Some questions about Maxlife 5w-30

[Run]

So I bought a few jugs of Valvoline Maxlife 5w-30. I'm curious about a few things.
First off how much synthetic content is in it?
The spec sheets from Valvoline don't tell me much. One thing I found interesting is the TBN is 8.8 for Maxlife but only 8.7 for Synpower. I would imagine the full syn gets the highest TBN but not the case.
http://content.valvoline.com/pdf/premium_conventional.pdf
http://content.valvoline.com/pdf/maxlife.pdf
http://content.valvoline.com/pdf/synpower.pdf

Now what kind of OCI do fellow members recommend?
If I put it in my van it will see short trips during the week and longer trips on weekends.
If I put in my car it will see easy highway driving 5-6 days a week and almost no short trips.
I would rather use it in the van as it eats more oil than the car.

 

[Tech819]

Unrelated to your question-
How many KM on your van and Neon and have either needed a transmission?

 

[Nissan101]

Im also interested on what others say.
I use 10w40 maxlife and my oci is roughly 6000km

 

[Nickdfresh]

I used it for OCI's of about 8,000 km and it was fine. I wouldn't overthink it...

 

[Run]

Originally Posted By: Tech819
Unrelated to your question-
How many KM on your van and Neon and have either needed a transmission?

Van is at 235000 KM (146k Miles)
Neon is at 208000 KM (129k Miles)
Both are on their original transmissions. I flushed both out and they have fresh ATF4 in them. Unsurprisingly the neon had the most junk in the pan.

 

[HKPolice]

http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.

I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...

 

[77GrandPrix]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...

Many top tier oils are made by "just oil blenders". Amsoil, Red Line, Fuchs and yes, Valvoline to name a few!

 

[HKPolice]

Originally Posted By: 77GrandPrix
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...

Many top tier oils are made by "just oil blenders". Amsoil, Red Line, Fuchs and yes, Valvoline to name a few!


Yes I know, but those are TOP TIER oil blenders that offer niche flagship product lines for much higher price than retail synthetics. Valvoline/Ashland is 1 of the few oil blender that offers mainstream high volume cheap blends where the margins are much lower.

 

[HKPolice]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...


Yes I know that most conventional oils are already blended, this just means that Maxlife's semi synthetic label means nothing.

You have no idea what you're talking about. http://www.infineum.com/ is the largest additive manufacturer in the world and guess who owns them? 50% Shell 50% ExxonMobil: http://www.shell.com/business-customers/chemicals/about-shell-chemicals/our-joint-ventures.html

Their margins will ALWAYS be higher than anything Valvoline can make because they make everything from scratch. They extract the crude oil, they refine it, they make the additives and blend it themselves.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: HKPolice
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...


Yes I know that most conventional oils are already blended, this just means that Maxlife's semi synthetic label means nothing.


So what was your original point? Just slanting things against an oil you hate for some reason? Why didn't you just say that to begin with?

It doesn't mean "nothing". It means what it means, that MaxLife is a syn-blend and that Ashland chose to market them as such. Like both Pennzoil and Exxon-Mobil, Ashland chooses to differentiate its conventional and syn blends for marketing purposes (i.e. meeting Dexos). But it's no more "meaningless" in their case than it is for any other oil company. It also allows them flexibility to blend a conventional with whatever they have on hand and it does vary.

Quote:
You have no idea what you're talking about. http://www.infineum.com/ is the largest additive manufacturer in the world and guess who owns them? 50% Shell 50% ExxonMobil: http://www.shell.com/business-customers/chemicals/about-shell-chemicals/our-joint-ventures.html


Apparently you don't have a clue, Lubrizol is the worlds' largest manufacturer, not Infineum. Maybe Berkshire-Hathaway Sythetic is the oil with the highest profit margin?

Quote:
Their margins will ALWAYS be higher than anything Valvoline can make because they make everything from scratch. They extract the crude oil, they refine it, they make the additives and blend it themselves.


