Hello, I have a 94 Mazda MX-6 LS which has the v6. My car has close to 100k miles. My question is what is a good regular oil to use? Does anyone happen to know which brand of oil Mazda dealers use? Like do they have their own brand or do they just use valvoline or something? I heard Honda has their own fluid. I'm going to do the auto-rx treatment and was wondering what a good dino oil to use for it would be. After the treatment I hope to use a synthetic oil. Can anyone recommend a good synthetic oil also?
good 5w-30 oil
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Good dinos include Pennzoil, Motorcraft, Chevron, Havoline, and Castrol. Mobil1 is probably the best readily available synthetic oil.
Hey, Welcome to Bobistheoilguy(BITOG)
I second what williar said. Any good name brand dino oil will work really nice with Auto-rx. I have used it in my trucks engine and tranny. Both with good results.
M1 too is also a top notch OTC synthetic. If you want to go with another synthetic, Amsoil & Redline also too make a fine synthetic. Good luck,,,AR
I second what williar said. Any good name brand dino oil will work really nice with Auto-rx. I have used it in my trucks engine and tranny. Both with good results.
M1 too is also a top notch OTC synthetic. If you want to go with another synthetic, Amsoil & Redline also too make a fine synthetic. Good luck,,,AR
All the above in my personal opinion are great oils with the exception of pennzoil. I have a 1976 Buick Lesabre that I got from my in-laws. The oil and filter were changed every 3,000 miles. When I got it, I changed just about every gasket, hose, etc... I did not change the oil pan gasket, which is rotten and needs changing. Took a good look the valve train and under the valve covers. To my surprise the valve covers were very clean except for the varnish but, on the back corners of the heads I found about a tablespoon of gunk. I can just imagine what the bottom of the oil pan will look like when I take it off! This has not been my only time that I have seen this with well maintained engines of all sizes and makes. This is with the conventional Pennzoil of different weights. Everyone of them had this nasty buildup. If you go for name brands, I suggest Mobil 1, Mobil Drive Clean, Havoline Convential or Synthetics. These are two brands that I have had absolutly no burn off. Meaning I had to add not even a drop of oil to the engines between 3,000 mile oil changes. Done in city as well as high speed driving. Hope this helps, its just my humble opinion.
Re pennzoil. I heard the same thing and stayed away from it for many years...but I wonder if that is still true with the advent of g2 base oils. If its still true, I would be willing to bet that it is so to a much lesser extent. I've heard of more than one pennzoil run engine going several 100 thousand miles. Just my .02. No argument with the volatility comment though. with the 5w20 the pennzoil ran well but was the only oil I've used so far which required top up at 3500 miles. I now run MC to 5-6k and not a drop low at the end of it....
r.
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Oh boy, here we go again. Pennzoil causes sludge
Well, not in the engines I've seen with my very own eyes. Absolutely squeeky clean inside my Dad's Blazer when the intake gaskets were changed. Up to that point, it had Pennz 5w-30 it's whole life. Not even a hint of varnish, let alone sludge, at around 130,000 miles. With the 3.8L V-6 in the Lesabre, the sludge could have come from the intake gaskets leaking coolent into the lifter valley OR the upper plenum could have melted from the EGR tube and leaked coolent internally.
Disregard. Didn't realize the Lesabre in question was of the 76 vintage.
Thermostats aging and not letting the engine come up to temp , short trips to the opposite and overheating and sometimes in the multiples over an engines life due to T-Stat failure , later water pump failure,coolant line failure then t-stat again , forgetting on purpose to change the oil " I changed the oil a year ago but it has only been 500 miles " and things like that are not taken into consideration by some mechanics who aid in these rumors we hear .
Now , 1976 . Long time back .
Quote:
" Took a good look the valve train and under the valve covers. To my surprise the valve covers were very clean except for the varnish but, on the back corners of the heads I found about a tablespoon of gunk. "
One might be glad it had Pennzoil in it for nearly 30 years . Could have been worse .
No kidding , I have heard it all about Pennzoil , even seen the engines tore down at machine shops with the guys nagging on the Liberty Bell oil
Shop guy replied :
The water pump went out and the owner drove it till it would go no more
But he was nagging Pennz because of the gunk that little incident created .Just how much did that shop guy know about oil ? What a guy there .
If the owner did not know better than to just shut it off when the lite came on , did he ever change the oil on time ? Just too many variables .
True story and he probably warned the owner , who warned his friend , who warned his Cat who warned the Mice to never use Pennzoil. You know what I mean
BTW this was not aimed at any member in particular but these rumors need water hrown on them from time to time .
