Valvoline Maxlife

[Lothar King of the Hill People]

Hello-
What is the consensus on Valvoline SL Maxlife 10W-30? Is this good stuff to use in a 120K mile mopar 318? What about the 30W version? Have there been any tests done on this oil?
Thanks in advance

 

[Jelly]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lothar King of the Hill People:
Hello-
What is the consensus on Valvoline SL Maxlife 10W-30? Is this good stuff to use in a 120K mile mopar 318? What about the 30W version? Have there been any tests done on this oil?
Thanks in advance

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Well, it's oil...

Nothing really special to talk about...a little thicker and has the seal sweal agents that make the HM oils somewhat special...but Valvoline oils in general aren't held in that much regard, and when it comes to HM oils, Pennzoil is a better pick, considering the higher quality base stock and addition of molybdenum to the additive pack.

But if I remember right, there was some mail-in offer where you could actually get Max-Life for FREE!! I'm sure someone else will help you out here though...

 

[Lothar King of the Hill People]

What about Moly/Zinc content? Does Penzoil have more of these additives?

 

[sbc350gearhead]

Pennzoil uses moly, valvoline doesn't. The ZDDP is limited by the SL rating, and both valvoline and pennzoil have about the same amount.

 

[Jelly]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lothar King of the Hill People:
What about Moly/Zinc content? Does Penzoil have more of these additives?

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That was one of the issues with MaxLife...when it first came out, it had a nice little amount of moly in the additive pack, but a bit there after, Valvoline quit putting moly in...

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lothar King of the Hill People:
Hello-
What is the consensus on Valvoline SL Maxlife 10W-30? Is this good stuff to use in a 120K mile mopar 318? What about the 30W version? Have there been any tests done on this oil?
Thanks in advance

---

I have two UOAs posted on here with Maxlife 10w30 in my 95 Firebird Formula and the wear numbers were not all that great. Although this oil did hold it's viscosity extremely well and it's TBN held up well, at least in a short interval.

Maxlife no longer contains moly in it, so I'd say if you're going to use one of the high mileage oils, go with Pennzoil High Mileage which contains moly and boron too.

 

[TallPaul]

Maxlife has a good slug of calcium. About 0.26 percent I think. But what does the calcium do?

Also, does anybody know what group base oil Maxlife has? I got nowhere with their phone reps.

I checked out the tech data sheets on several high mileage oils and Maxlife appears to be unique among them in that it is not thinker than regular oil at 100C, but the other HMs are runing 1 to 2 higher on 100C viscosity. Not sure what it means though, but certainly they are not giving you just a thicker oil, unless the base oil is thicker. If you look at the stated flash point for 10w40 Maxlife (242 C) it is right up there with regular 20w40 oils. The only way they could get that kind of a flash point on it seems to me would be to have a thicker base oil at the high end of a 10w range, maybe close to a 15w.

[ December 08, 2003, 12:23 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]

 

[10K-PCW-Jr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:


Maxlife no longer contains moly in it, so I'd say if you're going to use one of the high mileage oils, go with Pennzoil High Mileage which contains moly and boron too. [/QB]

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Why do we need Boron and Moly in Vavoline HM? First of all it is free with a mail-in coupon and second of all I looked at the GC and it does not contain any moly and only 5.2 PPM Boron. Just trying to keep things in perspective. Snagged up 15 free quarts of the 10W30 Max Life Valvoline. (It did cost 37 cents X3 to mail in the rebate form though)

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by 10K-PCW-Jr:

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:


Maxlife no longer contains moly in it, so I'd say if you're going to use one of the high mileage oils, go with Pennzoil High Mileage which contains moly and boron too.

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Why do we need Boron and Moly in Vavoline HM? First of all it is free with a mail-in coupon and second of all I looked at the GC and it does not contain any moly and only 5.2 PPM Boron. Just trying to keep things in perspective. Snagged up 15 free quarts of the 10W30 Max Life Valvoline. (It did cost 37 cents X3 to mail in the rebate form though)

[/QB]

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True, GC doesn't contain moly or boron, but instead uses more esters in it's base oil, plus a lot of calcium, plus they are probably using some other form of antiwear that we don't typically see in the oil analysis reports. Same goes for Amsoil which uses no moly.

