Link to Jalopnik article - Why Expensive Oil is a Waste of Money
Link to Blackstone Labs' newsletter - Which Oil is Better?
Link to Blackstone Labs' newsletter - Which Oil is Better?
Interesting study results from Blackstone Labs
- Thread starter Otter
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Very interesting study. Of course, the oil manufacturers don't want you to be aware of this.
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- #3
I think it's pretty cool that Blackstone realized they had all of this data about various engine oils, decided to analyze it, and release the results.
This probably should be posted up in Tech, also.
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- #5
Someone posted it in the 100 forum already. Don't know about any of the other forums.
murf
Lifer
This is a great article:
There is nothing like hard, measureable, defined data to get good information from. So many people get lost in the opinion overload on the interwebs that the basic principle of "just change your oil when you are due by time and miles" and that has always been a winning formula. I think the anal people swear by the brand they use because of good results are more due to their frequent services intervals versus the label on the bottle.
There is nothing like hard, measureable, defined data to get good information from. So many people get lost in the opinion overload on the interwebs that the basic principle of "just change your oil when you are due by time and miles" and that has always been a winning formula. I think the anal people swear by the brand they use because of good results are more due to their frequent services intervals versus the label on the bottle.
I skimmed the article but it seems like the real comparison should be expensive synthetic oils at 7500-10k miles to cheap oils at 3-4k miles. I think most of us that use synthetic are probably going at least 7500. Anyways, glad they are starting to analyze the pile of data they have.
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- #8
The article start that those who have longer intervals between oil changes are going to show less wear particles. They attribute this to old oil leftover after an oil change having a higher concentration of wear particles than the new oil. Regardless of the type of oil, if you stretch out the interval between changes, the "average" for wear particles is going to skew to the lesser end of the spectrum.
I think oil sample submitters reporting longer intervals between oil changes are probably using more expensive oils. That's going to skew the results as well. They spoke about this in the article also.
(Redneck opinion mode on)
Dad pounded into our heads that every 3000 miles we had to change the oil. As an aircraft mechanic we believed him, and since he got more than 200,000 miles out of every engine he ever had we knew he was right. Dinosaur oil was all we had last century but he had strong opinions on brands - one of the more popular brands didn't work well in hotter climates according to him, but most of the major brands were interchangeable and it was much more important to change oil and filters after a certain number of engine revolutions. Gotta get the wear particles out of the oil system!
Runtime times rpm is the most important metric, but we don't have runtime accumulators in our cars, so mileage is a surrogate. As oil improved the 3000 mile rule of thumb increased to 5000 and higher. I do all my oil changes so filter costs & oil is really cheap. I could go higher but emotionally I can't go more than 5000 miles between oil changes. Besides, every 5000 miles is easy to keep track of, and with five vehicles I need to keep things easy.
I can't see paying $28.00 for an oil analysis since an oil change is cheaper. Royal Purple & Amsoil & the like are just like Monster cables - people who like them like them and are willing to pay for them and ignore anything that casts doubt on their decision to buy them. Me not so much.
(Redneck opinion mode off).
Dad pounded into our heads that every 3000 miles we had to change the oil. As an aircraft mechanic we believed him, and since he got more than 200,000 miles out of every engine he ever had we knew he was right. Dinosaur oil was all we had last century but he had strong opinions on brands - one of the more popular brands didn't work well in hotter climates according to him, but most of the major brands were interchangeable and it was much more important to change oil and filters after a certain number of engine revolutions. Gotta get the wear particles out of the oil system!
Runtime times rpm is the most important metric, but we don't have runtime accumulators in our cars, so mileage is a surrogate. As oil improved the 3000 mile rule of thumb increased to 5000 and higher. I do all my oil changes so filter costs & oil is really cheap. I could go higher but emotionally I can't go more than 5000 miles between oil changes. Besides, every 5000 miles is easy to keep track of, and with five vehicles I need to keep things easy.
I can't see paying $28.00 for an oil analysis since an oil change is cheaper. Royal Purple & Amsoil & the like are just like Monster cables - people who like them like them and are willing to pay for them and ignore anything that casts doubt on their decision to buy them. Me not so much.
(Redneck opinion mode off).
@Stepmurr (Red Steve), I totally get where you are coming from. The nice thing about an analysis being done is that if you do it every few changes like I do, it gives you a good idea of how your engine is wearing and parts that might be replaceable before you have a significant repair. I do 15k change intervals with Mobil 1 extended peformance and have for years. At 15k, i can do the analysis and know what (if anything) has changed over the course of 30k miles. Just changing my oil every 5k miles wouldn't give me that knowledge.
I buy my Mobil 1 ext performance from Walmart at $26/gallon and get the same filter. My cost per oil change ~ double what it would be with dino oil but allows me to go 15k miles without worry. Seeing what some people pay for oil makes me gag.
I buy my Mobil 1 ext performance from Walmart at $26/gallon and get the same filter. My cost per oil change ~ double what it would be with dino oil but allows me to go 15k miles without worry. Seeing what some people pay for oil makes me gag.
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- #11
I get my Mobil 1 at Walmart also, but I usually snag it when there's a $12 rebate. I use the Toyota filter. If I waited 15k miles between changes, it would be years. So I usually change mine once a year or 7,500 miles. I've never sent off a sample for analysis.
