Mobil 1
07-30-2003, 12:12 PM
#3
Burning Brakes
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Your manual specifies about 4-6 "approved" brand and weight combinations. Personally I use Mobil1 0W-40, and I know Beverly Hills Porsche chooses Mobil1 0W-40.
There has been a lot of discussion (though not so much on this board) about whether or not Mobil1 is really the best performing oil for your car. You see, Mobil pays Porsche $7 million a year to be the "official" oil of Porsche. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Mobil1 works well, but is it the best??? If they have to pay to be the "official" selection, I doubt it.
Other people on the board have expressed their liking for Castrol Syntec or Redline Synthetic (a small boutiquie brand). Motul also makes a synthetic for Porsche, and it is used quite a bit in the racing world.
There has been a lot of discussion (though not so much on this board) about whether or not Mobil1 is really the best performing oil for your car. You see, Mobil pays Porsche $7 million a year to be the "official" oil of Porsche. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Mobil1 works well, but is it the best??? If they have to pay to be the "official" selection, I doubt it.
Other people on the board have expressed their liking for Castrol Syntec or Redline Synthetic (a small boutiquie brand). Motul also makes a synthetic for Porsche, and it is used quite a bit in the racing world.
07-30-2003, 01:00 PM
#6
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This is on the 928 board. The thread is short but a good read in itself.
The article below is quite interesting re "Synthetics" and whose product really is a "synthetic"
http://www.1st-in-synthetics.com/articles60.htm
The article below is quite interesting re "Synthetics" and whose product really is a "synthetic"
http://www.1st-in-synthetics.com/articles60.htm
07-30-2003, 07:46 PM
#7
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Gretch,
The only problem with the article you posted a link to is that it is written by/for AMSOIL, and the entire surrounding area around the article is about buying AMSOIL products. I would think this article is a bit tainted. Nonetheless, it is very intriguing.
The only problem with the article you posted a link to is that it is written by/for AMSOIL, and the entire surrounding area around the article is about buying AMSOIL products. I would think this article is a bit tainted. Nonetheless, it is very intriguing.
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07-31-2003, 05:05 AM
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Originally posted by Gretch
...
The article below is quite interesting re "Synthetics" and whose product really is a "synthetic"
...
...
The article below is quite interesting re "Synthetics" and whose product really is a "synthetic"
...
As an engineer, I don't tend to think of oils as "synthetic", "part-synthetic", or "mineral". Oils consist of base stocks and additives, and the base stocks could be "solvent refined" (Group I), "hydrocrack (HC)" (Group II+III), "polyalphaolefine (PAO)" (Group IV) and "ester" (Group V).
Mobil 1 uses PAO and ester, which are technically synthetic. Castrol consist of hydrocracks. The whole Mobil-Castrol discussion hinges on the fact whether hydrocracks are synthetic or not. That's important from a marketing point of view, because synthetics command a substantial price premium, and HCs can be produced much more economically than PAOs. Basically, if you can sell HCs as synthetic oils, you can make a lot of money.
Car enthusiasts (and bike enthusiasts alike) always ask what the best oil is. It's impossible to answer. Basically, there are not many bad oils around any more. If it complies with ACEA A3 and comes from a brand name manufacturer, you'll be fine.
Whatever the car manufacturer fills in at the factory is primarily driven by economics and sponsorship deals and not by the superior quality of the oil. Of course they wouldn't fill in rubbish.
If an oil is "Porsche approved", all it means is the oil complies with ACEA A3 and the oil manufacturer has paid porsche 40,000 bucks to test the oil in a Carrera engine. Does that make it superior to any old ACEA A3 compliant oil? Not necessarily. Can it be a bad oil? Probably not.
The choice is yours.
Cheers,
Uwe
07-31-2003, 10:35 AM
#9
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Yep it is prolly biased, maybe in a subliminal way......I was mostly interested in the cat fight between Mobil and Castrol.
There is a school of thought (with lots of discussion on the 928 board) that 3 - 5k oil changes are a waste of money, especially given the chemical makeup of todays type 3 and 4 oils. I don't know what to believe yet, but a guy from Australia named Doug Hillary (sp?) has me convinced I can go substantially longer between oil changes for my diesel engins, than I have been. He has done some scientific testing on oil breakdown and contamination on his own 928 and is convincing in his arguement that a 15,000 mile oil cycle is quite reasonable. Note that that is also the Porsche recommendation. There is clearly something to all of this. There still seems to be a debate raging between the merits of 15w 50 vs 0w 40. The initial fill on the 996 is now 0w 40, so I will prolly stick with that for a while until there is a bit more than "opinion" on the subject......
There is a school of thought (with lots of discussion on the 928 board) that 3 - 5k oil changes are a waste of money, especially given the chemical makeup of todays type 3 and 4 oils. I don't know what to believe yet, but a guy from Australia named Doug Hillary (sp?) has me convinced I can go substantially longer between oil changes for my diesel engins, than I have been. He has done some scientific testing on oil breakdown and contamination on his own 928 and is convincing in his arguement that a 15,000 mile oil cycle is quite reasonable. Note that that is also the Porsche recommendation. There is clearly something to all of this. There still seems to be a debate raging between the merits of 15w 50 vs 0w 40. The initial fill on the 996 is now 0w 40, so I will prolly stick with that for a while until there is a bit more than "opinion" on the subject......
07-31-2003, 12:04 PM
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the oil weights as in 0w are for cooler climates, here in Texas where it is significatly hotter at all times you don't want to run that, min 5w otherwise you could run into problems, my porsche dealer recommends 5w-50 castrol, which i have used in the past on previous cars and have always had good luck with it
07-31-2003, 01:04 PM
#11
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Uwe,
There is a controversial site making the rounds that recommends a very different break in process for new engines. You can read it here:
Break in secrets
The question I have for you concerns the comments they make about oil and break in. Two things puzzle me:
1) they say to change the break in oil after 20 miles because all of the break in metal will already be in the oil by then and,
2) don't use synthetic oil for the 20 mile break in period, even if it is factory fill.
Can you comment?
Karl
There is a controversial site making the rounds that recommends a very different break in process for new engines. You can read it here:
Break in secrets
The question I have for you concerns the comments they make about oil and break in. Two things puzzle me:
1) they say to change the break in oil after 20 miles because all of the break in metal will already be in the oil by then and,
2) don't use synthetic oil for the 20 mile break in period, even if it is factory fill.
Can you comment?
Karl