People tend to believe what they hear and purchase accordingly
Pennzoil was always a leader , not a follower as far as I can tell
[ September 10, 2004, 07:04 PM: Message edited by: Motorbike ]
It has been my experince that all OTC dino 5W30's are junk! If you prefer a dino oil try a 10W30! Now that GF-4 is here that might all change! If you do decide to continue with 5W30 in a dino oil at least look for GF-4 rateing on the bottle!
I don't know where the Pennzoil Phobia started but I hear about it when I was 17. In 85 I had just purchased a 84 Camaro with a 2.8 liter V6. It had 24,000 miles on it and the maintenance records showed it had oil changes every 5k miles with Penzoil SAE30. I switch over to Pennzoil 15w40 as the owners manual ok it.
I pulled the engine 2 years later to put in a 350ci motor.
I tore down the 2.8L engine to inspect and it was very clean inside. I was doing 9-10k OCI with this oil. No problems. The engine had about 70k miles when I did this.
After installing the 350ci engine , I began using Delo 100 SAE 30 with 6k OCI. I dropped a valve at 30k miles. I pulled the engine and it was just as clean as the day I installed it.
Pennzoil was never the cause of sludge. It was the fact that most people did not ever flush their cooling syatems and their engines ran hotter than they should have been. And then there were those who just never did change oil eother. And almost everyone in the town I lived in used Pennzoil and that is the oil that got blamed.
If it wasn't for the fact that I worked with good ole dad in his shop I would be believing the lie too!
I pulled the engine 2 years later to put in a 350ci motor.
I tore down the 2.8L engine to inspect and it was very clean inside. I was doing 9-10k OCI with this oil. No problems. The engine had about 70k miles when I did this.
After installing the 350ci engine , I began using Delo 100 SAE 30 with 6k OCI. I dropped a valve at 30k miles. I pulled the engine and it was just as clean as the day I installed it.
Pennzoil was never the cause of sludge. It was the fact that most people did not ever flush their cooling syatems and their engines ran hotter than they should have been. And then there were those who just never did change oil eother. And almost everyone in the town I lived in used Pennzoil and that is the oil that got blamed.
If it wasn't for the fact that I worked with good ole dad in his shop I would be believing the lie too!
Guys, to be fair, of what value is it to comment on varnish & sludge accumulations in a 15 to 25 year old engine?
These engines evidently had a lot of hours with late 80's era Group 1 oils & the VI & detergent additives commonly used with these oils.
It's a given that any current GF-3 oil is naturally going to produce better results than an old API SF oil.
The current generation of Pennzoil PCMO’s are formulated with the Chevron process Grp II base oils. And UOA’s indicate for us that the add pack has all the current levels of calcium, moly & boron.
These engines evidently had a lot of hours with late 80's era Group 1 oils & the VI & detergent additives commonly used with these oils.
It's a given that any current GF-3 oil is naturally going to produce better results than an old API SF oil.
The current generation of Pennzoil PCMO’s are formulated with the Chevron process Grp II base oils. And UOA’s indicate for us that the add pack has all the current levels of calcium, moly & boron.
Note: Johnny has pointed out that Chevron & Pennzoil regularly trade base oils in certain regions of the country. Why would Havoline be recommended over Pennz, if the base oils are the same & the add packs are close cousins?
Firstly, I'm not basing decisions for my super-high-tech Audi of the Third Millenia on what occured on some '76 Oldsmobuick.
Secondly, someone with 3 posts who bashes Pennzoil (based on rumour) and prasies Mobil makes me suspicious. Oddly, you based this conclusion on consumption rates. (Mobil has poor NOWAK #s) My experience is the opposite, Mobil DCO was the WORST consumption oil I ever used to the point it was absurd. This bad experience with SG DCO is what made me look to Bob's for assistance. Now, after recently testing about a dozen different oils in many different cars, I can honestly add my opinion here that DCO was a bad choice.
IRONICLY, while at the parts counter at my combo Audi/BMW/VW/Porsche/Mazda dealer, a new 6 owner came in and asked for "whatever" synthetic his car needed. The counter guy gave him Mobil DCO 5w-20....SEMI??? ($32 w/filter
Getting back to specifics, I'd think the new entry level ILSAC GF-4 ConocoPhillips ("Conico", "Phillips", '76', and "Kendall") 5W-30s (and 5W-20s, too) that have been reformulated to a synthetic blend would be worth looking into. 10W-30 synthetic blends to follow by next spring. The press releases stressed that these reformulated synthetic blend motor oils would be at conventional oil pricing - similar to what's been going on with another ConocoPhillips product, "Motorcraft" 5W-20, for some time.
I recommend Castral 5W30 or 10W30. The 10W30 has served me well in the past.
