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  1. M

    Weeding Out The Bad Fuel Stations

    I used to go to college (early mid 90s) with a guy who worked for somewhere similar. According to him, they'd get wholesale gasoline of various octane ratings at the terminal, and blend that according to customer's specs and add the additive package as it went into the tanker. So, as he...
  2. M

    Engine Oil choices at a Ukrainian version of American Lowe’s

    I'm a bit disappointed that the best and only bourbon choice is white-label Jim Beam. Not that there's anything wrong with Beam, but it's pretty much the mass-market competition to Jack Daniels. Monkey Shoulder is very solid as blended Scotch goes. I assume the gin, vodka, rum, etc... is...
  3. M

    Engine Oil choices at a Ukrainian version of American Lowe’s

    Nice! I would imagine that you've got Shell, and we've got Pennzoil. Same company, different branding. That's really dependent on where in the US you're talking about. Go find a working class neighborhood, and those guys all work on their own cars. It's the middle class in the US that...
  4. M

    Engine Oil choices at a Ukrainian version of American Lowe’s

    Keep in mind that over there, that's just everyday oil. They probably look at our Walmart aisles full of PP, PUP, Valvoline and Castrol and think the same thing we're thinking. What I found most interesting is that OEM oils are on the shelf at a regular retail store. I can't remember...
  5. M

    It’s the 1990’s: what motor oil and grade are you using?

    I recall using a lot of Exxon Superflo 10W-30 and/or Castrol 30 HD in my old 1976 Suburban.
  6. M

    What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

    The reason I used that example is that my old Suburban was pre-CAFE, and it recommends a 20 weight oil for all temperatures, including high ones. Which points out that 20 weight oils have been acceptable for a LONG time. I was able to find a PDF with the oil recommendations- I clipped the...
  7. M

    What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

    The EPA isn't directly mandating oil weights; what they do is mandate that the recommended oil has to be the same one they did all their testing with. So no testing with 0w-8 and then recommending 5w-40 type shenanigans. Which is reasonable, IMO. It looks like manufacturers are interpreting...
  8. M

    Video - Engineering Explained, Do Thin Oils Destroy Engines?

    That sounds a lot more like a band-aid on a glaring design flaw/oversight than anything else.
  9. M

    What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

    CAFE started in the late 70s, and xw-30 was already preferred back then. Or so said the owner's manual of my 1976 Chevy Suburban (pre-CAFE). Gradually they coasted downward on the winter side, and then to 20 weight oils starting about 20 years ago. And yet, cars and engines last as long as...
  10. M

    What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

    You seem awfully defensive. Anyway all I'm saying is that we're making an assumption, and that assumption is that other weights are listed in the owners manuals elsewhere because CAFE doesn't allow higher weights. That's not a valid assumption - it could just as easily be because 0w-20 isn't...
  11. M

    What's everyone's favorite 0w-20 these days?

    Here's a thought experiment: How do we know that they're not using higher weight oils in those other countries because their consumers are equally ignorant as ours here and they demand Xw-40 oils, even though Xw-20 oils are actually best? We're making the assumptions that in other countries...
  12. M

    Death Valley Drive Using Thin Oil

    How much though? And is that enough to thin out the oil such that it's not where it needs to be? Personally I think that a couple of decades of 0w-20 use has conclusively proven that it works just fine in pretty much every situation.
  13. M

    Death Valley Drive Using Thin Oil

    Exactly. We're dramatically more sensitive to temperature than machines are. For us, there's a pronounced difference between say... 90 and 100 degrees, but to an engine, they're both 80-100 degrees below operating temperature. What's 20 more degrees when you look at it that way? It's when...
  14. M

    Death Valley Drive Using Thin Oil

    That's really the big question here. If your cooling system is the normal liquid cooling type (i.e. radiator), the main thing that's important is that it is functioning well. If it is, then the internal temps of your engine won't really vary too much from what the thermostat indicates and...
  15. M

    Examples of "low quality" oil?

    Fair enough. I think the point though, and probably why they got rid of that definition is because Group III oils made that distinction one of chemistry, not one of performance. I mean, who cares if your oil is built up from ethylene molecules, hydrocracked wax, or GTL from natural gas, if...
  16. M

    Examples of "low quality" oil?

    You're absolutely right. "Synthetic" is a marketing term and always has been. There's no agreed upon industry definition for "synthetic", and there are no performance specs for "synthetic". Back in 2004, synthetic oils met API SM just like Group II oils did, and the rest was all marketing...
  17. M

    Credibility, trustworthiness of Consumer Reports

    I think the catch is that one person's "expert" isn't someone else's, and we don't have a good consensus on what is and isn't an expert. I mean, we'd all agree that tribologists and automotive engineers would be good experts for motor oil. But past that, what about mechanics? Fleet managers...
  18. M

    Credibility, trustworthiness of Consumer Reports

    Well, I'm a good example of someone who doesn't tow anything, rarely off-roads (and when I do, it's because of cruddy dirt roads on boy scout campouts), but frequently hauls ~750-1200 lbs of dirty garden stuff like compost, manure, and mulch, as well as boy scout gear and passengers. So a...
  19. M

    Credibility, trustworthiness of Consumer Reports

    Oh, I'm not beating the drum for the Ridgeline! My point was that the CR reports mirror the industry press opinions for the same reasons, yet at the same time the truck-buying public prioritizes different things. And often those things aren't actually realistic or even logical. Which...
  20. M

    Credibility, trustworthiness of Consumer Reports

    A very illustrative thing is looking at the CR midsized truck reviews. They pretty much echo what the automotive writers and actual owners say- that the Honda Ridgeline is fantastic for the vast majority of midsized truck users. But Honda themselves notes in their comments about the 2nd Gen...
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