Schaeffer lubricants

[HiPowerShooter]

HI all...

I'm thinking of giving Schaeffer 20/50 in my MGB for the next oil change. As a bonus, it contains elevated levels of ZDDP specifically for flat tappet(as with an MG) engines. I don't want to get into the whole "there's no need for extra after break-in" debate. I understand that.

My machine shop owner/engine builder is a huge fan of it. Runs it in all his engines. Anyone have any experience and/or results with it?

Thanks!

 

[AirgunSavant]

I bought a 12 pack of 9000 in the 5w-20 grade for my F350
I have not put it in yet- still too new.
Many here use it and in my mind its like AMSOIL Signature Series grade.

Under $100 for the case shipped with Prime!

 

[OneEyeJack]

Great stuff. Use with confidence. Don't forget to make sure the radiator is in good shape when you put everything back together.

I worked on those cars when they were brand new. Also make sure the starter is good and that you always keep the battery charged. We had problems with low batteries that would have enough energy to engage the starter but not turn the engine. This was a direct short to ground and could lead to a fire. I happened once, right in the shop.

To bleed the clutch just sacrifice a clutch master cap with a small tube. Open up the slave and pump the brake fluid thru the system until fluid comes out the slave with no bubbles. Close the bleed screw, remove the cap and the excess fluid and you're done.

Then drive and have fun. They're not fast but they are a lot of fun.

 

[Food Scientist]

Use it all the time on 3 vehicles and used oil analysis always come back good on 10-12k mile oil changes.

Seen some info on their 20W-50 oil where they compare engine temps using an infrared camera and the average temp dropped 20 degrees when they changed from Harley Davidson.

 

[TiredTrucker]

I have been using Schaeffer stuff for years. From my small engines, thru my personal vehicles, up thru my commercial semi trucks. I like it. They love to use moly in everything. The 9003D 5w30 I use in my previous 2013 Chevy pickup and my present 2015 Chevy pickup has over 300 ppm moly in the mix along with all the other good stuff. Wouldn't shock me a bit that they have a stout amount of moly in the 20w50 oil along with high zinc. A great combination.

 

[lubricatosaurus]

How does a small company like Schaeffers have better oil tech than Exxon-Mobil or Shell Oil Products US ?
When you can get essentially a racing oil like Mobil 1 0w-40 in Walmart, and also great Extended Performance oils like Mobil 1 or Castrol EDGE Extended Performance, I see no reason to risk going to a small company where the owner is too close to the production line not to meddle or penny pinch.

 

[TiredTrucker]

Probably because they have been at the game longer than anyone else in N. America. Since 1839, before the other oil companies were even a thought in anyone's mind. And Schaeffer even makes some specialty stuff for Shell that Shell came to them to develop to meet a customer demand that Shell couldn't figure out the mix to do it. That is pure fact. I have seen Them filling drums for Shell oil at the Schaeffer facility in St. Louis on the west end of the facility. The CEO, John Schaeffer Shields, gave me and the wife a personal tour of the facility and showed us all they had going on. That was just before Memorial Day this year. Schaeffer was behind the development of the lubes for the Apache Attack helicopter and M1 Abrams also. And they are ranked in the top 500 most technologically advanced companies in America. They are not the largest, but they are one of the best. Their focus is not the average retail customer, but commercial users, though anyone can buy product from them. They have no real interest in playing the retail store shelf game. But from time to time, you will find a retailer that has some of the Schaeffer stuff on their shelf. Usually a parts store or independent shop.

They're oil is top notch, but their grease is just about the best thing available anywhere. If they have one area that they pretty much clobber everyone else in, it is their grease products. One of them is what they make for Shell Oil.

Now granted, I buy enough that I am one of their commercial account buyers, but when I get a case of the 5w30 9003D for my pickup, the cost is competitive with most any of the top name brands on the shelf at Walmart.

 

[CT8]

This may sound silly but the engine builder sees the insides of the engines he works on! I would trust an engine builders recommendations.

 

[TiredTrucker]

No one is questioning the OEM recommendation on grade and spec. We are discussing the oil maker. Your's is a different topic.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
Probably because they have been at the game longer than anyone else in N. America. Since 1839, before the other oil companies were even a thought in anyone's mind.


Schaeffer didn't begin making oil products until 1849, prior to that it was just soaps and candles. They maintained the soap and candle business up until 1950 BTW.

Rockefeller built his first refinery in 1863 and this would become Standard Oil in 1870 and eventually the behemoth known today as ExxonMobil.

The reality is that there is only a 14 year gap between Mobil and Schaeffer.

 

[Justin251]

I'd like to give Schaefer a try. But the closest to me is a 70 miles round trip.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
Probably because they have been at the game longer than anyone else in N. America. Since 1839, before the other oil companies were even a thought in anyone's mind. And Schaeffer even makes some specialty stuff for Shell that Shell came to them to develop to meet a customer demand that Shell couldn't figure out the mix to do it. That is pure fact. I have seen Them filling drums for Shell oil at the Schaeffer facility in St. Louis on the west end of the facility. The CEO, John Schaeffer Shields, gave me and the wife a personal tour of the facility and showed us all they had going on. That was just before Memorial Day this year. Schaeffer was behind the development of the lubes for the Apache Attack helicopter and M1 Abrams also. And they are ranked in the top 500 most technologically advanced companies in America. They are not the largest, but they are one of the best. Their focus is not the average retail customer, but commercial users, though anyone can buy product from them. They have no real interest in playing the retail store shelf game. But from time to time, you will find a retailer that has some of the Schaeffer stuff on their shelf. Usually a parts store or independent shop.

