Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
As much as I like chasing oils that are great on paper, I believe BlackStone and the LiquiMoly paper posted a couple days ago are correct, especially when combined with some wisdom from dnewton3. Once you've got an oil that meets the required specifications AND do routine maintenance on the recommended schedule for your usage, the only real difference is how much you lighten your own wallet by overspending on fluids.
To my scientific side, the 99% of vehicle owners who do not frequent this site prove this to be true- they care not about moly, or boron, or magnesium, etc levels in their oil, nor that they used an OCOD or Tearolator.... and neither do their engines as long as they somewhat respect the maintenance schedules for their vehicles. There are literally MILLIONS of GM LSs, Toyota 4 cyls, Ford Modulars, etc that have never seen synthetic oil or anything more premium than a Motorcraft or Fram EG filter that have made it over 200k miles.
Sure, we all want to justify our OCD and overspending because we "think" we're extending our vehicles' lifetimes, and some may minimally influence theirs, but not significantly. I still believe that 99% of engines that fail at less than 200k miles only due so because of two factors: first, gross maintenance negligence; or second, gross engineering negligence on the part of the engine manufacturer. No manufacturing can overcome a refusal to maintain the machinery, and no oil can overcome a manufacturing defect or oversight in design.
I agree. I admit I'm a novice on the subject of VOAs & UOA. I've been running UOAs on my Semi Truck, about every three PMs. I follow my engine manufacturer's recommendations for OCIs, and I've used only oils and filters that meet their specifications. What I've seen via UOAs has convinced me to buy according to lowest price and easiest availability.
I've used 3 different big name oils in my engine, conventional 15W40, and semi-synthetic 10W30, and my wear numbers have always came back well within the "Normal" range. And honestly, I didn't see any noticeable difference between the first two brands I tried.
I'm now using a big name semi-synthetic 15W40 and 10W30, only because it costs me less per gallon, and my wear numbers on the 15W40 looked ever-so-slightly better vs the comventionals, but still it's nothing to write home about.
I haven't had a UOA ran on their semi-synthetic 10W30, but I'll be sending off a sample after my next PM.
And by viewing UOAs on passenger cars here, I'm beginning to believe if you're running normal OCIs, the difference between conventional oils and synthetic oils are negligible. I do have synthetic oil put in my wife's car, because I view her driving habits as falling under "Severe Duty", -Lol!. But I'm now using the cheapest big name synthetic that I can buy.
Both of my daughters have late model cars with 4 cylinder motors, which are under warranty. Both Dealerships use Mobil 1, so that's what goes in their cars.