What oil do you use?

[MaineShark]

Any oil recommendations?

Also, does all modern oil meet the 'SE' grade standard that my manual calls for?

Joe

 

[c4ever]

Mobil 1 Super Syn in all my vehicles.

Carlo

 

[cruzer99]

GTX 10/30....Seem like we've been down this road before?
If my car was new or low milage I would use Mobil 1... The word is that Mobil 1 has better lubrication/penetration than standard oil therefor you could have oil leaks on cars with higher mileage.
My .02...

 

[mvftw]

I would be careful using Mobil1 in the older cars (older gaskets can leak), I use it in my newer cars. In my Vette I use Castrol 20-50, I have 3.70's and it runs around 3500-4000rpms.

 

[Dave L.]

Valvoline Extended Life 10-30

Dave

 

[Vette/Berlina-coupe]

BerlinaBob here- Have used only "Mobile-1" in all of my vehicles ever since it came out years ago (originally had the excellent small-cap outlet, now come with the dumb huge-cap which causes spillage as the flow is thus not properly restricted (you can't now simply hold your thumb over outlet until you have it ready to flow); --are you hearing this hint Mobile-marketers?); --and now, as you know both new Corvettes and something called a Porsche come with the synthetic-stuff! Is so good that I even smother it on my morning-pancakes (prefer it to Maple-syrup, priced about same, --so why not! ---hick-up!!). This great oil makes greasy-kid-stuff out of any other known oil, and owing to its tremendous-high boil/flasy-point (400*f+) it has saved more than one of my engines (quality normal-oil only has a 250*f-rating), --when have lost eng.-coolant for some reason. Mobile now calls it "anti-wear", but they have run Ads actually stating "zero engine wear"!!! Note also, -that is foolish & wasteful to ever drain this precious mobile-1 oil (only change oil-filter religiously every 3k-5k-miles), owing that oil actually gets better with age (the microscopic molecuels get beat smaller and smaller with time, -thus able to even better penetrate into the metal's structure to protect your engine). Case in note: -when FoMoCo-engineers were testing their silly new dohc-V8, they would run endurance-tests and come-in for oil-changes, then go back out on the oval and suddenly blow-up an engine! An Oil-engineer then told'em, --stop changing the oil as it is not going to protect your engine well until it becomes refined by time, --just come-in to add-oil & change-filters!!

 

[Evolution1980]

Not to be a spoil sport here...but if you do a search on the topic of "which oil blah blah", you'll find many a thread with exceptional detail and many many responses. This gets covered at least once every couple of months. Same with "Which oil filter..."

But hey...feel free to go around again! :L :L

 

[JohnZ]

Don't get sucked in by all the marketing hype for synthetic oils and the "anecdotes" you hear from people; there isn't one single shred of genuine real-world durability test evidence to support any of the claims made by the synthetic oil marketers, and it certainly doesn't get "better with age". Oil is oil, as long as it's a brand name and meets the API (American Petroleum Institute) specs and blend weight recommended by the engine manufacturer. All your engine cares about is that the oil is reasonably fresh (to maintain the effectiveness of the additive package) and clean. The OEM carmakers who use Mobil 1 as factory fill in their "halo" performance cars all have marketing agreements with Mobil, under which they buy the oil in bulk at a significant discount and Mobil pays them for the fill caps that say "Use Mobil 1". Almost as much money is spent hyping fancy oil as is spent hyping "whizbang" spark plugs, but that's another story....

 

[DDLS3]

The SE designation, as you can imagine, is quite dated. The current classification SG or SH, meets or exceeds all previous classification standards such as SE from years ago.

 

[Vette/Berlina-coupe]

Don't get sucked in by all the marketing hype for synthetic oils and the "anecdotes" you hear from people; there isn't one single shred of genuine real-world durability test evidence to support any of the claims made by the synthetic oil marketers, and it certainly doesn't get "better with age". Oil is oil, as long as it's a brand name and meets the API (American Petroleum Institute) specs and blend weight recommended by the engine manufacturer. All your engine cares about is that the oil is reasonably fresh (to maintain the effectiveness of the additive package) and clean. The OEM carmakers who use Mobil 1 as factory fill in their "halo" performance cars all have marketing agreements with Mobil, under which they buy the oil in bulk at a significant discount and Mobil pays them for the fill caps that say "Use Mobil 1". Almost as much money is spent hyping fancy oil as is spent hyping "whizbang" spark plugs, but that's another story....

