Should oil brand matter so long as specs are met?

[crashz]

For that matter why don't we all drive the same brand of car, drink the same beer, eat the same lunch? Choice. I like the choice. I have 4 different brands of engine oils in my garage right now. Amsoil, Rotella, Valvoline Restore and Protect, and O'Reilly's house brand. All doing different stuff for different vehicles in different conditions.

All meet or exceed the specifications for each unit.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I would say absolutely not. If an engine requires botique oils it's probably a poor design. For example a 4.0L Toyota 1GR FE will run an exceedingly long time on run of the mill oil while being flogged on.
Flame away.

It's not the engine but the intended use which drives choice of oil. Try running conventional oil for 15k miles in a 1GR-FE. That being said when it comes to approvals it's essentially a pass/fail. Branding and labeling helps determine which meets vs exceeds the performance requirements of the oil.

 

[stanlee]

My rule of belief is 5k or less intervals, really doesn’t matter. Over 5k mile intervals, matters. I have one vehicle that has never seen an oil interval longer than 3800 miles and another that gets 5k intervals. My 22 year old follows the 10k oil indicator in his RAV4. That being said just because the outcomes are likely the same doesn’t mean one oil isn’t better than the other. In my mind the difference in price between a budget 5 gallon off the shelf jug vs a premium 5 gallon off the shelf jug is too negligible to EVER go budget. If I’m hurting enough to save that $50/year difference I have bigger problems to worry about.

 

[Marrk]

It's not the engine but the intended use which drives choice of oil.

Umm, it's the engine.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Welp. Why not consider the RPM you run your engine at. My 6.0 LS engine revs at 3,000 rpm going up an 8% grade and will cruise at 65 mph at 1800 RPM all day long. It will kick down to 4,500 rpm, which is near peak torque, when doing a Hail Mary pass on a two lane highway. No 6,000 rpm work at all. Maybe it’s time for the $28.88 CDN Walmart Supertech!

 

[UNC196]

Meeting spec is the minimum standard. Exceeding the minimum is a good thing.

 

[robbobster]

My trucks aren’t special.

specs oil meets > name on the bottle

 

[ripcord]

Clean and full baby, clean and full...

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Meeting spec is the minimum standard. Exceeding the minimum is a good thing.

So really just how definitive is exceeds spec. That is like filters that claim 99% efficiency and then leave out at how many microns there is a lot of BS in the oil game.

 

[Hootbro]

Exceeding spec is a nebulous term.

 

[Pablo]

Exceeding spec is a nebulous term.

It could be. True

Need data

 

[altaylar]

So really just how definitive is exceeds spec. That is like filters that claim 99% efficiency and then leave out at how many microns there is a lot of BS in the oil game.

Statistically speaking, just meeting the standards must be near impossible. They all must be formulated to pass the requirements to a degree, so that you know it will pass the test, rather than slowly iterating upward and testing 1000 times.

 

[TiGeo]

Need a bingo card.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I'm closing in on 300,000 miles on my Suburban. In 18 years I've done around 38 oil changes at an average of 8000 miles although I now strive for 5,000 miles and use 5W40 in the summers instead of 5W30 spec'd for the engine. This is all about personal interest and many have made it a hobby. Carry on and do what you like. I'm not sure what folks expect by " exceeding the specs" . All of these specs are better than they were in 2008 when my Burb was new. Since then I have gone through SM, SN, SN Plus, SP and now SQ.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Just meet spec = gummy nasty rings

Or are you saying all the Valvoline Restore and Protect threads are just fluff?

Even API requires detergents and minimum cleaning requirements.

Gummy nasty rings is just crappy engine design. Valvoline Restore and Protect seems to overcome this in many cases and hence is extra.

 

[buster]

All meet or exceed the specifications for each unit.

You'll notice most give you some information on how much they exceed (or not) a particular spec - for example - 79% better than IVA, or 20X better than IIIH etc.

I posted an article awhile back of an XOM engineer talking about specifications for the Supercar oil. They weren't trying to just meet the spec.

"We were trying to put together an oil that would just crush all of those tests and well exceed the limits for those, "Salvesen says

 

[cascadehunter]

I just replaced my 4runner with over 400k on it. It was in my family since 30k, and mine since 170k. It got chevron, super tech, or Quaker state every 5k miles. Sometimes high mileage formula. I was even using conventional in it until that wasn't available, then it was synthetic blend. I'm in the camp that says clean oil is what counts. For a high performance engine or extreme conditions I might be more picky.

 

[TiGeo]

I just replaced my 4runner with over 400k on it. It was in my family since 30k, and mine since 170k. It got chevron, super tech, or Quaker state every 5k miles. Sometimes high mileage formula. I was even using conventional in it until that wasn't available, then it was synthetic blend. I'm in the camp that says clean oil is what counts. For a high performance engine or extreme conditions I might be more picky.

BUT OMG IT MAY NOT BE CLEAN INSIDE OMG

 

[Bwalker]

BUT OMG IT MAY NOT BE CLEAN INSIDE OMG

Which matters little, but guys will freak out of they see little varnish under their valve covers.
The only part where cleanliness really matters is the ring pack. Properly engineered pistons/rings dont have issues at sane OCI's.

 

[dusted off]

I drove my first car (used 1989 Mazda MX-6) back in the 1990s from 47,000 mi. to 185,000 mi., city driving, many short trips, 7500 mi. OCIs on whatever name brand conventional 5w30 oil I found on sale. I gave it to my brother and he put ten of thousands more miles on it. IIRC I was adding 3/4 qt. between OCIs toward the end. It had some varnish, I'm sure of it.

20-30 year old conventional oil was decent enough to go 200k, it seems that whatever modern synthetic oil meets the specifications will be absolutely fantastic at 5000mi OCI if the engine wasn't designed by a knob.

I bet lack of replacement parts and electronics will brick many modern cars before the engines wear out.