Let me say upfront that I am not a hoarder. But I have been interested in motor oil since grandma made me buy Arco Graphite to put in her Plymouth. When Castrol 5w-50 came out a year or two after I bought my first new pickup, it was the oil of choice! 100F+ four wheeling in Big Bend NP or working near Lesser Slave Lake in winter at -40F, factory recommendations be darned!
But then about 5 years ago, during the great GC craze, when GC appeared to be winding down, and was expensive, someone on this site mentioned that Advance Auto was having this online sale of MC 7500 semi-ing syn, $1/qt, and I was hooked! 1,2,3 cases at a time, I would order online, wait 2 hours, and then show up and clean out the AA. Didn't even stop to THINK about this behavior until the stash was 200+ quarts. Had to buy new shelving in the garage to hold it all.
Now, these years later, I have about 60+ quarts left, the end is in sight...and then....
Pennzoil comes out the this Platinum Pure Plus stuff. Interesting, base stocks built from natural gas, seems like PAO was once built from gas streams as well...mmmmmmm..hey..a neat way to build equal sized oil molecules...gee...lets check the specs! And through this site I discover that NOACK on the PurePlus oils isn't all that great, but that they were making the old Ultra with GTL and creating fantastic NOACK before they began really pimping the natural gas platinum. And then the Ultra Platinum comes out, and still, normal NOACK except for the 10w-30. And the old Ultra looks to be a goner...but it looks good in ALL weights....
And then....the fuel rewards show up. Based on the size of the largest gas tank among my cars, I can only collect $15 savings per 5 qt PU Walmart jug, making my net cost about $10/5 qts at Walmart. And suddenly there is one jug of Ultra taking up shelf space. Then 4. And just this weekend I'm up to 11. I am familiar with the Ultra inventory at 6 local Walmarts, current to within the last 48 hours. The bottling dates are all in the ballpark of Nov/2013 through Jan/2014, all SN. My new stash is nearly the size of the outgoing one, but just today I collected the only 5w-30 PU available at these 6, and next weekend after payday I'll probably collect another $100 worth. Will continue doing so until, A) Walmart runs out of at least the 5w-20, B) the wife goes bananas when she notices the buildup in the garage or C) I hit some ridiculous amount again.
2 cars spec'd for 5-20, 1 for 5w-30. Both 5w-20 engines have either been previously spec'd for 5w-30 (Pentastar) or use 5w-30 in Europe or don't object (Ford 2.0L DI Duratec). The other is a Nissan Juke, 1.6L DI and Turbo, and based on reports on what has been happening to some timing chains, it will get exactly what the manual calls for until warranty is done.
The Juke will get the PU 5w-30 until I run out, maybe the PU 10w-30 in summer, or year round if I feel like living dangerously. The least used, it sees mostly short trips, with a single trip per year to Grandmas house.
The Jeep will probably be PU 5w-20 winter and MC7500 5w-30 summer, used in a manner I would describe as short trips to and from school for the kids, 4 wheel drive sight seeing in Colorado during the summer, and occasional camping trips out of state as well. As opposed to real off road heroics.
The Ford might just get the MC7500 5w-30 until I run out of it. It see's all highway, all the time, 1500 miles in a weekend, and then it is parked until the next road trip, road trips happening 7-8 times per year. First UOA for this combination (MC7500 and one big road trip) will be discovered in 3 weeks when I change the oil for the next trip. Might try a PU 5w-20 change because it will be a longer drain, 6K miles of roadtrip probably, UOA that, and then do the same trip with the MC7500 in July and compare the two. This car was using oil (MC 5w-20) during its first 8K miles, used less MC7500 in the last trip, don't know if it is using the oil or the oil is just being vaporized from heat/DI. PU 5w-20 plan for the next trip is in part to see if the low NOACK can help determine what is going on.
I feel the need...the need for...STASH!
- Thread starter RGR
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Let me say upfront that I am not a hoarder.
You buy it mah boy, you BUY IT!
When we get gas with the fuel rewards card, we take 2 cars. I follow my wife to the station and park behind her. She fills up, then I hold the nozzle while she drives forward, get out and holds the nozzle while I drive up, then I take what evers left. We always get the whole 20 gallons.
I only change my oil maybe 2x a year in both cars. I always want to buy oil whenever I see a good deal though. I stocked up on the NEW PP so I'm good for a while now!
Originally Posted By: SJohnson
When we get gas with the fuel rewards card, we take 2 cars. I follow my wife to the station and park behind her. She fills up, then I hold the nozzle while she drives forward, get out and holds the nozzle while I drive up, then I take what evers left. We always get the whole 20 gallons.
I understand the wants/desire.. I have managed to fend it off myself, I currently have 2 jugs of 5w30 and that's it. I guess I'm in the realm of non-Bitoger status with that wimpy stash.
I have enough oil on hand for two years worth of changes for my truck, plus a few top off bottles. That's a lot for me, but it does not keep me from wanting more on hand when I see sale prices. I just try and keep the addiction in check. Same for filters.
Just got another two Jugs of PP GTL 10w30 Today!
i am always looking at the orschelns website to see when the trop artic goes on sale. best value around at $1.99/qt. I buy no less than 3 cases at a time, of course i do 15-20 oil changes a year for 3 service vehicles and a personal.
at one point i think i had about 90 qts of trop artic but now i try to keep it above 40 qts. i just go through it so fast on 5-6k oci.
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