BerlinaBob here: JohnnyZ my friend, --you've either got Exxon/ShellOil-stock, or are a Charter-member of FlatEarth-society-Ltd.; --best check your facts before you poo-poo the facts borne out by Oil-engineers who taught Ford how to stop blowing test-track engines (who like you, were listening to ShellOil & Exxon propaganda). Originally developed and proven in BMW & MB powered WW-II/German-aircraft, polyester-based Mobile-1 has a vastly-higher flash-point (temp. at which the oil actually ignites and burns). Prove it to yourself if you want to be stuborn about it, --simply poor your beloved fossil-oil into an iron/frying-pan, turn-on the gas-burner to "full", timing the point at which it starts to fill your kitchen with smoke (the same test with Mobile-1 will reveal an astounding difference; -that will have you removing that crude-stuff form your fine steed pronto!)...:nono

 

[JohnZ]

BerlinaBob here: JohnnyZ my friend, --you've either got Exxon/ShellOil-stock, or are a Charter-member of FlatEarth-society-Ltd. Prove it to yourself if you want to be stuborn about it, --simply poor your beloved fossil-oil into an iron/frying-pan, turn-on the gas-burner to "full", timing the point at which it starts to fill your kitchen with smoke (the same test with Mobile-1 will reveal an astounding difference; -that will have you removing that crude-stuff form your fine steed pronto!)...:nono

No, I'm not a member of the Flat Earth Society, and Mobil isn't the only refiner producing synthetic lubricants, nor is any part of an engine that sees oil anywhere near the temperature of a hot frying pan - looks like you're the one who got sucked in by Mobil and Castrol.

I've been building race engines (including blown fuel Hemis) since you were two years old, spent 37 years in Engineering inside the OEM industry with GM and Chrysler, have 7700 hours as a pilot and know more than a little about what piston aircraft engines look like at 1500-hour TBO, and stick by what I said earlier. Forget the marketing hype, the stupid frying pan ads, and the slick containers - having dealt with high-performance, race, OEM, and aircraft engine innards since I was 16, I go with results, not Madison Avenue marketing wizards; engines care about fresh, clean oil that meets stringent API specs, and could care less whether it's dino or synthetic. If you haven't been there, you're just pontificating. The synthetic-vs.-dino oil marketing war has been going on for twenty years, and will likely continue long after both of us are gone. Synthetics cost twice as much to make as dino, and sell for four times the price - 'spose that has anything to do with the marketing effort? It just might.

Engine manufacturers know more about what their engines need for lubrication over extended warranty periods than the oil marketers do, and so far (after twenty years of solid real-world OEM research and oil company marketing hype) none of the high-volume manufacturers have seen fit to require synthetics (except for the "halo" performance cars where Mobil subsidizes the factory fill with marketing agreements). My last plant (check my profile) only made ten "torque-monster" engines a day, and I bought Mobil 1 in 500-gallon tote tanks for little more than the cost of dino oil - try that at your Mobil station.

Fresh and clean is all that matters - twenty years of marketing hype hasn't made a dent in that yet.

 

[Vette/Berlina-coupe]

JhonnyZ says:
[Fresh and clean is all that matters - twenty years of marketing hype hasn't made a dent in that yet. [/B][/QUOTE]

