10,000 mile VS 20,000 mile engine oil

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I've done some thorough research on this site and other sites on Walmart SuperTech Full Synthetic oils: $21.48 for a 5 quart jug at Walmart. They are advertised as 10k oils. There is also an advanced 20k version for a few dollars more for those who like extended OCI's.

I've read through a lot of UOA's with/without SuperTech on the same vehicle on this site, and I'm not seeing any difference in the wear metals versus the name brand synthetics. Also, from the large number of posts on BITOG, SuperTech oils are highly respected.
I think for most use cases, this oil is all you need. It's has all the latest API SP and Dexos certifications, and it's price is a great value.
Why pay more?
 
Oil formulators have lots of in-house and external knowledge/data at their fingertips … many stocks/chemicals available - again in-house, external, and JV. Blackstone tests can’t pickup everything that went into the solution to get a longer run …
 
4WD said:
Oil formulators have lots of in-house and external knowledge/data at their fingertips … many stocks/chemicals available - again in-house, external, and JV. Blackstone tests can’t pickup everything that went into the solution to get a longer run …
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I'm not convinced that the expensive oils will provide any benefit in terms of lower engine wear.
 
Bill7 said:
I'm not convinced that the expensive oils will provide any benefit in terms of lower engine wear.
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*in some use cases. The use is really the key and most folks, driving around to the store, normal use...aren't going to benefit beyond the more expensive/boutique oils allowing longer OCIs. It's when the use case turns to more sever use...towing...track...etc. that these oils should provide more protection.
 
4WD said:
Lots of GDI engines out there today that can ruin some nice lubes
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True, but only if you run extended OCI's. If you run with the severe service OCI as recommended in your owner's manual, you should be fine with any full synthetic that meets the API or Acea certification specified in your owner's manual. Most people don't think they fall under severe service, but once they look at the severe service list, many do.

Direct injection vehicles suffer from fuel dilution. No oil at any price can do anything with fuel dilution.
The fuel dilution is a contamination of the oil which can't be filtered out or countered with an oil additive.
Only thing you can do is reduce your OCI to the severe service OCI.
 
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Bill7 said:
True, but only if you run extended OCI's. If you run with the severe service OCI as recommended in your owner's manual, you should be fine with any full synthetic that meets the API or Acea certification specified in your owner's manual.
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Point is we should not have to because the oil companies did their jobs - but the OEM’s gave us engines that dilute …
 
kschachn said:
People are giving supposed technical information and advice about chemical composition yet don’t know what the compounds are.
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You're assuming they don't simply b/c they might have misspelled it? Your response by being sarcastic is just as bad?
 
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4WD said:
Point is we should not have to because the oil companies did their jobs - but the OEM’s gave us engines that dilute …
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The problem is lack of extensive Quality Assurance at car companies. It's an age old problem. Always has been, always will be.

Several bad engine designs go into production with fuel dilution, poorly designed PCV or EGR systems (resulting in dirty engines), all kinds of minor engine defects that cause sludge, etc.. It will never end.

Since we can't control the car companies from releasing these bad engines, which seem to be more and more common place,
my approach is to use a low priced good full synthetic and do OCI according to the severe service interval in the owners manual.

As mentioned earlier, direct injection engines that have fuel dilution (like the Honda 1.5 Liter turbos) in later model Civics and Accords
give you an extra quart of gasoline on your oil dipstick after 4k miles, even the expensive oils can't do anything with this fuel dilution,
so only safe option is OCI's at the severe service interval, or if you prefer to use extended OCI's, to use a higher HTHS oil that even when diluted will still provide adequate engine protection.
 
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Bill7 said:
The problem is lack of extensive Quality Assurance at car companies. It's an age old problem. Always has been, always will be.

Several bad engine designs go into production with fuel dilution, poorly designed PCV or EGR systems (resulting in dirty engines), all kinds of minor engine defects that cause sludge, etc.. It will never end.

Since we can't control the car companies from releasing these bad engines, which seem to be more and more common place,
my approach is to use a low priced good full synthetic and do OCI according to the severe service interval in the owners manual.

As mentioned earlier, direct injection engines that have fuel dilution (like the Honda 1.5 Liter turbos) in later model Civics and Accords
give you an extra quart of gasoline on your oil dipstick after 4k miles, even the expensive oils can't do anything with this fuel dilution,
so only safe option is OCI's at the severe service interval.
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Sure, but the average GDI engine isn't doing this nearly to that level, fuel dilution in mine have been minor and handled by shorter/reasonable OCIs with average oils. These super long drain intervals with great oils are worth it in port injected non-turbo engines. Folks here extrapolate that case of the Honda 1.5 to all GDI engines and it's just not like that on any that I have (4/5 of my vehicles are GDI).
 
I started using this cheap synthetic back in about 2004... every 10,000 miles or once a year.. cheap filter too.. every 10k or once a year EZ to keep track of too. Thought about getting the Extended performance variety of Mob1, but decided it really wouldn't make any difference as I', not driving nearly as much as I used too.
synthetic.jpg
 
MSCH said:
I started using this cheap synthetic back in about 2004... every 10,000 miles or once a year.. cheap filter too.. every 10k or once a year EZ to keep track of too. Thought about getting the Extended performance variety of Mob1, but decided it really wouldn't make any difference as I', not driving nearly as much as I used too. View attachment 148613
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Nice... Have you only been using Supertech since 2004? Are you happy with it?
 
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Bill7 said:
Nice... Have you only been using Supertech since 2004? Are you happy with it?
10k miles/1 year OCI with Supertech. You are probably the most frugal person on BITOG.
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yeah, I am happy with it...back in the day I was driving about 50,000 miles a year, so I was averaging an oil change about every 2-1/2 months... but in the last 4 years that driving situation changed , so now I am on a once a year routine with my wifes car ( she might not drive it for a couple weeks, but when she does it will get 50 or so miles or more) . I've used this stuff in 6 different vehicles now... one of them went past 300k, three of them in the high 200k range, and the others are too new to have anything to report... so yeah, it worked for me.. I know it doesn't sell well to the puritans who think anything that isn't top shelf wont work, but it sure worked well for me. This is my wifes car. 2012 V6 Camaro.. got about 94000 miles on it now
bumblebee.jpg
 
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