Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster. I'm looking for ideas to quiet down an old, but still strong Honda Civic with the D17A2 VTEC motor. It's a 2003 that's pushing 300k miles on the clock and I plan to drive it and keep it going until it falls apart. My ownership of the vehicle has only been for the last 60k/5yrs, and I've always used whatever full syn 5w20 is cheapest at the time. Lately it's been M1 vanilla bought by the case at Sam's Club or SuperTech FS. The owner's manual specs 10k OCI's with 20k filter changes, under normal use. "Severe service" calls for 5k for both. I do a fair amount of short trips for school in the winter, so I split the difference and run about 7k for oil and filter. Not interested in extending OCI's. And yes, I know that synthetic is probably overkill for my application, but I don't really care. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Again, my main reason for considering different oil is to see if it could quiet down the "clickety-clack" of your typical high mile valvetrain. And before you ask, yes, I have done the manual valve lash adjustment and it made no difference. The only "recommended" grade is 5w20, but I'm wondering if a Xw30 or even Xw40 oil would be beneficial. It does use a fair bit of oil too, about 1qt per 1000mi, but it has a few leaks, that I may get around to addressing (oil pan gasket and valve cover and cam plug)