Quaker State conventional oil 5w30

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I have seen no uoa's or voa's with this oil. Does anyone have any experience with it, good or bad? My son bought a new Silverado, with a 5.3L, and they recommend a 5w30. He wants to stay with conventional oil. He has always used Quaker State. He plans on doing 5K oil changes. He does frequent short trips. My other son has a Silverado also, and the oil life monitore has been calling for 7K oil changes, but he does 5K, to stay a little conservative. Any opinions out there from the people in the know?
 
QS is the second best selling oil out there and I personally would like to see some UOA's on this board. I'd start with 4000 miles, do a UOA and go from there.

I generally do the 10w30 in summer, 5w30 in winter routine. My mileage seems to have increased significantly 1.5-2 mpg since I went to 5w30. Might just keep it in for nine months a year rather than the other way around. Sure it will sheer more than 10w30, but not so sure that's a serious shortcoming.
 
Let me confess my bias. I lost my 1st engine to Caker State 10-40. 10-40 failed misereably in the 60-70's, but I can't set my brain straight with the brand. It's a mental block.

I agree with what everyone else has said so far.

I still consider a syn if I wanted to go beyond 3 or 4K in a truck that would be hauling.
 
quote:

QS is the second best selling oil out there and I personally would like to see some UOA's on this board. I'd start with 4000 miles, do a UOA and go from there.

Agreed. I'm sure it is a fine oil... maybe not the best, but I doubt it is "bottom of the barrel".
 
Quaker State is a big brand name here in the South. I never see "deals" on it though.

Pennzoil can be had dirt cheap with a slightly better package. QS is Pennzoil's red-headed step child.

I'd run Wal-Mart Supertech and save the money over QS.
 
Russ, is your son going to take advantage of the Quaker State 10 year/250,000 mile warranty? I wonder how often you need to change the oil with Quaker State in order to keep the warranty valid? They even allow you to do your own oil changes with this warranty, so you don't need to spend lots of $$$ in labor over a ten year period.
 
I found the deal of the century on some Quaker State HDX diesel oil at Wal-Mart. I paid $2.00 per gallon for this stuff and it actually seems to work great in my ancient VW Rabbit.

I too have heard all of the horror stories about this brand but if it were really that bad they wouldn't still be in business. I second the idea of using their 250,000 mile warranty since there's not much to lose from it.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Patman:
Russ, is your son going to take advantage of the Quaker State 10 year/250,000 mile warranty? I wonder how often you need to change the oil with Quaker State in order to keep the warranty valid? They even allow you to do your own oil changes with this warranty, so you don't need to spend lots of $$$ in labor over a ten year period.

It's 4,000 miles or every 4 months to keep the warranty valid. And yes you can do it yourself BUT you have to keep all records of the oil filters,air, oil, etc.
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quote:

Originally posted by BIGJ552000:

quote:

Originally posted by Patman:
Russ, is your son going to take advantage of the Quaker State 10 year/250,000 mile warranty? I wonder how often you need to change the oil with Quaker State in order to keep the warranty valid? They even allow you to do your own oil changes with this warranty, so you don't need to spend lots of $$$ in labor over a ten year period.

It's 4,000 miles or every 4 months to keep the warranty valid. And yes you can do it yourself BUT you have to keep all records of the oil filters,air, oil, etc.
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That's not a big deal though considering what you get in return. I bet they still want you to do 4k/4mo even with their synthetic though. If they'd allow you to do 8k/8mo with the synthetic that would be a real sweet deal.
 
Oil monitoring systems have a bad reputation among Mercedes owners. Too many owners had their engines ruined by following the system. It's fallen short so badly that Mercedes eventually sent a notice to all owners of this system that the engine warranty related to oil issues was extended to 150,000 miles. Be conservative and follow your gut instinct.
 
