Technical Just an observation about oil

I’m fairly certain that the thin oils (0w20) recommended in new vehicle is the help them meet the EPA fuel mileage standards.

 

I had a 56 Chevy pickup with the original straight 6 in it back in the early 80's. It used so much oil that I ran used oil from the nearby gas station ! Drove it like that for about a year. I eventually tore the motor down and found all the cylinder walls were shiny like a mirror!

 

That's exactly right, it's all about fuel economy standards.

 

I purchased an OT Honda Accord with 12,000 miles on it. After 100,000 miles I started using the HM oil, it cost the same price, and the car now has over 350,000 miles and still doesn't use (burn or leak) a drop of oil.. Probably pure luck but who knows!

 

I am completely impressed that your wife even knows to look at the oil pressure gauge. You have a keeper right there.

 

When I was at Tech School I drove an O/T(not by much), Chevy C-20 with a very worn out 250 that someone swapped in. This old six used so much oil, I ran the old oil that I drained from the school buses where I worked. One day in class we hooked it up to the four gas analyzer. The old bastard pegged the meters for all of the noxious fumes. My instructor was not impressed, but the old Chevy ran good. Not a lot of power, but it ran smoothly.

 

The delivery guy says that ours is the busiest one in our state. Dollar General that is.

 

dollar tree get the 5-6 dollar magnafying glass for a dollar while you are there buy them all maybe you can find one when you need it

 

8ba used 20w for above 32° and 10w for below. No epa or emissions there.

 

Late models, I just use the recommended grade. Whatever brand. None of my late modles are working that hard.
If its high mileage I sometimes add 1/2 quart a day of trans fluid the day before an oil change to clean out gunk.

Recycled oil . . Consider oil comes out of the ground black as coal. IF its actually re-refined, Whats the difference.
If its just run thru a filter, no thanks. I havent seen it being sold for a long time.

 

I use straight 30 weight in my roadster's engine. It is a 1955 Chevrolet 265" no oil filter engine. I just change the oil every spring, after maybe 600 miles of driving the previous year. My oil pressure is always about 45-50 lbs. when warmed up.

 

I use 5W30 Mobil One motor oil. I use it in everything... I put 130,000 miles on a Olds 307...

 

I've had a really hard time finding straight 30 weight for my small engines.

 

There used to be a big tank in our truck shop, may still be, that they dumped used oil in. Motor oil, gear oil, whatever all went in that tank. About once a month a guy came by with a small tanker truck and pumped the tank out and carried it to be reused or recycled or whatever they did with it. They did the same with used antifreeze that they captured, it was supposed to have it's own tank, but I have seen some of the lazy shop guys just pour it into the oil tank.

I've seen that recycled oil on the shelves before, may have even used a quart or two back in the day in an oil burner. I have used both the Dollar General and Walmart store branded oils before in various vehicles with no problems. I think I read the Walmart oil was actually Citgo? Or maybe some other national brand. Don't know about the Dollar General, but would suspect it's the same thing, national brand with their name on it. Like Sears of old, Dollar General and Walmart don't make the products they sell, they just have them made to a price point and have their name put on the label....

 

I buy virtually all of my oil at Dollar General, when they have a national name brand on sale. It's matter of simple economics. I draw the line on their own brand "DG". I bought a couple of quarts once. I started to pour it into the car, and saw that it appeared to be very thin. I poured some in a separate container and I swear it was very thin, like 3 in 1 oil. I put it back on the shelf and now use it in an oil can, sorta like I use 3 in 1. I'll use it up eventually, just not in one of my cars.

 

Is the High Mileage oil good for Frying Calamarie.? ( fish )
Just asking?? I use Castrol in my Merc.

Just my 3.5 cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

Local Safety-Kleen operation sells re-refined oil. I used it in my 350K mile OT Diesel truck with no ill effects, was considerable less expensive than the "new" stuff. It came out of the jug looking just like the regular stuff.

 

i still have some api service SJ major brand oil that i use in my old cars. sometimes i will top it off with the walmart modern synthetic. seems to work fine.

 

Blues4u give great information here in his field of knowledge just like carb king. My off topic pickup has the dreaded 5.0 plasma wall cylinders. I used only the recommended 5-20 semisynthetic oil and dealer changes (coupons of course) it has had 2 oil consumption tests in its first 25000 miles and was boarder line on both. The limit was 1 qt per 3000 miles. Technical Bulletin but no recall. Meaning no new engine. For my last change I stayed with the same brand oil but changed to 5-30. Guess what…..no oil use and fuel mileage stayed the same or very close to it.
I prefer not using any because engine use over time can not be good for the cat or sensors. Just my experience.

 

Used oil....gets checked for lead, filtered then burned as #6 oil most times.
I would not use semi synthetic. Full synthetic Wal-Mart brand or Mobil1 on sale is cheap enough. I read that semi synthetic can have as little as 5-10% actual synthetic oil in it....from best oil.com there's no legal minimum required

 

Yeah, my OT SUV lost, not burned, oil at a high rate. had a couple of "consumption tests" which, of course, meant their oil change, but finally got below the 1200 miles/quart (used a quart every 800 miles). Finally got a new short block and rebuild from them, under warranty. Now it's better. I'm still using the 0-20 to comply with the rebuild warranty, but have heard that 5-30 is a good option.

 

Powerine if my mine hasn't failed me.....LOL

 

You're right on the money Jim. The kind of oil loss you mention is known as volatility, and there is a maximum limit that the oil is supposed to pass in a test to achieve API licensing. The lower the viscosity, the higher the volatility. It's not easy to make a 5W-20 that passes the test. If that oil was on the shelf in CA it should've passed all tests and had API licensing, CA is very strict about that. But as you found out, that doesn't always work out. 5W-30 is less volatile.

You might be surprised how much oil consumption Cummins will allow under warranty. If you have a brand new Cummins engine that you think is consuming too much oil, and you make a complaint about it to Cummins, they will have you complete a log listing how much the engine has operated and how much oil it has consumed over a period of operation. When I was involved in this we found out they considered something like a quart a day of oil consumption within acceptable limits. That tends to piss off a customer. Most engines won't consume oil like that, but once in awhile you get one that does; and then to have the OEM tell you basically "too bad", yeah, that will piss somebody off.

 

That is correct, there is no specified amount of synthetic that must be in a synthetic blend in order for it to be called a "blend", or "partial synthetic". It can be any amount. Typically it is around 10% +, but it doesn't have to be. The better oils, the big name brands, will have good quality oil with an appropriate amount of synthetic oil blended in to give a good bump in performance at a reasonable increase in price. The rest of the brands, eh, you never know. If the price is real low, well, you know what they say about getting what you pay for. If the price is low there is a reason why.

 

On any hot rod or high mileage engine I have had in the last 20 years I Sub a quart of Lucas Oil Additive for 1 quart of whatever I am running. Took my OT ranger to almost 400K before I traded it off

 

Yup, 20% Lucas every oil change in my non roll lifter old cars. Clings on the cams for spring start up in Wisconsin

 

That’s a squid which is a cephalopod. Not a fish, no gills. It’s too damn rubbery for me but it makes great bait!

 

Squid (ceephalpod) is calamari. Call-a-Marie will get you jail time if she's under 18!

 

A lot of it is burned in electric generation plants.

 

I use and always have used 15/40 diesel oil in everything I drive, use it in all my equipment, lawn mowers, if it runs, it runs on 15/40. Never had a failure, my push mower was bought as a wedding gift, 41 years ago, flathead briggs, still powering along on its 8'th deck, no smoke, one top up per summer....