More Motul Mania

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Dec 31, 2017
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SE British Columbia, Canada
As seen at Lordco today:

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I’d run that XClean 5w40 from now until the apocalypse in any Subaru EJ25 I own or service…. depending on price of course! What was the damage on that one?

I was back at the store. Prices shown in CDN dollars. Multiply by 0.7 for USD. Not sure why the wide variance in price for these two oils.

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I know that this oil is very popular in Europe but is it honestly all that good or is it hyped up to be better than it really is?
Most of their oils are in reality run of the mill oils , not bad but not outstanding.
Only their 300V line of oils can be really considered outstanding as they are PAO/Ester based.
 
Most of their oils are in reality run of the mill oils , not bad but not outstanding.
Only their 300V line of oils can be really considered outstanding as they are PAO/Ester based.
PAO/Ester oils are not necessarily outstanding just because of the base oil. It certainly helps, but what’s the point of using a great base oil if it’s saddled with a ho-hum add pack or a TBN so low you’re limited to 5k OCIs at 4X the price (plus shipping in many cases) of a great shelf stock? It’s the whole package, paired with certifications & approvals that determine how outstanding the oil can be.

300V is generally good from what I’ve seen, but since it’s intended as a true race oil, the ongoing costs will be astronomical if you’re putting any real mileage on the vehicle.
 
I know that this oil is very popular in Europe but is it honestly all that good or is it hyped up to be better than it really is?
Used to be a time (20'ish years ago) when they were the only ones (or at least the only ones that would end up in a half-day long Google search, back when Google search wasn't completely poisoned by ai) along with Maxima Oil that had a dedicated low fiscosity racing oil (0w10, was it, or maybe was it the straight 0w). "Racing" in the sense of - not meant for road use, big warnings on it to change after every race, as it degraded quite quickly because it lacked whatever makes a "normal" oil last several thousand miles (that specific part is for Maxima's product, not sure if Motul's equivalent had those warnings/recommendations). I see that both the 0w and 0w10 is nowadays sold as a "regular" product. Back then it was to be replaced at very short intervals.

To be very honest Im getting old. I am not at all sure if the 0w existed back then. Can't remember. Anyway.

I had the number of Danny Massie, Maxima's CEO, an amazing guy who for some strange reason was accepting my calls and answering all the stupid questions with infinite patience and passion. They were quite proud of that oil (it had shown a 2-3%ish power gain on a GSXR1000 in independent tests, which is no small feat), and if I remember correctly - he mentioned that Motul were the only ones offering a product that was remotely similar. So that's what cemented Motul as good guys in my book.

It was also a time when Integras and Civics were in full Fast & Furious craze and there was a thing with them that some Motul product was the one and only thing everyone swore by about their manual trasnsmission fluids (Honda still used engine oil viscosities for their manual transmissions back then, not sure how it is nowadays).

We used Motul on a JetSki rental fleet (mostly STX-15F Kawasakis) in Europe, and we were quite happy. I don't remember the details anymore on how on Earth we were importing Maxima and still using Motul :D I believe it was some availability thing between two (very slow) shipments.
 
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