The Freezer Test!

[Eastexan]

Good post, JohnnyG. Interesting about how well Mobil Drive Clean conventional did in your freezer test. I have seldom seen it mentioned here in this discussion group, but know from personal experience that it's a good oil. It may be overlooked and thought of as a cheap quality oil because of it's low price ($0.99 Qt. at Walmart). Here in Texas, cold isn't as much of a factor as heat is, and it has always done well for me. I traded off a Chrysler van a while back that had 200k miles on it, and the engine was still going strong (3.3L v-6).

Ronnie

 

[Mystic]

If Mobil Drive Clean will flow well in the cold and if it provides low wear results in UOAs, and if it is available for .99 cents a quart, maybe we need to rethink 5 dollar and 6 dollar a quart motor oil.

 

[Mystic]

I went through the UOAs and Mobil Drive Clean looked pretty decent. And JohnnyG discovered that it will flow in the cold about as well a a synthetic (and that was 10W-30 Mobil Drive Clean, not even the 5W-30!). Pretty impressive for an oil that you can buy for roughly a dollar a quart.

Maybe we need to put this oil in the Pennzoil, Chevron Supreme, and Castrol GTX line-up. And Chevron did not perform well in the freezer test.

Apparently, pour point figures can be deceptive.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mystic:
If Mobil Drive Clean will flow well in the cold and if it provides low wear results in UOAs, and if it is available for .99 cents a quart, maybe we need to rethink 5 dollar and 6 dollar a quart motor oil.

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One thing to keep in mind though, if you have two oils with similar cold weather performance when new, and one is synthetic and one is dino oil, you will then find after a few thousand miles that the dino oil no longer has such good cold weather properties, while the synthetic retains it's cold weather abilities longer.

In other words, if you try the freezer test on those same two types of oils after they've been run for 3k, the synthetic will outshine the dino for sure.

 

[JohnnyG]

Well Patman, Today I had an opportunity to do just that, check a conventional oil in the freezer after it has been run for over 3000 miles. The oil was Pennzoil 10W-30 (with PureBase), no GF3, just SL rated. It had been in my Cadillac for 5550 miles to be exact, since April 19, 2003. The GM "Oil Life Indicator" on my '99 said it had 29% life remaining, or another 2280 miles, for a total of 7818. With winter coming on however, and the amount of time the oil had been in, I decided to put in the GC. The test was between the used oil, and some new oil from the same gallon jug that was left from the original change.
The results?


NO DIFFERENCE! If anything, it may have been slightly thinner than the original. About the same as new GC 0W-30 and possibly a little thinner than 10W-30 Mobil Drive Clean Conventional. All this at 0 deg. F BTW.

 

[Patman]

The one thing about your test though Johnny, is that you ran that oil for 3000 miles in the summer, so it won't degrade it's cold weather properties as much as a 3k winter run.

From what I understand, the pour point depressants in a dino oil degrade much faster when a lot of extremely cold starts are made.

 

[Hubjeep]

I would like to see the cold temp flow difference between 5W-30 and 10W-30 (same brand and type oil)..

-John

 

[Jimbo]

I took the oils on the shelf in the garage and did the freezer test at -5F.

Castrol Syntec 10W-40
Chevron Delo 400 15W-40
Coastal ND 30

None of the oils clouded with wax crystals, all were clear. The Coastal did not pour at all. It felt like rubber to the touch. Syntec poured best but seemed thicker than I expected. The Delo was a pleasant surprise. It poured almost as well as the Sytec. It does have an excellent pour point of -38F. Even straight 30 Delo lists a -22F pour point. This must be from pour point depressant additives, since the ND Costal was solid at -5F.

I'll try ATF next. I have Mobil 1, Durablend and Proline (Pepboys) in the garage.