I thought I would kick a hornets nest

[buckbuck]

Here is the latest news letter from the firm that tests my oil. I am going to continue to buy the cheap store brand oil.

 

[djetok]

Here is the latest news letter from the firm that tests my oil. I am going to continue to buy the cheap store brand oil.

But but. Ah nevermind. What oil is that

Funny thing, I started using Schaffer in my semis and they do free testing for me. My first sample was from my mystic cj4 1040. They didn't know that. My second was the Schaffer reports were almost identical. The price not so much. 677 for mystic and 1138 for Schaffer per 55 gallon drum. Yeah I use my mystic

 

[dan144k]

Figured you would have hornet pictures

 

[YamahaForMe]

 

[Speedling]

Here is the latest news letter from the firm that tests my oil. I am going to continue to buy the cheap store brand oil.

I have heard issues more of saturation of gaskets when talking synthetic vs dino oils. I probably would switch to a blend. I used to run castrol gtx in my mustang with a turbo and had no issues for the 5 miles i drove it, lol

 

[Gym]

I have heard issues more of saturation of gaskets when talking synthetic vs dino oils. I probably would switch to a blend. I used to run castrol gtx in my mustang with a turbo and had no issues for the 5 miles i drove it, lol

I switched to a blend 2 seasons ago which has almost eliminated the oil pan dripping on both engines. I believe there is something to dino oil properly wetting the gaskets.

 

[GTBRMC]

I worked for an engine oils and lubricants testing lab as a lab tech back in the mid 80s. Synthetic oils were not much of a thing yet, so I have no real knowledge of that.

I did perform a variety of tests on thousands of samples of motor oils bought all over the US and Canada by secret shoppers. I mainly did viscosity testing at various standard temperatures and Fuel Injector Shear Stability Testing (yes, there was much joking in the lab about F.I.S.S.T.ing ). All samples were presented to me for testing blind (I knew nothing about them, only sample XYZ123, ABC456, and 987DEF were to be run through a specific battery of tests and given to me at room temp in sterile sample bottles).

Anyway, time and time again, the biggest difference noted among similar grades of motor oil was... price.

Sometimes, a can of oil (the industry was just starting to switch from one quart cans to one quart plastic bottles at the time, but most sales were still cans) would be completely gelled when the person preparing the blind samples opened the retail packaging. These samples had to be scooped out. We called those Jello samples. But, this was rare and most consumers would not put such motor oil into their engines - it was not possible to pour it from the can.

Sure there were some differences from different brands. Some were more consistently accurate to their labeled viscosity (as in, 10w-30 actually tested at 10w-30), but it was our scientists' opinion that most wandering from viscosity standard was insignificant to performance. The difference between 10w-30 and 9w-32, for example, is generally not significant to its customer engine.

The F.I.S.S.T. did reveal that some classes of motor (as shown by the oil's service letters) did better resisting viscosity breakdown under heavy shearing. BUT, this was expected as the different service oils are engineered for different conditions. There was little brand-to-brand difference.

There were some brands that had more Jello shots than others, and some brands that had higher performance standard deviations than the norm... but the differences were very small, and likely not significant. These differences were largely assumef to be due to different levels of quality control at the point of manufacturing and/or packaging.

Which brings us to the final point: there are not nearly as many actual motor oil producers as the brands available seem to indicate. Many of the brands, including virtually all of the "store brands," are manufactured in the same exact plants using the same exact processes and ingredients as the major brands.

Note, this was 30+ years ago, and largely before the globalization of production and distribution of most consumer products, so above info may no longer hold true.

I generally use recognized national brands in my engines, but pay much more attention to the service grade of the oil vs the name on the package label.

 

[0627Devildog]

Sometimes, a can of oil (the industry was just starting to switch from one quart cans to one quart plastic bottles at the time

Man o man are you dating
yourself with this one. . . . .

 

[Mainah]

While my boat is still under warranty I am going to use what meets the manaul specifications. In my case I am using full syn 10w40 motorcycle oil. This make sense to me given the high revs that our enigines run at so I will likely do so when the warranty is up too.

As for my 2012 pickup truck well whatever the dealer puts in it is fine for me. I am always getting cupons from them for oil change and tire rotation that makes it worth my while to let them do it.

 

[scokill]

Here is the latest news letter from the firm that tests my oil. I am going to continue to buy the cheap store brand oil.

Wait, but boats are different! They need special super secret additives and foam inhibitors in the special marine environment! I also get an additional 5 MPH from my oil and you put that with removing the air filter, and special spark plugs and I go 15 MPH faster!

Part of the spec is SE which goes back to 1971.

 

[buckbuck]

@scokill do you also have the chrome gas cap? There have been reports it adds 5 mph.

 

[scokill]

@scokill do you also have the chrome gas cap? There have been reports it adds 5 mph.

I waxed my hull too and got another 5 MPH...now I'm up to 25 MPH over stock. My boat now does 75 MPH.....don't get me started Royal Purple (+5 MPH), Iridium Plugs (+5), Removed [insert your air restrictor here] (+5 MPH) Chrome Gas Cap (+5 MPH), Waxed Hull (+5 MPH) LOL!

 

[GoVols01]

I took my Regal with a VP 4.3L V6 to a Cobalt / Chap dealer to get my oil changed because it saved me 1.5 hours of driving round-trip. They told me my VP should use the suggested oil their Mercs demand, so what harm could it do?

The 1st time I took the boat out and ran at WOT for several minutes. I came off plane to go through a no wake zone and my engine started ticking, like a clock. Oil pressure dropped way below normal and freaked me out. It was the strangest thing! I shut off the engine and trouble shooted things to no avail. Restarted and everything was fine. Thought it was a fluke and kept an eye/ear on it for the next several outings. It did reoccur a few more times under the same circumstances. Finally figured out it was the oil. I bought the oil and filter from VP's website and changed it myself. Went out several more times after that and the issue never came back. I'm not sure what the heck that stupid Cobalt dealer put in that boat, but I'm sure glad it never blew the motor!

 

[YamahaForMe]

Its a scientific fact that Blue boats are faster than any other color. And their oil is always cleaner than the other boats.