Early opinions on my experiement please

[oilpan49]

Tonight I've been thinking about my experiement I am going to perform in the spring and possibly summer(depends how much I drive) with cheap OTC oil and LC. I don't have a purpose to try this experiment but since LC is a unique product, I would like to perform this experiment to see how well LC works and what kind of numbers it will put out using cheap conventional oil. Now, when I say cheap, I'm talking as so long as it's detergent 5w30 oil, regardless of brand.

This experiement of mine will hopefully help not only me, but others here establish some sort of facts and data about just how well LC works with cheap oil and help save me a couple bucks. Because IMO, If I can change my oil for less than $10, use LC as instructed and if numbers add up right to get 150K+ from an engine, that's the cats a$$ for me, lol My plan follows:

A) Buy cheapest detergent conventional 5w30 on the market today
B) send in a VOA
C) Run cheap stuff for 3K, change, send in for UOA
D) Run same stuff for 3K with LC. UOA but not drain. I will only drain if the numbers come back looking bad.

I'm looking for any other suggestions, opinions or other procedures that any of you think that I should perform in this experiment. I want to see too it that this experiement goes right and is successful, so please, feel more than free to chime in. Thank you,,,,,AR

 

[kcryan]

keep us posted

 

[427Z06]

What happens after D)? You going to keep doing used oil analysis until it's time to change or pick an interval and stick with it? Or, when you change brands are you going to repeat D) and whatever follows over again?

When do you conclude the test and report results? What results you going to report?

Hope you drive alot, or I suspect lot of us will be pushing up daisies before any meaningful results are in.

 

[mike142]

How come you only expect 150k from your engine?
This should be a no brainer even with so called
"cheap" oil. You really mean inexpensive don't you? Walmart oil on a 3k change out I'm sure
would get you there. Don't however skimp on the
filter. P-one or Wix are 2 that I swear by.

 

[oilpan49]

427ZO6,

Thanks for chiming in! I'll post my VOA and UOA results, if those are accurate enough, if not, tell me what else I should post and I'll be happy to do so.

I wasn't clear on my sentence about 150K. What I was trying to say if the numbers from the used oil analysis come back looking good, and if Terry thinks I could get 150K from x brand oil and LC, then I'm going for it. I plan on getting rid of the truck in the next couple years and I drive about 10K miles a year on average. As far as what happens after D, at this point, I'm not sure what to do. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I can say though, I'll probably go back to a decent conventional oil such as Havoline or Pennzoil and use LC as instructed and just do that with used oil analysis once a year until I find something else I want for wheels. Since I'm only keeping the truck for the next 3 years at most! I don't see a need for synthetic anymore.

When I'm going to conclude my results, probably near fall when I do my oil change for the winter. TO be for sure, I'll have to see how the experiment is going. If it goes well enough according to data and UOA numbers, I'll maybe push it into winter of next year. For now though, I'm just taking a step at a time since it is only winter yet here and I have time to think about what I want to do and when. I'm still open for new ideas, suggestions etc... Thanks,,,,,AR

 

[The_Jeff]

Good plan. Might want to standardize on one batch of oil all bought on the same day.

Maybe something SM-rated too.

 

[kenw]

well, a sampling of 1 isn't really going to tell you much. Too many other variables to be much more than anecdotal.

Here's my current "experiment":

I presently have 2 vehicles with slightly over 160k miles. Both have used name-brand but miscellaneous 10w30 or 10w40 conventional and whatever filter exclusively. and no oil additives. never.

short of tearing each engine apart, i believe both are holding up just fine. Compression on both is excellent, neither use measureable amounts of oil between 4-5k changes.

but like the others said, getting an engine to 150k isn't really a stretch today.

 

[oldman]

Sound like an effective plan to me if you only drive 10k a year. If you plan on getting a new vehicle in two years you will save money with the cheaper oil and LC. You will probally only have to change the oil six times at that rate.

 

[Ugly3]

If your sump holds 5 quarts mix all five quarts ahead of time and do the VOA on a sample of the mix. Eliminates one variable.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

He can run Exxon Superflo pretty cheap. But I still think the choices of buck a quart oil are better for this experiement, like the tropartic and Kendall at autozone ore you can find some chevron havoline for cheap. I wouldn't hesitate to run any of these for 6 months or 5k miles . The superflo scares me though.

 

[oilpan49]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ugly3:
If your sump holds 5 quarts mix all five quarts ahead of time and do the VOA on a sample of the mix. Eliminates one variable.

---

Ugly3, I'm not sure I follow you when you say mix all 5 quarts ahead of time then do a VOA sample? Do you mean mix all 5 quarts of the oil in a container then take a sample?? Or what?

As far as my first experiment goes, I will plan using the same brand of oil and not do any mixing of any sort. I feel this will give innacurate results and besides, I'm not really a mixer anyway. Mi ideal brand right now is Coastal 5w30 as of now for my first experiement. I'm always Welcome to other brands as well to try out too. Thanks,,,,AR