LOL HTF would you know? Again, just speculation. We could just as easily say the glut of oil caused by lower prices make it a great buy for Ashland. Or that Ashland doesn't have to fund white elephant failed projects in the Middle East with their revenue. Or maybe Ahsland gets a pretty good discount from Chevron? E-M and Shell certainly make more in profits, as for margins none of us have any idea. But continue to speculate about profit margins and mask your biases against Ashland with misinformation and half-truths and mask opinion as fact.....

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: 77GrandPrix
Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: HKPolice
http://www.pqiadata.org/July2016SAE5W20SidBySide.html

Judging by the NOACK, it has no more synthetic base oil than regular big brand conventional oils. Also, TBN is lower than the other brands too.


Because most conventional oils basically are synthetic blends. I think the best guess I've seen is it's about 30%-40% Group III...

Quote:
I would never buy Valvoline because they're just an oil blender, they do not extract or refine crude. This means they have a lower profit margin to work with since they have to pay others for the base stocks & additive packs.


Um, so there's a great profit margin in dealing with low oil prices? LOL They may actually have a much higher profit margin. And BTW, EVERYONE pays for "others'" additive packs...

Many top tier oils are made by "just oil blenders". Amsoil, Red Line, Fuchs and yes, Valvoline to name a few!


Don't bother. He "knows all"! The profit margins of that "cheap" blender that meet all of the same spec's as any other oil...

Next he'll "own" me by disclosing that there really is no Berkshire-Hathaway Synthetic Oil...

 

[pbm]

OT...but slightly related....I've always thought it would be interesting to have a list of which companies additive package is used by each motor oil maker. We can assume that SOPUS and Mobil use Infineum while Chevron uses Oronite etc...Whose additive package does Valvoline, C-P, RP,, Warren etc...use? In other words....who uses Afton...who uses Lubrizol etc...

This info might be helpful to those of us who sometimes 'blend' leftovers etc...

 

[fdcg27]

Maxlife SB is my favorite Valvoline product.
I posted a UOA in August 2012 of Nextgen Maxlife 10W-40 that I had run 4K in my old BMW.
Residual TBN at 5.1 would have been sufficient to have run another few thousand miles.
As a blender, Valvoline may use variable percentages of Grp III and Grp II in formulating this oil based upon spot market pricing as well as the contracted basestock pricing it must be using for most of its inputs. Basestock blend probably also varies with grade.
I'd run the oil 5K miles without any doubts and it could probably do more like 7K in the Neon based upon your use of the car.
In the absence of a UOA of the oil from either of your vehicles, I'm merely giving you some semi-informed speculation, of course.

 

[Run]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Maxlife SB is my favorite Valvoline product.
I posted a UOA in August 2012 of Nextgen Maxlife 10W-40 that I had run 4K in my old BMW.
Residual TBN at 5.1 would have been sufficient to have run another few thousand miles.
As a blender, Valvoline may use variable percentages of Grp III and Grp II in formulating this oil based upon spot market pricing as well as the contracted basestock pricing it must be using for most of its inputs. Basestock blend probably also varies with grade.
I'd run the oil 5K miles without any doubts and it could probably do more like 7K in the Neon based upon your use of the car.
In the absence of a UOA of the oil from either of your vehicles, I'm merely giving you some semi-informed speculation, of course.


5.1 TBN after 4K out of Nextgen I would say its good stuff. Was the BMW short tripped or driven hard?

I remember when Nextgen first came out it was more expensive than the VWB or PYB it was sharing shelf space with. That stuff disappeared very quickly after it sat on shelves for almost a year. They didn't even discount it, just yanked it all off.

Amazing how much hate towards Valvoline in this thread.

 

[fdcg27]

The BMW accumulated the 4K miles in only two months, so it was a busy little car over that period and saw many interstate miles.
The Nextgen Maxlife in the 10W-40 grade was on clearance pretty much everywhere and that was also the summer of FAR deals on all Nextgen oils, so not only was it a good oil for the car, it was also really cheap.