Quaker State has/had a bad rap. I guess it just depended on the individual. When I bought my 68 Impala with the 250hp 327. The original owner used nothing but 10w-30 QS Super Blend, changed the oil and filter every 3k. When I got the car it had 70k on it. I ran it to 100k right before I moved to NC. I did 3k oil and filter changes with the same oil. I had the engine rebuild due to popping out the intake at high RPM's. Found on the tear down that the number 1 cylinder cam lobes were going flat. That was an interesting thing to see for me. The rest of the engine was spottless, I couldn't get over how clean it was inside. I mean even in the back corners of the block in the intake valley and even the distributor pulled out with ease. Now most would know if there was gunk in an engine the distributor will be a pain to pull out. At least I have see a few that were.

I just wonder what all the hype is about QS being so bad. It seemed to work well with this engine and application of 3k oil/filter changes. The engine didn't need bored and there was a slight lip on the upper cylinders. If it wasn't for the cam it would not have been rebuilt. I didn't just change the cam out because, since I was moving away to a new place I wanted a reliable vehicle. Needless to say I put another 100k on it before I sold it. That turbo 400 was a rock, no problems from it and it only got the fluid changed twice. That was before I knew better.
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Could it be that I got the best oil QS made seeing I lived in Pa?
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or at least the freshest. They should come out with born on dates on the quarts. Yea that's it....
 
Kestas, there's a law suit against Mercedes on that aspect here. Apparently Mercedes required specific approved oils ( True Synthetics) be used and many owners did not use that. To make the situation worse even their OWN dealers were NOT using the approved oils!!!!! So there is just cause for litigation.
 
I agree with haley10. If you go to the Pennzoil website and compare the Pennzoil and QS spec sheets (same parent company), Pennzoil is clearly superior. QS has name recognition goin' for it, so therefore it sells and has big value to Pennzoil Corp (not that it's an inferior oil by any means).
 
quote:

Originally posted by haley10:
Let me confess my bias. I lost my 1st engine to Caker State 10-40. 10-40 failed misereably in the 60-70's, but I can't set my brain straight with the brand. It's a mental block.

I'm glad you realize that motor oil has changed significantly in that last 30 years. I'm just wondering why you think that the oil was the cause of your engine's failure. There are way too many people that think my engine died and I was using ***** brand of oil - that must be the cause. How do they know that the same thing wouldn't have happened if they were using another brand?

Alot of old timers will say that Quaker State contains parafin wax and causes sludge. They also say that pennsylvania crude oil is the best. These two statments contradict each other.

Many engines during this era were not designed well and failure was imminent. The chevy 307 comes to mind. In the late 70's and early 80's it was the American built V6's. They were just bad designs and failure needs to be blamed on the manufacturer, not the lubrication.
 
Russ,

Johnny, a Pennzoil rep, recently posted on here that Pennzoil has a better quality viscosity index improver than they put into their Quaker State oils. I'd choose Pennz over Quaker. I'd also run the highest viscosity oil permitted in the owner's manual except in the coldest part of winter. 5W-30 is mainly for a fractional improvement in fuel mileage and 10W-30 might offer more engine protection toward the end of the oil change interval.

(Pennzoil and Quaker State are both owned by Shell, in case anyone doesn't know.)


Ken
 
quote:

Originally posted by Russ_Knize:
the oil life monitore has been calling for 7K oil changes, but he does 5K, to stay a little conservative. Any opinions out there from the people in the know?

I have a problem with them from a personal issue.
My brother-N-Law and several people I know all do the light thing, and they get between 10-16K before the light comes on. All these people have had about two or three of these TRUCKS and they all got over 240-300-380K before truck retired...
Me, well I'm not sold yet, not unless I compare my own tests with a system like that, and still I donno. But as they say, the proof is in the pudding, and unless they wanna put up with a lot of &%%& then now a days, 300-400K is about all most cars can get.
 
I'd be even more conservative with 5w-30 conventional oil, as it thins to 20 weight within 3,000 miles. Depending on your climate, I'd stay with 10w-30 for cold temps above 20 degrees F, but go with 5w-30 only in wintertime if it regularly goes below 20 degrees. Stay with 10w-30 for summer use.
 
I'm not sure 5,000 mi. changes really are all that conservative. I think it is a great idea, but I take the GM oil life monitor with a grain of salt.

I personally would not run any conventional (dino) oil beyond 5,000 mi.

Since you live in N.C., I would go with Pennzoil, Castrol, or Havoline. Best dino oils/best prices.

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