Post Your Latest Engine Oil Mix-ology and Why.

[Turk]

NO bashers or haters, go make your own thread.

Post your latest mix of oils in any type of gas or diesel engine here. I'll start:

2003 GMC Sierra 5.3L that I bought brand new. 200,000 miles.

I took out: 6 Qts Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck (TDT) 5w-40

I put in: 4 Qts Mobil 1 0w-40 + 2 Qts original formula Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30.

Why:

- Engine "clacks" on the thinner 5w-30 and the engine stopped clacking when I had the M1 TDT 5w-40 in it, but seemed a little too thick. I wanted to thin it some for the coming Winter. I had 2 Qts PU 5w-30 left over in an "pre-opened jug" I wanted to use, but wanted to thicken it up above the 5w-30 range.

- M1 0w-40 has a Viscosity of 13.5, PU has a Vis of 10.5, so that gives me a Vis of about 12.5.

- M1 0w-40 has a HT/HS of 3.8, PU has a HT/HS of 3.1, so that gives me a HT/HS of about 3.6.

All this coupled with a Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil Filter. This 200,000 mile 5.3L burns NO oil and runs terrific.

Now, post your mix.

 

[53' Stude]

2 quarts of PYB 10W30 (CIRCA 1982) and 2 quarts of PYB 5W20 ALONG WITH 1/2 QUART of SMITTYS "MULTI FLO" synblend 5w20. This mix will go in the Bonneville or 03' Taurus; probably the Taurus as I read those engines love any 30w

 

[userfriendly]

I don't mix multi-grades together as a rule, because the outcome is unpredictable.
I'll use up odds and ends by blending the same brand and type of mono-grades together,
or a mono-grade with the same type and brand of multi-grade.

For example if I have open pails of HDEO brand X CJ-4/SM 10W30 and 15W40, I won't blend them together.

I will blend brand X HDEO SAE40 and SAE30 together or with any of the same brand and similar looking multi-grades.

Quite often I will add 33% SAE 40 to SAE 10W30, or 33% SAE30 to 15W40, which results in close to the same thing.

Reason? I'm shooting for a shear stable HTHS target without boosting the KV100 numbers un-necessarily,
and when cold performance is not the prime objective.

 

[Falken]

I mix, but it is all Shell products, 5W20.

The reason is I use 5L jugs, and my Fit takes 3.6L. In the past there would be sales on QSUD, PP, PU, CT Formula 1, etc etc, so I mix leftovers to get rid of it.

But it is mainly all the same chemistries, so doesn't really matter.

 

[Olas]

My current fill is a mix of 4qts redline 5w30, 1qt of redline 10w40, and half a can of liqui-moly mos2.

The 10w40 and moly were leftovers so I used them and ended up with a DIY blend..

 

[quint]

Two quarts of gently used M1 0W-20 (drained from the wife's Mazda3), one fresh quart of Supertech 15w-40, and one quart of Maxlife 5w-30 are currently in the Corolla which is getting close to tick over 353,000 miles.

Its what I had on hand, and like most other Corollas of this vintage with blocked drain holes in the pistons, it burns oil (never, ever see smoke though) so it gets what it gets.

Starting burning oil around 100,000 and at that point, I stopped giving it the higher end name brand oils and started feeding it whatever I had. And it doesnt seem to care what it gets, it has given me 353,000 miles and even with the horrifically inappropriate mixture of oils its been getting the last few years and like whats in it right now, it just keeps going and going and going......

 

[Phishin]

Just changed the oil in the Honda this past weekend:

50/50 mix of PU 5w20 and 5w30 and 10 oz. of Lube Gard Heavy Duty BioTech.

I need to use up this older PU, and I love LG BioTech.

 

[mattwithcats]

3 quarts Castrol Edge 0W-40 A3/B4
1 quart Castrol Edge 0W-30 A3/B4

Both meet MB 229.5 specification

Oversized oil filter
(OE is Fram 6607, oversize is Fram 7317)
Increases oil capacity from 3.7 to 4 quarts...

NAPA Synthetic filter, not available in 6607 size


Car surges and bucks until warm, and in cold weather,
this can take 15-20 minutes...

 

[A_Harman]

50/50 blend of PU 5w30 and PUE 5w40 in the Camaro. I bought 4 5-qt jugs of PU on clearance at Walmart and get the 5qts PUE w/ filter at AutoZone when they run those deals in spring and fall. I figure this will be good for 2 years of oil changes.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I mixed Pennzoil High Mileage 10w-30 with Peak 10w-30 conventional.