But when it comes to conventional or high mileage oils, they can't afford to sell the oil at a low price and use the more expensive forms of antiwear, so the ones which do contain some moly and boron are typically the ones which show lower wear.

As far as Maxlife's base oil, we do know it has 10% esters in it, plus the rest of it is either group 2 or 2+.

About Maxlife's viscosity, even though it's spec sheet says 10.5, it's actually closer to 11.5.

[ December 08, 2003, 06:14 AM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[GSV]

Lothar King of the Hill People

Cool name!

 

[TallPaul]

Thank you Patman. I suspected Maxlife was Group II, especially when compared to its European cousin that most likely is a combo of Group I and Group III oils. The European Maxlife has much lower flash points and I think the pour points are higher.

I believe the Maxlife 10w30 MSDS gives a range of 10.5 to 11.5 for the 100C viscosity; whereas the tech data sheet just says 10.5. The other high mileage oils are a bit higher (e.g., Citgo Ultralife 11.8 and Chevron Supreme HM 12, per tech data sheets) so maybe it is not all that much difference between them.

[ December 09, 2003, 12:26 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]

 

[turbochem]

Lothar, you are taking me back to the Meyers/Hartman heyday of SNL........

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
As far as Maxlife's base oil, we do know it has 10% esters in it, plus the rest of it is either group 2 or 2+.

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Patman: Do you know what the base oil makeup is for the other Valvoline oils dino and blend oils? I suspect Durablend is GpII(+) and III, but am thinking (partly due to the shabby flash points) that AllClimate probably has a slug of Group I in it. BTW, according to the tech sheets, Durablend 5w30 has a very good flashpoint, way above the other 5w30s and some higher grades, but Maxlife 5w30's flashpoint did not impress me.

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I'm not sure what the rest of Valvoline's oils use for their base oil, I only know about Maxlife's base oil from our good friend Johnny (the Pennzoil guy) who knew one of the guys who helped develop Maxlife for Valvoline many years ago.

 

[97tbird]

quote:

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Originally posted by TallPaul:


The other high mileage oils are a bit higher (e.g., Citgo Ultralife 11.8 and Chevron Supreme HM 12, per tech data sheets) so maybe it is not all that much difference between them.

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--------------------------------
Tallpaul,

Where did you find onfo about Chevron HM oil ???
Where can on find Chevron HM oil?
I've only seen the regular stuff....

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
As far as Maxlife's base oil, we do know it has 10% esters in it, plus the rest of it is either group 2 or 2+.

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Patman: Do you know what the base oil makeup is for the other Valvoline oils dino and blend oils? I suspect Durablend is GpII(+) and III, but am thinking (partly due to the shabby flash points) that AllClimate probably has a slug of Group I in it. BTW, according to the tech sheets, Durablend 5w30 has a very good flashpoint, way above the other 5w30s and some higher grades, but Maxlife 5w30's flashpoint did not impress me.

 

[TallPaul]

quote:

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Originally posted by 97tbird:
... Tallpaul,
Where did you find onfo about Chevron HM oil ???
Where can on find Chevron HM oil?
I've only seen the regular stuff....

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Go here, click on PDS, and then enter "high mileage" in the search line:
https://www.cbest.chevron.com/msdsS...earchScreen=Y&Token=MSDSHOME&isLoginPage=true

Note Havoline High Mileage is the same as Chevron's.

For some reason I can get to the tech data sheets but not download them. Says I don't have the correct viewer. I downloaded them a few weeks ago, but off a different computer, so maybe it will work for you. Else I can post what was there.

____________________________________________
Correction: The Maxlife 10w30 MSDS says the viscosity at 100C is 11 - 12, not 11.5 - 12.5 as I posted above yesterday.

[ December 10, 2003, 01:31 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]