Your local Mazda dealer likely uses Motorcraft Oil. My Mazda dealer tends to like to put Motorcraft 5W-20 in everything these days, including my Mazda, which i think is a mistake. Mazda specifically did NOT back-recomend 5w-20 for these native mazda V6's, as their recomended grade of 10w-30 and a 5w-30 in some climates tends to work better. The owner manual on my 2001 Mazda V6 (Same design as yours) recomends 10w-30 for all climates and 5w-30 up to 100*F. SO i think it's safe to say you can use either, depending on your prefrence.
Viscosity aside, the new Motorcraft formulations are semi-synthtic and seem to be very high quality oils, and some of the least expensive semi-synthetics. Many folks tend to be very happy using Mobil1 and Castrol Syntec synthetic oils at 0w30, 5w30 and 10w30, and they seem to do just fine.
Having said that, if it were MY car, i would hesitate to introduce straight synthetic oil into a car of that vintage with lots of miles on it. If you must, i'd start with a 5w30 semi-synthetic, and do several oil changes at very low OCI's to clean the engine up. Otherwise (and my prefrence) i'd stick with a good quality 10w30 dino oil and change it regularly and your engine will no doubt outlast the rest of the car.
All of the major brands seem to be decent. Pennzoil, Motorcraft, Valvoline, QS, Castrol, Havoline, Delo, Mobil, etc... just be sure to look for one with the SM/GF-4 rating, and use a high quality filter. Mazda OEM, Bosch, WIX, Nippon, and even WalMart Tech filters are really good. I do not recomend FRAM. (FYI Napa Gold=WIX)
Regular dino oils seem to be good for 3K-4K miles and synthetics 5K-7K.
Also change your air filter regularly, and the biggest mistake i see is people who do not properly close (or let the jiffy lube guy close) their air filter housing. It takes some patience to get it closed right and all sealed up nice and neat without any leaks, but take your time and it'll pay off with a cleaner engine.
I also really like Valvoline's synthetic fuel system cleaner. I use a bottle in my fuel tank at each oil change and I also use a rag and some carb cleaner to clean the metal air intake from my air filter.
The Mazda Japan built V6's are excellent engines and should outlast the rest of the car without any problem.
MoCraft 5-30 or 10-30 should work well in the older Mazda. It's a good inexpensive syn-blend.
Valvoline MaxLife is a great oil for your vehicle also. It's about 15%PAO syn, though not marketed as a blend.
Both are good and I use them.
Valvoline MaxLife is a great oil for your vehicle also. It's about 15%PAO syn, though not marketed as a blend.
Both are good and I use them.
Whoa, year old thread here guys. Note the date, specifically the last numerical symbol.
for some reason i'v noticed most import dealers only use castrol gtx.
If I remember correctly, Pennzoil and sludge dates back to when the oil producers really used their own wells and oil fields and refining techniques were more limited.
Pennzoil basestock had more wax in it and did cause sludge, but worked very well in higher tolerance engines like many V8's.
I think the same was also true, perhaps even more so with the old Quaker State products perhaps up until the 1970's
Kendall had wells that produced a basestock that naturally had a very high viscosity index, and that may have been why it had a following in drag racing.
Quaker State and Pennzoil are brand names for Shell and they are made with Shell basestocks and additive formulas and can as good as Shell decides to make them.
Pennzoil basestock had more wax in it and did cause sludge, but worked very well in higher tolerance engines like many V8's.
I think the same was also true, perhaps even more so with the old Quaker State products perhaps up until the 1970's
Kendall had wells that produced a basestock that naturally had a very high viscosity index, and that may have been why it had a following in drag racing.
Quaker State and Pennzoil are brand names for Shell and they are made with Shell basestocks and additive formulas and can as good as Shell decides to make them.
There are huge differences in eastern, gulf coast, midwestern and west coast crude. Since early refining was just straight distillation with clay filtering, base stocks did vary considerably in properties, there were no API standards. Brand reputation was everything before solvent refining (Group I) became prevalent in the 1960's.
The eastern paraffinic oils had high IV, but also higher pour points and less solvency. Western crude is primarily napthenic, called "asphaltic" back then, with lower VI, but greater solvency and lower pour points due to less wax.
Even in the late 1960's, I found Pennzoil kept my aircooled VW engines cleaner than the Castrol and Valvoline that were much more popular with import owners and repair shops at the time.
The eastern paraffinic oils had high IV, but also higher pour points and less solvency. Western crude is primarily napthenic, called "asphaltic" back then, with lower VI, but greater solvency and lower pour points due to less wax.
Even in the late 1960's, I found Pennzoil kept my aircooled VW engines cleaner than the Castrol and Valvoline that were much more popular with import owners and repair shops at the time.
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