Anyhoo... This was probably the best video Lake has put together to date. He's previously said he's working on doing a video at Amsoil (like Gayle Banks did), so hopefully he's able to pull that off soon. His Valvoline tour was a good one, also.
LSJR Boutique vs OTS shootout
- Thread starter rstsco
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You mean two stores that I also don’t subscribe to the model of? Sure.
Got Amazon Prime?
So, how was the break in graph created? I’m sure that I’m overthinking Speedo’s findings…
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Keep fishing. I don’t use nearly enough motor oil/fluids to justify a scheme like that for PCMO. I do three oils per year on average. It’s a hard pass for me.
Though I will say I found oil analysis on my Subaru Ascent valuable as the FA24DIT does heavily dilute the oil with fuel. After setting the trend, I've stuck to 4k OCI's and haven't looked back. But I knew I wasn't going to continue doing OA's for 8-10 years of ownership with 3-4 OCI's per year, that a lot of dough!
Anyhow, LSJR sure put a lot of effort into this video and it showed some interesting findings IMO. Despite how any particular oil may have degraded in viscosity during the test, they all protected the engine and had very low wear across the board. Even though it wasn't a real world 5k mile test on each oil under the same conditions in the same vehicle with all sorts of driving conditions, it's about as good of a comparison as we can get. Plus the engine has a cam made to accelerate wear WITH flat tappet lifters and special piston rings, though I don't know what was special about the rings other than being low tension.
With BITOGers...any testing will never be "as good as it gets".
So true! Someone will always find a flaw in the data, exploit it and consider the info irrelevant.
How planes fly is PFM (Pure F$%&ing Magic), nothing scientific about it. I can prove it. haha
It’s closer to 2 - if you don’t ascribe any value to your time. At $10.50/quart, a “jug” of 5 quarts of AMSOIL is about twice the price of a “jug” of Mobil, when its found on sale.
If your time has value, then the difference is smaller.
These folks are basically telling on themselves by implying they’d run the Amsoil for the same length of time as a OTS WalMart synthetic.
Because, if price is the most important factor, they couldn’t possibly be running the oil longer and claiming it’s more expensive when the cost becomes much more negligible if running the oil 2x as long as the floor; let alone if able to run it up to 3x as long.
So, of course it makes no sense to buy boutique if you don’t even understand what you are buying compared to have always used. And, if you believe you understand the quality/capability difference of a boutique designed for extended drain intervals…why isn’t the actual out of pocket cost figured in?
Just saying
It's not always about extending drain intervals. This is my filter media using AMSOIL Signature Series 0w20 in a new 2025 Pilot engine from 4.5k miles to just over 10k miles, 5.6k OCI. The oil seems to have done a good job of keeping the carbon deposits in suspension long enough to be caught in the filter media. Now I'm doing testing on fuel type to see if the carbon deposits can be reduced, but suspect it's related to Honda's VCM system. Using a new scan tool and finding interesting data.
Because as I said above somewhere...folks really can't deal with/believe in longer drains...they just can't get past that part of it even though there are so many real-world examples here on the 'tog showing it's ok.These folks are basically telling on themselves by implying they’d run the Amsoil for the same length of time as a OTS WalMart synthetic.
Because, if price is the most important factor, they couldn’t possibly be running the oil longer and claiming it’s more expensive when the cost becomes much more negligible if running the oil 2x as long as the floor; let alone if able to run it up to 3x as long.
So, of course it makes no sense to buy boutique if you don’t even understand what you are buying compared to have always used. And, if you believe you understand the quality/capability difference of a boutique designed for extended drain intervals…why isn’t the actual out of pocket cost figured in?
Just saying
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
Honestly - it goes the other way - the common lecture here is if you aren’t using boutique - you just don’t understand …
Maybe it's because the vehicle manufacturer doesn't believe in / recommend / support longer drains with "better oils" either?
Vehicle manufacturer default OCI (10k) is already too long in a lot of cases - which is why many of the manufacturers are now including special operating conditions (which many people fall under) that instruct to reduce the interval to 5k.
Nowhere does a vehicle manufacturer say that an interval can be extended past their recommended interval if a "better quality" oil is used.
Same folks also don't want to use the oil grade recommended...which recommendations should folks follow?
Most folks are going ~1/2 of the recommended oci. So with higher end oils they should be able to go to the manufacturer's recommended drain without worry and call that a win on the value equation for using higher end oils.
Yeah that would be inappropriate for them to do so considering they have no idea what the better quality oil would be. However that doesn’t negate the actual ability to do so. As you note, same as grade, intervals are recommendations.
This whole thread is about the notion that not all oils are identical, is it not?
To which manufacturer are you referring?
Several of my vehicles very stringent oil quality requirements - and most OTS oils don’t meet the requirements.
So, yeah, I use oil that meets requirements.
Further - there may be specific objectives, beyond a simple OCI extension, in choosing a “better” oil - and those objective are unique to my use case and conditions. I am choosing based on analysis, not emotion, and money does matter to me - but in the analysis, cost is more than the simple cost of the jug of oil.
There is the cost of failing to meet requirements. This one is huge. Engine damage is expensive.
There is the cost of not meeting cleanliness, or engine longevity, and that one is huge as well. Keeping a car on the road for a couple years longer through thoughtful maintenance saves a lot of money.
There is the cost of my time. An oil change might only take a couple of hours. But one 3 day trip for me at work can earn me more money than all the oil I have ever bought. Ever. So, add up a couple of oil changes that I don’t have to do - and the cost of oil become negligible. My time has value.
Finally, my latest car had a window sticker of $86,000.
I ain’t looking to save $5 on oil for that one. Volvo has very strict requirements, and most OTS 0W20 fails to meet requirements for that car. Only a fool would try and save $5 changing the oil on that car.
There is the cost of failing to meet requirements. This one is huge. Engine damage is expensive.
There is the cost of not meeting cleanliness, or engine longevity, and that one is huge as well. Keeping a car on the road for a couple years longer through thoughtful maintenance saves a lot of money.
There is the cost of my time. An oil change might only take a couple of hours. But one 3 day trip for me at work can earn me more money than all the oil I have ever bought. Ever. So, add up a couple of oil changes that I don’t have to do - and the cost of oil become negligible. My time has value.
Finally, my latest car had a window sticker of $86,000.
I ain’t looking to save $5 on oil for that one. Volvo has very strict requirements, and most OTS 0W20 fails to meet requirements for that car. Only a fool would try and save $5 changing the oil on that car.
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