My Quest for Good Cheap Oil

[Carlostrece]

Who makes Napa Gold filters these days?

NAPA Gold filters are now made by Premium Guard in Vietnam at a Vietnam Afiliated Filters Incorporated (VAFI) factory. Wix no longer makes NAPA Gold. Wix are now made in China. Same with Oreilly Microgard Select and various other autostores housebrand premium filters.

Various autostores regular quality line of filters are made by Premium Guard in China.

There are several threads about this.

 

[Carlostrece]

And it's even better when Napa includes it in its monthly sale, either quarts or jugs.

Does NAPA have a monthly combo sale of oil & filter? If so, I'm psyched!

Oreilly has a oil & filter combo sale every month.

 

[Carlostrece]

Any actual evidence of that? I have used a lot of Quaker State with good results.

The evidence I have of Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Syn being a superior oil for the price is these things:

It's data sheet claims higher KV100 cSt viscosity than any other 5w30 non Euro for gas engines that I've seen. I think that's a good thing, especially for older engines, hard driven engines, and it's designed to keep engines clean and for extended fill.

Also, VOAs posted at BITOG have shown actual KV100 cSt to be higher/better than the QSUPFS data sheet claims. UOAs look good too.

Some people have said it's a GTL oil. If they're correct, that's more evidence that it's a superior oil (especially for the price).

Unfortuneately, there's a lack of lab testing or wear testing by oil professionals, such as Lakespeed. Professional testing data and comparisons of this oil to othere is lacking, but what we do know about QSUPFS looks promising (especially for the price).

P.S. - I downloaded QS data sheets for several 5w30 & 5w20 oils a couple months ago. For the last 1.5 months, most of their data sheet download links are broken links. I also noticed the same problem at Mobil's website. So I guess it's a common problem with oil company websites.

 

[Carlostrece]

NAPA does not have data spec sheets for its oils online. It only has safety data sheets online. The safety sheets don't contain complete physical data, but what they do show about viscosity, combined with what Lakespeed said in his video about moly in NAPA oil, make it appear to me that NAPA Full Syn might be Valvoline EP FS; and NAPA HM FS might be Valvoline HM EP FS.

I emailed NAPA tech support to request data sheets. I don't know if I'll get them. I heard a rumor online that NAPA considers its data sheets to be proprietary info that they like to keep private. I hope I can get the data sheets.

 

[Javed]

Is $2-$5 less per jug worth the risk? Pennzoil Ultra Platinum, Valvoline Extended Protection and Mobil 1 Extended Performance are on sale at Walmart and on Amazon. All three at $80 for 3 x 5 quart jugs. Order a lot of them now and use them as you go. I would buy one less cup of coffee from Starbucks every OCI to save that $5, help my health and my engine's health.
Castrol is also around that price. Four awesome companies that know very well how to make good oils.

 

[Javed]

Lakespeed tested wear rates using VOAs and UOAs of Amsoil OE, Royal Purple, Supertech, and NAPA oils.

Amsoil OE, Royal Purple, and Supertech each performed equally well with excellent results (very low wear results). NAPA synthetic oil was the outlier. NAPA outperformed the other 3 and NAPA cost the least! See that video in next post below.

I'm already going to be going to NAPA to buy NAPA Gold filters. So NAPA oil is a near no brainer for me.

However, I also like Quaker State Ultimate Protection Full Syn and Quaker State High Mileage Full Syn for what I suspect to be good performance, though I have no data to back that up. I do know they have slightly higher viscosity per grade (than Valvoline or NAPA) which I like for my older engines. I also like QS prices and availability in my local stores.

Did he also test which one of them kept the engine cleaner? I have heard that cheap oils leave a lot of crap behind.

 

[Carlostrece]

Did he also test which one of them kept the engine cleaner? I have heard that cheap oils leave a lot of crap behind.

That's a valid question. He did not test NAPA oil for longterm cleanliness. It was just wear test.

When it comes to longterm cleanliness, I assume that QSUPFS would have the advantage because QS says it keeps engines cleaner than any other QS oil and it claims to be good for 20K OCI, but that's probably highway miles.

