I am tired of people mixing oils

[AEHaas]

If you want an oil that has more of one or another type of additive then change your oil to a brand that meets your needs. I just do not like things added to oils even though you usually get away with it.

aehaas

 

[WishIhadatruck]

I've mixed my oil for the last 2 changes in my oldest most worn out car. I was a bit nervous about doing it and I never had mixed before but I decided to do it anyway for the following reasons.

1. The car is about worthless and I consider it disposable even though it runs great. I'm going to get rid of it within a year anyway or when the 1st big repair bill hits. I plan to donate the car regardless. That takes the nervousness out.

2. I was not happy with my Mobil 1 5W-30 UOA and I thought I'd try and thicken it up a little based on others suggestions.

3. I still had a bit of Mobil 1 sitting on my garage shelf and still needed to use it up.

At first I planned to mix some 5W-40 Mobil Truck & Turbo Diesel with it to thicken it up (to stay within the family) but it was too hard to come by. I finally settled on Castrol Syntec 5W-50 since it was even thicker and was readily available at my local Meijer for a good price. About 2k into the OCI I drained enough oil (about a qt) so I could add in the Castrol. I ran it to 6k miles just like the 100% Mobil 1 UOA. See results here.

I currently have the same mix in the car and have almost 7k on this OCI. I'll do another UOA and see how it looks. The car isn't worth the cost of the UOA's but I do them for the entertainment value and for what I can learn. I'm going to change it out for 100% Mobil 1 10W-30 because I still have some left just to see if my lead goes back up (assuming it is still down with the mix). I might try PP 5W-30 next and then go back for 1 more mix. That should finish off all my Mobil 1 stock since it didn't perform well in either of my cars. I'll only have GC and PP stocked once the Mobil 1 is gone. I have no plans to mix in the future.

The only adds I've used is Auto-RX.

 

[Schredder]

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I pour all my odd and ends down my neighbors well. She is a city dweller who came out to the country and has no appreciation for folks shooting armadillo's off their back porch. She did mention to my wife that this country water has cured her digestive issues and she is now regular as the newspaper.

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I really hope you're kidding...

 

[Triple_Se7en]

There's nothing wrong with the way I mix oils with the three oldest vehicles in my five vehicle driveway fleet. All three see only 3K OCIs. I don't blend with the two newer vehicles... only because they see synthetic-only. I am not a proponent of blending different synthetic brands.

If there are threads here that tire me, I just scroll over them. Lastly, the concoctions that the oil producers offer are mostly all price-driven. Yes, you can improve on their synblend products & blend something that's better than what the oil producer can deliver for hypothetically the $3.49 price on store shelves. Just do a UOA afterwards for verification.

I run my home brew synblends for only 4.5K. Now if I were to increase my dino OCIs beyond 3K (or) my synblend OCIs beyond 4.5K, I would get a UOA done. But I prefer to spend a few more dollars on adding more snthetic percentages to my home brew synblends - than spend $22-$32 on a UOA.

Whatever the amount I spend on a UOA - to me is better served inside my engine - than in someone else's analysis wallet. So yes I gamble every OCI. But I seem to do well at gambling cuz' the vehicles I drive to the junkyard 16-19 years after I purchase them - do not burn oil & have a semi-clean dipstick - despite being a rust bucket.

Should the day come when the dipstick levels on my vehicles are not normal - or I see unusual color or film on the dipstick, then I will resort to getting a UOA done. But in the meantime, I want my engines to have my best monetary home-brew oil blend investment - yet still enjoy reading the flip-side from posters here that tire from reading opposite viewpoints from folks like me.

 

[kkreit01]

What about mixing only 1/2 Qt of brand "X" with 4 qts of Brand "Y"? I like to try new oils, and purchase wile on sale or rebates. Both my vehicles take 4.5 qts. So, I either need to buy 9 quarts of 1 brand each time (this would indeed increase my stash), buy 4 qts and use 1/2 Qt from the last change, or buy 5 qts, and have a 1/2 qt left over? I only use 5w20. Thus, it's too thin for the mower.

 

[dailydriver]

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I pour all my odd and ends down my neighbors well. She is a city dweller who came out to the country and has no appreciation for folks shooting armadillo's off their back porch. She did mention to my wife that this country water has cured her digestive issues and she is now regular as the newspaper.

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I really hope you're kidding...

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Yeah Sarge, you don't really kill those cute little 'dillers now, do you??

 

[Vilan]

Just a little food for thought...

Some folks seem worried about mixing different brands of oil. But nobody seems to worry about the (much more common) mixing of different brands of gasoline. I'd get tarred and feathered for saying Techron in your Chevron gas gets "additive clash" when you top it off with Shell V-Power, but I don't see how that's so much different from mixing PP with Mobil 1. The chemistries aren't identical, but still, you are mixing two mostly-similar brews and hoping nothing bad happens. And it doesn't.

Now I've done it...

