SO I mentioned this in another thread, but thought I'd start yet another oil thread, since they seem to be so prevalent these days. Mostly, I wanted to share with my fellow OCD sufferers. LOL
I know some of you may disagree with going from a full syn to semi-synthetic, but understand that I didn't switch because of cost, or because I think Pennzoil is bad oil. It is perfectly good or better yet -- great oil. Furthermore, I've been using it for many years, before and after it got converted to the natural gas base. I also didn't switch because I needed a seal swelling high mileage oil or any of the other crap. My car doesn't leak and the engine is tight at 181K. I switched because of quite a bit of research led me to Maxlife and it has proved to have one of the toughest oil films. I also have personal experience with Maxlife oil....
Years ago, I bought a truck that had 245K on it. When pulled the dipstick, the oil was barely registering on the bottom. When I checked the owner's records, the oil hadn't been changed in roughly 20K and he hadn't checked the dipstick for probably the better part of a year. The fact that there was still oil in it, led me to purchase it (cheap). It still lives on today and is in great cond. It was later while rereading the records that I saw it had been changed with Maxlife oil. I believe that had it been a lesser oil, the former owner would have lost the engine. Anyway, I'm getting off track.
As we know, the most important job of any oil is to prevent wear. It does so by keeping a thin film of oil between moving parts. Based on that, I researched oil tests and analysis... more importantly, INDEPENDENT oil tests, which used physical torture tests resulting in scarred metal. The best one I came across is linked below. It's quite long, but my warped mind found it interesting enough to read thru to it's entirety. I've followed his writings for years on various oil forums and his tests are the real deal. I believe they cut through the hype of the oil companies and allow us mere mortals to choose an oil based on true performance.
Anyway, I ended up choosing Valvoline Maxlife 5W-30 because his (and a few other) tests had it scoring outstanding on wear protection. To use his words, it gives you a "higher margin of safety." Given that it's a semi-syn and oil companies never reveal their synthetic to conventional ratio, I add a single qt of Pennzoil platinum to ramp up the synthetic content.
Enjoy the read, if you are so inclined. Don't be confused by the fact that Pennzoil Platinum was the highest scoring oil. That was the case BEFORE they switched to natural gas formula and the old formulation is no longer available. The blog is old and he keeps updating it.
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/
...Drew...
I know some of you may disagree with going from a full syn to semi-synthetic, but understand that I didn't switch because of cost, or because I think Pennzoil is bad oil. It is perfectly good or better yet -- great oil. Furthermore, I've been using it for many years, before and after it got converted to the natural gas base. I also didn't switch because I needed a seal swelling high mileage oil or any of the other crap. My car doesn't leak and the engine is tight at 181K. I switched because of quite a bit of research led me to Maxlife and it has proved to have one of the toughest oil films. I also have personal experience with Maxlife oil....
Years ago, I bought a truck that had 245K on it. When pulled the dipstick, the oil was barely registering on the bottom. When I checked the owner's records, the oil hadn't been changed in roughly 20K and he hadn't checked the dipstick for probably the better part of a year. The fact that there was still oil in it, led me to purchase it (cheap). It still lives on today and is in great cond. It was later while rereading the records that I saw it had been changed with Maxlife oil. I believe that had it been a lesser oil, the former owner would have lost the engine. Anyway, I'm getting off track.
As we know, the most important job of any oil is to prevent wear. It does so by keeping a thin film of oil between moving parts. Based on that, I researched oil tests and analysis... more importantly, INDEPENDENT oil tests, which used physical torture tests resulting in scarred metal. The best one I came across is linked below. It's quite long, but my warped mind found it interesting enough to read thru to it's entirety. I've followed his writings for years on various oil forums and his tests are the real deal. I believe they cut through the hype of the oil companies and allow us mere mortals to choose an oil based on true performance.
Anyway, I ended up choosing Valvoline Maxlife 5W-30 because his (and a few other) tests had it scoring outstanding on wear protection. To use his words, it gives you a "higher margin of safety." Given that it's a semi-syn and oil companies never reveal their synthetic to conventional ratio, I add a single qt of Pennzoil platinum to ramp up the synthetic content.
Enjoy the read, if you are so inclined. Don't be confused by the fact that Pennzoil Platinum was the highest scoring oil. That was the case BEFORE they switched to natural gas formula and the old formulation is no longer available. The blog is old and he keeps updating it.
https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/
...Drew...