Using Valvoline Restore and Protect from new...

[Mainia]

I would be doing that exact thing if I had a new car.

I just changed over to VRP 0W20 @ 22k miles on my '21 Audi SQ5 Sportback w/3.0 TFSI (which has the single turbo in the hot "V").

I have been using Ravenol VSW 0W30, a VW504-spec oil, and I thought about using VRP 5W30, but decided that while I'm not using VW508-spec oil, at least this OCI will have the factory-spec'd oil weight.

Now, just awaiting Blackstone Lab's UOA results on the Ravenol oil.

Boy, I sure could not do it........I won't even put 20 weight in a 20 year old lawnmower let alone "sport motor" worth S30,000+ with a turbo in the belly of heat or barbecue grill. Who cares what the factory specs, I want a buffer with that heat.

 

[ChrisD46]

IMO higher quality oils use higher quality ingredients and base oils that withstand heat and breakdown. Especially in severe service. Oils like ESP are on that list. I agree it’s unknown if they can reverse the process. My ESP test will be complete in 2-3 years(60k miles). Then I’ll know for sure. As of now my oil consumption is actually continuing to improve.

I ran a variety of major off the shelf brands of good synthetic oils for conservative OCI’s in my Hundai 2.4L engine and still got some oil consumption . My last and perhaps best oil used in thst engine to date was M1 0W30 ESP . I am switching to R&P 5W30 for a few runs and may stay with it . If I were to leave R&P for another oil I would be right back with using the 0W30 ESP .

 

[Hohn]

I've posted something this this effect before, but it bears repeating:

Deposits are the primary reason modern engines die. Even if VRP wasn't *quite* as effective in wear protection, it would be worth trading that to gain the cleanliness; on balance, you're better off in almost every case.

Thankfully, the data show VRP to have excellent wear protection, as good as any within the uncertainty of UOA. You gain the elite-level cleanliness without giving up wear protection. And it's cheap enough that lack of extended drain ability is mostly moot, although nobody has really tried to push OCIs with VRP that I've seen.

 

[OVERKILL]

What are the higher quality oil's, we have no proof that these so called higher quality oil's will prevent deposits or clean them up. These higher quality oils will maybe prevent deposits to a certain extent. I am not agreeing that the pistons break down oils as soon as the engine is started.

When oil is fresh, it's the lighter fractions that are most inclined to flash off. Once that has taken place the oil is more "stable". Of course introducing things like fuel into the oil can exasperate the issue. Cheaper oils with higher Noack will have more "flashing off" taking place.

Remember, OTS oils (aside from VRP) aren't designed to clean. They are designed to stay below the limits for deposit prevention. This is why we have sequences that test these things, with established limits. Remember this old XOM slide on piston deposit test simulation?

Of course we also know that AN's and esters (which aren't used in meaningful quantities in most OTS oils) are capable of cleaning, but this necessarily drives up formulation cost.

And yes, many of the Euro OEM's do in fact have their own deposit tests, with their own limits, so we do know that there are higher standards for many of these Euro approvals than exist for your basic API/ILSAC stuff.

Your post has me now thinking more than ever that once my stash of Mobil 1 ESP 5W-30 is done that I will be thinking about using Valvoline Restore and Protect. I am not using any oil with ESP 5W-30 versus the ESP 0W-30, and Mobil does claim that the ESP does do some cleaning.

Using a product with AN's should indeed facilitate some cleaning. Since we are unsure as to the amount used, it's difficult to speculate on just how much cleaning might be taking place however, and even if we DID know the amount, without some test material to reference (aside from what I've shared in the past on the effectiveness of AN's in cleaning up deposits in some tests) we really don't know how that correlates with cleaning effectiveness.