Oil Rec. Please - 2013 Subaru STI - Harsh Driver

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Nov 30, 2014
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Location
Texas
1. What kind of vehicle you have
2013 Subaru STI
2.5liter boxer 4cyl, IHI VF48 turbo at 17.5lbs peak boost

2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well
5w30 synthetic, API SM or SN “ENERGY CONSERVING” or “RESOURCE CONSERVING”, or ILSAC GF-4 or GF-5.

3. Where you live
San Angelo, Texas. Short cold winters with nights and mornings below freezing, and long HOT summers with daily highs over 110f.

4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)
Hard. I always hammer onramps, and in Texas you can't drive 5 minutes across town without using at least 3 onramps.

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)
Equal numbers and miles of:
short trips across town (at least 10miles/10minutes in length)
longer local trips (20-40 minutes)
long road trips (3-5 hours between stops)

6. Whether your car has any known problems
- New shortblock only has about 7k miles on it. 1st oil change from the Subaru factory fill was around 4k.
- Aftermarket intake, downpipe, and ECU tuned with Cobb stage 2+ map.

Price or OCI length is not an issue. I am looking to start track days soon, and want to keep the engine as protected as possible for the rigors of track use and harsh daily driving. Was thinking of Motul 300v?
 
Well, depending on the weather/temperature conditions in your area, you may be a good candidate for 0W30 & 0W40 synthetic oils.
 
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Motul 300V should hold up well, though it has been an "old school" formulation for a long time and I'm not aware that it has been hugely revamped. If you're planning on sticking with the same oil year-round, I'd give the 5w-30 or 0w-40 a look.

If it were my car, I'd strongly consider running Mobil 1 0w-40, or some flavor of RLI BioSyn (preferably low ash with a short OCI).

You say you have a new short block. Is it all OE-spec?
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
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Motul 300V should hold up well, though it has been an "old school" formulation for a long time and I'm not aware that it has been hugely revamped. If you're planning on sticking with the same oil year-round, I'd give the 5w-30 or 0w-40 a look.

If it were my car, I'd strongly consider running Mobil 1 0w-40, or some flavor of RLI BioSyn (preferably low ash with a short OCI).

You say you have a new short block. Is it all OE-spec?


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Yeah, what happened to the original block? Bearing or ringland failure? Do you have a Cobb Off The Shelf map or a Protune?

-Dennis
 
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What happened to the original shortblock, and is there learning from it that would help you choose an oil? Doing track days in 100F+ Texas heat with a highly boosted engine automatically makes me think of putting on a good oil cooler, before you even start thinking about oils.

How hot does the oil get from your harsh street driving?
 
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If you want to stick with 5W-30, then Amsoil HDD 5W-30 is the oil. For 5W-40 go with the Amsoil EFM 5W-40. Great price for that.

But more importantly before you do anything you need to get the Killer B deep oil pan and new pick-up tube. I would not considering driving as hard as you do in such a climate without those things and the increased oil volume.
 
Welcome!

I like the idea of the larger oil pan. Oil temp and pressure gauges would help too, if you don't already have them.

5w-40 or 10w-40

If you're not concerned about cost:
Red Line 10w-40 (my preference)
Amsoil Euro Full SAPS 5w-40
Motul 300V 10w-40

To save a few bucks:
Rotella T6 5w-40
Mobil 1 TDT 5w-40
Mobil 1 0w-40
 
With your driving habits:

M1 0w40 (Walmart)
Edge 0w40 (Walmart)
Rotella T6 5w40 (Walmart)
Kendall GT-1 Euro 5w40 (if you can get it changed at Firestone)

and as Pablo said...
"If you want to stick with 5W-30, then Amsoil HDD 5W-30"

If your habits change and you mellow out the driving style, any GrpIII synthetic 5w30 would be my choice (but i'm in the minority).
 
That engine is a very high output per liter engine,

Rotella T6 5w40 is an excellent and popular choice.

Go with a 40wt.
 
Originally Posted By: wemay


If your habits change and you mellow out the driving style, any GrpIII synthetic 5w30 would be my choice (but i'm in the minority).


Yeah, I wouldn't go the "any Grp III synthetic" route unless it had a robust HTHS and/or add pack. Even on a stock, street driven STI.

A Cobb Stage II+ increases bhp from 305 to ~360 and torque from 290 to ~362 lb ft.
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A good tune can probably squeeze out a little more. Of course, in addition to the proper oil, the type of tune and the nut behind the wheel are big factors in engine longetivity as well.
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And great suggestion from Pablo on the oil pan! Now where is that OP?
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-Dennis
 
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Hey guys, thanks for the advice.

The first block died when it was dead stock. She was running fine on a warm day, then died on the road. Restarted with an awful knocking sound. Pretty much the entire complement of oil was gone, but none was in the bay. I always check oil at fuel stops (not accurate, but just to catch any leaks).They didn't investigate or leave notes. They literally said "#4 cylinder bearing", and that was all the info I got.

I'm running an OTS tune until next month or so, when I can get over to the Cobb tuning shop.

I'm new to oil tech. I have to install an oil temp and pressure gauge, the stock engine doesn't have senders for that info. I'm perfectly okay with letting the engine warm-up at idle, and I've read that it still takes some running with load before oil reaches operational temperature. My question is:
A) What temperature should oil reach on a cold day before hitting the road?
B) What temperature should oil reach before WOT and high RPM is safe?
C) How hot is too hot?
 
I'm sorry to hear about that engine failure. I hope you have better luck in the future.

On to your questions. Dont worry about warming it up at idle where you are. Just get in and drive. If it's below 20F, I give it two minutes, or five minutes below 0F. Idling causes fuel dilution, and it'll warm up faster if you just drive easy. Shift earlier until things are warmed up, say at 2500 RPM.

I'd be happy driving it hard with oil temps in the 175-250F range. Any hotter than that, and I'd be installing an oil cooler. Everyone is going to have different ideas here, but that's my thought. Definitely go with a good xw-40 synthetic if you're seeing temps toward the top of that range.
 
Originally Posted By: Siv_EJ257
Hey guys, thanks for the advice.

The first block died when it was dead stock. She was running fine on a warm day, then died on the road. Restarted with an awful knocking sound. Pretty much the entire complement of oil was gone, but none was in the bay. I always check oil at fuel stops (not accurate, but just to catch any leaks).They didn't investigate or leave notes. They literally said "#4 cylinder bearing", and that was all the info I got.

I'm running an OTS tune until next month or so, when I can get over to the Cobb tuning shop.

I'm new to oil tech. I have to install an oil temp and pressure gauge, the stock engine doesn't have senders for that info. I'm perfectly okay with letting the engine warm-up at idle, and I've read that it still takes some running with load before oil reaches operational temperature. My question is:
A) What temperature should oil reach on a cold day before hitting the road?
B) What temperature should oil reach before WOT and high RPM is safe?
C) How hot is too hot?

Cobb OTS tunes are pretty safe but run a bit rich, sometimes adding to some fuel dilution of the oil. I've been running an OTS Stage I tune for about 20k miles now. Without an oil temp gauge, I would give it around 15 minutes of driving before WOT or pushing the rpm's above halfway to redline.

What oil was used in the past? Sounds odd that you lost so much oil if you check it that frequently.

-Dennis
 
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Oil has always been Subaru OEM 5W30 synthetic. I don't remember what group it is, but I do remember it's mixed for Subaru by a smaller company.

On the last oil service, the dealer switched to Mobil 1 5w30 synthetic, which has a terrible rep for killing bearings.

I think whatever killed the first block is what caused the sudden catastrophic oil loss.
 
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