For city miles I'd change it at 5K. For highway miles, I'd personally change it at 10K and use an extended OCI filter. Specifically NAPA Gold filter.

You've called to my attention a good thing to consider. Long term cleanliness.

 

[Javed]

I believe that instead of chasing cheap stuff we should change our priorities.

 

[Carlostrece]

I believe that instead of chasing cheap stuff we should change our priorities.

View attachment 292590

My oil filter of choice is top drawer. I buy very good oil filters.

 

[Mtnbiker]

Any of you know of AMALIE SYNTHETIC engine oil? I bought seven cases of 12 quarts each 5w-50 for a cheap price.
API SP and SQ.

 

[Carlostrece]

Any of you know of AMALIE SYNTHETIC engine oil? I bought seven cases of 12 quarts each 5w-50 for a cheap price.
API SP and SQ.

I'm not familiar with Amalie. Others might be familiar with it. It might be a good topic for you to start a thread about.

 

[tired]

Here's some evidence (IMO) that shows Supertech is as good as Amsoil OE and Royal Purple, but NAPA oil is even better than those other 3.

That said, all 4 oils are excellent.

Here's the video.

I'm not really sure what else we can tell you that hasn't already been brought up multiple times in threads you participated in. Three rips on a dyno and a $30 UOA does not provide you with meaningful information about the relative qualities of different oils.

 

[tired]

NAPA Gold filters are now made by Premium Guard in Vietnam at a Vietnam Afiliated Filters Incorporated (VAFI) factory. Wix no longer makes NAPA Gold. Wix are now made in China. Same with Oreilly Microgard Select and various other autostores housebrand premium filters.

Various autostores regular quality line of filters are made by Premium Guard in China.

There are several threads about this.

You can get cheaper PG filters from Advance Auto and O'Reilly's. (Carquest Premium and Microgard Select respectively.) Napa Gold filter pricing has gotten out of control. Last I checked their oil filter was $15-18. I'll just get OEM Toyota for my truck and Carquest Premium for our Rogue.

 

[Carlostrece]

You can get cheaper PG filters from Advance Auto and O'Reilly's. (Carquest Premium and Microgard Select respectively.) Napa Gold filter pricing has gotten out of control. Last I checked their oil filter was $15-18. I'll just get OEM Toyota for my truck and Carquest Premium for our Rogue.

A NAPA Gold filter for my car costs $3.49 more than an Oreilly Microgard Select. They are both made by Premium Guard in Vietnam, both excellent filters, and both similar.

However, they are not the same. NAPA Gold is slightly different and IMO slightly better, but Microgard Select is more than good enough and costs less.

 

[tired]

Haven't compared them recently but I can get Carquest premium for $8.99 with a permanent 15% coupon every month, so I'll do that. In store pickup. Very easy.

 

[Javed]

I'm not really sure what else we can tell you that hasn't already been brought up multiple times in threads you participated in. Three rips on a dyno and a $30 UOA does not provide you with meaningful information about the relative qualities of different oils.

Car Care Nut says the UOA sample is not good enough. He says take every drop of oil out of the engine and then analyze the whole thing, or just take it from him and change the oil every 5k miles and forget about oil analysis.

 

[tired]

Car Care Nut says the UOA sample is not good enough. He says take every drop of oil out of the engine and then analyze the whole thing.

His comment in a recent video was more in relation to using UOAs to confirm whether you can length OCIs or not. He wasn't making a comment about using UOAs to compare the relative quality of oils. Which isn't an appropriate use of a UOA, to be clear.

 

[MetalSlug]

for a name brand ( not inhouse brand ) nothing beat quaker state.

 

[Javed]

His comment in a recent video was more in relation to using UOAs to confirm whether you can length OCIs or not. He wasn't making a comment about using UOAs to compare the relative quality of oils. Which isn't an appropriate use of a UOA, to be clear.

But he has been consistently skeptical about long OCI's even if Amsoil etc.

 

[Javed]

I have a quick question, please save the forum from yet another thread. Long OCI oils have extra dispersents, so they pick up stuff and some of that stuff may be too small for the filter and they will circulate throughout the engine. Isn't that bad? Wouldn't it be better to have short OCI cleaner oil instead?