BerlinaBob says: -Jhonny, -you obviously are as knowledgeable about petro-engines as I, and I respect your great experience and flying-time--- however my friend, fossil-oil is gone with the past century. Nobody should be putting anything but Mobile-1 in their engines nowadays; -you are probably confusing this vastly superior polyester-based oil with other synthetic-oils which indeed have been around for decades! Tear-down a high-hours engine which has been run on Mobil-1, and you will find not only little wear, but the engine is factory-fresh inside (you know what engines run on ordinary albeit quality oil look like in comparison; --yuckie)! You need to admit that freshness has nothing to do with viability in Mobile-1 (just include an additive occassionally if you wish); --I have engines running like new with the same Mobile-1 I put in'em 15-years ago, which are clean as a whistle inside; --just change Fram-filter every 3-5-thou.-miles! Oh well, there is obviously nothing one can say to tear you away from that greasy-kid-stuff!!!
I like your choice of cars just the same--- oh, and what I said ("silly") about the Ford/dohcV8, -goes for all of these recent wave of cam-crazy V8's. They are all over-weight and bulky-sized compared to the ohvV8/Chevy-smallblock; and maintance is a nightmare of excess cost and complexity. For some reason, Chevy has been holding back an engine they have developed that is vastly superior to them all, still a pushrod-smallblock, but a Dual-cam in block iteration (side-by-side), one cam Intake the other Exhaust; --thereby enabling varying of intake-timing according to rpm and power requirements! Am excited about the prospects of that next-generation! Everyone got intimidated into going to the dohc-embodiment except Chevy; --and they are to be aplauded for it! Anyone can make an engine more complex and intricate, that is just 1915 textbook-engineering; the real genius resides in designing an engine that is relatively efficient & compact, --yet at once cost-effective! Maybe we can at least agree on this...?

 

[TAC]

there isn't one single shred of genuine real-world durability test evidence to support any of the claims made by the synthetic oil marketers....

If you want real-world evidence watch the tape from Callaway regarding the TT project. GM told Callaway their engines would live up to the power generated by the turbos with no modifications. Stock engines with stock oil blew in ten minutes. Callaway changed to Mobil 1 and the stock engines lasted 20 minutes. You can read anything you want to into that test but to me it indicates the Mobil 1 will stand up to stress better than standard oil.

 

[lytemup]

... Note also, -that is foolish & wasteful to ever drain this precious mobile-1 oil (only change oil-filter religiously every 3k-5k-miles), owing that oil actually gets better with age (the microscopic molecuels get beat smaller and smaller with time, -thus able to even better penetrate into the metal's structure to protect your engine). ...

:argue i do not agree with this :argue ...as I understand it- a 10W-30 oil (for example) has a base of 10 weight oil, the oil refiner then puts in additives and etc. The molecules you reference are hydocarbon chains which are being broken down, that is, borken down back to the base oil. Over time, this would leave you with less protection at running engine temps and lower film thicknesses on your bearings. breaking these chains down oil brings you closer to water, I don't know about those F*** engines, but there could have been hundreds of other problems going on there.

I believe the refiners also put in other detergents and additives which will break down with useage and time, another good reason not to just change the filter...

 

[cruzer99]

This is all really interesting and I think sheds light on both sides of what a lot of us do and believe about our cars and oil. As I said earlier, I use GTX in my 82 because it has 90K+ miles and I change the oil every 2-3K miles as I do on all of my cars. If I rebuilt it I would probably switch to Mobil 1 because of being convinced by my son who was on a CART race team and works for Swift Engineering running the Toyota Atlantic racing series, not that that makes him an expert, but a good source of info. The syn oil's will generate oil leaks when switched to an engine that ran regular oil and has higher miliage. My understanding is that this is due to better penetration of the syn oil.
I don't think either agrument is wrong, I think it is simple personal preference. :L :BOW

 

[JohnZ]

:I believe the refiners also put in other detergents and additives which will break down with useage and time, another good reason not to just change the filter...

Correct! Not to beat this thread to death or prolong the agony, but the additive package is the most important part of an engine lubricant; either type of oil maintains its basic lubricity for a LONG time, but the additive package (detergents, anti-oxidants, dispersants, and many others) deteriorates relatively quickly over time, and that's the key determining factor in establishing required oil change intervals, not the base oil itself.

Look at any long-haul over-the-road truck fleet; those big Kenworths, Peterbilts and Macks that circulate 70-100 quarts of oil day and night, 7 days a week accumulate a LOT of miles in a short time, and they don't dump all that oil every 7500 miles (which, for them, is about ten days); they check additive concentrations and "reload" additive concentrate (supplied by the major oil refiners to the trucking industry) regularly to maintain its effectiveness. They do actual dump-and-refill oil changes at 25,000-35,000-mile intervals.

The dual-cam OHV Chevy has been in development for almost ten years - one of these years we may see it in production. The best example in GM of a simple, cost-effective and efficient OHV engine is the Buick (now Corporate) 3.8L V-6; several generations of it have been in production now for about 30 years.