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Clearing up all the oil info....


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Well, I finally made the change to synthetic oil, now at 85k mi. Original turbo.

 

I put in 5W30, Castrol EDGE with SYNTEC Power Technology.

Any thoughts on this weight (similar weather to Seattle) *and* brand?

 

What is this I have been reading about using the long type oil filter?

Is this a must use?

 

I plan on changing oil every 3200 miles. Most of my driving is highway,

and I next to never drive the car for durations less than half an hour. Is this an ok interval?

 

Also, is it correct that synthetic oil will require more top-offs/burn more?

 

TIA.

 

5W-30 should be fine. You can get a 0W-30 which gives more immediate oil flow at cold temperatures, but you don't get the kind of temperatures where it makes that much difference and not many oils are formulated in 0W-XX grades. It is easy to find 0W-20 these days but for a turbo, I would be reluctant to go that thin on this engine. XW-20 also seems to have "non-linear usage events" where you can run several thousand miles with little usage then drop a quart in 500 miles then go back to little usage. Some people have assumed that the end gap on rings rotates and when ring gaps line up, the oil goes away.

 

I have migrated from Mobil 1 5W-30 to Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 - I found the Mobil 1 a little too thin for my liking on my other car and you can get better discounts on PP. Many decades ago I used Castrol GT and found their 10W-30 became straight SAE 10 after a few thousand miles - I hope they finally have their act together and that is no longer representative of how they do things.

 

I understand the RX-8 filter (which is larger) fits and works and as soon as the warranty period is over, that is what I will switch to. It is a bit like my Miata where the Mazda Millenia filter fits but is larger, so it is what I use.

 

3200 miles is a conservative number. A good synthetic is not as susceptible to oxidation especially in the turbo bearings. Oil analysis would probably show you could go longer and your typical drive seems to be benign operating conditions.

 

Back in the early days, synthetic oil developed a reputation for leaking everywhere. The PAO (polyalphaolefin) base stock tended to shrink seals and cause leaks. The addition of POE (polyol ester) tended to expand seals, so later formulations balanced the shrinkage and expansion with additional POE used in high-mileage oils. With the API-SN oil spec, more POE is used to make all oil high-mileage and the modern oils don't tend to leak much.

 

As far as burning, synthetic oils should burn less because they are more resistant to oxidation. You can go to the bobistheoilguy site and learn more about oil - it is interesting and worthwhile to eliminate the old wives' tales about oil.

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Here is a link someone sent me from the Petroleum Quality Institute of America showing some data on about 24 different synthetic oils. I have NOT read it myself, but wanted to throw the information out here while I had it handy. What the individual tests data means will either be up to each individual to research or if we have any petroleum engineers maybe one will come along with comments on each one. Not included is Rotella T6. Maybe we can find it's corresponding data to compare.

http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013PCMO/Marchsyntheticsallfinal.html

Edited by Markbo
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  • 3 weeks later...
http://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/

 

Some interesting data and testing, I would be interested on your takes on it.

 

I think that if you run Rotella T6 and you read and understand this, that you'd probably switch to something else that offers better protection.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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I really appreciate that link. I will admit I have not read every line, but one thing keeps bugging me.. .the authors cop out on Prolong:

"But, keep in mind that I only test an oil’s “Wear Protection Capability”. That provides the information that people usually care about most. However, that data is limited to ONLY wear protection capability, and does NOT provide any information as to how compatible overall this product’s chlorine may be with a given oil’s additive package. Chlorine and additive package incompatibility has the potential to result in corrosion issues. Contact Prolong’s maker for more information on compatibility."

 

Given how much time he talks about how thorough & professional he is, surely he has knowledge about Prolongs compatibility without having to get it FROM Prolong, which is one of the major problems - believing information supplied by the manufacturers!

 

He also does not cover the dozen or so other additives that I am aware of nor all the others that I am sure I am not aware of... why just these two?

Edited by Markbo
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The part i was interested in was where the the oil performed without the additives. He mentioned in there that hia suggestion would be for someone to use one of the higher ranked oils minus the additives.

 

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Definitely a good read with mixed info and findings and preferences. Might have me reconsidering my use of M1 5-30 (both in high mileage and syn forms) with either m1 or subie blue filter. But oci is 4-6k, with daily drive putting me at 2k-2.5k miles a month I'd say. Highway majority but stop and go at low rpm and speed for 5-10miles bc of DC traffic. Guess I might look into a OA done by black stone. Have 129k on the car currently and bought the car in 12/09 with 40k. Oem turbo and engine, haven't had the funds nor time to do the timing belt etc (plan on all in one swoop) but do check the timing belt and for leaks fairly often. Mild oil residue on the intake side of engine and removed one of the two banjo filters.
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Considering m1 in 5-40 or 10-40 form but cost on the 5-40 would hurt the bank with the commute gas and two kids. But oci too often on that expensive cost hurts the bank too. Don't have the time to do more frequent oci and work dislikes me workin on the car there (govt mechanic). (Miss working at dealership and private industry in that matter).
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