What's the best deal on good Group III oil?

[Thatwouldbegreat]

I have been using Redline, Mobil 1, Delo 400, and now Motorcraft 5W-20. And that is what I will continue to use in my family's cars.

My question is what oils are good deals for 'dino' oil , say at Wally world...if I want a good 5W-30, 10W-30, 10W-40, or 5W-40 oil with Group III for 4000 - 5000 mile intervals.

Price, fuel efficiency, and good UOA's are the main goals... and factory approvals wouldn't hurt.

 

[TallPaul]

NAPA has a line of full synthetic (presumably Group III) that sells for $3.49 a quart. It is bottled by Valvoline, but not exactly the same as the Valvoline synthetic. In my area they just had it on sale for $2.69, but $3.69 seems reasonable for a Gp III. Call first as I understand not all NAPAs carry the synthetic.

Other than that just stock up whenever you see a deal on any brand Gp III.

 

[dkcase]

I am a believer in Shell Rotella T Syn. I use it in 2 of the 5 cars that I do the oil on, and get good UOAs.

I would use it in all of them if I didn't keep hearing about other great oils on here.

Conversely, if WallyWorld jacks the price up from the $12.84 per gallon to the Mobil 1 price, I'd move away from it.

Other cars are getting Mobil 1, Pnzl Long-Life, and Schaeffers.

 

[C4Dave]

Wal-Mart's Super Tech synthetic is a group III, is cheap, and comes in more than 1 viscosity.

 

[haley10]

Hmmm. not sure why Group III is important? That narrows the field quite a bit.

Shell Rotella Synthetic 5W-40 fits the bill and so does the SuperTech Wal-Mart SYN. That's about it.

Personally I think my best deal at Wally's right now for a 5K interval would be Motorcraft and Castrol Syntec Blend, but it doesn't fit your GPIII criteria. Also maybe Mobil Drive Clean Plus blend. All great stuff, but no GPIII.

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Fair enough!

How about a good Group II or Group II+ blend with Group III in it?

I'm looking for information to help me identify the best all around value oil to use in friends cars.

For example the Motrocraft 5W-20 is a deal @ $1.42 /qt for a 'syn' blend with excellent UOA's

But what oils are as good in the other viscosities?

quote:

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Originally posted by haley10:
Hmmm. not sure why Group III is important? That narrows the field quite a bit.

Shell Rotella Synthetic 5W-40 fits the bill and so does the SuperTech Wal-Mart SYN. That's about it.

Personally I think my best deal at Wally's right now for a 5K interval would be Motorcraft and Castrol Syntec Blend, but it doesn't fit your GPIII criteria. Also maybe Mobil Drive Clean Plus blend. All great stuff, but no GPIII.

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[TR3-2001SE]

I think the delo 400 15w-40 is the best dino oil for the money. It can go 6-7 thousand miles without any problem and keeps the engine about as clean as the expensive synthetics. Best bang for your buck at about 1.60 per quart. I am guessing it is a Group II oil but maybe the experts can tells us for sure.

 

[davefr]

Too bad it's virtually impossible to get a Delo 400 in a 10W-30 grade.

I suppose you could approximate a Delo 400 10W-30 by starting with Delo 15W-40 and blending in some Chevron Supreme 5W-20. I wonder if a 4:1 mix ratio would thin it down so it's just under the wire as a 10W-30 yet still retains most of the characteristics of the Delo.

Does Chevron say it's OK to blend Delo with Supreme??

The Supreme is less than $1/qt at Costco and I think the Delo is about $1.5/qt.

quote:

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Originally posted by TR3-2001SE:
I think the delo 400 15w-40 is the best dino oil for the money. It can go 6-7 thousand miles without any problem and keeps the engine about as clean as the expensive synthetics. Best bang for your buck at about 1.60 per quart. I am guessing it is a Group II oil but maybe the experts can tells us for sure.

