Valvoline Durablend..."Out performs all leading conventional motor oils"

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I use to use this oil when I first started driving in High school and didn't know anything about oil. The lable says "Out performs all leading conventional motor oils" is what sold me on it. I used it in my 1989 Jimmy that had 140,000 miles on it and it seemed to perform well in the engine. The engine was nice and quiet and I drove it for 2 years until I traided it off. I never did a UOA on it and now I wish I did to really see how it performed. Does this oil really out perform all leading conventional motor oils? I was thinking of trying it in my 2002 z28 ls1 if Mobil 1 10w30 does not give me good UOA results. What do you experts really think of this oil? It seems that the local Napa owner loves it and several mechanics I know like it a lot. Thanks!
 
There's nothing really all that special about Valvoline Durablend. It's nothing more than a Group II and Group III blend. Average specs. I'm sure it performs adequately if changed every 3-5K miles.

I wouldn't use it in my car simply because there are better oils out there.
 
I use it in three vehicles (currently). Good results wear wise on two of them so far, although one of the samples was done at 4,000 miles under tough conditions. I usually can find it for about $1.50 a quart on sale, which makes it a decent value, and it does perform better than the All Climate Valvoline line.

I'll have three more analysis coming in the next month or two. My previous results are posted in the UOA's.
 
The phrase "outperforms all leading conventional motor oils" is advertising "puffery". Outperforms how? Which ones are "leading". What is the defintion of conventional, Group I, II or something else? There are no names or numbers, so there is nothing in that statement that can be proven or disproven in court.

This forum is all about cutting through the hype and trying to find hard facts better than anyplace I know.
 
Jeez. Ya' don't need to sugarcoat it, Jimbo!

Tell us how you REALLY feel!
cheers.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo:
The phrase "outperforms all leading conventional motor oils" is advertising "puffery". Outperforms how? Which ones are "leading". What is the defintion of conventional, Group I, II or something else? There are no names or numbers, so there is nothing in that statement that can be proven or disproven in court.

This forum is all about cutting through the hype and trying to find hard facts better than anyplace I know.


Good point! This is a good place to learn the facts!
 
quote:

Originally posted by G-Man II:
There's nothing really all that special about Valvoline Durablend. It's nothing more than a Group II and Group III blend. Average specs. I'm sure it performs adequately if changed every 3-5K miles.

I wouldn't use it in my car simply because there are better oils out there.


Durablend is one the few blends that meets API CF, whereas those of the major players (Mobil, QS, PZ) meet only SL. Isn't this significant?
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo:


This forum is all about cutting through the hype and trying to find hard facts better than anyplace I know.


Jimbo,
This is getting increasingly harder to accomplish. Even the "experts" are entering the bias and mis-information game. It's getting tougher to find straihgt answers and educated opinions on here....this is just my opinion, of course
Rick

EDIT: As straight as my "straihgt" above.
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[ October 11, 2003, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Last_Z ]
 
Durablend also claims to meet the "Corvette requirement" (How's that for specificity?) If they are referring to GM 4718M, that is significant, because only the pure synthetics claim to meet that, but none of the blends.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Milton C. Hubbard:
Durablend also claims to meet the "Corvette requirement" (How's that for specificity?) If they are referring to GM 4718M, that is significant, because only the pure synthetics claim to meet that, but none of the blends.

This is where I get confused, since people on here say that Royal Purple 5w30 is a blend, but yet it passes the 4718M requirement.

[ October 12, 2003, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Patman ]
 
My opinion closely matches that of Jimbo.
cheers.gif


I used their full synthetic in my Honda Civic late in its life of 100,000+ miles. The car never consumed any Mobil 1 (the primary oil it got) nor the occasional Castrol Syntec but consumption of Valvoline FULL synthetic Synpower was noticeable after just 3,00-4,000 miles.

I then switched to Red Line and the consumption returned to zero ... even after longer drain intervals.
rolleyes.gif


In short, the Synpower was the worst (in terms of consumption) of all the oil I ever used in that car. I can't imagine their blend is terribly impressive ... just a blend of Group I and/or II along with some Group III oil ... with an indifferent additive package.

Thanks, but there are better oils out there.
wink.gif


--- Bror Jace
 
I think that this forum is wonderful.
smile.gif
I also think that the members here are in the top 1% of consumers, when it comes to knowledge of lubricants. Are there opinions here, that can't be backed up with proof?......Yes......that can't be avoided. Some of us use products that have not yet proven to be all that great (I am using RP, and others are using RL), and others are skeptical of products that show themselves to be excellent (schaeffer's surpreme,etc). The bottom line is that we keep each other informed as to UOA's, specs, and real-life experiences. For the time being, I don't see a better alternative.
cheers.gif
 
I was surprised about the poor rep and the bad rap Valvoline gets on this board when i started reading posts. I keep reading about what a weak additive package Valvoline has ( no moly ) and that other oils have a much better additive pack ( anybrand with moly ) then along comes GC , and it has no moly but peoples are talking about this oil. Also , i read a article that stated something like the "less additives the better" but , anyway, i had to find out for my self so i had a UOA done on my car with Durablend 10w-30 and posted it. The report says the oil is just fine.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Bror Jace:
My opinion closely matches that of Jimbo.
cheers.gif


I used their full synthetic in my Honda Civic late in its life of 100,000+ miles. The car never consumed any Mobil 1 (the primary oil it got) nor the occasional Castrol Syntec but consumption of Valvoline FULL synthetic Synpower was noticeable after just 3,00-4,000 miles.

I then switched to Red Line and the consumption returned to zero ... even after longer drain intervals.
rolleyes.gif


In short, the Synpower was the worst (in terms of consumption) of all the oil I ever used in that car. I can't imagine their blend is terribly impressive ... just a blend of Group I and/or II along with some Group III oil ... with an indifferent additive package.

Thanks, but there are better oils out there.
wink.gif


--- Bror Jace


I second the notion that Durablend increases consumption. My 93 Saturn DOHC started consuming at an abhorrent rate, 1 qt every 280miles or so.
mad.gif


Before going down this "pathetic synthetic" route, there was hardly any noticeable oil usage. I wound up selling the car for a newer DOHC Saturn, but the lesson was already learned....there are many other better blends and synths to choose from. In my experience, this is the worst oil I've ever used.
 
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