My other choices for synthetic other than PP...
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Synthetic doesnt matter - the SM/GF4 oils are under additised. Get some John Deere +50.
I guess it depends what you're looking for. On an 09 Scion, where the warranty requires 5000 mile OCI, then my list would simply be whatever synthetic was cheapest, and would change on the fly.
Once out of warranty at 60,000 miles, then SSO or M1 EP or maybe even Edge have an advantage, since their long drains can make their prices competitive, and my time less scarce.
But, overall non-extended drain I'd probably go M1, PP, SynPower. I'm sure Edge is great, but hasn't been around long enough to see any meaningfull UOA's.
Once out of warranty at 60,000 miles, then SSO or M1 EP or maybe even Edge have an advantage, since their long drains can make their prices competitive, and my time less scarce.
But, overall non-extended drain I'd probably go M1, PP, SynPower. I'm sure Edge is great, but hasn't been around long enough to see any meaningfull UOA's.
Maybe i don't understand the value of UOA's.Folks seem to try a bunch of different oils do a UOA on each then declare the one with the lowest numbers as the "winner".
Someone posted they had a total camshaft failure but yet the UOA shown no sign of the impending doom.
I maybe wrong but it seems to me that for fleet use where there is consistency in the use of a lubricant then the UOA could be beneficial in determining wear trends,or when a coolant leak or some other contaminant is suspected.
I have limited experience with long oil drains but my brother took the Amsoil claim of 35K OCI with SSO and halved it thinking he would be good to go on a Honda that saw lots of stop and go short trip miles.
He wasn't,the engine has some build-up and varnish,its is going through a second ARX cleaning now.
This isn't an Amsoil slam just what happened in this case,I'm sure there are circumstances that long OCI would work fine,this wasn't one of them.
For me 5-6K OCI with a quality oil like Mobil 1,PP,Valvoline,Edge etc is what i feel comfortable with.
I admit to being a little OCD.It comes from something my Meister said to me when i was learning.
He said "if you look at the oil and you have any question about if it needs changing or not just do it,its cheaper than repairs".
Old school for sure but maybe there is still some truth to that.
Someone posted they had a total camshaft failure but yet the UOA shown no sign of the impending doom.
I maybe wrong but it seems to me that for fleet use where there is consistency in the use of a lubricant then the UOA could be beneficial in determining wear trends,or when a coolant leak or some other contaminant is suspected.
I have limited experience with long oil drains but my brother took the Amsoil claim of 35K OCI with SSO and halved it thinking he would be good to go on a Honda that saw lots of stop and go short trip miles.
He wasn't,the engine has some build-up and varnish,its is going through a second ARX cleaning now.
This isn't an Amsoil slam just what happened in this case,I'm sure there are circumstances that long OCI would work fine,this wasn't one of them.
For me 5-6K OCI with a quality oil like Mobil 1,PP,Valvoline,Edge etc is what i feel comfortable with.
I admit to being a little OCD.It comes from something my Meister said to me when i was learning.
He said "if you look at the oil and you have any question about if it needs changing or not just do it,its cheaper than repairs".
Old school for sure but maybe there is still some truth to that.
EPHIOS: The "OEM" denso is not the filter that came on your car; the Japanese part # is 90915-10004 or 3. The 4 is about 1/2" longer with more filter area and is a foamed density media vs. paper on the thailand sourced units. This may be more of an issue on 5w30 oils than 20wt. The purolator is an excellent aftermarket choice and Bosch is purolator OEM now in this app.
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Castrol Edge is the extended OCI oil for Castrol. PP is such a great oil that I would stick with that if you wanted synthetic.
"Maybe i don't understand the value of UOA's."
Well, it seems you're concerned with the wear metal amounts. I really don't care about them. Castrol Edge is marketed, and seemingly designed with a high TBN, to be used in extended drains. So, it would be nice to see some 10,000 + mile UOA's, where the TBN was still high, and was still in viscosity. I'm sure it will hold, but wouldn't mind some real world evidence before I choose it over an oil that alreayd has a track record of holding in viscosity with decent TBN like M1 EP or SSO.
I agree, there is no value to the seemingly enless supply of UOA's done at 3~8000 miles, where everything is fine and people bicker about 5 parts per million of iron. Any oil can do those numbers, as evidenced by the hardcore conventional oil guys.
Well, it seems you're concerned with the wear metal amounts. I really don't care about them. Castrol Edge is marketed, and seemingly designed with a high TBN, to be used in extended drains. So, it would be nice to see some 10,000 + mile UOA's, where the TBN was still high, and was still in viscosity. I'm sure it will hold, but wouldn't mind some real world evidence before I choose it over an oil that alreayd has a track record of holding in viscosity with decent TBN like M1 EP or SSO.
I agree, there is no value to the seemingly enless supply of UOA's done at 3~8000 miles, where everything is fine and people bicker about 5 parts per million of iron. Any oil can do those numbers, as evidenced by the hardcore conventional oil guys.
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