Perfect Oil Change Intervals Experiment

[Nessism]

Your choice, not partial to quaker state, I prefer paying a bit more and know I get good quality oil. I'll never go to the super premium stuff unless I have a built motor either. But if you use it and never had engine issues then it doesn't really matter. Most newer synthetic oils are fairly close to each other in terms of performance if you do regular oil changes. It's once you start wanting to stretch your intervals that getting higher quality stuff becomes more important.

Are you stretching your change interval, to the point of justifying the high cost of Amsoil? Amsoil resists breakdown with high mileage, but it doesn't produce less wear, except if the oil used is breaking down.

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[Montana Miner]

I have never replaced the drain plug washer on any of my Hondas and I ran one to 326k miles. they don’t wear out. For the record I run Castrol 5w’30, only because I’ve always used Castro. It’s made by BP and I get a nice dividend from them every 3 months. loaded up on the stock after the deep water horizon gulf blowout at fire sale pricing. Wrote to investor relations and told them to fabricate a gold ring and put that around the well. It worked, stopped putting out almost immediately

 

[Benster]

Are you stretching your change interval, to the point of justifying the high cost of Amsoil? Amsoil resists breakdown with high mileage, but it doesn't produce less wear, except if the oil used is breaking down.

Being tuned and changing at 62-6500 miles I'd stay it's starting to stretch. I'm using amsoil because it's not that much more expensive than what I normally ran before and the rest of their product line is also pretty nice. With the other guys that buy oil off me I get the 60$ yearly fee waived so it comes back to buying mobil 1 on sale here in Canada. Mobil 1 vs amsoil isn't a hard choice for me. Also not using the top of the line amsoil but their "lowest quality" one so it comes to about 40$CAD just for the oil. Wix filter is 10$, taxes in at 55$ every 6 months isn't bad IMO for higher quality stuff. Now if I bought the top line amsoil and changed every 6 months, that would be a waste cause it's twice as expensive as the bottom one.

I've also been running exclusively amsoil in that car since the first oil change, just don't see a good enough reason to stop, other than maybe saving 10$/year on cheaper oil that may or may not accelerate wear due to less additives in it and not necessarily the oil breaking down.

 

[Nessism]

I switched to Quaker State after reading through testing info on this site... https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/

I don't consider this info gospel, but I think there is a method to the madness. Call it the ultimate oil quality rabbit hole...

BTW, Amsoil test very well for this guy.

 

[Fountainhead]

Here i FL we don't (IMO) need 0-W20 which is recommended for my car, so I run 5W20 with no problems. I always run synthetic M1 5W20 and change the oil about every 4-5K. Also, I jack up the car on the passenger side so that the bottom 1" to 1/2" of oil ALL drains out. If I don't jack it up the bottom of the oil pan still has oil and possibly sludge or "slight" solids.

Paranoid about DI carbon build up, and although some run a catch can I count at least 3 hoses from the crankcase going into the body of my valve cover so there are multiple paths for crankcase fumes to enter the intake.
I figure running the cleanest oil I can and changing it more often will result in better outcome for DI carbon deposits.

 

[FC1Dawn]

I change oil out at 3000-4000 miles. I only do so because I have been hitting autocross twice to three times a month and I push it hard on course. Solely been running Amsoil Signature Series 0W-20.

I definitely do need to do some oil analysis but the frequent changes helps me see if there's any large obvious problems with internals (none so far).

 

[BrandonSmith]

As someone certified in machinery lubrication, I am cringing so hard at this thread, especially the OP. No disrespect, just lack of knowledge. There is so much misinformation here I can't even touch on half of them. Just follow the maintenance minder and use oil that is recommended in your Owner's Manual.

The "perfect" change interval would occur when you've properly collected a sample, sent it off to analysis, and it comes back showing the minimum acceptable level of viscosity for the application. You have to know A LOT of other information to make this assessment.

I will not respond to this thread anymore, as I don't have the time to argue with people. I can deliver facts, but I will not argue any point. Facts cannot be argued.

 

[Nessism]

My kid went from BRZ to Tesla, and left behind a couple gallons of synthetic in his wake. Add in my "several gallons" of stock, and I'm starting to realize, that I have WAY too much oil in the garage.

