Motor Oil Tests

[TheRealSy90]

I will gladly put 2-3 grand in oil changes over years of ownership versus risking burning up rod bearings more quickly.

Amsoil Dominator 15/50 is perfect for sr's in hot climates, and within the oem viscosity recommendation. Hell I ran 15/50 in my daily driven sr through two Idaho winters and it was fine lol.

IMO There's no need for a 0/40 or a 10/40. Also it's not Weight it's Winter.

[smoked240]

Originally Posted by 240KA

i've nerded out on engine oils before for a little bit, but still very noob.

poorman, i have a stock pile of T6 and pennzoil synthetics and mobil 1. they might not be the "best", but i feel they do a fairly adequate job of lubricating the engine in a 3k-5k oil change interval for their price. would you agree? if not, what are some of the lower-than-amsoil quality oils that you'd suggest? you said amsoil is at the top, but can u find a compromise in price and OCI with a less expensive oil? i like my SR, but not $15 per quart amounts of love :P hopefully you don't comeback with "gotta pay to play", cuz i find that hard to believe when it comes to oils of today.

edit - yes if you pay more you'll get better quality oils, but i think a "lower quality" like a T6, pennzoil, mobil, will do a good enough job in a 3k-5k OCI condition or in a couple of race events, that most of us would never see the true benefits of a more expensive oil. although, i'm guessing the higher priced amsoil offers some kind of insurance if you lose oil pressure all of a sudden. because of its chemistry and bond, it allows the engine to perhaps run longer with no oil pressure than say a T6 or pennzoil or mobil1.

AMSoil has their own compromise in oils to be honest. They have the multiple lines of Oils for different prices. $15 a QT is crazy expensive but doing quick math, If I had to change my oil once a year opposed to 2-3 times, I am already saving money! This is all factored in on miles you drive each year, I maybe get 10k in a year if I am lucky. I use T6 in my WRX so going to the Boosted series, which would still last me 1 year would be cheaper and one less oil change.

To me this doesn't matter, just food for thought. I don't think i'll switch my WRX to AMSoil but I know my RB is going to run it once I get it going.

He showed me the 3 common kinds. Signature series/Boosted/OE. I think the prices were $15/10/7(This might have been dealer price? I am not sure) don't quote me but it's close!



EDIT:TheRealSy90. I agree with the 0/40 being useless. I ran 0/30 in my RB for about 8 miles until I changed it out due to having no ZINC whatsoever, my lifters were ticking like crazy. After my rebuild I am seeing like 9bar psi at WOT so was testing lighter oil to see if it would help lower my pressure. Im not sure when or if too much oil pressure can cause issues.

[slider2828]

Actually on that note guys!!!! I need a little help.

I have a 3qt accumsump..... I am going to run Rotella T5 as a startup oil to get to about 500 miles......

So obviously I am going to fill that accusump.....


So when I switch to AMS Signature.... how do I get all that oil out??

I guess put 60psi in the accusump, to push the oil and drain it....

Any good ideas on how to drain the oil cooler and lines? or screw it a little mix is alright?

-Ken

[S14rebuild]

Originally Posted by slider2828

Actually on that note guys!!!! I need a little help.

I have a 3qt accumsump..... I am going to run Rotella T5 as a startup oil to get to about 500 miles......

So obviously I am going to fill that accusump.....


So when I switch to AMS Signature.... how do I get all that oil out??

I guess put 60psi in the accusump, to push the oil and drain it....

Any good ideas on how to drain the oil cooler and lines? or screw it a little mix is alright?

-Ken

The right way is, drain engine oil, then open the valve on the accusump, let it bleed out.

As for the cooler and lines, ive always disconnected the lines. Put one in a bucket and ran shop air thru it(low psi) can get messy but only way to get all the oil out.


Do not forget to prime the motor backup before starting...

