Any long term experience with Red Line Motor Oils

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Gent's,
Sorry to beat a dead horse if this is the case, but dose anyone have any long term experience with Red Line Motor Oil...Just the regular PCMO? My application is a 2001 Volvo S60 T5...it has the high pressure turbo.

Ive had the car since new. Used Mobil 1 10w30 for about the first 30K miles, changed over to Castrol 0w30 when I found this post.

My local Auto Zone has closed down and there is no close by source for Castrol 0w30 or Mobil 1 0W-40. I can mail order Amsoil or Red line.

I am currently on my first fill of Red Line 10W30 and am asking opinions.

Thanks,
 
saaber1 , look for posts by them. They have the most extensive experrience with RL Ive seen and even compare to other brands. Like any niche oil versus OTC it all depends on the application. Good luck.
 
I probably put more weight in real world anectdotal evidence than others but I have run redline in numerous saab turbos for about 15 years and Amsoil for probably as long. Both are excellent. One car had redline all it's life and when I sold it to my friend at 318k he was going to rebuild it because he believed no engine could go that long and not need a rebuild. At 318k it looked new inside and everything was still within factory spec. Also here is an anectdote from BITOG member Barkerman(what ever happened to Barkerman?):

"Red Line is a good daily driver oil and it just might make your engine last longer. We have several 300k+ cars around here that use nothing but Red Line and it's not that they are over 300k but that they are over 300k with no internal mechanical work and to a boroscope look like new inside. I know a few examples don't prove a point but they are a good indicator. One fellow delivers some kind of radio-active isotopes with his 78 Toyota pickup and has 510k miles on Red Line with nothing more than regular maintenance and about 4 water pumps. He also uses Frantz oil and fuel filters and a spin-on coolant filter with an anode. He is on the original camshaft and valves. I've done a compression check and it's withing 5% of new specs and the spread from high to low is 8psi. You can still see the hone marks at the bottom of the cylinders and there is only a cosmetic ridge at the top of the cylinders. Granted this series of Toyota 4 bangers is considered to be a good engine I think that Red Line is performing well. He started with Castrol 10w-30 with the new truck and a few years later after hanging around our shop switched to Red Line 10-30 and has graduated up to 20w-50 a couple of years ago. His oil consumption is 1 quart in 5k miles. Granted he is a careful driver because of his cargo and LA has no weather but I think he is doing well. He recently dropped a bundle in rebuilding the suspension front and back, complete brake job and replaced all the flexible brake lines, master cylinder, rear wheel cylinders and new calipers, including his second tranny rebuild for bearings and seals, no other hard parts also using Red Line MTL. He also had the seals replaced in the rear end and uses Red Line gear lube and uses that red colored Red Line CV2 grease in the grease fittings (yes it has fittings you grease with a hand gun). All this was his answer to the question of buying a new pickup or keeping the old one. I think it can be said that he likes the old one. The company he works for footed the bill for a complete repaint and upholstery job. We talked Yokohama into making him a screaming deal on some new Avid TRZ's. His only problem is that we can expect a letter from Congress about his disregard for the economy by not just junking his pickup and buying a new one. He is hoping that the new sound system including a CD player for his books on CD will be useful in his defense. But to those that think Red Line is only good for racing we think it performs well for commuting but is an expensive choice. Sorry for running on I just though this is an unusual case and you might be interested."

As far as more fact based evidence, it seems to be working well in the very demanding 2.0FSI so far, but we need lots more data. The red dots are redline, x axis is miles on vehicle and y is ppm fe/1000 miles. Some of the lower fe UOAs are also pointed out as well as all the syntec 5W40 oils as a standard VW502 oil for comparison. It's limited data, UOAs may not be an indicator of real world wear due to single pass nature of many of the UOAs and the fact that they don't account for large particle wear. Still lower numbers are generally better than higher numbers for Fe, and this is all the data we have for that engine. The black line is a best fit average.

ppm3copy.jpg
 
It sludged my engine.;)


I ran it in my Grand National for quite a while. It's a fine oil, But given it's cost it was simply overkill for the application I was using it in. Plus I had minor main seal leakage which Maxlife syn cured.
 
How long do you plan on running this oil between changes?

Do you drive the car hard?

Even though you have the high output setup, these engines are still relatively easy on engine oil. I have always wanted to use Red Line oils in my Volvos, but I get 0w40 for 5 dollars a quart at work and that is just a deal that is too hard to pass up.
 
Originally Posted By: GOPHER FREAK
It sludged my engine.;)


I ran it in my Grand National for quite a while. It's a fine oil, But given it's cost it was simply overkill for the application I was using it in. Plus I had minor main seal leakage which Maxlife syn cured.


GNs leaked from the rear main on the showroom floor lol.

