Different Types of Oil
 

1) Has anybody gotten any good results while using unleaded plus instead of regular unleaded?

2) I need to get my oil changed and I was wondering what brands people recommend.

Thanks.

High octane fuels will only increase the performace of your cash turning into trash.

High octane fuel contains less energy than regular. Most gas formulations gain octane through ethanol, which has a lower energy density than gasoline. High octane will only improve performance if you engine is built to use it (i.e. higher compression). A high compression engine running regular is going to detonate or run poorly as its timing is advanced.

Stick with the lowest weight synthetic your user manual suggests. Since you own a hybrid, it will probably be a 0W20. If it is a 0W30 or 5W30, you could take the chance and run 0W20 for decreased viscosity, but you'll be tempting fate.

A synthetic oil (e.g. Mobil1) will last 10,000 miles between oil changes. If you want to be cautious, oil analyses can tell you exactly when your oil is losing its rating.

- LostCause

MasterAlex, I pretty much agree with Lost Cause.

Try not to get too caught up in brand of oil. For economy, weight is most important ... and I'm betting your hybrid already calls for 0W-20. That'll probably be Mobil 1 ... but I'd take another brand in a heartbeat if you could find it reasonably priced (Amsoil, Pennzoil Platinum, etc ...).

Best economy I got in my old Nissan was using Schaeffer synthetic blend in 5W-30. I think they make a 5W-20 now, too.

If you really want to know too much about oil, try this site (but prepare to be overwhelmed):

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php

It only works if higher octane gas is recommended for the vehicle. Honda recommends Premium for my '99 Odyssey. I used it for a while but decided that the 2-3 MPG loss of running Regular was okay since the van didn't seem to mind and the increased cost ($0.20/gal) didn't make economic sense. That when gas was under $2/gal. Now that gas is $4/gal, and Premium is still only 0.20 more, the economic value has shifted back to Premium since I stand to make a 10% gain in fuel economy with only a 5% increase in cost. My van is on it's last tank of Regular. I can't wait to see the results when I start using Premium again.

Most Honda cars I've seen, including my own, recommend Premium over Regular for some reason. However, I've been running Regular in my Accord for about 4 years (since I got it) and it doesn't seem to mind at all. The only time I was told to ever really be careful about not using premium is if you have a high performance engine either with a high compression ratio or if it has a Turbo/Super charger attached to it because these parts will get destroyed otherwise because of the compressed air being forced into the piston and raising the cylinder compression (I think that's right anyway).

Generally for oil, I stick to what the book says. My friend who is a Lexus/Toyota mechanic said that 5W-20 would be ok, but it's sort of 50/50 if there will be any problems caused by it.

It's funny you said that because I was under the impression most Hondas don't recommend premium. Mine requires it because of 11:1 compression but I think they make an effort for their V6s to run on regular to reduce operating costs.

The most efficient oils will be 0-weights that are true synthetics. However, the difference between gas mileage between these and "regular" oils are negligible, and may not offset the extra cost. When it comes to engine wear, however, that is a totally different matter.

Honda has made changes to their V6s in recent years to eliminate the Premium fuel recommendation. Only the high performance fours in the Civic and S2000 still have that recommendation. Ten years ago gas was cheap and smaller V6s were just starting to generate 200+ HP. Higher compression ratios were a simple tool to acheive it. Improved engine design and ECM management have made it unnecessary. My '99 makes 210 HP using premium. The current generation V6 in the Odyssey makes 244 HP on regular!

Well I got it changed yesterday (is it really different to do on a hybrid???) and my mpg just went up 5 :)

I agree with your assessment but your reasoning is more than a bit off-base. Gasoline is a mixture of refined petroleum products that likely includes but is not composed entirely of "octane" (2,2,4 trimethylpentane). The octane rating, or anti-knock index, is merely an indication of how the particular blend of gasoline performs as a ratio of 2,2,4 trimethylpentane (arbitrarily 100 octane rating) and n-heptane (arbitrarily 0 octane rating) in a standard reference engine.

Different octane-rating gasolines are achieved by refining petroleum to produce a different blend of hydrocarbons. Long-chain hydrocarbons have a lower octane rating than short-chain hydrocarbons, so higher octane gasoline can be catalyst-cracked or blended from different distillate outputs, but by and large ethanol is not the primary means of increasing the octane rating. Because of this, it is not generally true that higher octane fuels contain less energy per unit measure.

That said, it is true that higher octane gas will only improve performance if your engine is designed for it, specifically higher compression ratio or forced induction or low-overlap camshaft designs.

maybe if you changed from 50 weight to synthetic kerosene......
otherwise I'm not so sure............:confused: