which engine oil do you guys using?

[charleswrivers]

I buy whatever is on sale that has the aforementioned certs/current standards in the manuals recommended viscosity. Generally, this has been that Castrol Magnatec stuff on an Amazon subscribe and save for about $16-17. Pours in clean. Comes out dirty. I change it when the MM is low... which takes 6 months to 1 year given how little it’s driven (24k after 2.5 years). I use Fram ultras. Which some Frams are absolute garbage... the Ultras are pretty solid. I used to use Purolator PureOnes but quit after they made them a mid-tier filter to up sell another above them years back. I have the Frams on a S&S too. Civic and Odyssey use the same oil/filters... which is convenient.

Just figured I’d show the other end of the caring-about-oil spectrum.

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[ApexEight]

My two reservations with AMSOil and Redline are that, to my knowledge, not all of them are API SN certified, and they're a little more expensive. Quaker State Ultimate Durability Full Synthetic 0W20 and 5W30, while not nearly as sexy as other oils (trust me, I'm a 26 year old Korean American. Nothing about Quaker State is sexy to me), can be found at Walmart for under $30 for 5 quarts. That's a bargain and would be great for relatively shorter oil change intervals due to its price and wide availability. It's also one of the best oils out there and my personal favorite. I also use Fram Ultra oil filters. I would never use any other Fram. Ultra only. The Ultras are also one of the best filters out there with full synthetic media and robust design. Great filtering capability without hampering flow. The more research you do outside of just people providing anecdotal evidence (like I and pretty much everyone else here is doing right now), you'll see that these two products are very well-backed. I'd read more on 540 RAT and BITOG. If you're OCD about your cars and their oil, there is a limitless amount of information out there that can be dizzying, but also kinda fun.

 

[jayy_swish]

My two reservations with AMSOil and Redline are that, to my knowledge, not all of them are API SN certified, and they're a little more expensive. Quaker State Ultimate Durability Full Synthetic 0W20 and 5W30, while not nearly as sexy as other oils (trust me, I'm a 26 year old Korean American. Nothing about Quaker State is sexy to me), can be found at Walmart for under $30 for 5 quarts. That's a bargain and would be great for relatively shorter oil change intervals due to its price and wide availability. It's also one of the best oils out there and my personal favorite. I also use Fram Ultra oil filters. I would never use any other Fram. Ultra only. The Ultras are also one of the best filters out there with full synthetic media and robust design. Great filtering capability without hampering flow. The more research you do outside of just people providing anecdotal evidence (like I and pretty much everyone else here is doing right now), you'll see that these two products are very well-backed. I'd read more on 540 RAT and BITOG. If you're OCD about your cars and their oil, there is a limitless amount of information out there that can be dizzying, but also kinda fun.

You may be correct, not sure about other oil weights of Amsoil, but 0w-20 and 5w-20 (OE, XL, and SS) all are SN Plus

 

[ThorSellsCars]

Amsoil signature series 0w-20 with their oil filter. At 21.5k miles I've done 3 oil changes. The very first one I used Castrol edge, the last 2 have been amsoil.
Figured as hard as I push the car constantly might as well spend extra for oil. The amsoil SS and filter is pretty pricey, especially since I don't believe they have any 5 quart bottles. Using 6 single quarts is a little annoying.

Last oil change I flushed my transmission fluid and filled it up with Amsoil's synchromesh fluid. Shifts are like butter. I haven't had any gear grinds since. Though I haven't had a 2nd gear grind in a long while, I would get 4th gear grind instead. But so far so good, knock on wood

how much trans flluid do i need to buy for this?

 

[AdamD19DFK8]

how much trans flluid do i need to buy for this?

Three

 

[ApexEight]

You may be correct, not sure about other oil weights of Amsoil, but 0w-20 and 5w-20 (OE, XL, and SS) all are SN Plus

Nice, they are great oils. SS has an awesome reputation, as does Redline. I feel like in the worst case scenario in a a warranty claim, you could more easily defend a viscocity change but not so much an oil that is not API certified.

 

[blitz]

You may be correct, not sure about other oil weights of Amsoil, but 0w-20 and 5w-20 (OE, XL, and SS) all are SN Plus

Correct - Amsoil 0w-20 are API SN Plus.

My friend bought a quart of Castrol Edge (5qt jug, and 1 qt bottle) to do an oil change, and we noticed that the 1 qt bottle was perhaps an older bottle on the shelves because it was not API SN Plus. The two look identical, but they are different.

The purpose here is to simply show that some older bottles of Edge may not be SN Plus. This lack of certification is not going to destroy your engine, however, you want to always use what the engine requires, or can handle depending on your driving habits or environment. Castrol Edge now has API SN Plus versions on shelves, but as you can see, some older bottles are still in the inventory.