I use what I have for top-up oil in the Jeep

 

[Justin251]

Used a half quart of royal purple 0w20 to top off the accent on the last oil change.

I could have swore I bought 3 quarts of castrol magnatec 5w20. I was gonna use the quart of castrol gtx 5w30 synthetic blend as my half quart top off. I think I used one of the 5w20s instead of the 5w30 to top off a friend's car whose light came on.

Ended up using 2 quarts of magnatec 5w20, 1 quart gtx 5w30 synthetic blend, and .5 quart of rp 0w20.

I had no 5w20 or 5w30 single quarts to break up and wasn't opening a 5 quart jug for that. lol

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Topped off the newish Nissan rogue with PP0w20 as the newly changed fill of 5w30VSP seemed way too thick (sluggish, slow revving) compared to what was in it from the factory. Yes even in the HOT summer! Got a bit over 1 qt of the pp on top of the vsp to get the viscosity "right".
Now, This is a BITOG no-no mix of two differing add pack types(Na-xx then the Boron and moly), but if schaeffer can do it with good results, so can I

Maybe ..
But, the Engine runs quiet and gets OK gas mileage (fair to poor actually around (24.5 mixed driving).

I will go to Supertech Synthetic 5w20 this Winter, around late November. The Supertech5w30 (Wpp or Wne?) was too thick all Winter. Engine only started to "loosen up" after 15 miles of driving on the commute in constant sub freezing weather last nasty Winter.

 

[nwjones18]

I'm about to run 5qts of Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 and 3qts of Castrol synblend 5w-30 in the Caddy. It has a full 8qts of the synblend in it now and my leaks have stopped and its running great. I figure Magnatec 5w-30 is the replacement so hopefully it gives me similar service. I got a lot of the Synblend when autozone had it for $1 per quart.

 

[cat843]

Does anyone have any UOAs to show the mixing of various motor oil actually helps? I realize it beneficial to use up leftover oil in your stash.

 

[Jake54]

3ish quarts of National Premium 5w20 with 1 quart VWB 5w30 and another quart of National Premium conventional 5w30.
it was within spec, and what I had on hand. good for a solid 4k in my application

 

[Phishin]

In my beater truck....there is Valvoline NextGen 5w30 in it. But since it burns 1 quart every 600 miles, I top it off with M1 TDT that I drained out of my wife's Subie that has about 6.5k miles on it. I've also top off with the used PU from my Honda Accord, and then mix in the occasional NEW quart of anything 20w50 I can find on sale.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: used_0il
I don't mix multi-grades together as a rule, because the outcome is unpredictable. I'll use up odds and ends by blending the same brand and type of mono-grades together, or a mono-grade with the same type and brand of multi-grade.

That actually makes a fair bit of sense on the face of it. In your examples, VI and cold weather performance are irrelevant.

However, I have enough difficulty using a monograde in small engines as it is, let alone in something else.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: cat843
Does anyone have any UOAs to show the mixing of various motor oil actually helps? I realize it beneficial to use up leftover oil in your stash.
I Don't think a UOA would show that unless we have a 5w30 "victim" on the board with a continuing trend of UOA and then they could run a frankenblend of Valvoline VR1 rating 10w30 syn + PP or PU 0w20?

Still the UOA may not show wear per se, but rather chemical action. And sometimes a DP change over will shoot off a bad first report.
What I'm getting at is the data may be fun, but ultimately useless.

I mainly needed to adjust the operating viscosity of the NISSAN ENGINE into a good range. This is a well worn practice and nothing unusual. As far a DP mixing goes, DATA in package patent applications show the package is VERY carefully balanced to get desired results. But maybe its all hogwash givin the tiny % of EP AW is in the oil. I say - use a good base oil firstly.

 

[MrQuackers]

SL2

1 quart Valvoline MaxLife HM 10w-40
2.5 quarts Valvoline MaxLife HM 10w-30
16.9 ounce bottle of Bar's Leak RMS Repair
~ half can of LM2009

Doing a few rounds of conditioning. Engine runs beautifully, still exceeding EPA estimates. Oil use appears to have dropped a small bit. No matter because of my mighty BITOG stash.

 

[FutureDoc]

Beater "Oldbaru" 4qt of Shell T5 10w40 and 1 Qt of QS Defy 5w20.

Why? $5 for 4qts of T5 and $2.50 for the QS. Not bad for a $7.50 oil change.