Is AMSOIL superior to other synthetic oils?

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I have been using AMS for over a year now. I have no way of measuring the difference in performance or protection value of this oil.

I am using it in both my cars. One is a summer Solo1 and solo2 race car and the other one is a daily driven VW golf.

My question is does AMSOIL provides an added benefit compare to Mobil 1 or Formula 1 mastercraft synthetic oil that cost almost half as much?

My mechanic tells me that even the cheapest bargain oil Penzoil, Valvoline quickerstate do the same job on a street driven car if the oil replaced every 5000 KM.
 
There have been stories and experiences of name brand bargain oil taking engines to many miles, WHEN changed at good intervals. It's always nice to know a superior oil is in the crankcase, too! It seems Amsoil is an exceptional oil; however, I am not sure with the different levels/grades in which they provide their oil in. Personally, I would not recommend running any oil for 15000+ miles...UNLESSS the vehicle is in a constant ideal climate with ideal highway cruising conditions and the filter gets changed every 5000 or so. I have found Mobil-1 to be the best value, for a 'real' PAO synthetic. It can be acquired very easily, and in the states for $19.82US/5qt container = $3.96US/qt. Not bad at all. If you have had great luck with the Amsoil you've been using, that is great! Keep using it! But, if you are desiring to conserve monetarily, there are certainly other good options, too! Good luck with you cars!
 
If you are doing 5,000 km oil changes in your street car then you are wasting your money on any of the synthetics IMO. Use a top drawer dino like Chevron, Pennzoil, Castrol GTX, Motorcraft, etc. and save the bucks.

If I were racing I would probably go with Redline for the race car based largely on it's repution for being extremely stable under high engine oil temperatures and loads. My second choice for a racer would be Mobil-1 5W-40/Delvac-1.


John
 
Are you saying AMSOIL does not do well under extreme conditions compare to Mobil or Redline?
I always thought AMSOIL is better then these two brands!!!

Has anyone done any test to see which oil provides better protection?
 
I do not think Amsoil is any better then Redline,Mobil,Motul,Synergy etc...... DO I think they make an excellent product yes! Every company has a niche. What I like about Amsoil is some of their aux. products like Power Foam,PI, Universal ATF(for P/S and Transfer cases), HD metal protector etc... I like these products much better then I like their crank case oils. I do not like how Amsoil markets their product especialy the 35,000 mile or 1 year OCI!!!! I do not like how they carefuly select products they know they can beat in some tests and ignore their true competition. From a marketing stand point it makes perfect sense but from an ethusist stand point it is a sham! Who in their right mind would compare Penzoil 10W30 at $1.29 a quart to an oil costing close to $10 a quart?
 
My thinking is it is probably equal to Mobil 1,Redline and most premium synthetics but not any better. Seems like Mobil 1 is the best at a reasonable price, Redline seems to be prefered for performance,racing applications and Amsoil seems to be perfered when doing extended drain intervals. I have been reading UOA on this site for about 2 years and Mobil 1 seems to produce the best results overall. Thats what I use for that reason. I have not done my first UOA on it But that is comming up in a few weeks. It seems some engines do better with one verses another.
 
I pick up Amsoil 10-30 for $6.00 with discount and it does ok for 7,000 mile run. Think Amsoil give better wear control were as Mobil 1 is a little cheaper at Walmart. Depends how you feel about synthetic, but for price ratio you can't go wrong with either oil Mobil or Amsoil. It's either you are Amsoil guy or Mobil guy or easier to get down the road at Walmart
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I doubt your race cars would miss a beat with any of the top syn oils such as Amsoil, Mobi1, Redline. I think you could switch them back and forth and never really be better or worse off. Viscosity selection may be a bigger variable than choosing any of those oils. But I would definitely run one of the higher cost syn. oils over a cheaper conventional oil brand in the race cars. Just my opinion.

On the street for 5000 km changes you could get by with almost any over the counter oil. I think the difference in the long run would be cleanliness of the engine. A good synthetic might likely keep the engine cleaner in the long run.
 
Speaking of cleanliness...I was speaking with a Diesel engine machanic, and his spoke well of synthetics. He generally said around 1,000,000 miles semi engines would come in for overhaul. He said regardless of synthetic at 30,000 OCI or dino at 12,000-15,000 OCI the engines were usually in need of some work (go figure at 1 mil). However, he said the engines using synthetic were always much much cleaner, almost to the extent of being able to wipe it off with some glass cleaner and serve dinner. I had a caddy engine massively overheat at idle at shut itself off, but I feel Mobil-1 10W-30 was its saving grace as to not seize. It started up and kept going. My brother-in-law's farm tractor was operating a grain elevator via PTO, so nobody was in the cab. A hose broke and it overheated so badly, it stopped. It had Conklin(sp) synthetic in it. He said they fixed the leak, topped off with a/f and it started and ran fine. Maybe a dino oil would do this, also, but I doubt nearly as well. So, not only are there extended drain intervals, but cleaner engines, high temp protection, superior low temp flow, a chemical bond that will keep an oil film on metal parts for less 'dry starting', less or no viscosity loss, better shear stability, better protection in warm/hot climates and the list can go on. Is Amsoil superior?..to most oils yes, but to M1, GC, RL, etc, most likely not. And I would NOT recommend doing their 25000-35000 OCI!! In fact, I believe there was a test done with Amsoil and M1 a while back in the UOA section, where equal usage, filter changes and driving was done, with the oil being tested at every filter change/top off. I think M1 outperformed Amsoil by a long shot, with TBN, etc!!
 
