Valvoline Synpower

[Mystic]

I was in Wal-Mart today and I usually stop in the motor oil section while I am there. I saw 5 qt containers of Valvoline Synpower synthetic for just a little over $20.00 dollars!

Right now I am going to test Pennzoil Ultra and Mobil 1 High Mileage in my car. But with Valvoline Synpower so cheap I might start using it. It is about $5.80 a quart in single quart bottles and in the five quart container just about $4.00 a quart.

 

[buster]

Valvoline Synpower for years was a very subpar oil. When Honda tested it against their HTO-06 turbo spec, it failed miserably. Over the last 1-2 years, Ashland has really improved their synthetic oil line. I'd put Valvoline up there with the best of them now. They were also recently approved for GM 4718M for use in Corvettes.

Valvoline has no extended drain capable oil, but it's still a good product. Their conventional oils are very good too.

 

[zddp77]

Mystic: the Valvoline Synpower is superior too Mobil 1 High Mileage the Ultra looks good on paper but time will tell. Keep in mind Mobil 1 High Mileage is only API SL GF-3 if your car is 2004 or later you must use ILSAC GF-4 oils. Synpower at $4.00 a quart is a steal give it a try I guarantee you will like it. If you want a High Mileage oil you cant beat Maxlife.

 

[Mystic]

Pennzoil conventional motor oil in 1 quart containers was about $3.80 a quart. The Valvoline Synpower synthetic was about the same price in the 5 quart container! Of course in the 5 quart container the Pennzoil conventional motor oil is cheaper. But for $20.00 and change for 5 quarts of Valvoline Synpower synthetic motor oil I am going synthetic. Why use conventional?

 

[zddp77]

Mystic at $4.00 a quart I would stock up on Synpower. All the big name lube makers had an increase on 3-1-2010 and another one is comming at the end of the summer.

 

[postjeeprcr]

Originally Posted By: zddp77
Mystic: the Valvoline Synpower is superior too Mobil 1 High Mileage the Ultra looks good on paper but time will tell. Keep in mind Mobil 1 High Mileage is only API SL GF-3 if your car is 2004 or later you must use ILSAC GF-4 oils. Synpower at $4.00 a quart is a steal give it a try I guarantee you will like it. If you want a High Mileage oil you cant beat Maxlife.


Where is your proof? Is SynPower superior in your eyes because Mobil 1 High Mileage is an API SL oil? Also you can use any oil in any car, some use certain oils for warranty reasons which makes sense. If a person is using high mileage oils most likely their car is out of warranty.

 

[Mystic]

I have a really hard time extending oil changes all that much buster. I am old and old school. But with some of these synthetic oils costing only a few dollars more than conventional motor oil I think it is silly to keep using the conventional motor oil. The synthetic oil simply has to be better. And if the difference in cost for an oil change is ten bucks or so that is really nothing.

 

[buster]

Makes sense to me Mystic. Go for it!

 

[Mystic]

Well, zddp77 is right. The Mobil 1 High Mileage oil is only SL. But like you say a person who uses High Mileage oil likely can use an SL oil and I can because my car is a 2003 Saturn Ion with about 81,000 miles on it.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Pennzoil conventional motor oil in 1 quart containers was about $3.80 a quart. The Valvoline Synpower synthetic was about the same price in the 5 quart container! Of course in the 5 quart container the Pennzoil conventional motor oil is cheaper. But for $20.00 and change for 5 quarts of Valvoline Synpower synthetic motor oil I am going synthetic. Why use conventional?


How about you use 5 quart jugs for the conventional price...

$2.50 a quart vs $4 a quart. "Only" 38% more...

Quaker State Synthetic is $18 for 5 quarts BTW... $3.60 a quart.

 

[Mystic]

I do wonder however why an oil that has just recently come out is only SL and not SM. Go figure.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: buster
Valvoline Synpower for years was a very subpar oil. When Honda tested it against their HTO-06 turbo spec, it failed miserably. Over the last 1-2 years, Ashland has really improved their synthetic oil line. I'd put Valvoline up there with the best of them now. They were also recently approved for GM 4718M for use in Corvettes.

Valvoline has no extended drain capable oil, but it's still a good product. Their conventional oils are very good too.


When did Synpower get better?

What would be the max OCI mileage for Synpower, under good conditions (90%+ highway driving, no cold temps?) Thanks.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
I was in Wal-Mart today and I usually stop in the motor oil section while I am there. I saw 5 qt containers of Valvoline Synpower synthetic for just a little over $20.00 dollars!

Right now I am going to test Pennzoil Ultra and Mobil 1 High Mileage in my car. But with Valvoline Synpower so cheap I might start using it. It is about $5.80 a quart in single quart bottles and in the five quart container just about $4.00 a quart.


I put P. Ultra in the xB today. I'll do an analysis at about 6.5k miles which I have done on this car with PP and Formula Shell Full Synthetic. I'm guessing that the Ultra won't justify the extra dollars.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Originally Posted By: buster
Valvoline Synpower for years was a very subpar oil. When Honda tested it against their HTO-06 turbo spec, it failed miserably. Over the last 1-2 years, Ashland has really improved their synthetic oil line. I'd put Valvoline up there with the best of them now. They were also recently approved for GM 4718M for use in Corvettes.

