goes into every conceiveable kind of engine, everywhere from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara. Designing a test that similates every type of driving is impossible. You have to pick the test that simulates typical driving for most people.

So, throw darts at the CR test if you want. I have never seen any other completely independent, scientific test on motor oil.

BTW - "Premium" gas is definitely better than regular gas and only $0.10/gal more. Does that mean we should all use it?

Money is money. We all have to spend it how we best see fit. If putting a brand name oil in your engine let's you sleep better at night, then it is money well-spent.

 

It is not that I am throwing darts at the CR test, but there are some situations they did not cover, and honestly admitted so. They do also note you may have to go with a shorter change interval. What would have been interesting and could have been recorded is how much oil each cab needed added between changes. I think you will find that the cab running an oil with a flash point of, say, 210C will require more topping up than a cab ruunning oil with a flash point of 240. I don't have such data on SuperTech or Accel (both apparently made by WPP) and so will go with something known. Right now I am using expensive Valvoline, but may switch if I can't get them to tell me what kind of base oil they use. The Super Tech may be great stuff. One website I found had folks claiming it is made by Valvoline, Castrol, or Quaker State. Not sure if anyone actually proved one of these to be true. As for premium gas, well it could hurt performance, whereas a better than needed oil won't. Yeah, money is money and we all put our priorities with money in different places. I just figure the added cost would ensure that you get a quality group II oil. You may be doing quite well with Super Tech. I would like to see the technical data on it someday.

Good discussion anyway.

 

Yep. My whole point is for people to separate what is known from what Madison Avenue tells them.

Buy the product, not the hype.