"Lower tier " oils you have run...

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Lower tier oils meaning Super S, Amalie, Cam2, Warren Oil, Warren Distribution and or others. These oils can also be store branded like say Providence oil from RK, or say Federated Auto parts oils from WD.

I have run 30 different oils in my car these past 10 years.

Pennzoil Ultra aka the original one and Castrol gold bottle too. I ran those be two almost exclusively for the first 2 years I had my car.

I like Chevron/Havoline and Valvoline and Castrol and Quaker State too. Run all of those in my car has well.

Been running Cam2 in my car for the past 2 years or so. Their full synthetic Dexos approved oil has 25-40 percent group IV in it. Not too shabby really. Their motor oils have been tested by PQIA a fair amount over time and they have always passed those tests well. It runs very well in my car that has 360k plus miles on it.

I'm just curious how many others on here have done the same in the past 4-5 years.
 
Lately/mostly I've been running the full synthetic oils from SuperTech(WPP). Occasionally I'll get AAP/CarQuest(AOC)...Now it's labeled FRAM.
But I do like QS full synthetic(p.k.a. QSUD) and I'd get Pennzoil Full Synthetic(s) from time to time w/rebate
I have run Mobil 1 when I was getting it cheap from AZ on closeout. Otherwise, I don't buy it.
I have also run an absolute enormous amount of Havoline products in the past, both dino & syn but, I don't see it much here any longer and I'm not hunting it down.
 
I still regularly run Castrol GTX 15W40 in my car, not a lower tier brand, but the lower tier product of a known name brand. It performs fine.

Also I have recently purchased some Gulf Western oil, a lesser known brand. They had some API SP and ILSAC GF-6A rated, 10W30 semi-synthetic on sale at $10 for a 5L jug.

That's a smoking hot price at $2 a litre, and the new SP oils are a good step forward over the older SN oils. You have the natural advantages of 10W30 such as its low Noack volatility and its shear stability, coupled with the new tests added to SP & GF-6A, like timing chain wear protection and LSPI protection. I'll run it 6,000 miles / 10,000 km without concern.
 
I still regularly run Castrol GTX 15W40 in my car, not a lower tier brand, but the lower tier product of a known name brand. It performs fine.

Also I have recently purchased some Gulf Western oil, a lesser known brand. They had some API SP and ILSAC GF-6A rated, 10W30 semi-synthetic on sale at $10 for a 5L jug.

That's a smoking hot price at $2 a litre, and the new SP oils are a good step forward over the older SN oils. You have the natural advantages of 10W30 such as its low Noack volatility and its shear stability, coupled with the new tests added to SP & GF-6A, like timing chain wear protection and LSPI protection. I'll run it 6,000 miles / 10,000 km without concern.
Too bad they don't offer that in the States.
 
Good thread. What I’ve run in the past that would be considered low tier...Super Tech synthetic, Carquest synthetic, Napa Synthetic, Quaker State, Amalie.

My next oil change very well may be Amalie (because I have a stash of it). And years ago...back in the conventional oil days, I ran my 1999 Honda Accord to 289,000 miles using nothing but Super Tech conventional oil. Well, I should say mostly Super Tech, otherwise it was franken brews consisting of Wolf’s Head, house conventional from my work (lord knows what that was).

Question is, are these low tier oils as good as Mobil1, Pennzoil Platinum, Valvoline Synthetic, Castrol Edge, SRGT, TGMO, Castrol Magnetec? Because I’ve used all those oils too. And prefer that over the low tier stuff.
 
Same as SR5, some low price name brand oil. Castrol GTX, Shell Helix, Total Quartz 15W40 but also some cheap store brand 10W40 and 5W40. My diesel only had cheap store brand xW40 or bulk HDEO at 10-15,000 km OCI and has factory compression on all 5 zylinders.
 
Just started to run Mannol oils which is an low price oil here in Sweden / Europe since the Mobil and other known brand oils got so expensive.
I dont know any place here to send an VOA to get it tested.
 
Just started to run Mannol oils which is an low price oil here in Sweden / Europe since the Mobil and other known brand oils got so expensive.
I dont know any place here to send an VOA to get it tested.
You can look for VOAs on oil-club.de and oil-club.ru, pretty sure i've seen some! If i remember correctly, Mannol makes a 5W30 that people seem to love on the german forum.
 
I buy name brands when I do it myself. I wouldn’t be up all night worried if I had to use a store brand though. It’s out of laziness and habit more than anything. When get it done by someone no clue what’s actually going in there.
 
Ran mostly Sears Spectrom oil in a Saab 900. Everything on the car went but the engine at 400,000 miles approximately
Good reminder - Sears was my 1st credit car and bought oil, tools, and tires on it … nothing else …
 
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