Valvoline has no extended drain capable oil, but it's still a good product. Their conventional oils are very good too.


When did Synpower get better?

What would be the max OCI mileage for Synpower, under good conditions (90%+ highway driving, no cold temps?) Thanks.


There's an arse kicking used oil analysis of Synpower @ over 7k miles in the used oil analysis section.

 

[Mystic]

Bill in Utah what I meant was if the price different was something like 10 dollars between using the 5 quart container of conventional motor oil (such as Pennzoil) and the synthetic oil in a 5 quart container (such as Valvoline Synpower) I think 10 dollars is a pretty small difference and that 10 dollar difference might mean a lot and be well worth it. Foir example, maybe better fuel mileage, better performance in cold weather (and hot weather), better cleaning, maybe less wear, etc.

Just the superior cleaning might be worth the price. People have bought some expensive internal engine cleaners to keep their engines clean.

 

[postjeeprcr]

Originally Posted By: GROUCHO MARX
Originally Posted By: Mystic
I was in Wal-Mart today and I usually stop in the motor oil section while I am there. I saw 5 qt containers of Valvoline Synpower synthetic for just a little over $20.00 dollars!

Right now I am going to test Pennzoil Ultra and Mobil 1 High Mileage in my car. But with Valvoline Synpower so cheap I might start using it. It is about $5.80 a quart in single quart bottles and in the five quart container just about $4.00 a quart.


I put P. Ultra in the xB today. I'll do an analysis at about 6.5k miles which I have done on this car with PP and Formula Shell Full Synthetic. I'm guessing that the Ultra won't justify the extra dollars.


What would it have to do to justify the few extra dollar cost?

 

[postjeeprcr]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Well, zddp77 is right. The Mobil 1 High Mileage oil is only SL. But like you say a person who uses High Mileage oil likely can use an SL oil and I can because my car is a 2003 Saturn Ion with about 81,000 miles on it.


I do not see what is wrong with an SL oil. People used it for many years with no problems, and still do. Only real difference seems to be different levels of additives.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Bill in Utah what I meant was if the price different was something like 10 dollars between using the 5 quart container of conventional motor oil (such as Pennzoil) and the synthetic oil in a 5 quart container (such as Valvoline Synpower) I think 10 dollars is a pretty small difference and that 10 dollar difference might mean a lot and be well worth it. Foir example, maybe better fuel mileage, better performance in cold weather (and hot weather), better cleaning, maybe less wear, etc.

Just the superior cleaning might be worth the price. People have bought some expensive internal engine cleaners to keep their engines clean.


Some thing like $10 is close to twice the price per oil change. Most people (and members here) do short OCIs with any oil.

The syn "maybe" gets better MPG may have been factual years ago but with today's API AL/SM not happening with the same grades. In fact some conventional oils do better than some syns. Same with cleaning. If you are following the recommended OCI with Pennzoil Conventional and Pennzoil Platinum I doubt any difference in how clean a engine is going to be over its life.

Cold weather and hot weather? Unless you are in the below 30 and even colder the conventional oils do just fine. But I forget that 10 degrees ABOVE zero is considered severe according to one major syn oil maker...

"Maybe" less wear? Not looking at used oil analysis or engines that last hundreds of thousands of miles running normal oils.

The people who are wasting spending their $$ on cleaning magic stuff are spending it on something not needed for 90%+ of the engines out there.

How much cleaning is needed when engines make 200k, 300k and beyond using YESTERDAY'S conventional oils? And today's ARE much better? (anyone want to disagree with that today's oils are worst than yesterday? (Arco, you don't count...

)

If you want to spend the $$ fine. But in the end will there be a pay off? And of course, if you don't keep the car forever, it gets wrecked (like my 394,000 mile well running Jetta this Jan

) or rusts out it will not matter what oil you ran.

And you'll never get back the "only" $10 per oil change...

Just my thoughts..

Bill

 

[rclint]

( On edit I dunno now LOL... maybe I'm up past my bedtime) Mystic Bill pointed you to an even better deal price wise than the Valvoline synthetic. Quaker State Synthetic is also a great deal, and also a fine oil judging by the UOA etc.. many report that it's a close runner for all being PP, QS, insert the Shell synthetic I forget the name.

If you really want to get frisky with your dollar look at Motorcraft 5w-20 synthetic blend the next time your in walmart, that is a great buy which my Honda accord may go on a good diet strictly doing 7500 mile OCI by owners manual.

 

[calvinnnnnnnnn]

i run synpower in all 3 cars that i maintain. VERY SMOOTH OIL, nothing compares to it. Netted the highest mpg with synpower. IMO its one of the best synthetics out there. there isnt one bad uoa with synpower in this forum.

This oil is capable of 10k+ miles on cars that go easy on oil, i wouldnt run this oil pass 6000 where the engine is hard on oil.

i've used pp, amsoil, mobil 1, castrol syntec, quakerstate hp and synpower is my favorite of all.