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by 240KA

i've nerded out on engine oils before for a little bit, but still very noob.

poorman, i have a stock pile of T6 and pennzoil synthetics and mobil 1. they might not be the "best", but i feel they do a fairly adequate job of lubricating the engine in a 3k-5k oil change interval for their price. would you agree? if not, what are some of the lower-than-amsoil quality oils that you'd suggest? you said amsoil is at the top, but can u find a compromise in price and OCI with a less expensive oil? i like my SR, but not $15 per quart amounts of love :P hopefully you don't comeback with "gotta pay to play", cuz i find that hard to believe when it comes to oils of today.

edit - yes if you pay more you'll get better quality oils, but i think a "lower quality" like a T6, pennzoil, mobil, will do a good enough job in a 3k-5k OCI condition or in a couple of race events, that most of us would never see the true benefits of a more expensive oil. although, i'm guessing the higher priced amsoil offers some kind of insurance if you lose oil pressure all of a sudden. because of its chemistry and bond, it allows the engine to perhaps run longer with no oil pressure than say a T6 or pennzoil or mobil1.

If you?re mostly concerned about anti-wear additives, you can buy Redline?s break-in oil additive, which had zddp and phosphorous. You?re then only missing out on things like boron and moly. Honestly those oils will do a adequate job with a little boosting to the additives.

Originally Posted by TheRealSy90

I will gladly put 2-3 grand in oil changes over years of ownership versus risking burning up rod bearings more quickly.

Amsoil Dominator 15/50 is perfect for sr's in hot climates, and within the oem viscosity recommendation. Hell I ran 15/50 in my daily driven sr through two Idaho winters and it was fine lol.

IMO There's no need for a 0/40 or a 10/40. Also it's not Weight it's Winter.

You live in a very hot climate. Also the only way to pick the best oil would be monitoring pressure and temp, and having a consistent UOA trend low in wear. Just because ?nothing happened? doesn?t mean it?s the ideal oil. I?ve seen oil temps drop 50* from switching oils. Just adding thicker oil doesn?t always mean better protection either.

Originally Posted by slider2828

Actually on that note guys!!!! I need a little help.

I have a 3qt accumsump..... I am going to run Rotella T5 as a startup oil to get to about 500 miles......

So obviously I am going to fill that accusump.....


So when I switch to AMS Signature.... how do I get all that oil out??

I guess put 60psi in the accusump, to push the oil and drain it....

Any good ideas on how to drain the oil cooler and lines? or screw it a little mix is alright?

-Ken

Honestly, I wouldn?t worry about it too much hah.

[tuzzio]

This thread really makes me want to fix my leaky valve cover gasket and change my oil / intervals, mostly because im lazy...but I change frequently because I definitely have that "oil is the blood of your engine, the fresher the better" mindset.

Also, filters. I used to check up on bobistheoilguy once and a while, and people seem all over the place with answers. I currently run the Purolator Boss PBL20252 on my KA (Which ive ran for 5 years now) and never had any issues. Should I change to something else? Or..

[240KA]

Originally Posted by tuzzio

This thread really makes me want to fix my leaky valve cover gasket and change my oil / intervals, mostly because im lazy...but I change frequently because I definitely have that "oil is the blood of your engine, the fresher the better" mindset.

Also, filters. I used to check up on bobistheoilguy once and a while, and people seem all over the place with answers. I currently run the Purolator Boss PBL20252 on my KA (Which ive ran for 5 years now) and never had any issues. Should I change to something else? Or..

oil filters were hard to keep track of for me - not worth the time to keep up with them as far as which one is currently the best one, i mean i'll check out the oil filter section once in a while. cuz one day they'll say Purolator One is the best value for the price, but then next day someone will post a picture of the insides and everyone else would say it looked bad or that it was torn. so i stick with wix xp or fram ultra, mobil has been around for a while so it's probably still a good filter but i don't need to be following all these different filter companies :P
either way any of those filters will easily handle 15,000 miles of daily driving, and eaaaasily 3k-5k of track driving. sounds crazy, but from what i've read, i feel comfortable doing that with those synthetic filters.
if this KA is just a daily put put car, then you don't need to worry one bit about a filter. even the normal wix and orange fram or the middle fram (tough guard i think) will be just fine.

