You wanted results from someone running Red Line in a street car? In my 1997 Escort wagon . . . Wait! Come back here! . . . I switched over from dino (changed every 3,000 miles like clockwork) to Red Line 10W30 at a little over 100,000 miles. Had to do some unexpected filter changes when the Red Line flushed out gunk in the engine and plugged the filter. Since the first change, which I did at 3,000 miles because of this issue, I've been using Red Line ever since. I change the filter every 3,000 miles and the oil and filter every 6,000 miles.
My car now has 213,000 miles and uses no oil. By the way, for those of you concerned about K&N air filters allowing extra dirt into the engine, I've been using a K&N filter for even longer. Not consuming oil should indicate that K&N filters are safe for the long term. What is visible of the valvetrain when the oil filler is opened is very clean. Very clean.
You will note that my oil changes are very conservative. Sorry, but I just don't trust the hype about extended drain intervals for any synthetic oil, though Red Line is in my view very forthright and honest. It took a long time for me to reconsider using any synthetic. I remember seeing in magazine ads in the late 1970s the original Mobil 1 claim that users could go 12,000 miles between oil changes--a claim that was later deleted from ads. My father fell for that crap and switched to Mobil 1 but soon had problems with leaking seals and gaskets. After I bought my mother's Toyota, which had been switched, I got to spend the $ to replace said seals and gaskets.
The problem was that no automaker then permitted such long intervals then even with synthetic use, and few do even now. Ford says 5,000 miles between oil changes for "normal" duty and 3,000 miles for "severe" duty, the schedule I followed with dino oil. Not following this schedule will void the warranty, as Red Line notes (Mobil didn't). With Red Line I am simply extending the "normal" duty schedule slightly, and the car has long been out of warranty anyway.
To sum up, I am pleased with Red Line and recommend its oil to everybody who is interested in synthetics. I use other Red Line products as well and have been quite happy with them. This is one of the few outfits that seems to live up to its claims; I'm just not willing to go longer between oil changes.
One other note: I am deeply concerned about some of Amsoil's claims, which along with the Amway-style multilevel marketing is enough to keep me from using its products. Amsoil is claiming incredible lengths--20,000 miles or even more with analysis--between oil changes, but what's even more questionable, it claims that its two-stroke oil can be mixed and used at 100:1 with fuel regardless of what ratio the engine manufacturer calls for. Most call for 40:1 or 50:1. Will Amsoil replace a ruined two-stroke engine? Red Line makes two-stroke oil and says that it was designed for a 50:1 mix but to follow manufacturers' recommendations. Also, at a car swap meet in Pennsylvania a couple of years ago, an independent Amsoil rep showed me lab reports that essentially claimed that Red Line was garbage and did not meet API specs! However, though I didn't tell him, I have studied lubrication and could tell that the lab report was bogus. When I e-mailed Red Line with this chump's claims, the you-know-what hit the fan.
Question about Amsoil: if a company sells using multilevel marketing and constantly recruits new salespeople, makes claims about its products that raise some concern with people who believe in listening to engine manufacturers' recommendations, and allows its reps to circulate bogus lab reports about its direct competition, would you want to use its products? Amsoil's products are probably excellent, but why sell stuff this way?
[ April 28, 2003, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: ekrampitzjr ]