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[ June 03, 2004, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: davefr ]

 

[Mamala Bay]

I pick up the Delo400 10w-30 at a Chevron Distribution Center you know where they sell quarts, Gls, 5 Gls, and 50 Gls drums of Chevron oil. They come in Quarts size in a case of 12's. If you can find a distribution center and use it with Lube Control and Fuel Power it's as close to Synthetic oil or if not better.

 

[C4Dave]

Best bang for the buck Group II oil is Chevron. I can get a case of it a Costco for 93 cents a quart.

 

[TooSlick]

The Petro Canada, "Duron" 5w-40 ....

Ran some of this for 10,500 miles in my 1990 Audi 100 and it held up very well ....

The only potential with these Group III based 5w-40s is that most of them will shear down a bit in a turbo or DOHC engine. The VI's of the GP III basestocks aren't up to PAO standards, so making a wide range multigrade with these stocks requires more polymeric thickener. A oil like Delvac 1, 5w-40 is much more shear stable than any GP III I've come across. IMHO, the GP III's are better suited to making the 5w-20/5w-30/10w-30 grades ....


Tooslick
www.lubedealer.com/Dixie_Synthetics

 

[Ray H]

Since Chevron bought out Texaco, er, "merged", several years ago, Havoline (also using Group II lube base stocks according to the backside blather on the bottles) is for all practical purposes identical*, viscosity grade for grade, to Chevron Supreme if local availabilty of CS is a problem. I'm coming up on 12,000 miles in a Hyundai 2.7L V6 with Havoline 10W-30 conventional in the sump over the past three consecutive 3,000 mile OCIs. I'm considering having Blackstone conduct a UOA of a drain-off sample.

*The conventional Havoline product data sheets are identical to the conventional Chevron Supreme data sheets in all parameters except for 0.2 marginally higher TBN figures across the board. Could be for real, could be a typo, could be from different sample batches. Since the variance is a constant 0.2 figure, my gut tells me the "difference" is a typo. Regardless, I doubt there's any appreciable advantage in how well the oil staves off the effects of acids over the OCI.

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by TooSlick:
The VI's of the GP III basestocks aren't up to PAO standards, so making a wide range multigrade with these stocks requires more polymeric thickener.

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This is the case for Group III base oils that are just barely Group III, i.e., they have a VI of 120. PetroCanada is producing Group III with newer more advanced catalysts that have VIs of around 140. And wax isomerate Group IIIs (like Shell's XHVI and ExxonMobil's ExxSyn) typically have VIs of over 140, which is fully in line with PAO.

 

[tweeker43]

pennzoil has some promotion going on with $10 (iirc) coupons/rebate in the case of synthetic oil. i think you do have to sign up on their webpage though.

but, **** , ten bucks is ten bucks. i'm going to buy some for my next oil change. or maybe the pennzoil suv/minivan/truck formula; it has the same deal.

 

[jbas]

quote:

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This is the case for Group III base oils that are just barely Group III, i.e., they have a VI of 120.

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The SuperTech full synthetic, as other posters on here have noted, is Mag 1 Synthetic by Warren Distribution, Inc. (Omaha). Their published numbers show the following:

5W-30 10W-30

V.I. 150 140
HT/HS 2.92 3.12

 

[JohnBrowning]

For price and availability Rotella-T Synthetic is the best buy at $12.48 a gallon at Walmart! It will surely do ok for the interval you are asking of it!

Their is not a lot of UOA for Rotella-T Synthetic but I seem to remember it being a mixed bag of nuts with Rotell-T. Some UOA were great some were just so so.

 

[Forkman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Thatwouldbegreat:
Fair enough!

How about a good Group II or Group II+ blend with Group III in it?

I'm looking for information to help me identify the best all around value oil to use in friends cars.

---

[/QB][/QUOTE]
If you're looking for a GpII/GpIII blend I'd say Havoline semi-syn is probably a good value. Advance auto carries it for something like $2.14/qt. I would wait till they have it on sale for $2.08 and buy up a case or so.

Now I am just assuming its a II/III blend since regular Havoline is GrpII/II+ and their syn is a GrpIII. I can't imagine them using a GrpI/GrpIII blend in their semi-syn if they already use a GrpII for their dino base.