I keep hearing, “don’t buy the store brand, it’s recycled, or its junk oil”. In fact, let’s think a bit more about this. The people that say this crap need to think before they speak! I’ve heard so many people say that the store brand is just bad oil. First off, stores like AutoZone, Advance Auto, etc. DO NOT MAKE OIL. They are getting the oil from other oil companies like Pennzoil, so you’re actually still getting good name brand oil with a different logo. Just like cereal, you have captain crunch and crisp crunch. If I took the crisp crunch and switched it with the captain crunch, would anyone ever know?

Let’s hear you insight on this matter….

Jason
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i just dont run fram oil filters on anything that has money in the engine.

 

Cheap oil is OK providing you change it on a religiously regular basis, I don't rely on it for severe duty applications. I use Motorcraft filters, they are re-badged WIX or Purolator. They are about the same price as the Fram, a little over $3 for the FL-1A. I do not use Motorcraft oil, I do not like the way it smells.

 

I don't trust some oils, but if I had to use them, like masterbeavis said, it wouldn't be used for anything hard, and it'd get changed soon.

I do like the napa oil however. It is made by valvoline....
Just like Keystone is made by Coors Light.
I like Valvoline and Coors, and for basically the same product at a lower cost, I'll use napa or keystone anytime.

 

Only really a few actual manufacturers.
Re-labeling is done on a daily basis.
Suprised nobody has mentioned facts from oil analysis. Maybe most just assume some oils with a cheap label are less desireable than others.
Notice who is making the same oil for the "Big Names" under different names......

Advanced Lubrication Specialties, Inc
Advantage
Advantage 5000
Getty (some?)
Lukoil (some?)
CRL
L&D Superior
Sunoco

Amalie
Acme Ultraguard
Amalie
American Eagle Super Duty
American XT Premium
Crown Super Turbo
Elixir
Federated
Flash Foods
Foodtown
Guard Heavy Duty
“Heavy Duty”
Imperial
Millennium
Pro High Performance Choice
Pronto Supreme
Rallye
RPX Turbo Blend
Shop Rite Premium
Sprint 500 Premium
Super Turbo Xcel
U.S. Lubricants Super Heavy Duty
Value Tech
VIP
Xcel
XLO

Ashland
Kubota Tractor Oils
Napa
Valvoline

BP/Castrol
Arco
Powertech Super
Drydene
Assuron

Chevron/Texaco
(all products seem to carry the Chevron or Texaco logos...so there is no confusion here as to what they make)

CHS Inc
Auto Gold
Maxtron
Super 12m
Superlube
Superol
Viking

Citgo
Mystic

Conoco-Phillips[list]
CircleK
Kendall
Motorcraft
Union 76
Phillips 66

Cross Oil Refining
Gard
Gardfleet
Pure-Flo
Xtreme

David Weber Oil Co.
Gibraltar
Powerflo

ExxonMobil
SuperTech (Walmart; some)
ESSO
CAT Diesel (EM Mexico)
Lubricante Carrefour (EM Mexico)
Mopar (EM Mexico; some)
Motorcraft (EM Mexico; some)
Toyota Genuine(EM Mexico)
Nissan (EM Mexico)
Tech 2000 (EM Mexico)

FL Viscosity Oil Co.
Case Tractor/Ag
New Holland Tractor/Ag

McCollister & Co.
Archer
Motorlast
United
United/Hyde

Omni Specialty Packaging, Inc.
(may not be the actual refiner)
Dutch
Excell
Nuvo
O’Reillys
Parts Master
Pure Guard

Pinnacle Oil Co.
Admiral
Allfleet
Allsup’s
Casey’s
Certified
Cogo’s
Duke
Favorite Markets
Fire Star
Fleet Pro
Gas America
Gas City
Kum & Go
Love’s
National
On Your Way
Sheetz
Steel City
Thorton’s
True North

Safety Kleen (including Canada)
America’s Choice
Autoprix
Canada’s Choice
Checkered Flag
Classic
Fast Trac
Finish Line
Formula A
Moto Prix
Performance Plus
Premium I
Safety-Kleen

