Got into a friendly argument with a buddy concerning swapping to different brands of oil. He seems to think its a no-go to do this, I disagree. I think this has been brought up here before, but there is some really smart folks here concerning oil and I would like another oppinion. Thoughts?
Thanks much.

 

I switched from Rotella dino,to Rotella synthetic,and my truck really likes it.

 

Somewhere around 260,000 miles I decided to try several different oils and send them off to blackstone to see if they could tell if my engine liked one better than the other. Prior to this, I've run mostly Rotella 15w-40 with the occasional Delo 15w40.

I tried the Rotella, Delo, Valvoline Premium blue, Mobil Delvac, and Rotella synthetic. I noticed different odors for each oil as they got miles on them. The truck sounded a little different (not really better or worse, just different), and they all had a different amount of smoke out the CCV. Blackstone found a little difference in the additive packages of my UOA's, but other than that there was no issues.

Over 315k now and it hasn't hurt anything yet.

 

Iwent from Dino Rotella to Syn Rotella no problem. Going to switch to Schaffers this next oil change. My Ex like the Syn oil better....eaiser to start in the cold and no romps. Change it when you want. Wont hurt anything.

 

Motor oil has had a classification standard since about the middle of last century. Before that standard was adapted it DID make a differance.

Now it does not, brand is personal preferance. Purchase the oil that keeps you from worrying about your engine.

Petroleum (dino) motor oil versus synthetic is another issue. Synthetic does not wear out nor have heating and cooling absorbtion like dino does.

 

Should have no problems switching between different brands. I have switched brands many times. Always had good luck w/synthetics.

 

switching brands makes no difference as long as the certifications are what they should be or better. Hell you can even mix synthetic and dino if you like. If oil were that brand specific there sure would be a lot of trouble at the truck stops.