My Top Synthetic Oil Ranking

[buster]

Most oils that meet the same specifications perform very similarly. Most BITOG'ers know that. You can see how all the manufactures try to differentiate their products if you spend enough time on here. (waste of time. cough.)

What is the best today, may not be tomorrow. If I had to rank all oils on the market, based on overall performance today, (meaning: consistency, availability, performance, advanced etc) this would be my list:

Mobil 1 - Best Overall (can't get a Pennzoil Ultra 0w20/30 or Synpower)
Pennzoil - Best wear/cleanliness
Valvoline - Best High Mileage and innovation (NextGen/Hyper ZDP)
Amsoil - Best boutique (maybe long drain??) and niche syn. products
Castrol - Best marketing
Redline - Best racing and ridiculously high performance application oil.

 

[FoxS]

Thanks Buster

Does Pennzoil include QS?

 

[buster]

LOL no problem.

QS is an odd. Good, but more on par with PP. PU puts PZ ahead for me. You're really nit picking to absurd levels at this point to be honest.

 

[randomhero439]

So Pennzoil Ultra beats Mobil 1 in 5w20, 5w30, 10w30? But Mobil 1 is OVERALL better because of the variety of oil grades it has?

How about Mobil 1 0w-40 vs Pennzoil 5w-40

 

[buster]

PU would be on par with Mobil 1 Extended Performance, somewhere around there..... PP = M1. 8% better? Can't anyone really notice that? So yes overall M1 is still ahead. 0w40 is still the king and Pennzoil has nothing to compete with AFE 0w2/30 although their new Pennzoil Platinum 0w20 looks killer.

 

[Gabe]

I am seeing no love for Schaeffer Oil here....

 

[JohnnyZ52]

Ow oils aside...wouldn't it seem like Pennzoil are at the top? PP is extremely good bang for buck given that it's sale price $20 or just slightly north of there at Walmart. It's a great combination of long-life and cleaning power. PU kicks it up a notch and is very little more (street price). M1 is normally a little more expensive than PP where I've seen it and is really close. I'm sure Pennzoil will match their 0W oil if the market wants it.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Gabe
I am seeing no love for Schaeffer Oil here....


Great oil and great company, just to small of a market share to include. I kept the list small.

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Cujobob
Ow oils aside...wouldn't it seem like Pennzoil are at the top? PP is extremely good bang for buck given that it's sale price $20 or just slightly north of there at Walmart. It's a great combination of long-life and cleaning power. PU kicks it up a notch and is very little more (street price). M1 is normally a little more expensive than PP where I've seen it and is really close. I'm sure Pennzoil will match their 0W oil if the market wants it.


It's all a matter of opinion and you make great points.

 

[JohnnyZ52]

Question for you, if Amsoil priced things equal to Mobil products, how would you rate them then?

 

[buster]

Originally Posted By: Cujobob
Question for you, if Amsoil priced things equal to Mobil products, how would you rate them then?


I'd still have to give the edge to M1. AFE 0w20 has the best MRV #'s, Amsoil has the higher Tbn. It would be close. LOL

 

[billythekid]

There is no proof of a best oil. This will just start a back and forth of who's favorite is better than the other. I like many oils and try anything at a decent price. That's my stance on things.

 

[JohnnyZ52]

There is no true 'proof' of most things but large amounts of UOA paint a good story as to which perform the best. It's a forum for discussion, so discuss

 

[billythekid]

I agree with some of your statement, however, a tear down is true proof. UOA only shows a trend at the time of the test. It's a fine discussion but I predict a SOPUS vs Mobil vs Valvoline etc etc war of words. People seem to be very brand loyal on here and argue points that they even know are wrong just to cheer for their brand of choice.

I'll add to the fire, but I'm not brand loyal. Synthetics I've used Mobil the most because of probably availability and probably marketed name in the years past. Before that I was into boutique brands like Torco, etc. Being honest, I've yet to find a bad oil from what I've used it on. Any engine failures I've seen weren't oil specific or even the oil's fault.

 

[JohnnyZ52]

There's more to a good oil than preventing the engine from blowing up. Performance in a number of ways can be altered by an engine with sludge.

 

[Gabe]

Originally Posted By: Cujobob
There's more to a good oil than preventing the engine from blowing up.


Well said.

 

[crazyoildude]

Well from 8am till 6pm pretty much all we do is tear down and rebuild engines and i see them all and i cant see the brand of oil making that much a difference. They are all very close!

 

[DragRace]

Originally Posted By: BillyTheKid
a tear down is true proof.

 

[skyship]

The German car manufacturers are very fussy about which oils they approve, Castrol and Mobil are way of the other companies in that respect.
The private owners that need a high performance full synthetic do pay more attention to price and the two leading companies are Liqui Moly and Castrol, followed by Mobil, Shell and Valvoline.
For commercial vehicles Fuchs seem to be way ahead of the rest.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: buster
LOL no problem.
QS is an odd. Good, but more on par with PP. PU puts PZ ahead for me. You're really nit picking to absurd levels at this point to be honest.


WTG on the honesty part. I reluctantly agree with most of your list.

As a decades long Amsoil user who was very satisfied I must agree they are no longer at the top, and many competitive products are available.