[b]Sinclair Oil Co.
Arctic Fire
Dura Tec
Sinclair Supreme

SOPUS (Shell)
Quaker State
Pennzoil
Wolf’s Head

J.D. Streett & Co.[list]
Streett
STP
Unilab

Warren Oil/Coastal/Unilube
4 Brothers
Advance Auto
All Star Express
Allstar
American XT
Appco
Bradley Plus
Carolina Petro
Coastal
Do-It-Best
Duplex
Enmark
Express
Fill-Ups
Fred's
Gas N Go
Genuine
Halco
Handy Way
Itasca Outdoors
Jr Food
Kohler
Krasdale
Lubriguard
Performance Engineered
Price Wise
Quality Plus
Quality Supreme
Red Apple
Savers Choice
Savings Plus
Saxon
Saxon Gold
Sentry
Service Pro
Shurtech
Trac
Valucraft (Autozone)
Warren

Warren Performance Products (WPP)[list]
Accel
Kum & Go Super Premium
Mag 1
Oasis Market
Pilot Premium
ProLine (Pep Boys)
Spectrum Plus (Sears)
Supertech (Walmart; some)
Traveller (Tractor Supply)[/quote]


Notice how big EM is in Mexico, wow.

 

Store brand is fine if you change it often enough. The funniest thing I ever heard was someone confusing recycled oil with used oil. I had someone ask while doing an oil change if I was going to put used oil in her car. I told her "Yep as soon as I get done draining it out of my truck." She was speechless.

 

Did you know FTE has special an Oil & Filter forum ?

 

That's awesome! I wouldn't buy recycled oil anyway. Can you truly know it is clean? What about the fact that some oil companies claim a 10k oil change...that's even crazier!

 

Ford recommends 7500 on new vehicles.

 

Well working with the military I see lots of recycled oil and antifreeze! While putting in new auxiliary power units just a fancy generator. The oil and antifreeze that were being put in was nasty looked good putting it in let it set in the over flow over night and you had a quarter inch of settlement. So need less to say we stopped using there oil and bought oil from an out side source. The way they do it is heat it to remove impurities and filter three times what a joke. I use VALVOLINE in every thing since I started working in a small garage doing oil changes after school. Certain oils have more build up then others and does require more frequent changes. Lawn and garden equipment get what ever I buy. So nobody checks the viscosity index rating or pour point ?

 

"store brand" stuff is fine, as long as you know exactly whats in the bottle. There are some store brands that are the exact same thing as a name brand oil. The problem is that with all the no name store brands out there it's pretty hard to tell whats really in the bottle, if anyone has a nice list of whats really in the jug i'd love to see it.

One shop i used to work at always used detroit diesel brand oil, which was just mobil delvac oil in a different bottle. At least once a week i had to deal with some pissed off customer who didnt believe that it really was delvac.

 

The crazy thing is really when folks think oil needs to be changed at 3000 miles.
I usually change oil around 10K miles. I pay for oil analysis on all of my rides, and have found that oil lasts a long time. suspended soilds contaminate oil, and a good filter clears that up, but the oil does not break down. Synthetics can go for a very long time without problems.
Standard dino oil simly lasts longer than most prople realize, and most folks just go by what was taught to them, and change thier oil too often.
Most folks don't even bother with the reality of oil analysis.

 

It is always more important to change the filter than the oil.

apparetly RE-REFINED oil has less contaniments than first time refined oil and is better to use on older engines.

 

The main reason for regular oil changes is not that the oil has broken down. The problem is that it has become contaminated with a lot of undesirables, and many of them have become dissolved in the oil and can't be removed by filtration, since their molecules are smaller than that of the oil. The only way to remove them from the oil is to re-distill, or re-refine it -- which is done when the oil is recycled.

If you are really interested in better filtration, install a bypass filter. Full-flow filters have to have such large pores to be able to pass cold oil without excessive restriction that they are compromised in their ability to filter impurities.

As for me, I'm sticking with my 3,000 mile oil changes. As several good engine repair manuals have stated, "Clean oil is a lot cheaper than engine repairs."

 

"Undesireables"? Some oils start out dark, and are plenty clean. A quality filter is key, and suspended solids are perfectly normal. Shedding of material is normal, and particles that discolor oils and pass through a low dollar filter are still smaller than 20 microns. Keep in mind that 25 microns are about equal to 1 thousanths of an inch.
May quality filters are capable of filtering well into the single digits, and can protect engine internals very well, even with discolored oils.
Have an old shop truck with a 352 that has over 400K on the clock, and has only ever had its oil changed at 10K per interval. Filters get changed often, (about 3500 Miles) but the oil analysis shows the oil is just fine at this interval. In reality the latest reports show that the oil is breaking down due to fuel contamination. Higher percentage of gas than should be. Guess the old girls rings are getting a little tired.
Might have to re-ring it when she hits half a million. Lol.