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by tuzzio

This thread really makes me want to fix my leaky valve cover gasket and change my oil / intervals, mostly because im lazy...but I change frequently because I definitely have that "oil is the blood of your engine, the fresher the better" mindset.

Also, filters. I used to check up on bobistheoilguy once and a while, and people seem all over the place with answers. I currently run the Purolator Boss PBL20252 on my KA (Which ive ran for 5 years now) and never had any issues. Should I change to something else? Or..

Depends. From what I can tell purolator boss filters are 35 micron absolute, which is pretty good, but not the best on the market. Fram Ultra and Amsoil are 20 micron absolute. "Absolute" refers to their 98.7% efficiency in a multi-pass test, and they will trap particles smaller, just at a lower efficiency. From what I've read particles under 20 micron are too small to cause wear. How much of a difference the filter makes is pretty hard to tell though, as no real long-term studies exist.

Also keep in mind that your air filter is a huge factor in how clean your oil is. If you have some chicken-wire air filter on your setup, then you best make sure your oil filter is up to par, because there's going to be shit in your engine that you don't want, haha. From what I can tell, Amsoil and Injen both have their "nano-web" filters that actually filter well while being high flow. Plenty of "high flow" filters on the market that are basically just screen doors.

Originally Posted by 240KA

oil filters were hard to keep track of for me - not worth the time to keep up with them as far as which one is currently the best one, i mean i'll check out the oil filter section once in a while. cuz one day they'll say Purolator One is the best value for the price, but then next day someone will post a picture of the insides and everyone else would say it looked bad or that it was torn. so i stick with wix xp or fram ultra, mobil has been around for a while so it's probably still a good filter but i don't need to be following all these different filter companies :P
either way any of those filters will easily handle 15,000 miles of daily driving, and eaaaasily 3k-5k of track driving. sounds crazy, but from what i've read, i feel comfortable doing that with those synthetic filters.
if this KA is just a daily put put car, then you don't need to worry one bit about a filter. even the normal wix and orange fram or the middle fram (tough guard i think) will be just fine.

I can't seem to find absolute micron ratings for the Wix filters, which is a little annoying. Yeah BITOG is cool but there's plenty of penny-pinchers and anecdotal espouse'rs on there, so it's hard to wade through sometimes.

Track driving is a special case, and you may want to switch to a non-bypass racing filter for track days. High-flow racing filters offer some filtration (usually in the 30-50 micron absolute range) at all times, versus standard filters allowing the bypass to open at 3-4k rpms, which means very little oil is going through the filter and most is just going around. This is something that you have to weigh the "risk" and decide for yourself which is best. I plan on testing some standard and racing filters to see if they really have different pressure drops.

Another thing, if you're running a 13/16-16 oil filter relocation mount, you can run a 2-quart racing filter (if you have the room), which adds capacity at the track, and may be another advantage.

[TheRealSy90]

When I used to run Mobil1 15/50 for years before they changed their formula and got rid of all the lovely zinc that sr's love, I ran the Purolator PureOne filter, supposed to be better than anything else on the shelves. But could only get them at PepBoys as far as local stores go.

Now that I run Amsoil I just order the Amsoil filter along with the oil order.

[tuzzio]

Think i'll see what my local amsoil plug can do for me.

[TheRealSy90]

There's really no need for a local "dealer", just get an account and order everything online. It shows up in 2-3 days every time.

[tuzzio]

Originally Posted by TheRealSy90

There's really no need for a local "dealer", just get an account and order everything online. It shows up in 2-3 days every time.

I used to work at a place that was an amsoil dealer, and I still get everything at cost through them so theres that. I'll look into that as well. Motul is readily available to me as well (through them)