Because I have an oil catch can, I keep a spare bottle of Honda’s 0w-20 oil to top-off the oil levels throughout oil drain intervals. I don’t know which company manufactures it though.

 

[ThorSellsCars]

Three

I assume you mean 3qts right?

 

[AdamD19DFK8]

I assume you mean 3qts right?

Yeah sorry. Think that's all it comes in aside from something wholesale

I believe the manual calls for 2.3 quarts of MTF, I just put in all 3 quarts though I guess it's not exactly recommended. After I put all 3 quarts in I couldn't see it filled up past the gears.

I changed my MTF after 20k miles or so, the OEM fluid that drained out looked brand new with the sun light easily passing through the Amber stream. My dad asked how many miles I have on it and when I told him he seemed confused. "It's still practically brand new, why are you changing it?" Because it's better duh

 

[JayDiem]

Amsoil here. I am a fan of the trans fluid so have been using their oil for 12k Miles as well. Before that ran Schaeffer's and both were good products. My Mechanic swears by Schaeffer's and he races all kinds of stuff.

Here is the final vid of an independent youtube creator who tested 16 different 5W-30 Oils in a playoff type format. Amsoil ends up winning and he compares all of them at the end.

 

[charleswrivers]

From what I've read years ago... Amsoil products lacking the API cert is due to excessive levels of zinc/phosphorus. Those additives are added at high-out-of-spec levels intentionally to help reduce engine wear. The API cert limits them to prevent damage to the cats from the excessive phosphorus. You can get zinc-only oil additives but Amsoil does market some products where the extra zinc already there... at the cost of not having the cert. Pretty sure they explain it on their website..

 

[goose_rx]

Amsoil Signature Series 0W-20 + Wix XP filter - I have used this combination on all my previous Hondas

Used to use the OEM A01 filters, but they got harder and harder to find cheaply, and I've never heard anything bad about the Wix XP ones.

 

[batman900]

I've been considering Amsoil SS due to their claim that the high TBN will reduce carbon build up. I wouldn't care much otherwise but that kinda reeled me in.

 

[Gansan]

From what I've read years ago... Amsoil products lacking the API cert is due to excessive levels of zinc/phosphorus. Those additives are added at high-out-of-spec levels intentionally to help reduce engine wear. The API cert limits them to prevent damage to the cats from the excessive phosphorus. You can get zinc-only oil additives but Amsoil does market some products where the extra zinc already there... at the cost of not having the cert. Pretty sure they explain it on their website..

This is interesting. If high zinc will cause premature cat failure, does that mean those of us who need to do bi-annual smog tests should stay away from those types of oil? Lest we face cat replacement that could have been prevented.

 

[charleswrivers]

This is interesting. If high zinc will cause premature cat failure, does that mean those of us who need to do bi-annual smog tests should stay away from those types of oil? Lest we face cat replacement that could have been prevented.

I've got no idea... that's far beyond my knowledge on the subject. I'd assume... maybe... eventually... possibly? ?

I just remember folks years back saying Amsoil didn't want/couldn't pay for the certs... and that wasn't true. They defiantly have some that are compliant and are certified. There are others that are not... and I think the big push was the high zinc/phosphorus levels. I did a quick search and pulled this from about a decade back off their website for their high zinc oils... and another from another site that was a general release from Amsoil on the subject if you'd like to wear your eyes out..

https://amsoil.lube-direct.com/2011/07/high-zinc-oil-amsoil/

http://www.syntheticwarehouse.com/api_licensing.htm

The certs are good to provide baseline specs for oil. It's for this main reason that I don't think there's any drastic difference in using one brick and mortar carried oil or another on non-racing applications using standard OCIs. Any certed oil is technically "good enough". Is Amsoil a better oil? There's a lot of things that'd point to yes... but I don't race my car and I change my oil every 6-12 months and 5000-7500 miles. Good enough works for me. One could say they care more for their car by buying this brand or that... but "my oil" is still a API SN Plus, GF-5 oil that's suppose to minimize the risk of LSPI. We'll see GF-6 here very soon. Fun fact: ILSAC is supposed to start licensing for the GF-6 standard in about a week... 5/1/2020. API... the same... for the SP cert, over the old SN Plus... 5/1/2020. If one was to care a lot about getting a better old and wanted to ensure they're using the latest old on the latest standard, one should start looking at bottles here soon. I'm sure there'll be a lot of old stock sitting on shelves awhile. That's not to say the current formulations won't meet the new standards as it is. It's just something to look for.

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