What was each OCI mileage interval and the viscosity?
Valvoline Restore & Protect
- Thread starter Scott S
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I thought UOA would show particulate that is too small to be seen and something as large as a flake wouldn't appear. Is that wrong?
5000 miles with 5w30 and a can of LiquiMoly MoS2 added with the fresh oil.
If there are flakes large enough to see trapped in the filter, I’m curious to know if something internally is making flakes small enough to be picked up on an oil analysis. These engines can have rod bearing issues. Don’t need that.
Correct. A Blackstone type UOA only detects wear particles around 5 microns and smaller. A very narrow range - like looking at the world through a straw. An engine can have a lot of wear going on, and the wear metals in the 5u and less range will only up-tick a bit which would be hard to detect the level of wear change without a good history tracking of UOAs on the engine.
My wife has the perfect candidate to test this oil. A 2015 Chevrolet Equinox with the loved and hated 2.4 Ecotec. Purchased it brand new in June of 2015 It has been a flawless vehicle and I truly mean that. Has 193K miles on it (she refuses to get new one claiming she loves the car). I actually just changed the original timing chain a few hundred miles ago. Engine has strictly and I do mean strictly ran on Mobil 1 "vanilla" 5w30.
These had pvc issues on the intake and piston ring issues that caused oil drinking like a muther. Thanks to "vanilla" it actually uses way less than many others with this engine uses (around a qt every 4K). I most definitely contribute this to 4-5K OCIs religiously (4K since its aged). These engines also are DI and they are hell on motor oils but if anyone calls them junk it's usually because they have not been maintained. These are good engines that need pretty steady maintenance and attention. With that they are great engines. I would drive this thing anywhere.
I will be doing a OCI on this vehicle in the next few weeks using VRP. I will definitely take pictures of the filters and because it has the deflection plate below the oil fill cap I know those pictures will render useless but I will take a picture of it nonetheless, and also monitor oil consumption and if it improves. Would y'all like to see a new thread created or continue to post on here? I just know the jury is still out on this oil and the Ecotec 2.4s are perfect candidates for this type of experiment. I am excited to test it to say the least.
These had pvc issues on the intake and piston ring issues that caused oil drinking like a muther. Thanks to "vanilla" it actually uses way less than many others with this engine uses (around a qt every 4K). I most definitely contribute this to 4-5K OCIs religiously (4K since its aged). These engines also are DI and they are hell on motor oils but if anyone calls them junk it's usually because they have not been maintained. These are good engines that need pretty steady maintenance and attention. With that they are great engines. I would drive this thing anywhere.
I will be doing a OCI on this vehicle in the next few weeks using VRP. I will definitely take pictures of the filters and because it has the deflection plate below the oil fill cap I know those pictures will render useless but I will take a picture of it nonetheless, and also monitor oil consumption and if it improves. Would y'all like to see a new thread created or continue to post on here? I just know the jury is still out on this oil and the Ecotec 2.4s are perfect candidates for this type of experiment. I am excited to test it to say the least.
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Considering the $30 for 5qt jug at Walmart price point, is there any reason not to use R&P for all future OCIs going forward once the initial "big cleaning" is one after the purported 4 OCIs? If this is round about the same price as most of the other major players, why not continue to use this over something like say M1 EP or PUP? Let's leave aside use cases where very specific certs are recommended/required.
Patman
Staff member
The one thing that would make me decide not to continue using this oil is the fact that Valvoline really hasn’t given this oil a mileage rating so that makes me wonder if it’s something that I would want to be running for 10,000 mile intervals in my Civic (when I follow the oil life monitor it typically signals a change at 10k)
I still haven’t fully decided but for me one of the front runners I’m considering is M1 EP HM, for the fact that it claims to clean up sludge in one interval and VRP doesn’t claim to do anything about sludge (not that my engine has that issue but just that it might be a good idea to give this different chemistry a shot too, and we know M1 EP can easily handle 10k OCIs)
Right. I should have clarified, is VRP the best long term choice at the price point for folks that are doing the normie every 5K-ish OCI.
I don’t think any blender will admit to their oils being unsuitable for the OEM drain interval.
Patman
Staff member
It still gives an extra level of confidence to me if I use an oil that actually has a mileage rating on it, then I know it’s likely to have been tested for extended intervals
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If anything, Valvoline stands to profit handsomely if you dump it at 5k. It's already priced a bit higher than their other products.
I was going to make a thread but this one makes more sense. A recent post asked what would it take to convince people RP is cleaning like it says, so I thought about an anecdotal experiment.
My R with a K20 was purchased new last year in April with 2 miles on the clock. It is daily driven and has 10,800 miles as of today. Oil changes were done at 500, 1500, and 3-4k intervals after that. Had 2 molygen changes until a lifetime oil shipment leaked before sending it out. Since then it has had Ultra platinum and most recently castrol edge gold (everything has been 0w20). A fram endurance put on after break in and a Honda filter was put on at 9k with castrol edge gold. I'm going to assume very little cleaning needs to be done, but you never know.
So now the fun anecdotal experiment that incorporates some research methods begins. The car is garage kept all year so cold starts aren't really cold, but after work it has been 30f. Since it's winter the car is short tripped to the gym followed by a 20 mile commute with a mix of urban and highway driving between 25-60mph. Oil temps are 168-178f. An Amoco outside my neighborhood is where I have purchased all of the 93 octane for this current edge run and it will stay that way. Stock tune will be used the entire time. A PRL oiled air filter has been on for pretty close to the cars entire life.
