Which type of engine oil is best?

[101Volts]

Originally Posted by ThermionicScott

You're confusing the "warm" viscosity (40°C = 104°F) measure with the actual "cold" viscosity used to determine the first number in the viscosity rating. The 0W or 5W or 10W is measured at -30°C or below.

Whoops.

M1 0w30:

Pour Point, ºC (ASTM D97) -50

PP 5w30:

Pour Point, ºC (ASTM D97) -48

Thanks, I dun goofed.

[oil pan 4]

Something synthetic with a lot of anti-ware additive with the right viscosity for your engine.

[ThermionicScott]

Originally Posted by SH@UN

All oil threads should be titled "can of worms".

True story.

[hayden55]

For the most part I usually just look at the viscosity at "running temp". Then I just compare all the oils available at wal-mart because for the most part they are really cheap compared to autozone and everywhere else and most synthetic oils regardless of category perform well enough to not worry about them in a passenger car.
What was interesting is I ended up comparing all of the 0w-20 oils for the prius i could find. Mobil 1 (26) had a 8.7 @100cst, pennzoil platinum had a 8.3 @ 100cst (25), quaker state (20) had a 8.3 @100cst, valvoline (22.5) had a 8.8 @ 100cst, etc...
And just for fun redline 0w20 is 9.1 @ 100cst
Just for fun Ravenol 0w-16 was a 7.1 @100cst
The API considers 8.2 the upper threshold for 0w-16w oils. So they are no 16w but all the 0w-20s are pretty thin for the most part.
Its not super technical but I ended up getting the quak state 0w20 for 20 bucks because a 0w-16 honda oil change was $45 dollars, and so was ravenol. Not worth that 1-2% gain for double the price of oil.
And i'm already running pennzoil platinum 0w20 and in 400 miles i'll be coming up on 10k so ill send in the blackstone oil analysis and see if they recommend to keep the oil in longer. All about running your oil the smartest way you can I think if you're going to keep the car for a long time.
When my dad was a branch manager for Terminix they had a large fleet of Ford rangers covering two counties that for the most part all had higher running cost but all ran to 250k+. He said the company at one point actually went through and changed all the maintenance intervals to higher intervals to maximize profits and because they were doing the factory maintenance intervals and had people come in and determine it wasn't completely necessary. They ended up upping (in like 2003) all their oil change intervals to 7500, changed when they changed the coolant out, added transmission coolers, did more etc... but I do not remember to all of their trucks and they apparently saved a ton of money and there trucks were still running to 250k+ before they sold them off. Pretty neat.

[ThermionicScott]

My 1996 Subaru manual says to change the oil every 6500 or 7500 miles (can't remember which without having the manual in front of me), and doesn't require synthetic at that. It's amazing (and incredibly wasteful) how the old 3000 mile oil change is still fixed in people's minds.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by ThermionicScott

My 1996 Subaru manual says to change the oil every 6500 or 7500 miles (can't remember which without having the manual in front of me), and doesn't require synthetic at that. It's amazing (and incredibly wasteful) how the old 3000 mile oil change is still fixed in people's minds.

Yup my 1996 (not that it could bc they are all oil chuggers) had an interval of 10k oil change, 15k filter. Thats crazy.