I don't drive much, since I live close to where I work, so I just change my oil once per year. To burn down some of this oil, though, I'm going to switch to changing every 6 months. Sorry @BrandonSmith , no 10k changes here. If I drove as much as you do, though, I'd be following your lead! My car just starts to warm up when I shut it down every commute. I often nap in my car at lunchtime also, so add in a fair bit of idling time. Am I adequately justifying? LOL. Not really. But how else am I going to get rid of all this oil?

Edit: just got back from the garage, after a quickie oil change. Found several different jugs of left over oil, with maybe 1 or 2 quarts each. I mixed Valvoline 0W20, Castrol Magnatec 5W-30, Quaker State 0W-20, and topped it off with some QS 5W-30. All quality synthetics.

I'm running a Fram ultimate filter, so I just dumped out the dirty oil, and put it back on. I will say that the oil had a very strong gasoline smell. I'm not one of the oil dilution chicken littles, but there must be something to it...

 

[casper]

My kid went from BRZ to Tesla, and left behind a couple gallons of synthetic in his wake. Add in my "several gallons" of stock, and I'm starting to realize, that I have WAY too much oil in the garage.

I don't drive much, since I live close to where I work, so I just change my oil once per year. To burn down some of this oil, though, I'm going to switch to changing every 6 months. Sorry @BrandonSmith , no 10k changes here. If I drove as much as you do, though, I'd be following your lead! My car just starts to warm up when I shut it down every commute. I often nap in my car at lunchtime also, so add in a fair bit of idling time. Am I adequately justifying? LOL. Not really. But how else am I going to get rid of all this oil?

Edit: just got back from the garage, after a quickie oil change. Found several different jugs of left over oil, with maybe 1 or 2 quarts each. I mixed Valvoline 0W20, Castrol Magnatec 5W-30, Quaker State 0W-20, and topped it off with some QS 5W-30. All quality synthetics.

I'm running a Fram ultimate filter, so I just dumped out the dirty oil, and put it back on. I will say that the oil had a very strong gasoline smell. I'm not one of the oil dilution chicken littles, but there must be something to it...

maybe you should change your oil twice each time

 

[Montana Miner]

I switched to Quaker State after reading through testing info on this site... https://540ratblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/motor-oil-wear-test-ranking/

I don't consider this info gospel, but I think there is a method to the madness. Call it the ultimate oil quality rabbit hole...

BTW, Amsoil test very well for this guy.

That gave me a headache. Very detailed and informative though. Unfortunately he didn’t have the oil I run in his vast database.

 

[Montana Miner]

My kid went from BRZ to Tesla, and left behind a couple gallons of synthetic in his wake. Add in my "several gallons" of stock, and I'm starting to realize, that I have WAY too much oil in the garage.

I don't drive much, since I live close to where I work, so I just change my oil once per year. To burn down some of this oil, though, I'm going to switch to changing every 6 months. Sorry @BrandonSmith , no 10k changes here. If I drove as much as you do, though, I'd be following your lead! My car just starts to warm up when I shut it down every commute. I often nap in my car at lunchtime also, so add in a fair bit of idling time. Am I adequately justifying? LOL. Not really. But how else am I going to get rid of all this oil?

Edit: just got back from the garage, after a quickie oil change. Found several different jugs of left over oil, with maybe 1 or 2 quarts each. I mixed Valvoline 0W20, Castrol Magnatec 5W-30, Quaker State 0W-20, and topped it off with some QS 5W-30. All quality synthetics.

I'm running a Fram ultimate filter, so I just dumped out the dirty oil, and put it back on. I will say that the oil had a very strong gasoline smell. I'm not one of the oil dilution chicken littles, but there must be something to it...

I send a sample off every change and normally see about 5% fuel dilution, I don’t do short cool trips, always full operating temp, which means the 5w-30 I run has thinned to maybe a 2w-25. Why I will not run 0w-20….

 

[Builtfc1]

It’s just oil lmao who cares what you run as long as it works

 

[Montana Miner]

It’s just oil lmao who cares what you run as long as it works

Exactly, why I didn’t even mention the brand I use. But I do believe 20 weight oil is strictly to meet CAFE standards and not what’s best, so I run slightly heavier oil, especially given fuel dilution from DI.

 

[Builtfc1]

Cold climate does result in oil dilution so I’ve heard me being in polar opposite of Arizona but 5w30 synthetic blend oem Honda fluid is what I ran for 5 years.

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