i am biased about valvoline.. i work a a valvoline oil change shop. i do agree that no matter what oil you PREFER regular maintance is the key to healthy engines. what i have learned is that synthetic or not all depends on how you drive your vehicle and what you do with it.(car, truck. minivan.. mainly highway, lots of city driving, etc....) always go with your preference and regular maintenance and theres rarely a problem.
Don't be fooled! Engine specs are no tighter today than before. The ONLY reason oils are getting thinner and thinner for new cars is to gain fuel economy. It has nothing to do with making the engine last longer! A thinner oil will still make the engine last past warranty and will give better MPG. This allows the maker to meet EPA rules and get a pass. After you buy it, they could care less how the oil cushions your bearings. Dirty little secret I learned while working in the oil industry. Dave
again ratio nailed it.if thinner oils were required for tighter specd engines, then motorcycles wouldnt still be running 10w40 and 10w30 for the last ten years. and oil manufacturers are just like any business. they dont care about you or your problems, just about telling you what it takes to get you to buy
i heard that some of the higher weight oils clog up oil pumps or should i say the thicker oil starved the pump cuz it coundn't pick it up... at least that what a few of my friends at dealers said... guess they worked on a few or something. shoot my new car says 5/30 on another subject.... all i know valvoline after draining it smalls horriable.. peww! some ither fyi quaker state is the same company as pennzoil i call it water oil! napa brand was valvoline before i use nothing but mobil one oil! but mobil gas has got to be the worst gas ever next to arco IMO
are you sure they werent trying to run grease or stp treatment as an oil? J/K if the oil isnt TOO much thicker, the pump should be able to pick it up still. but you do want to know what is right for your engine at what temps and altitudes and under what conditions. its another of those variables that can be a blessing or a curse.
Wellllllll..... Actually, I've learned a lot about oils and new engine construction in the last 4 or 5 years. It's true that running a thinner oil will help some with fuel economy. Not nearly as much as you'd think though. For the powerstroke engine, oil weight is important because the injectors are fired via oil pressure. By running a different weight oil, you can actually change the amount of fuel that is metered by the injector. The lash adjusters (lifters) in the 4.6, 5.4, etc. engines are very sensitive to oil weight since they're a "slow bleed" type. A heavier weight oil here will keep the valves from fully seating and could cause you to burn an exhaust valve or backfire. The hypereutectic piston casting technology has made great leaps and bounds over old cast pistons and have a smaller coefficient of expansion, which allows manufacturers to run a tighter piston/wall clearance (.001 on the mod) to reduce NVH. They can also run smaller rings, which adds up to less parasitic loss, since a tighter piston seals the bore better. A lighter oil is not necessary because of this, but certainly doesn't hurt anything since you want to be sure the skirts are getting some oil on them. The chain tensioners on the mod engine are also hydraulic, so oil weight will affect the operation of these as well. So, the lighter weight oil doesn't necessarily extend engine life, but running a heavier oil can reduce the life of a modern engine or at least keep it from running its best. I've also heard oil manufacturers say there isn't much of a difference in viscosity, but there's a pretty good difference between say straight 50 weight and 5W20 blend.
Good reply ATO. Most people get stuck in there oil thinking and can't advance with the times. On every board I am on, there is oil discussions that go to extremes and get harsh at times. Some want to use double filters and go 15,000 miles just adding before changes, many want to change at 3000 miles, while most go the 5000 mile time interval, and now there are 7500 mile oils being permoted. Then many insist on changing reccomended oil grades, many insist on Amsoil and then you have the stands on Dino , blends and full synthetics. It dam near amount's to oil worshipping that is not at all nessessary to do today in modern engines. The engine mfgers do life testing to see what is in the oil by analysis over the testing time, then either revise the parts that show higher wear within their equivelent warrenty period or adjust oil specs and change intervals for reasonable warrenty coverage and engine life as well as meet the EPA demands for emmissions. And by the way, I see the fast oil change people are among the worst to argue and insist they know the best. It shows on every board. People still try to second guess this and make a change based on their own expert positions.