I didn't want to weigh in on this because of my obvious bias, but I want to set the record straight
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quote:

I believe there was a test done with Amsoil and M1 a while back in the UOA section, where equal usage, filter changes and driving was done, with the oil being tested at every filter change/top off. I think M1 outperformed Amsoil by a long shot

The test is still ongoing, there hasn't been a filter change yet with the Amsoil. Wear metals at 8000 miles:

Amsoil M1
Wear Metal
Iron 16 35
Lead 10 13
Al 4 5
Copper 64 111
Chrome 1 2
Tin 0 5

[ May 29, 2004, 08:05 AM: Message edited by: Pablo ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:
I didn't want to weigh in on this because of my obvious bias, but I want to set the record straight
patriot.gif
:

quote:

I believe there was a test done with Amsoil and M1 a while back in the UOA section, where equal usage, filter changes and driving was done, with the oil being tested at every filter change/top off. I think M1 outperformed Amsoil by a long shot

The test is still ongoing, there hasn't been a filter change yet with the Amsoil. Wear metals at 8000 miles:

Amsoil M1
Wear Metal
Iron 16 35
Lead 10 13
Al 4 5
Copper 64 111
Chrome 1 2
Tin 0 5


In an effort to reset the record
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I'd like to bring to attention Last_Z's post in that 3MP thread Thread

The engine was still breaking in it appears so maybe a little wear metal subtraction is in order here .

That was a good catch there by Last_Z IMO .
 
Aha, Motorbike I gotcha (not you personally) big time.
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I (as in me) am not ALLOWED to say metal is break in here:

Amsoil 15000 mile UOA on a car with 7385 total miles

So why the double standard? I understand two different engines. I am willing to agree that most all the metals come early in the engine life cycle. I think the jury is still out and one needs to read and digest the whole thread as well.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:
Aha, Motorbike I gotcha (not you personally) big time.
smile.gif


I (as in me) am not ALLOWED to say metal is break in here:

Amsoil 15000 mile UOA on a car with 7385 total miles

So why the double standard? I understand two different engines. I am willing to agree that most all the metals come early in the engine life cycle. I think the jury is still out and one needs to read and digest the whole thread as well.


You have not got me on nuthin
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I did not post in the thread you just brought up nor have I said anything about anything that could be called a double standard here .

I did not read that thread , just browsed to see if I posted in it so you might have got someone else my friend ... but not me
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And remember....it's the weekend !
cheers.gif
 
Pablito wrote:

quote:

not you personally

I meant the "gotcha" the collective sense. Sometimes I just think that I'm not taken seriously or all my comments are seen as excuses. That thread had relatively high metals, I bring up that it's break-in metal and well, it's seen as an excuse. In the 3MP study, it's profound reasoning.....oh well.

Yes, have a great Memorial Day!
 
Well the thing about the 3MP thing it was assumed the engine was ran in well . Analysis suggests otherwise although there of course could be another reason for the spike in the first 1k miles .

On another note I do take your posts serious enough to not think you are making excuses it's just there is no one person here that knows it all . The lack of information in most of the UOA's make for a connect the dots type situation and are really useless for real world experience .

An example might be a great , absolutley killer UOA of a given oil with a bunch of high fivin going on then the owners posts 19 posts down with additional info like ........ I forgot to tell that I have an oil leak and 4 quarts make-up oil was used or....

He He..... a poor UOA and the owner forgets to tell he/she got drunk and forgot and left the engine idling overnight with the A/C on ......18 different times
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Alot of variables to include the one out of ten lemons
cheers.gif
 
Even if M1 came out better or AMsoil came out better in the test how significant is it. Seeing how GM uses 150PPM as it's limit? What difference does 23% make when the numbers are so low to begin with? In the big picture we all know that less wear means better oil but how much more life does it equal to?????
 
No, I have used Amsoil . The Amsoil anaylsis VS other oils have not proven that 4 times the cost gives any more protection. Syn. oils are better in way below freezing ,PAO oils take a little more heat . Amsoil is formulated for longer drains but using the heavy duty oils " Delo,Delvac 1300,Pennzoil longlife" will do the same for half the cost and can be found in
10W/30 at oil jobbers. Mobil Delvac 1 seems to be the oil of choice when picking a syn oil.

[ May 29, 2004, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: Steve S ]
 
I am sorry for bringing up the issue of Amsoil compared to M1 in testing. I was just told of that thread and the results by a friend. He may not have examined the entire experiment, just told me about some points/highlights regarding the experiment in casual discussion. I suppose it is somewhat biased or skewed. I didn't know that. Sorry. Thanks for all the good information on this thread!
 
quote:

Originally posted by needtoknow:
MLM's, mostly due to Amway I think, have gotten a bad name, but they do offer a successful method of getting your story told and product moved. Even Amway, who you may not like (I don't) is successful.

successful is quite the understatement
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