I just switched to Redline 10w-30 in the TL after a lifetime (77,000 miles) on Amsoil ACD. It hasn't been long enough to say anything other than the valvetrain looked spotless before and now it looks even cleaner. I didn't know it was possible to look any cleaner.

AZfireguy (sp) on here has some very good results with Redline in his 1,000hp turbo LT1 and I believe some other cars. I'm sure he'll chime in.
 
Originally Posted By: saaber1
One car had redline all it's life and when I sold it to my friend at 318k he was going to rebuild it because he believed no engine could go that long and not need a rebuild. At 318k it looked new inside and everything was still within factory spec.


THAT is the stuff I'm talking about. Not UOA's, REAL tear-down results!

I'm impressed. VERY impressed.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
Sure beats comparing/contrasting a few ppm in UOAs, huh.


That's for sure.


What a refreshing change. No theories, no debate, just real data. What has happened to this board as of late?
 
I have used redline motor oil for the last 130,000 miles in my Q45, and redline D4 in the tranny/75w-90 in the rear differential almost since brand new{now at 230,000 miles} Engine/tranny/rear still operate like new, and when valvecovers were off for resealing at 203,000, it looked spotless inside.Oh, and D4 in the power steering system,all original rack/pump/etc with zero issues also at 230,000 miles.
 
Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Originally Posted By: Ben99GT
Sure beats comparing/contrasting a few ppm in UOAs, huh.


That's for sure.


What a refreshing change. No theories, no debate, just real data. What has happened to this board as of late?


I dunno. I think it is odd that when true, tear-down data (like this) is provided, that there is a lot of silence. But when somebody posts a UOA with 15 more PPM iron from a run of M1 vs Motorcraft, it turns into a 30-page thread about "wear".
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
I dunno. I think it is odd that when true, tear-down data (like this) is provided, that there is a lot of silence. But when somebody posts a UOA with 15 more PPM iron from a run of M1 vs Motorcraft, it turns into a 30-page thread about "wear".
+1
thumbsup2.gif


Maybe you should post that in bigger font for the skimmers who don't read everything and jump to conclusions?!?
grin2.gif
 
I have been running Redline oil for about 15 years in quite a few different applications. Everything from honda B-18C5's to to LT-1's with forced induction. At about 50K I decided to go away from the Procharger supercharger and try a PTK custom outlaw turbo kit on my car. This is a one of a kind hand built kit utilizing a modified T-76GTS turbo and a custom air to water intercooler setup capable of 1,200 hp (T-88).

For most people 50K is relatively low mileage, but this car was flogged its entire life both on the track and on the street. It has been running RL 10w-40 with a 6K OCI(I know it's on the short side for this oil!). Upon disassembly everything looked new. The rings were free of carbon build up, the valves were polished to a mirror finish with zero wear. The cylinder bores still had the cross hatch honing marks as if this thing was new. Cam was perfect along with every roller lifter and rocker arm.

I have seen many other LT-1's with similar use running other sythetics and dinos at shorter OCI's with more visible wear and build up. I was impressed. I had anticipated a bit more wear as I regularly beat the snot out of this thing.

After the tear down I built a fully forged LT-1 and added the custom turbo kit. The car now makes 1,000rwhp and is flawless. I also run the D4 ATF ,PS fluid and the 75w-90 gear oil.

I am totally sold on Redline because of the results, not ridiculous UOA comparisons. I use it exclusively in my Toyota tacoma because of the real world protection I have seen with my own eyes. Is it expensive, yes you bet, but I want the best protection and believe that a good POE based oil like RL has no equal. If you don't mind the price and having to order it, you will be hard pressed to find a better oil.
 
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Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
. . .
I dunno. I think it is odd that when true, tear-down data (like this) is provided, that there is a lot of silence. But when somebody posts a UOA with 15 more PPM iron from a run of M1 vs Motorcraft, it turns into a 30-page thread about "wear".


This line of commentary is a little puzzling, in that you guys seem to be answering your own question, so to speak. If you have the luxury of being able to tear down an engine, you're going to have the benefit of being able to directly observe and measure the condition of the internals. There's not much to say about what the condition is (except perhaps how/why something happened or didn't happen).

By contrast, tools like UOA, blotter cards, observation of drained oil, etc. all bring with them an element of inference, and seemingly always leave room for reasonable people to disagree about what they mean.

Sadly, given current technology, the inferential, but less invasive tools will probably always be much more accessible than teardown and observation. I'd love to do a teardown someday, but alas, my car is how I get to work. Valve cover or oil pan removal is probably as far as I'll ever go, just for purely practical reasons.

Now, back to the topic at hand. While all oils have escalated in price, and will surely continue to do so, it seems the price difference between OTC syns and RL is closing up some. AZ is selling Edge for eight-something per quart! I may indeed by trying some RL myself soon (0w-20, of course!
wink.gif
).
 
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