Changing Viscosity--Help Me Choose an Oil

Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
445
Location
The Ether
Okay. I am going to try 5w30 in my Tundra from the 0w20 after some conversations on the forum about engine wear and longevity.

First, my situation. I have a 2019 Toyota Tundra 5.7 V8. I drive all hwy. The Interstate is right by my house. Monday - Friday, I drive round trip 108 miles each day. It only goes in to the city briefly to get gassed up every Sunday. I will be continuing my 10,000 mile OCI. Truck currently has 40,100 miles on the clock.

Which oil?:

Valvoline Advanced Synthetic 5w30 or Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30. The price difference is only $5.90 between the two for the 5qt jug. I am leaning towards the Valvoline because moly keeps this Tundra quiet and Mobil 1 chatters like crazy.

What say you?
 
Last edited:
Based on your comments, I'd suggest the Valvoline since the M1 is noisy for you and not to your liking. I'm an M1 guy, never had any of the noise issues some have experienced, but if it wasn't working to my satisfaction, I'd switch to something else.
 
I like moly.

how much moly does Valvoline have?

iirc, M1 Euro (FS?) 0W40 has 80 moly in case you are still considering M1 and also want moly. Not sure but the 80 could be the tri-nuclear moly and more effective with less dosage or that's what I've read ...

If you want to spend more $ and in AR, use Amsoil SS 10W30 with good chunk of moly.
 
If your truck likes Valvoline, then use it. Can't go wrong with either, but some vehicles like certain brands. My 19' Sorento burned M1 a bit, but not PP. My neighbor's Camry likes Supertech but burned Castrol. Go figure. A good synth oil and good OCI is far more important than brands.
 
on paper M1 0/40 is very robust, you could run an OCI trial; on the other hand hard to argue with quiet.
 
on paper M1 0/40 is very robust, you could run an OCI trial; on the other hand hard to argue with quiet.
Would probably hurt his fuel economy considering he’s driving 100 miles a day. It’s like 20% thicker than the M1 5w-30 EP. Factor in the recent “wonderful” spike in gas prices and it might be better to stick with a thinner oil.
 
I think you answered your own question by saying the Valvoline Advanced Synthetic keeps it quiet. That's what I would use between those two oils. I like Pennzoil/Quaker State stuff, but that's me.
Yup
 
Okay. I am going to try 5w30 in my Tundra from the 0w20 after some conversations on the forum about engine wear and longevity.

First, my situation. I have a 2019 Toyota Tundra 5.7 V8. I drive all hwy. The Interstate is right by my house. Monday - Friday, I drive round trip 108 miles each day. It only goes in to the city briefly to get gassed up every Sunday. I will be continuing my 10,000 mile OCI. Truck currently has 40,100 miles on the clock.

Which oil?:

Valvoline Advanced Synthetic 5w30 or Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30. The price difference is only $5.90 between the two for the 5qt jug. I am leaning towards the Valvoline because moly keeps this Tundra quiet and Mobil 1 chatters like crazy.

What say you?
Vanilla Mobil 1, as well as the Truck & SUV, Extended Performance 5W-30 and 10W-30 variants have served my 2007 Tacoma extremely well over the last 13+ years.

I‘ve performed every oil change on my Tacoma myself, starting with doing the first one at 3000 miles, and the truck has always had some flavor of M1 in the crankcase.

Since around 75-80,000 miles, it’s been exclusively the Extended Performance variant.

The truck uses no oil between changes, and seems as powerful now as it ever was.

I think the M1-EP is a very good oil for the money, and I’ve read here that it contains some PAO (possibly even a pretty significant percentage?). I have also read here that the M1-EP/AP are around 60% PAO. Not sure what % the 5/10W-30 grades are.

Lately Gokhan has intrigued me with his A_Harman Index, which is his calculator to estimate VII/VM content and base oil viscosity for oils.

It seems to me that choosing an oil with as low of a VM content as possible can only help with engine cleanliness and wear protection (VM is polymer, and can cause carbon buildup in the engine’s hotspots (piston ring lands, turbo bearings and oil passageways).

Plus, viscosity loss due to shearing is usually caused by those VM breaking down.

Multigrades that achieve a good viscosity index through the use of very good quality base oils, and don’t need to use much VM polymers will not only keep an engine cleaner, but will maintain grade better under heavy use.

If you look at Gokhan’s chart, you’ll notice that the 10W-30 variants of M1 and other oils are estimated to have lower VM content. This is because they start off with a thicker, often times better quality base oil, as opposed to the 5W-30 or 0W-30 variants, which usually start off with a thinner base oil, and depend on the polymer VM to achieve adequate viscosity at engine operating temperature.

Check out that spreadsheet. It may change your thinking on oil.

Lately I’ve been keenly interested in the Euro oils that meet some of the more stringent approvals from VW, Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche. Typically these have HTHS values of at least 3.5, with Noack scores of
Some examples I’ve been very interested in (at least for use from April-October) are:

• Mobil 1 ESP/ESP Formula 5W-30
• Motul X-Clean+ 5W-30
• Ravenol VMP 5W-30

And then for October-April:

• Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30/10W-30
• Idemitsu 5W-30 SP/GF-6
• Mobil 1 EP 10W-30

The Valvoline Advanced Synthetic 5W-30 shows a very impressive spec on @Gokhan Chart, but I’ve seen posts where he says it’s been changed recently and is no longer as impressive.

Keep us updated!
 
The Valvoline Advanced Synthetic 5W-30 shows a very impressive spec on @Gokhan Chart, but I’ve seen posts where he says it’s been changed recently and is no longer as impressive.

Keep us updated!
Yes, we've been seeing that the SP/GF-6 versions of oils are more fuel-economy-centric, so, they are decreasing the base-oil viscosity and increasing the VII content to improve the fuel economy to the GF-6 standards or above.
 
Back
Top