 

[Steve S]

The oil looks pretty going in and ugly draining out .The mixing may not be the best but it may not be the worst .Other than messing up a uoa it doesn't make a difference in real life. Look at some of sunruhs motorcycle uoas .The engine tears up the oil nothing like when it went in.

 

[benjamming]

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All that data really says is that the Fuchs is cruddy compared to the M1.

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What makes you think that? Because it doesn't have the typical additive package you are used to seeing? I would beg to differ with you on this point.

 

[AEHaas]

Interestingly I use my odd end oils for all sorts of things. Since I have mostly thin oils they all go into my:
Air compressor - 2 stage Emglo 60 gal tank vertical system
Toro mower - even used some left over ATF in there
Honda Generator
Stihl chain saw - also use used oil for the bar

aehaas

 

[SargeGTO]

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I pour all my odd and ends down my neighbors well. She is a city dweller who came out to the country and has no appreciation for folks shooting armadillo's off their back porch. She did mention to my wife that this country water has cured her digestive issues and she is now regular as the newspaper.

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I really hope you're kidding...

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Yeah Sarge, you don't really kill those cute little 'dillers now, do you??

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Nah...I'm just kidding...If I poured it down her well I may as well pour it down mine!

She is only a mile or so away....aint far enough!

 

[Cutehumor]

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But I seem to do well at gambling cuz' the vehicles I drive to the junkyard 16-19 years after I purchase them - do not burn oil & have a semi-clean dipstick - despite being a rust bucket.

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Tripleseven,

could you list the vehicles you drove to the junkyard after 16-19 years and mileage on the engine?

 

[goodvibes]

We've seen excellent UOAs from people that add 1 qt of RL to both Hav. and MC. At a less than 20% mix it doesn't dilute much and adds a lot of other things. Basically drops the B a hair and adds a good dose of Mo and ZDDP (between 100 + 200 and still safe for CATs) and ester. It doesn't seem to increase the Pb like RL alone can. I've seen mediocre results from mixing with M1 but I doubt it's the adds as much as the base stocks competing. Just guessing may be a poor choice but far from disastrous unless your talking boutique oils that often stray from the usual suspects in adds. I agree with Dr Haas's premise overall but when you see good results from some brews, why not?

 

[Ramblin Fever]

How bout those that change brands of oil every couple OCI's - that would be considered mixing as well, i.e. always a little bit left in the engine.

 

[Dad2leia]

If that would be considered mixing the oils, then I guess just about everyone who has ever changed oil would be considered a mixer due to that point, as you always drain the factory fill first, then switch to the brand of your choice.

 

[deven]

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I happened to compare some recent UOA for two oils, 0W-20 Mobil 1 and 0W-20 Fuchs Titan. If you mix these 50-50 you will have a problem. Here is why, and I will use rounded numbers to show the point best.

The major anti-wear, anti-oxidants and others in the M1 include

Moly at 100, Boron 50, Zinc 800 and Ca 2500.
In the Fuchs they are
Moly at 0, Boron 15, Zinc 75 and Ca 2700.

The mix would be around
Moly at 50, Boron 30, Zinc 425 and Ca 2600.

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Since we are only looking at the "rounded" NUMBERS, I would rather use the blend over Fuchs since all the numbers are higher other than the Calcium.....but then again on paper the yankees are supposed to win their 109th consecutive world championship

 

[cp3]

Didn't I read somewhere that someone had good UOAs using a homeblend of Castrol GTX and Syntec at 1:3? I think at sale prices using the 5L jugs at Wallyworld I could make a 1:1 blend for the winter cheaper that I could buy it.
As for odds and ends I usually pour them through while I have the drain plug out, especially if the oil looks dirty when I dump it.

 

[T-Keith]

I'd say a good number of "mixers" on here are mixing similar chemistries, and almost never 50/50. Exotic oils are a bad example too. A generalization NEVER makes a good argument.

 

[Bobert]

What about when oil companies change oil formulations? You could pull three of the same bottles off the shelf and literally be holding three different formulas. Especially if someone hoards and keeps buying every couple of months when there could have been a formulation change in between buying sprees. How many consumers are going to looking at batch numbers? Some of you decrying mixing different oils could have a cocktail of different formulations of the same make in your crankcase right now!

As far as mixing different makes of oil with each other, it's probably not a good idea. Though every time you switch to a different oil and drain your crankcase there is always a little left over, so there is always a little mixing going on.

Mobil BTW has said it's perfectly fine to mix different Mobil 1 formulas.

 

[cousincletus]

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Interestingly I use my odd end oils for all sorts of things. Since I have mostly thin oils they all go into my:
Air compressor - 2 stage Emglo 60 gal tank vertical system
Toro mower - even used some left over ATF in there
Honda Generator
Stihl chain saw - also use used oil for the bar

aehaas

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That's not a good idea. I used to work on industrial air compressors (doing maint) and they take special synthetic compressor oil. Thin for the winter, thicker oil to handle the heat of the summer.