Outside of extended OCIs with ideal usage (all highway), what is the use case for boutique oils?

tired

tired

Joined
May 22, 2011
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Out west
I've read a lot here, and I'm just seeking to understand, outside of wanting a long drain interval and using the engine in an ideal manner (no short trips, all highway), what is the use case for boutiques? I can see if you drive 20,000 miles a year, and you're not short tripping in the winter (when you'd presumably get fuel dilution which would make a boutique a waste), then doing one oil change a year with AMSOIL would make sense. You'd save money and time instead of doing 2-4 a year. (I also note that even AMSOIL doesn't fully prophylax against oil burning: example of a car burning on AMSOIL.)

But once you introduce severe service into the equation, is there still a use case? Fuel dilution will shorten the lives of even boutique oils.

You can clean engines with VRP.

You can get excellent wear protection with Euro-approved oils off the shelf at Walmart.

What am I missing?
 
tired said:
What am I missing?
Click to expand...
You are tired.


ok joking aside they make no sense for some people.
Enthusiasts who demand the best oil possible and/or use their car spiritedly would disagree.

HPL is the real deal. but my favorite HPL product is the extensive lineup of gear oils.
which you could also argue its hard to beat the value and ease of the valvoline squeezebag at walmart for many applications.
 
I think running a high dollar oil from April till November 1st makes sense. At least in my climate. I’ve stated many times, that I wasted HPL and Schaeffers using it November through March. I’ll just use regular old synthetic and save the good stuff for the heat and road trips.
 
D1dad said:
I think running a high dollar oil from April till November 1st makes sense. At least in my climate. I’ve stated many times, that I wasted HPL and Schaeffers using it November through March. I’ll just use regular old synthetic and save the good stuff for the heat and road trips.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting idea. I hadn't considered that option. I definitely use my truck more extensively in the summer. Some offroading, road trips, maybe a little towing.

Winter is just 2-4 mile trips in the winter to work and the gym.

I am using AMSOIL in my gearbox though. Switching that out when it arrives.
 
Rand said:
You are tired.


ok joking aside they make no sense for some people.
Enthusiasts who demand the best oil possible and/or use their car spiritedly would disagree.

HPL is the real deal. but my favorite HPL product is the extensive lineup of gear oils.
which you could also argue its hard to beat the value and ease of the valvoline squeezebag at walmart for many applications.
Click to expand...
I would have loved to use HPL's gear oils. However you have to order 12 quarts minimum. That is far more than I need.
 
For me I just like to experiment, even though it’s junk science, not lab controlled, entertainment only, I’m running two of the same vehicles, one on VRP and one on HPL 0W-30 to see if there is any difference long term. I wanted to try the HPL because the engines I have dilute oil with fuel at about 3%, which happens almost immediately after an oil change, and I read on here from @SubieRubyRoo that the HPL might use controlled oxidative thickening to maintain viscosity in the presence of fuel. Also user @Gokhan ranked the HPL pretty highly in this thread .
 
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you can go say to Walmart and pick most any 5w-30 for your vehicles and be fine for a 5k oci ,many Mobil 1 fan boys on here, its a good oil, perhaps try the hpl or Amsoil ss for a longer oci if desired, read past threads to make your determination on what brand, there really is no best oil, the new SQ,GF-7 are coming out to consider also . I would look closely at the GTL base oils as they have some good features at a affordable price, like Pennzoil ultra and some other oils may have this base as well.
 
2.7ecoboostFordBronco said:
For me I just like to experiment, even though it’s junk science, not lab controlled, entertainment only, I’m running two of the same vehicles, one on VRP and one on HPL 0W-30 to see if there is any difference long term. I wanted to try the HPL because the engines I have dilute oil with fuel at about 3%, which happens almost immediately after an oil change, and I read on here from @SubieRubyRoo that the HPL might use controlled oxidative thickening to maintain viscosity in the presence of fuel. Also user @Gokhan ranked the HPL pretty highly in this thread .
Click to expand...
No doubt they are excellent oils. I just wonder if it becomes an issue of using a cannon to kill a mosquito, if you will.
 
The use case is that even with a high buck boutique oil, the cost per mile is dwarfed by the cost of fuel.
Heck, even with a very costly oil, allocable tire expense will outweigh the cost of the oil.
If an owner feels better using a costly oil which might provide better engine protection or cleanliness, the marginal cost allocable over the time or miles run just isn't all that much.
Same reason I buy Michelins over some less costly choice. I think it's worth it and the allocable cost difference isn't all that much.
 
fdcg27 said:
The use case is that even with a high buck boutique oil, the cost per mile is dwarfed by the cost of fuel.
Heck, even with a very costly oil, allocable tire expense will outweigh the cost of the oil.
If an owner feels better using a costly oil which might provide better engine protection or cleanliness, the marginal cost allocable over the time or miles run just isn't all that much.
Same reason I buy Michelins over some less costly choice. I think it's worth it and the allocable cost difference isn't all that much.
Click to expand...
A very compelling argument, frankly. Just did a little back of the envelope math, and the difference between AMSOIL SS and VRP for me is about 2% of my annual fuel cost. Obviously would go down with added insurance cost (just thinking about total cost of operation, like you mentioned tires).

I drive so little, I may be able to even do one change a year. For me, my biggest concern is the viscosity loss from fuel dilution from my 2-4 mi (3.2-6.4 km) trips to work/gym/grocery store during the winter. Rare highway use in the winter for me, and even then it's for short bursts, unlikely to be long enough to burn off the excess oil. Or could consider some hybrid option like described here:

D1dad said:
I think running a high dollar oil from April till November 1st makes sense. At least in my climate. I’ve stated many times, that I wasted HPL and Schaeffers using it November through March. I’ll just use regular old synthetic and save the good stuff for the heat and road trips.
Click to expand...

Doesn't pay to be penny wise and pound foolish, in the end.

Also, if you have a newer car, your annual car's depreciation absolutely dwarfs the $30 or so you'd save by not using a boutique.
 
For me the main benny is the cleaning power of the boutique formulation.
I've witnesses it liberate carbon from an already very clean engine running premium off the shelf oils.


Stability under high heat and high RPM.
My two truck, high toy count, tow for business and fun combo life pushes my naturally aspirated mid size and half tons long and hard hard between towing through the mountains and deserts of California, Nevada, and Arizona.
 
I think a lot of people here run the boutique oils not just for the quality, but for the high level of customer service and the knowledge that this batch of HPL / Amsoil is the same as the last batch. Where as giant blender whomever can change the spec pretty much at will and you truly don't know what your running.

Or at least that would be the reason I would ever run it. Give my dollars to companies that value the same things I do.

Now on the other end of the spectrum is us tightwads that will run whatever oil Walmart screwed the pricing up on so we can get 3 for the price of 1. :ROFLMAO:
 
tired said:
No doubt they are excellent oils. I just wonder if it becomes an issue of using a cannon to kill a mosquito, if you will.
Click to expand...

It probably is for most use cases i.e. drive the vehicle for 5 years/75k miles then sell it with the mechanical status of the machine relatively unchanged. The beauty of freedom and choice is that each owner is free to try and prevent mechanical problems with products tailored to their use case, or not, if they choose. Due to the time and huge expense of independently lab/field testing these products it's difficult to know what is worth paying extra for and what isn't, which is why marketing has a big budget for most oil brands. That's where car manufactuer and industry approvals come in; specifically, for folks who don't want to make a hobby out of researching lubes, since at least "it's something" even though approvals each have different priorities
 
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