New Hemi owner, new oil decisions

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IMO using the OLM as your guide for oil changes is dangerous. If you are going to keep your vehicle for 50 k , no problem, but if you intend to keep your vehicle 100k or longer think twice. The OLM and extended oil changes are EPA driven. Oil is cheap, engines aren't. I have this opinion as a 28 year service and parts rep for one of the big three USA automakers. 15 years ago, I bought a used Riding lawnmower from a retired chemical engineer who worked his career for oil companies designing additive packages to take base stock oil to whatever the oil company wanted. I realized that he knew a whole lot more about oil than I did. Here is what he told me. If you use conventional oil do 3-5 k changes, synthetic 5-7 oil changes. Shear is the enemy of oil and viscosity degrades rapidly. Also he said you get what you pay for with motor oil. Buy cheap oil and you get what you pay for. He suggested that you but name brand oil, Pennzoil, Mobil, Valvoline etc and change it often. He also told me to never add anything to the oil, by doing so you degrade the additive package. Through the years they checked every oil additive and none of them did what they said they did. I know that many of you will disagree with me. That's ok, everybody has an opinion. I don't simply have an opinion, it's backed up by real world experience, I've seen it all in 28 years working with dealer service departments. BOTTOM LINE, like I said oil is cheap, engines aren't. Remember the Fram Man, "you can pay me now or pay me later".
 
Originally Posted by MotoGuzzi
IMO using the OLM as your guide for oil changes is dangerous. If you are going to keep your vehicle for 50 k , no problem, but if you intend to keep your vehicle 100k or longer think twice. The OLM and extended oil changes are EPA driven. Oil is cheap, engines aren't. I have this opinion as a 28 year service and parts rep for one of the big three USA automakers. 15 years ago, I bought a used Riding lawnmower from a retired chemical engineer who worked his career for oil companies designing additive packages to take base stock oil to whatever the oil company wanted. I realized that he knew a whole lot more about oil than I did. Here is what he told me. If you use conventional oil do 3-5 k changes, synthetic 5-7 oil changes. Shear is the enemy of oil and viscosity degrades rapidly. Also he said you get what you pay for with motor oil. Buy cheap oil and you get what you pay for. He suggested that you but name brand oil, Pennzoil, Mobil, Valvoline etc and change it often. He also told me to never add anything to the oil, by doing so you degrade the additive package. Through the years they checked every oil additive and none of them did what they said they did. I know that many of you will disagree with me. That's ok, everybody has an opinion. I don't simply have an opinion, it's backed up by real world experience, I've seen it all in 28 years working with dealer service departments. BOTTOM LINE, like I said oil is cheap, engines aren't. Remember the Fram Man, "you can pay me now or pay me later".

All I can say is oils have changed in those 28 years. I have more experience in dealership that I care to remember but I seem to remember 90% of sludge motors I have seen were caused by something other than oil. There are so many vehicles out there that run oil life monitors and oil companies are putting their approval on them with 300k warranty if you follow the OLM. (Pennzoil)
 
Sludge is one thing and oil breakdown is something else. I believe that engine wear rate increase as oil degrades. I'll default to good vehicle maintenance any day. If you were had the choice of buying 2 150 k cars and one had oil changes based on OLM, about every 10 K and one had oil changes every 5 k, I think I know which one you would buy. I'll continue to change my own oil every 5 k and feel confident that as my vehicles age that the engine internals are happy.
 
These engines seem to like oils with high moly.


Pennzoil ultra is a decent choice, but it only has 80-90PPM of moly.

Redline is loaded, but isn't API certified and the dealer could give you crap if anything breaks.

Shaeffers 9000 has around 250-300 PPM of moly and is API certified and meets MS-6395Q. You have to order it, but it may be worth it.

Another off the shelf choice would be shell rotella gas truck, which has 150~ppm of moly.
 
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
HiPowerShooter
Schaeffers doesn't get enough kudos on this board anymore. Neither does your Latitude and Longitude.....lol


I think it's not really as popular because it's not cheap and it's not at every Wally World, AZ, AA etc...in virtually every town in the country. It's a "boutique" oil which takes some work to find unless you just order it off of Amazon.

I have the 6.4 in my 2018 Challenger T/A and if I didn't use their oil, I'd definitely use a bottle of their Moly EP with whatever I filled the sump with though.
 
There was a time on this website where Schaeffers got 50 mentions a day, not just a handful. It's always been Super Premium-priced. I seem to recall Schaeffers being one of multiple site sponsors, when I joined here.
 
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Originally Posted by HiPowerShooter
Originally Posted by Triple_Se7en
HiPowerShooter
Schaeffers doesn't get enough kudos on this board anymore.


I think it's not really as popular because it's not cheap and it's not at every Wally World, AZ, AA etc...in virtually every town in the country. It's a "boutique" oil which takes some work to find unless you just order it off of Amazon


Myself I'll find any reason to stay away from Walmart
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I get Schaeffers oil at our local Napa store.

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I've had a couple of good used oil reports from running PP 5w-20. I have posted them here so check them out if you want. I stick with 5-7.5k mile intervals, which works out to be about 2 times a year.

Currently running PUP 5w-30 to see if I get any improvement on wear numbers. I have not noticed a difference in performance from using the slightly "heavier" oil.
 
I've been using PUP 0w-40 and an SRT oil filter in my 392 SP per the OM. Both work great and I've had no issues thus far.
 
My only advice is to always use synthetic in a Hemi and don't exceed 7.5k miles. The owner's manual in our Jeep 5.7 says to never exceed 10k miles. That's it. It doesn't really explain what type of oil to use that can handle 10k. My mom used to follow what the dealer says according to their free oil change program, which is change the oil once a year or 10k miles, and they put in Mopar 68055890AA 5w-20 conventional motor oil.

Keep in mind she never drove close to 10k a year and at least changed it once a year. 35k miles into ownership, the engine started ticking LOUD. The only thing that came to mind is better oil. Ended up putting Royal Purple 5w-20, and the ticking went away completely. The first 5000 mile oil change with RP, the oil drained out almost as dark as diesel oil. This isn't a GDI engine. The MOPAR oil they were putting in can't go more than 5k.

Conventional and syn-blend oil will not handle more than 5k. Cams and other internal engine surfaces will varnish up. Lifters will more than likely begin sticking. I've seen it with my own eyes in other customer vehicles (non Chrysler) that don't get their oil changed often enough from using bulk oils like Valvoline Dura-blend. Use your favorite choice of 5w-20 synthetic and change it every 7.5k. It doesn't gotta be the fancy purple stuff I use either lol. PUP should be more than great. You can probably push to 10k as long as it's all highway miles.
 
There are plenty of UOAs out there of Hemis running everything from Chevron Supreme to Redline and in between.
That's literally one of the cheapest dino oils all the way up to one of the most expensive synthetics.

Find yourself a MS6395 oil of your liking and use it. Find yourself an oil filter and use it.

I'm running 1.89$ a quart Synblend. Prior to that was 1.53$ a quart Formula Shell Conventional. The truck hasn't shuddered or skipped a beat at all in that time.
No burning, no ticking, I've hauled, idled, short tripped. and have darn near tracked the truck on the 130 toll going 110+ MPH for miles, never an issue. I've also ran Schaeffers 9000 5w20, which 5 gallon buckets of it can be found via your local dealer as well as through amazon, it meets spec and is synthetic if you insist on that route.


Fwiw: I stick to 5k ocis because I get bored around 5-6 months and want something to do.
 
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