huggerorange69

iTrader: (7)

I have a 4.8 with a comp cam and 243's with a 76mm turbo i plan on turning 6500 rpm, question is what brand and weight of oil are you guys running

mjs1012

iTrader: (36)

M1 5-30. I just have bolt ons and a stock internal motor.

Paul Bell

iTrader: (9)

I run German Castrol 0W-30. I do a oil & filter change when the oil looks dirty, not by mileage.

Just about any top shelf synthetic oil will serve you well.

The filter just as important. Store bought: Wix/CarQuest Hastings, Mobil 1 Extended, K&N.

NEVER ANY FRAM!

javier1730

iTrader: (16)

i use Valvoline VR1 and Royal Purple

Gunslinger09

Shell Rotella T 15-W40. It still has the zinc and phosphorus that used to be in all motor oils. It will keep a heavy truck Diesel motor with a turbo pushing 30lbs of boost alive for 1 million miles so that's why I use it.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

I've ran Mobil1 5w30 forever, but I am going to switch to Valvoline VR1 20w50 after learning of the changes the past half-decade.

I use a K&N oil filter as I've found they keep the oil pressure up at high rpms.

fengstang

iTrader: (2)

I also run Mobile 1 5w30.

Hey Demonspeed, is the Valvoline much better than 5w30? and is it fully synthethic?

skinumback

iTrader: (1)

I use m-1 20w50 with Procharger tho, and in Georgia it doesnt get that cold! I use rotella t 15w40 in my kubota tractor, and m1 5w30 in my dd 07 5.3 silverado!

zrultima

I used rotella t6 diesel in my ls cj 40k and runs great diesel oil have more additives and if its good.enough for a diesel truck there good enough for a gasser

conan

iTrader: (5)

Switched to Cam2 blue blood in the fall, we'll see how it does in a fresh engine I'm in the middle of for summer. It's got a 2,100 PPM zinc content in the 20w50.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

There is a synthetic version of the VR1 that it is equivalent in cost to the Mobil1. The regular VR1 is like $5/qt. You should do a search on oil to learn more about it. Mobil1 has been engrained in my head for a decade, but I was out of the game for many years so I didn't realize there were changes to oils.

Blackpanther99

iTrader: (8)

Mobil 1 here.

Blackpanther99

iTrader: (8)

Planning on using Joe Gibbs Driven oil on my new build though. A lot of good results from that oil

Rare96LT1Formula

iTrader: (32)

Rotella T6

Used to run M1 5w-30. Too much valvetrain noise for me.

dr_whigham

iTrader: (49)

I use Valvoline VR1 conventional, at a VERY reasonable +- $5qt, and here's why:



Some folks have a hard time accepting certain data that has come out of the motor oil “wear testing” that I’ve been performing this year. The result that is the hardest for them to accept is the outcome showing that an oil with a high level of zinc, will not automatically provide excellent wear protection. That runs counter to everything they’ve always been told over the years.

The data I’ve provided up to now has always included low zinc modern API certified oils along with traditional high zinc High Performance and Racing oils. But having so many oils of different types, all mixed in together, might be a bit overwhelming or confusing. So, here I’ve selected only 13 oils that all have between 1100 and 1800 ppm zinc. That way the comparison is just apples to apples. Now zinc levels vs wear protection can easily be compared straight across.

The excellent performance of many of these high zinc oils, shows that my testing equipment and test procedure do in fact, allow high zinc oils to perform as well as they are capable of performing.




Wear protection categories are:

*** Over 90,000 psi = OUTSTANDING protection

*** 75,000 to 90,000 psi = GOOD protection

*** 60,000 to 75,000 psi = MODEST protection

*** Below 60,000 psi = UNDESIREABLE

I’ve also included detergent levels for reference as well.

All the oils below are full synthetic unless otherwise specified.

The following group of 13 oils are ranked according to their “load carrying capacity/film strength”, or in other words, their “wear protection” performance, at 230*F. The higher the psi number, the better the wear protection. The tests were repeated multiple times for each oil, and then those results were averaged to arrive at the final psi numbers shown below. And every single oil was tested EXACTLY THE SAME.

1. 10W30 Valvoline NSL (Not Street Legal) Conventional Racing Oil = 103,846 psi
zinc = 1669 ppm
total detergent = 1618 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.0
NOTE: Due to its very low TBN value, this oil is only suitable for short term racing use, and is not suitable for street use.

