+1 for Blackstone Labs. The guys on the diesel truck boards swear by Blackstone's service. When you're planning on getting 500K+ miles on an engine, concerns about oil breakdown run deep.

 

The formulation of their motor oil is a proprietary trade-secret, like it is for any other motor oil manufacturer. Exxon-Mobil is not going to give out that information without a very good reason.

 

Ljibis – answers are in reference to your paragraph numbers…

1. I agree with you 100% on the first part. Your second paragraph I agree with you that for this thread we’ll leave totally out of the mix Amsoil’s marketing blurbs. (you can’t mention them again either )

2. Agree with you here also – but let me caveat that by saying that we can’t all be experts in everything and that we should know how to find trusted sources of information. I personally know a fluid engineer that works at Southwest Research here in San Antonio. I’ve talked to him ad-nauseum about oil and he’s the one that years ago (4 or so I think?) turned me on to http://www.bobistheoilguy.com. There’s a lot of different folks that hang out over on that forum, some are experts, some are newbies like me, and some are people hawking their companies products. One major rule over on that forum is that none of the “site sponsors” are EVER allowed to promote their product or degrade another companies stuff. That will get them banned quicker than….you know. I’ve been reading the threads over there on this issue about Mobil 1 changing from pure synthetic (Gp IV or V) over to a “mix” with some dino oil in there. Everyone’s, and my main beef is that Mobil 1 made the change without telling us. Coincidentally the change was made after the Exxon/Mobil merger. It’s not conjecture that Mobil 1 now uses Gp III oil, it was tested by quite a few of the fluid gurus over there and it’s the unanimous opinion of all that Mobil 1 is indeed doing that, and NOT telling us on the label.

3. DISAGREE with you on this – There IS a good reason to get hot about them doing this without telling us, it’s called truth in advertising. And if they’re not telling us about this, what else are they not telling us? As far as the difference between the pure synthetic oil and the synthetic mix – this was hotly debated over on the oil forum and the conclusion was that the pure synthetic oil IS better than the blend. Sorry, you’re just flat wrong here. Go over to the oil forum and read the threads and you’ll see why for yourself.

4. Just because Porsche endorses something DOES NOT mean that it’s the best product. Mobil 1 USED TO be the best product, it no longer is.

As far as your last statement, see my response paragraph 2.

 

Alright, I'm tapping out. No use in me arguing...decisions have already been made, pronouncements pronounced.

Just like there is more than one way to drive to work or skin a cat, there is more than one way to produce a high quality oil. Whether they use PAO stocks, hydroisomerized slack wax, or hydrocracked Group III's they will still produce an oil that has the desired high level of performance. Both the API and the BBB have agreed that oils produced by hydroisomerized or hydrocracked Group III stocks may be considered synthetic.

Good luck with whatever product you choose. I'm sticking with M1 until I'm told otherwise. I've had my hands all over the internals of two 930 GT-1 class race engines that looked brand new after many hard hours with it circulating, and that (and Porsche's recommendation) is good enough for me. The proof is in the pudding, baby!