They're oil is top notch, but their grease is just about the best thing available anywhere. If they have one area that they pretty much clobber everyone else in, it is their grease products. One of them is what they make for Shell Oil.

Now granted, I buy enough that I am one of their commercial account buyers, but when I get a case of the 5w30 9003D for my pickup, the cost is competitive with most any of the top name brands on the shelf at Walmart.


As if.

Sheaffer is competitive however to compare them to Exxon or Shelly is ridiculous. Both those monsters spend more on research and development than sheaffer makes gross annually,so I seriously doubt their "tech" is superior.
Who knows exactly what the big boys have on the shelf,not to mention how they can produce world class products like ultra and Mobil with one of the best oils on earth in the 0w-40,and they produce it for significantly less which means their tech is superior because they can produce an equal product for less money.
Sheaffer is like amsoil,but with less exposure. They are basically a boutique blender with niche markets that keep them afloat.
They do blend a decent product but an Exxon or royal Dutch shell they aren't.

 

[Justin251]

I thought they were a refinery?

 

[lubricatosaurus]

If Schaeffer makes a superior product, I'd buy it. Not convinced they do.
Certainly it is a function of company goals. Schaeffer might try to be better, while Shell or the other big guys might deliver a product to a price point only (even Ultra etc.), just barely passing the specs. Amsoil does seem to have business goals regarding making something better, beating the competition.

Whatever the truth is about Schaeffer, whether they have a better product, is hard to tell. Where is some kind of proof?

 

[Greasymechtech]

https://www.youtube.com/user/SchaefferVideos/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/SpecializedOil/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/schaefferoftexas/videos

http://www.schaefferoil.com/supreme-9000-engine-oil.html
http://www.schaefferoil.com/euro-oil.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaeffer_Oil

Full synthetics are heavy on the GroupIII and some are GroupIII/PAO mix. Its got a good moly dose and antimony(rare in oils).

Their Neutra stabilizer and SoyUltra are excellent fuel additves, on par with ANY stabilizer/FI cleaner out there.

They don't need to be the best, but the products that I've used from Schaeffers were all excellent. Not all of us want to Walmart shop or support the big oil corporations directly.

 

[eddy21]

Big oil has to make a product to a price point. GM outsells Ferrari.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: eddy21
Big oil has to make a product to a price point. GM outsells Ferrari.


Ford also made the Ford GT (as well as the original GT40). Chrysler owned Lamborghini for quite a while, Bugatti is part of the Volkswagen group (who also currently owns Lamborghini), Rolls Royce and Bentley are owned by BMW...etc.

Not many of these "boutique" manufacturers are actually independent.

 

[DoubleWasp]

And yet these major companies sought to buy the little exotics.

Schaeffer is on par with Amsoil. They might be small, but make truly superior lubricants.

I'm off to McDonald's now. With so many locations, solid profitability, and over 80 billion served,,their food has to be the best you can get.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
And yet these major companies sought to buy the little exotics.


Of course, they help with company image. That was Ford's whole purpose with the "Premier Auto Group". It certainly wasn't to make money.

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Schaeffer is on par with Amsoil. They might be small, but make truly superior lubricants.


Define "superior". What makes Schaeffer or AMSOIL better than something like Delvac 1? How about Mobil 1 0w-40? Mobil (and the others) have a number of premium "top shelf" lubricants. They also make some not so spectacular products, but then so do these small blenders.

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
I'm off to McDonald's now. With so many locations, solid profitability, and over 80 billion served,,their food has to be the best you can get.


McDonalds (and other burger joints) doesn't make a premium product like Mobil 1, Pennzoil Ultra....etc. They are not really comparable to the oil industry. The auto manufacturers are a much better comparison here as they have tiered products.

The other issue is that there are only a few additive suppliers out there as well as only a few manufacturers of base oils. Mobil makes a huge portion of the available base oils (particularly PAO) and they co-own one of the largest additive suppliers (Infineum) with Shell.

This isn't like a premium chef running a small restaurant who is able to source only the best premium free-range beef to use in his steaks. In this case the components used still come from the majors, so it isn't like these small blenders are using "better" base oils than what Mobil, BP or Shell are using, they come from these companies! Same goes for the chemicals (XOM Chemical) and in many cases the additives.

That's not to say these products are inferior. AMSOIL SPECIFICALLY targets the extended drain market and has been extremely successful. Both they and Royal Purple have also embraced the synthetic glass media oil filter phenomenon, something the majors aren't involved in. This creates some nice separation too IMHO.

These companies go after niches. That doesn't mean that the majors don't make products that are just as good for those niches (though AMSOIL's extended drains are the longest in the industry) but perhaps the service and support through these smaller companies is better and more personal. That in itself adds value.

I use AMSOIL products but I don't necessarily feel they are superior to comparable products Mobil offers. What they do have however are some unique products that the majors don't make as well as great service.

 

[lubricatosaurus]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
And yet these major companies sought to buy the little exotics.

Schaeffer is on par with Amsoil. They might be small, but make truly superior lubricants.

I'm off to McDonald's now. With so many locations, solid profitability, and over 80 billion served,,their food has to be the best you can get.

I like that analogy. Their fries have been engineered to be the best, and they are pretty good.
I've tended to shop for oil by best set of specs they pass. That means big name synthetics since they are cheaper. Maybe Amsoil or Schaeffer can do better.