Mixing oils / Carefully balanced additive packs

[TrevorS]

So I have a few different oils in my stash, a few with incomplete quantities and am figuring out how to mix them, primarily to use them up.

Pennzoil Platinum and Quaker State Ultimate Durability seem an easy choice to mix. They seem very compatible.

I have 4 quarts of Synpower and it actually has a similar balance of additives as Pennzoil Platinum and Quaker State Ultimate Durability except it has Sodium and no Moly.

So first question: any concerns mixing Synpower with Pennzoil Platinum or Quaker State Ultimate Durability? I presume base oils are compatible. Are these 2 additive differences a performance concern?

Then I was looking at Mobil 1 0w40 and my 3 quarts of Pennzoil Ultra 5w40 Euro. Now, they have virtually identical additive profiles as far as I can tell with Mobil 1 having more Moly.

So on the one hand I am thinking that mixing the Pennzoil Ultra is going to be compatible and with a bit of luck, it will reduce the Mobil 1 sewing machine sound.

On the other, I'm also thinking that 2 quarts of Synpower would not be a bad idea with the Mobil 1 as I'm not using it to its potential mileage wise and the HTHSv would still be way above minimum. NOACK would stay below 10% too.

Or is the Synpower 5w30 additive profile with Sodium a bad idea to mix with Mobil 1 0w40?

 

[charbaby]

No problem mixing oils, I have been doing it for >40 years.
How ever you'd like to mix would be fine. If you researched the additive packages and found similarities with what you mentioned, again, fine!

I mix oil today to get rid of the orphans qts in my stash and I don't ever consider the add pkgs as much as I do trying to balance out the different qts with one another.

How ever you decide, I'm sure it'll be fine and you'll be getting tons of different advise here from members including...that mixing is never optimal. But, we already know that!

 

[Donald]

I have no problem buying the oils I use on sale. But I do not get buying a bunch of oil on sale and latter on trying to figure out where to use them.

 

[earlyre]

well i am about an oil change away from having enough frankenbrew to use in either of the cars in my sig.

by frakenbrew, i mean the let over quantities of new oil after filling the engine with the prescribed 4.5 qts they both take.
it's a mixture of several different brands,(next gen, Pennzoil conventional, Formula Shell, Mobil Super 5000, Eco-power,Next Gen max life, Meijer conv.) some 5w20, some 5w30, one pint(1/2qt) is a synthetic blend, the rest conventional.

toying with getting a VOA before running it just to see what i have. but even without, I'd have zero problem running it my normal 5k/6mo, which ever comes first.

 

[fdcg27]

I would try to avoid mixing oils containing sodium with those that don't.
I don't think that it would do any harm on a short OCI, though.

 

[MolaKule]

I don't think you'll have any mixing problems. All MOs have to be mixable with other oils.

Quote:
Similar to Calcium, Sodium is another soft metal, a highly reactive alkali metal, that is showing up in many formulations these days as additions to calcium compounds. Many formulators are using the sodium packages as co-detergents.

Just a calcium detergents are either of the the calcium sulfonate or calcium salicyillate type, sodium detergents can also be sodium sulfonates or sodium salicyillates.

There are other compounds of sodium that are also useful as oil additives and which may be part of the Performance Improvement (basic PI additive package) as well. These may contribute to the sodium readings found in many oil analysies

Sodium 2-mercaptobenzothiazole can be used as a metal deactivator to keep metals from reacting with other compounds, and to help retard oxidation.

Some sodium compounds such as sodium dibutyl dithiocarbamate SDDC) are used as another anti-wear agent in lieu of conventional AW compounds. SDDC shows a low fricton coefficient with good polarity since being a dithio-type compound, has sulfur atoms for polarity enhancement.

Note: I predict the many forms of dibutyl dithiocarbamate's in ashless form will dominate the AW agent market in the future, and these will not show up in a $30.00 VOA or used oil analysis.

The bottom line is, which detergent is used in a formulation depends mainly on market forces such as the availability of a certain type in the market place. This does not imply that a formulation is better or worse, or that you, the consumer is being shortchanged.

 

[OneEyeJack]

There's not enough difference in these oils to make any difference. The largest customers in the world, usually governments at one level or another require compatibility in all purchase contracts. There are no secrets between oil companies and not one of them has any special or unique technology that isn't at least available to everyone else. Oil companies use common sources for additives, component parts, processing equipment, technical information and research and human resources. Because of the volume involved they don't dare make their oil one little bit better than the specs require. To believe anything else is to embrace someones marketing plan or local gossip. In other words, mix with confidence but keep an eye on viscosity.

 

[901Memphis]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There's not enough difference in these oils to make any difference. The largest customers in the world, usually governments at one level or another require compatibility in all purchase contracts. There are no secrets between oil companies and not one of them has any special or unique technology that isn't at least available to everyone else. Oil companies use common sources for additives, component parts, processing equipment, technical information and research and human resources. Because of the volume involved they don't dare make their oil one little bit better than the specs require. To believe anything else is to embrace someones marketing plan or local gossip. In other words, mix with confidence but keep an eye on viscosity.


Then what about xom visom?

 

[OneEyeJack]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There's not enough difference in these oils to make any difference. The largest customers in the world, usually governments at one level or another require compatibility in all purchase contracts. There are no secrets between oil companies and not one of them has any special or unique technology that isn't at least available to everyone else. Oil companies use common sources for additives, component parts, processing equipment, technical information and research and human resources. Because of the volume involved they don't dare make their oil one little bit better than the specs require. To believe anything else is to embrace someones marketing plan or local gossip. In other words, mix with confidence but keep an eye on viscosity.


Then what about xom visom?


The differences are economic and if XOM is able to produce products cheaper and still hold their prices then good for them. They're still going to stop when good enough is good enough and leave it to marketing to do their spin.