2. 10W30 Valvoline VR1 Conventional Racing Oil (silver bottle) = 103,505 psi
(.3% below no.1)
zinc = 1472 ppm
total detergent = 2787 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.9

3. 10W30 Valvoline VR1 Synthetic Racing Oil, API SL (black bottle) = 101,139 psi
(2.6% below no.1)
zinc = 1180 ppm
total detergent = 2683 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.9

4. 10W30 Amsoil Z-Rod Oil = 95,360 psi
(8.2% below no.1)
zinc = 1431 ppm
total detergent = 2927 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio =2.0

5. 10W30 Joe Gibbs HR4 Hotrod Oil = 86,270 psi
(16.9% below no.1)
zinc = 1247 ppm
total detergent = 3134 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 2.5

6. 5W30 Royal Purple XPR (Extreme Performance Racing) = 74,860 psi
(27.9% below no.1)
zinc = 1421 ppm
total detergent = 3050 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 2.1

7. 15W40 Farm Rated Heavy Duty Performance Diesel, CI-4, CH-4, CG-4, CF/SL, SJ (conventional) = 73,176 psi
(29.5% below no.1)
zinc = 1325ppm
total detergent = 1593 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.2

8. 0W30 Brad Penn, Penn Grade 1 (semi-synthetic) = 71,377 psi
(31.3% below no.1)
zinc = 1621 ppm
total detergent = 2939 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.8

9. 10W30 Brad Penn, Penn Grade 1 (semi-synthetic) = 71,206 psi
(31.4% below no.1)
zinc = 1557 ppm
total detergent = 3173 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 2.0

10. 15W50 Mobil 1, API SN = 70,235 psi
(32.4% below no.1)
zinc = 1133 ppm
total detergent = 1437 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 1.3

11. 10W30 Royal Purple HPS (High Performance Street) = 66,211 psi
(36.2% below no.1)
zinc = 1774 ppm
total detergent = 3676 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 2.1

12. 10W40 Valvoline 4 Stroke Motorcycle Oil conventional, API SJ = 65,553 psi
(36.9% below no.1)
zinc = 1154 ppm
total detergent = 1999 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio =1.1

13. Royal Purple 10W30 Break-In Oil conventional = 62,931 psi
(39.4% below no.1)
zinc = 1170 ppm
total detergent = 3184 ppm
detergent ppm/zinc ppm ratio = 2.7

SUMMARY:

As you can see, the number one oil above, the 10W30 Valvoline NSL Conventional Racing Oil, has 1669 ppm zinc and 103,846 psi “load carrying capacity/film strength”. But, the number 11 oil, the 10W30 Royal Purple HPS (High Performance Street), has 1774 ppm zinc, but ONLY 66,211 psi “load carrying capacity/film strength”, which is a WHOPPING 36.2% below the number one Valvoline.

On top of that, the number one Valvoline is conventional dino oil, while the Royal Purple is synthetic. So, many people might not expect conventional oil to perform so well, since synthetic oil gets all the hype. Conventional oil is still quite good and does not get the respect it deserves. It’s sort of like the fact that Chevy’s late model high performance push rod engines are still quite good, even though most all other modern vehicles use overhead cam designs and get most of the hype.

If you had only looked at the spec sheet for each of these two oils, you’d assume they were equal in wear protection because their zinc levels were essentially the same. But nothing could be further from the truth. This is real world test data (not just some theory), which compared motor oils against each other under the EXACT SAME test conditions. So, this is a perfect example of the point I’ve been trying to make, which is that you cannot simply look at the zinc value on an oil’s spec sheet, and assume that you can predict how well it will provide wear protection. Things are just NOT that simple in the real world.

And for those folks who want to avoid high levels of detergent in their oils, for fear that an oil with a lot of detergent will not be able to provide adequate wear protection, let’s look at that above as well. The oils ranked 1st and 12th both had low levels of detergent. And the oils ranked 2nd and 13th both had high or relatively high levels of detergent. The rest of the oils were a mixed bag of high and low detergent oils. So, that is proof that detergent levels are a non-issue, and that there are better things to worry about.

You simply cannot believe all the misinformation you come across about motor oil, on the internet and elsewhere. The bottom line is that, the only way to really KNOW how well an oil can provide wear protection, is to perform real world “wear testing” at a representative temperature, and see how it performs dynamically, under load. It’s the same kind of reason that we dyno test engines, rather than simply looking at their build sheets. “Wear testing” motor oil is the gold standard, just like “dyno testing” an engine is the gold standard. Anything else is simply guessing.

As I’ve said before, there are no BAD oils here. They all will generally work well enough in most applications. But, some do clearly provide a higher level of reserve “extra protection capability” than others. Of course you can decide for yourself, how much reserve “extra protection capability” is good enough for your needs

RJDio

after reading this I'm thinking of switching from Mobil 1 to Amsoil Z or Valvoline VR1 synthethic. I'm still stuck on synthetics. I've used Mobil 1 just because of good reviews years ago, I'm open to new data. thanks for that post

muttstang

iTrader: (1)

Definately switching to VR-1!

brnmw

Amsoil is really good, I have used it in the past. Now I use the Pennzoil "Ultra".

dr_whigham

iTrader: (49)

I've got a feeling here in the NEAR future all the info I posted will become irrelevant, and we'll all be swapping to some sort of mail order oil to achieve the same amount of protection. The EPA is killing our oil protection by the day it seems....

ckpitt55

iTrader: (4)

So we should kill the EPA

But if your data shows that detergent and zinc content really have no effect on the protection characteristics of an oil, what determines the protection properties if viscosities are equivalent or similar?