Oil preferences
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,942
Likes: 1,328
From: Houston Tx
I know that each oil has its fans. I was not trying to badmouth any brand or test with my earlier post. I was simply saying that all of the top brands of full synthetics are very good. That’s why with just about any of them, you can find testimonials saying I drove a zillion miles and never had a problem.
My company did a lot of engine testing of both our and our main competitors’ oils. Such testing is very expensive, because to show differences, you must run engines a long time, being sure that the engines are run under exactly the same conditions. Our oil consistently came out either at or near the top in all such tests, but realistically, the differences between the top and bottom oil of a given class were not large. By “class”, I mean things like dino versus synthetic, or reputable versus questionable companies. Can you find big differences between name brand full synthetic versus bargain basement dino oil? Sure. But full synthetics from Mobil versus Pennzoil, versus Chevron, and similar companies (including the better known boutiques like Amsoil, etc), not so much.
And what about someone’s pet list of 2 or 3 analytical tests that tell almost the whole story, or testing with wear rigs like the Royal Purple thing, or brief, lawn mower or generator engine comparisons like you see on YouTube? Come now. You’d have a better chance of being correct by flipping coins. Ask a reality check question. If such routes were accurate or meaningful, why would oil companies spend tens, or in some cases even hundreds of thousands of dollars per comparison to do actual car or truck engine testing in test cells? We do it both to be sure our own oil is getting better, and to be sure none of our competitors have come up with something that’s suddenly and/or dramatically better, so that if we do find such a situation, we can analyze the fool out of the breakthrough oil and figure out how it was done.
Anyway, enough rambling. Most of you probably stick to “your brand”, and as long as it’s a reputable full synthetic, that’s fine. Just don’t kid yourself into thinking “your brand” is head and shoulders above other brands in the class of reputable full synthetic brands.
My company did a lot of engine testing of both our and our main competitors’ oils. Such testing is very expensive, because to show differences, you must run engines a long time, being sure that the engines are run under exactly the same conditions. Our oil consistently came out either at or near the top in all such tests, but realistically, the differences between the top and bottom oil of a given class were not large. By “class”, I mean things like dino versus synthetic, or reputable versus questionable companies. Can you find big differences between name brand full synthetic versus bargain basement dino oil? Sure. But full synthetics from Mobil versus Pennzoil, versus Chevron, and similar companies (including the better known boutiques like Amsoil, etc), not so much.
And what about someone’s pet list of 2 or 3 analytical tests that tell almost the whole story, or testing with wear rigs like the Royal Purple thing, or brief, lawn mower or generator engine comparisons like you see on YouTube? Come now. You’d have a better chance of being correct by flipping coins. Ask a reality check question. If such routes were accurate or meaningful, why would oil companies spend tens, or in some cases even hundreds of thousands of dollars per comparison to do actual car or truck engine testing in test cells? We do it both to be sure our own oil is getting better, and to be sure none of our competitors have come up with something that’s suddenly and/or dramatically better, so that if we do find such a situation, we can analyze the fool out of the breakthrough oil and figure out how it was done.
Anyway, enough rambling. Most of you probably stick to “your brand”, and as long as it’s a reputable full synthetic, that’s fine. Just don’t kid yourself into thinking “your brand” is head and shoulders above other brands in the class of reputable full synthetic brands.
