Best conventional oil

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Valvoline... 100 years under the hood... And if you're in Harlem then it's 100 years in da hood!
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At the moment, among conventionals, I have QS, Valvoline, GTX, Peak (FAR!), Proline (for the mowers) and Havoline DS in the stash.
They'll all get used for about 4K+ miles each (too short, I know) and they'll all do just fine in any engine I have.
In short, almost anything you might buy that meets API SL or SM will be perfectly satifactory for 95% of the cars on the road.
There are tons of UOAs here that bear this out.
The UOA forum is an interesting read. Remember, too, that some highly respected members here feel that UOAs tell you more about how an oil holds up in an application than whether it reduces wear.
Still, you were asking about which oil was best.
 
One could spend years trying to answer this question (which is what this board is about). The best oil is the one that you want to run. I've been a long time Havoline user, even before I found this site. After reading dozens of data sheets and probably hundreds of oil analysis reports, Havoline is what I still run in 2 of our 3 vehicles. My own UOA's show it to be as good as or better than Pennzoil conventional in my Tacoma. However, my wife's old Camry seemed to prefer the yellow bottle due to oil usage. The Cherokee has been on Havoline 10W-30 since I bought it 10 years ago. The Camry was just replaced by a Jetta TDI, so that gets Castrol Professional SLX LL03 which is one of two VW 507 approved oils on the US market. This engine has to have low ash synthetic oil.
 
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IMO, Havoline is the most advanced conventional oil on the market. I thinks it alredy meets the new GF-5/SN specs, and is just waiting to certify to it.

That said, I really 'like' the idea of Brad-Penn oils. Literally oil made from some of the first oil wells in America, and possibly the world. I just found out I can buy this stuff locally in Canada, and I'm planning on running it next.

Yes, I'm in Canada, but its the oil that literally helped start the modern NA auto age. Pretty darn cool!
 
I have over 75,000 miles now with my Saturn Ion. I switched from straight Valvoline to Valvoline MaxLife (semi-syth and 5W30).

I had an interesting conversation just today with an auto mechanic who seems to know a lot more about motor oils than a lot of mechanics. He likes Valvoline. He says that it is an American oil (Ashland in Texas) with a very long time in production and a lot of experience with motor oil development. And he said that Mobil has not kept up with development of synthetic oils compared to Valvoline.
 
Originally Posted By: Mystic
I have over 75,000 miles now with my Saturn Ion. I switched from straight Valvoline to Valvoline MaxLife (semi-syth and 5W30).

I had an interesting conversation just today with an auto mechanic who seems to know a lot more about motor oils than a lot of mechanics. He likes Valvoline. He says that it is an American oil (Ashland in Texas) with a very long time in production and a lot of experience with motor oil development. And he said that Mobil has not kept up with development of synthetic oils compared to Valvoline.


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Originally Posted By: Mystic
I have over 75,000 miles now with my Saturn Ion. I switched from straight Valvoline to Valvoline MaxLife (semi-syth and 5W30).

I had an interesting conversation just today with an auto mechanic who seems to know a lot more about motor oils than a lot of mechanics. He likes Valvoline. He says that it is an American oil (Ashland in Texas) with a very long time in production and a lot of experience with motor oil development. And he said that Mobil has not kept up with development of synthetic oils compared to Valvoline.


Great. Tell his that Ashland is based in Kentucky, not Texas, and they get their basestocks the from the same sources everyone else does. And they've been looking to sell off their oil brands for a while now...
 
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: Mystic
I had an interesting conversation just today with an auto mechanic who seems to know a lot more about motor oils than a lot of mechanics. He likes Valvoline. He says that it is an American oil (Ashland in Texas) with a very long time in production and a lot of experience with motor oil development. And he said that Mobil has not kept up with development of synthetic oils compared to Valvoline.


Great. Tell him that Ashland is based in Kentucky, not Texas, and they get their basestocks the from the same sources everyone else does. And they've been looking to sell off their oil brands for a while now...


But other than that the auto mechanic was correct...
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Valvoline does have a blending facility in TX. How do you know that Ashland is trying to sell Valvoline? Are you basing that on the NY Post article of about 6 months ago? Their has been no other mention of Valvoline being for sale.
 
Originally Posted By: 77GrandPrix
Valvoline does have a blending facility in TX. How do you know that Ashland is trying to sell Valvoline? Are you basing that on the NY Post article of about 6 months ago? Their has been no other mention of Valvoline being for sale.


They may have a blending facility, but so do a whole host of refineries that do not use much "Texas crude." Most oil is blended from a combination of sources now a days.

As for them being for sale, I thought there were also some mentioning of it inside industry publications. Incidentally, I AM NOT saying Valvoline is a second rate oil by any means as I use their stuff and love MaxLife...

As for the thread, I have no idea what is the "best" by I have an emotional attachment to Pennzoil and Quaker State conventional oils. Havoline is great and so is Chevron although it's getting harder to find Texaco products here on sale, or even at all. I also think highly of any Conoco-Phillips oils such as Kendell/Motorcraft only here...
 
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