I was thinking of running the edge gold for 3500 miles and cutting the oil filter open. The same will be done for the RP and color will be compared. Obviously this is a blunt measurement tool and strictly anecdotal, however with a low miles car it will either be exactly the same or show a difference. I can also compare baseline color between the 2 as I have more edge gold from the same order (assuming it's the same batch).
Confounders: i can't guarantee driving conditions will be the same, however they are pretty consistent and my wife hates being in the car with the Tomei titanium exhaust, so it's 99% just my trips. Weather might change and swing to above freezing or sub zero pending Pittsburghs weird weather patterns. There is construction going on outside my neighborhood with some dust storms getting kicked up If I drive past a dump truck or something.
If anyone wants to see this, has any ideas, or wish list let me know.
My R with a K20 was purchased new last year in April with 2 miles on the clock. It is daily driven and has 10,800 miles as of today. Oil changes were done at 500, 1500, and 3-4k intervals after that. Had 2 molygen changes until a lifetime oil shipment leaked before sending it out. Since then it has had Ultra platinum and most recently castrol edge gold (everything has been 0w20). A fram endurance put on after break in and a Honda filter was put on at 9k with castrol edge gold. I'm going to assume very little cleaning needs to be done, but you never know.
So now the fun anecdotal experiment that incorporates some research methods begins. The car is garage kept all year so cold starts aren't really cold, but after work it has been 30f. Since it's winter the car is short tripped to the gym followed by a 20 mile commute with a mix of urban and highway driving between 25-60mph. Oil temps are 168-178f. An Amoco outside my neighborhood is where I have purchased all of the 93 octane for this current edge run and it will stay that way. Stock tune will be used the entire time. A PRL oiled air filter has been on for pretty close to the cars entire life.
I was thinking of running the edge gold for 3500 miles and cutting the oil filter open. The same will be done for the RP and color will be compared. Obviously this is a blunt measurement tool and strictly anecdotal, however with a low miles car it will either be exactly the same or show a difference. I can also compare baseline color between the 2 as I have more edge gold from the same order (assuming it's the same batch).
Confounders: i can't guarantee driving conditions will be the same, however they are pretty consistent and my wife hates being in the car with the Tomei titanium exhaust, so it's 99% just my trips. Weather might change and swing to above freezing or sub zero pending Pittsburghs weird weather patterns. There is construction going on outside my neighborhood with some dust storms getting kicked up If I drive past a dump truck or something.
If anyone wants to see this, has any ideas, or wish list let me know.
The Honda OLM is pretty crazy IMO. If ran to 0% I would have been well over 12k miles. I would be way more comfortable running M1 EP, Edge Gold with 229.71, HPL, SS, etc. Compared to QS synthetic or Gtx.
Only on certain models. The intervals are absurdly short on others.
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If Honda says any 0w20 meets their spec (that includes some blends like pennzoil gold), I wouldn’t think twice about running VRP to the oil life monitor.
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Will be interested to see if you have a variable valve timing solenoid code pop up. The daughter had an Equinox that was pre-owned. That engine was horribly gunked up. Did a flush to get it cleaned up, the solenoids got plugged up with all kinds of nasty crap.
The VRP is to be a bit slower with dissolving the buildup and varnish. Hopefully it will work well for you
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My 2008 seems to max out around 7500-8000 miles. If it can hit 8k on a worst case scenario 2008-era 5w-20, I would have no problems going the full OLM on a newer one with something better than bottom-shelf oil.
Yes, I've had to replace these once at around 120K or so. When I pulled them I did not see any gunk at all, so that kind of confused me as well lol. I truly do believe the Mobil 1 5w30 "vanilla" oil with religious 4-5K OCI's has saved me many issues others have experienced with these engines. When I changed the Timing Chain a couple weeks ago, the engine was very clean. No need for EP in my book lol. However, I am curious as well if it can clean up the ring problems these were plagued with as well.
I'm thinking to create a whole separate thread with the progress of it all.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
I simply can not pay attention or use the Honda olm in the wife's car. If I did I would be doing oci of 12,000mi which to me is crazy with the engine in the car. It has the 1.5 GDI-T that is a proven diluter. The very first time we tried to use the olm for an oci there was an entire quart extra of nasty oil/fuel that came out. After the same thing on the second try we determined to go with 3000 to 4000mi oci and just reset the Honda olm each time. At least now we do not get any extra fluid out when doing the oil changes. Plus of course all Honda dealers make the same comments, "oh, there is NOTHING that can be done, or what dilution issues?"
^^^ Same here with my daughter’s Civic in my signature.
If we went down to near 0% on the OLM, the OCI mileage would be ~12K mile. However, when approaching the 1 year timeframe with only ~3K miles(due to military deployment), the OLM drops drastically toward 0% and gives a warning that a service is due soon.
So, the system also knows the 1 year mark(365 days) based on when the maintenance indicator is reset.
I perform an OCI every 5-6 K miles or ~ 2X/year
If we went down to near 0% on the OLM, the OCI mileage would be ~12K mile. However, when approaching the 1 year timeframe with only ~3K miles(due to military deployment), the OLM drops drastically toward 0% and gives a warning that a service is due soon.
So, the system also knows the 1 year mark(365 days) based on when the maintenance indicator is reset.
I perform an OCI every 5-6 K miles or ~ 2X/year
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