hearing all this talk of rotella t6 is quite interesting. like 5w 40 ? does it come in those gallon jugs ?


what about regular rotella t, the stuff you put in your cummins diesel in your frieghtliner tractor ?


the conventional wisdom seems to suggest using a good synthetic for your trillion year old turbocharger.


thinner in the winter. slightly thicker for the summer.


thick oil is bad at start up below 40 degrees. death to a turbo, and engine. if you had to use a single oil all year...


synthetic 0w 40, 5w 40 right ? who the f_ck knows ? i sure as hell don't.

 

uh?........oil?

 

they got to start a new adm thread at the top of each forum... "wtf motor oil should i use ?"

 

Man, you really dont know squat about what you're talking about.

Wesson FTW!
Gives the car wessonality!

 

Unless you have cork gaskets mobil 1 in every scenario

 

BitOG is a great source of information...both good and bad. It is much better than most auto boards but you still have to parse the opinion as fact, speculation superstition etc. But BitOG is a pale shadow of what it was 5 years ago or so when lubrication engineers frequented the board and contributed great value. It hit the skids not long after Tony passed away.

Anyhow what kills me about the anti-Mobil1 perspective (and the anti-CastrolSyntec meme even further back) is that an opinion with some foundation like "______ oil changed their formula to be a largely Group III hydrocracked oil which they are legally entitled to call synthetic but they are still charging Group IV/V prices" gets turned into "______ is a bad oil"

I can see how someone can object to what they feel is dishonest, and even more that they could react to what they see as a devalued formulation at the same high prices and boycott the business. Not the same as a bad oil.

About 2 years ago Pennzoil Platinum became the darling oil on BitOG. Good oil. I have only seen it in 5w30 and 10w30 though. But it is a comparable oil to Mobil1 or Castrol Syntec, just cheaper. No harm in touting PP for providing great value but doesn't mean that Mobil1 will wreck your car.

What ought to be said is that the quality of all oils these days is incredible compared to 20 years ago. Our cars provide a challenge, the turbo, Porsches tend to like a 40 or 50 weight and everything is 30 going on 20 for fuel economy reasons. But the average conventional oil at walmart today would compare well to the best oils of 20 years ago.

To get back to the original poster's question, people can advise you what they use and why. There are some general truisms like "don't put a 5w20 in", but really any good 40 or 50 weight oil, matched to your climate is a good answer. If you have actual winters you either want to change your oil or use a year round oil somewhere in the 0w40 to 5w50 range.

Synthetic oil may swell older seals and/or find its way through tight spaces and if you experience those issues you might want to go conventional. But it could be temporary too. This is case by case rather than the blanket rule that some would assert. As per above, even what constitutes "synthetic" is a moving target, so would a "synthetic" like Castrol Syntec even have these issues?

Mobil and Castrol are popular in North America because you can get them everywhere, you can get them in weights thicker than 10w30 everywhere, and they work. Are they "the best"? Maybe not. But they are reliable and appropriate choices. Pennzoil Platinum 5w20 is a lovely oil, but not for a 944, let alone a 951.

Apart from my extremely knowledgeable mechanic/guru, I don't like to let anyone else change the oil on my cars. I like to control what goes in. So to me the right oil is the oil that meets my technical parameters and is readily available if i am doing it myself.

Most of us probably change oil more frequently than needed, especially if running synthetic. I would say that the one caveat I would have is if running conventional I would do more frequent changes and changing the filter on each change. I usually end up changing more on time or weather than mileage so I don't think i ever approach taxing the limits of the oil on a mileage basis.

 

i would probably just get the brand of oil that's on sale. is there actually much of a difference?

 

Non-synthetic oils (regular typical) are generally the same thing, they may have slight differences but not usually significant.
Synthetics are different since they generally have more additives and such in them
Generally with most older cars they recommend non-synthetic mainly because it can mess up seals in older cars depending what material they are made of.

Atleast that what my training in a parts store said anyway lol =p

 

Valvoline VR1 20w50 seems to be the darling amongst the 944/951 racers. I've been using Mobil1 15w50 but will be switching to the VR1 and see what happens.

 

WTF was I thinking?

Thanks for the correction, I shall begin thinking BEFORE I type from now on!

 

I was having a real problem with oil consumption (quart every 400 miles) on my 951 when using several different synthetic oils (engine has approx 180K miles, turbo 65k miles). I researched it heavily thinking the turbo seals were going and found several recommendations for switching to Valvoline VR-1. I made the switch and the consumption returned to a more normal, oil pan seeping, rate.
Lee

 

Snake oil used to be good stuff.

 

Redline 20W-50

 

Factory manual has specs in it... So I do 10w-30 (real winter) and 10w-40 real summer. Synthetics resist super high temp break down better.

 

I use Fuch oil, as thats what my mechanic used when he rebuilt the motor. Personally I always go with what my mechanic suggests and I prefer to stick to same oil, rather than mixing different brands. It probably doesn't matter if you are changing the oil regularly but I figure it can't hurt
peace