Valvoline MaxLife 10W30 with MaxLife Engine Wear Protector?

[GT Mike]

Just did this combo for my oil change this afternoon on my '97 Grand Prix 3800.

Is this a pretty decent brew? I had been running Mobil 1 10W30 previously, and typical of Mobil 1 the engine seemed somewhat noisy. It seems much smoother and quieter with this oil and treatment in the crankcase by comparison...I'm guessing it's from the boatload of moly in the treatment. That part I've researched out quite exhaustively, but I know very little about the MaxLife oil itself. I was going to go with Durablend, but the MaxLife was on sale at Wal-Mart. I didn't plan on more than a 3000 mile OCI anyways, but may stretch it if the oil seems to be holding up good.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[TallPaul]

I suspect the Engine Protector has raised your viscosity to a very thick 10w30 or very thin 10w40. If you used SM Maxlife then it already lists 300 ppm moly on the product data sheets apart from the Engine Protector. I would guess you could run this oil 4000 miles easily. I have a used oil analysis of 10w30 SL Maxlife in my motorhome at 4400 miles and it looks great (used oil analysis on this site).

 

[GT Mike]

That's the MaxLife I used.

A thick 10W30 wouldn't probably be the worst thing, as I suspect my mains and rods are getting a little looser over the last nearly 100,000 miles of brutal floggings this car has had. There isn't a day I drive it that it doesn't see at least one WOT romp to over 90 MPH.

I get a little main bearing thump on a dry start after I change oil, so now I disconnect the crank sensor till the oil light goes out to prime it a bit. Never makes any noise after that though.

 

[TallPaul]

If you have an oil pressure gauge you can compare the hot reading at say 2000 rpm to what you had before. Probably a few psi higher. Another way to get the thick 10w30 is mix 3 qts 10w30 with 2 qts 10w40.

What did the Maxlife Engine Protector cost you? Typically I see it at Pep Boys or AZ for around $5.50 (but Meijers has it for $3.00, I think clearance). However, the Synpower Oil Treatment is only $4 and so if you want to beef the oil, you could use that. And if you look up the VOAs here, the Synpower OT is pretty good stuff. Butler Cat labs recently did a VOA on the Synpower. Synpower Oil Treatment VOA, which showed:

Moly: 2324
Boron: 1046
Calcium: 1050
Magnesium: 968
Phosphorus: 1792
Zinc: 1740

Whereas sometime ago a VOA on Maxlife Engine Protector showed:

Molybdenum (Mo) 489
Phosphorus (P) 567
Zinc (Zn) 625
Calcium (Ca) 240
Magnesium (Mg) 57

So you can see the Synpower stuff is much better. I happen to have a bottle of the Maxlife in my truck right now, but in the future will use the Synpower. Both are about the same viscosity.

[ May 16, 2005, 07:53 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]

 

[haley10]

GT Mike, no faith in the GM OLM?

 

[GT Mike]

Actually, it seems quite accurate *if* you're using a very good quality oil. With M1, I ran it down to 15% which was just a hair under 6000 miles. The oil was quite clean looking on the stick yet with only a slight darkening. You could still read all the lettering and hash marks on the dipstick thru it. If I was still running a full synthetic, I'd rely on it which I have in the past. On a trip to Arizona I got it down to 4% which was just a little over 7000 miles of mostly interstate driving. Though it claims to monitor actual engine operating conditions, it seems to use a 7500 mile OCI as its baseline. Probably adjusts under severe conditions to get it changed a little more frequently, but as I've noticed, it rarely, if ever exceeds 7500 miles.

 

[haley10]

FWIW GTMike, the GM engineer said it was calibrated and tested with dino's that barely met spec. I'm sure what your running is better than that.

Right. this OLM tops out at 7,500 mi. I'm too nervous to do it though, even with GC.

6K for now.

 

[edvanp]

GT-Mike, for the summer, I recently mixed 2 quarts of Mobil 1 15w50 w/ 3 quarts of 10w30 Val-SynPower. I paid $1 a quart for the 15w50 and the Syn was free. I have the SC version of the 3800 Series II w/ 125k on it and this engine seems to like thicker oil. It's running great right now with no noticeable drop in Mileage. For winter, I'll run 0w40 Mobil 1. I also add about 3-4 ounces of the SynPower Oil treatment each change for a little added boost.

 

[T-Keith]

Looks like that Maxlife addative is adding little if anything to your oil, except maybe some VIIs and seal swellers. I'd skip the stuff altogether.

Your no where near high mileage with that thing, so I wouldn't worry about things like that. Not that MAX-life is bad, but you'd probably do just as well with a high quality dino like Chevron, plus save a lot of money. If you want some more addatives and a thicker viscosity add some Delo to the mix.

-T