This seems to be a good place to ask. Anyone had any luck with or used those "high mileage" oils?

 

i think it is alot of marketing to sell oil.
i think if you have a worn engine you can get the same
results by going to a heavier oil like10w 40 or 20w 50

 

When Valvoline's MaxLife was first introduced, my reaction was the same as lasher's. I scoffed at the ad because if you look closely you will notice the valve stem seals depicted are cork, something that hasn't been used in years. Almost anything will swell cork seals and improve their sealing ability. Just a clever marketing ploy I thought.

Well, there was a promotional special the day I need to stock up on oil at the local parts store. I use Valvoline anyway and what the heck, it was cheaper, so I bit. Now, all this may just be coincidence, but after 3 oil change cycles, that sticky lifter I've had for years quit making noise on cold start up, my rear main seal leak slowed considerably and is just about gone, dropping my consumption to barely 1/2 qt per 3,000 miles. At 223,000 miles on the original engine and transmission, I think it qualifies as high mileage and with the favorable experiences, I am sticking with the MaxLife.

 

Cool! One good report. My BIL, who is a mechanic, doesn't necessarily like those new oils, but I might have to try one once just to see. I wanted to make sure some had had a good expierence first!

 

You know a little drop of Tanny fluid will do the samething.

 

From personal experience, I am quite leery of using tranny fluid in anything but approved applications. To wit, I ran out of oil for my air powered tools and decided to try ATF in place. The first sander quit within minutes and I attributed it to old age and grabbed another. It too died within minutes, both from siezed seals, swollen from just a few drops of ATF fluid. Moral of this story: Some compounds can tolerate ATF and others are ruined by it.

 

That is why I said it. They are using something in the oil that is swelling the seals that does not over react with it. Who knows I'm not a Chemist.

The only way to stop a leak is fix it, or make it swell bigger.

 

ive been using the max life for about the past 5 changes and ive loved it. ive used the 10w40 and 30. i did have a little tap on my right bank and after the 2nd change it was gone. before i went through a qt a week and now it doesnt need anything, wonder oil huh. well does anyone know anything better? i dont even touch penzoil, ive just heard bad things, but you never know.

 

what i do not understand is if this max life oil is so good for older engines why would it not be good for a newer engine if it meets the weight requirerment. If not because it will hurt a newer engine i would think that it may not be good for any good running engine. it would only be good for an engine with problems such as burning oil or noisey.

 

That is my question as well. There is something going on here that needs to be known. If they have changed the Weight, added Teflon, or some magic brew they came up with.

I think I'm going to send them a e-mail to see if they will a logical answer.

 

Your high mileage oils will contain additives such as nitriles, organic phosphates, some esters, and/or aromatic hydrocarbons. These additives are designed to swell seals. They are used also in any PAO basestock synthetic such as Mobil One, etc.as the PAO basestocks do not support any seal swelling ability. If you have an engine that is leaking at the seals, give it a try. They usually are also on the thick end of their respective viscosity range. If the engine is burning oil, I would suggest moving to a CH-4 or CI-4 oil such as Delvac, Rotella, or Delo 400 in 15w-40.

 

mobil one for me... 180k miles plus.. can't be wrong...

 

Mine doesn't leak, so I'm not messing with it then.

 

I used Valvoline MaxLife in my 95 Aerostar, and it started leaking. Quit using it and it stopped, won't use it again.

 

The guy at NAPA said it's just a marketing gimmick in his opinion.
I guess you could get the same effect by adding a "stop leak" additive to your oil at each change. Fortunately, mine doesn't have that problem yet.