What's the best oil for my use case?

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2014 Pathfinder Platinum, 102,xxx miles, I'm almost through my stash of 5w30 conventional and it'll be time to buy some shiny new oil before I know it.

Looking for something with excellent engine cleaning properties and good metal wear protection because I want to keep my Pathfinder until it hits 300,000 miles at the very least.

My Pathfinder specifies 0w20 OR 5w30 and I've used both in it with similar results so I don't mind recommendations for either weight.

It gets driven daily, my commute to work is about 15 minutes from the house and I do a lot of in-town driving on my days off, probably about 250-300 miles weekly is what I put on it.

I don't tow anything but occasionally I put the seats down to haul scrap and other odd objects for myself or family.

The area I live in is considered a severe service region by the dealerships here and the road to and from my house is an 8% grade, and the road to get up out of town is a steep enough grade (11% IIRC) that it's one of the few places in the US where there is NO fine for using a runaway truck ramp.

What would be a good oil with excellent cleaning properties and good metal wear protection for a daily driven vehicle in a severe service region like mine?
 


 
OCI is king. But a healthy additive pack with friction modifiers like boron and moly and a high VOA TBN to keep the engine clean. Take a dart and choose from many performers. My choice is PUP 0w-20. The MOFT bearing clearance at running temperature leans to higher viscosity but cold start up wear would point to the 0w-20. Idling is also not good for engine wear,
 
All you need. ;)
PZ-Platinum-API-950x1000.jpeg
 
I see no reason to run a 5w-20 or 0w-20 in mild temps and a 10w-30 in summer time.
5w-40 is also a known good grade for VQ series engines such as yours.
I run 0w-40 right now in mine but have run 5w-40 and 10w-30 in the past depending on what high quality oils were on sale at the time.
 
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@cwilliamsws6
  • Red Line 5W-30 - it's worth the money
  • Quaker State Euro 5W-40 - it's API SP, modern Euro-spec oil with a ton of OEM approvals, low spASH - and it's basically a 5W-30 - I don't even know how they get away with calling it a 5W-40. But I digress. Anyway, it's good oil. This is basically Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 in a Quaker State bottle - the only Quaker State I have actually like.
PUP 5W-30 - not great - all those folks who recommend it or just plainly claim "it's awesome" have yet to explain what makes it so great, considering how easily it shears and the basic fact that it's blended from thin GTL basestock and has a ton of VII in it.
Mobil 1 FS 0W-40 - Mobil has not updated this formulation in forever and I doubt they ever will. It's still rated API SN. Mobil makes awesome Euro oils for modern European engines, but they all but abandoned their legacy stuff.

If you want something more in the realm of "normal":
  • Mobil 1 EP 0W-20 - it's PAO+AN (100% synthetic) and it's basically a monograde as it contains no VII. Now, this is a truly awesome and amazing oil.
  • Mobil 1 EP 5W-30 - it's a mix of GTL+PAO+AN and the VII content is very low - it's a very robust oil.
 
2014 Pathfinder Platinum, 102,xxx miles, I'm almost through my stash of 5w30 conventional and it'll be time to buy some shiny new oil before I know it.

Looking for something with excellent engine cleaning properties and good metal wear protection because I want to keep my Pathfinder until it hits 300,000 miles at the very least.

My Pathfinder specifies 0w20 OR 5w30 and I've used both in it with similar results so I don't mind recommendations for either weight.

It gets driven daily, my commute to work is about 15 minutes from the house and I do a lot of in-town driving on my days off, probably about 250-300 miles weekly is what I put on it.

I don't tow anything but occasionally I put the seats down to haul scrap and other odd objects for myself or family.

The area I live in is considered a severe service region by the dealerships here and the road to and from my house is an 8% grade, and the road to get up out of town is a steep enough grade (11% IIRC) that it's one of the few places in the US where there is NO fine for using a runaway truck ramp.

What would be a good oil with excellent cleaning properties and good metal wear protection for a daily driven vehicle in a severe service region like mine?
Oils are not cleaners, that is not their purpose and generally most of the blenders shy away from advertising that as a feature. The focus is on keeping things clean. That said, Mobil has, on a few grades, indicated that the oil cleans. M1 0w-40 is one of those oils and I've had some experience with it doing that. It's not much heavier than your 5w-30, being on the lower end of the xW-40 range. If you think there is something to clean-up, you can usually find it on sale and a C&P on your first filter will show you whether that's the case or not most likely. If you get carbonaceous gunk, well, you know there's some cleaning for it to do.
 
Oils are not cleaners, that is not their purpose and generally most of the blenders shy away from advertising that as a feature. The focus is on keeping things clean. That said, Mobil has, on a few grades, indicated that the oil cleans. M1 0w-40 is one of those oils and I've had some experience with it doing that. It's not much heavier than your 5w-30, being on the lower end of the xW-40 range. If you think there is something to clean-up, you can usually find it on sale and a C&P on your first filter will show you whether that's the case or not most likely. If you get carbonaceous gunk, well, you know there's some cleaning for it to do.
If you neglected your engine until you reached 100K miles or more, then Mobil 1 alone is not going to cut it. If I had some cleaning to do, I would buy HPL SAE 30 cleaning oil, a fully formulated motor oil, and add a quart of that to my next oil change. Then change the oil filter at 2K miles and cut the filter open to check for deposits, as you said. You're absolutely right, oil is not designed to clean, though Mobil 1 is better at it than others. There are plenty of threads where people ask about either Mobil 1 or Red Line and if they can use it to clean a dirty engine. Funny enough, they never ask about AMSOIL. Now that HPL makes these fantastic products, I would definitively use theirs for cleaning.
 
If you neglected your engine until you reached 100K miles or more, then Mobil 1 alone is not going to cut it. If I had some cleaning to do, I would buy HPL SAE 30 cleaning oil, a fully formulated motor oil, and add a quart of that to my next oil change. Then change the oil filter at 2K miles and cut the filter open to check for deposits, as you said. You're absolutely right, oil is not designed to clean, though Mobil 1 is better at it than others. There are plenty of threads where people ask about either Mobil 1 or Red Line and if they can use it to clean a dirty engine. Funny enough, they never ask about AMSOIL. Now that HPL makes these fantastic products, I would definitively use theirs for cleaning.
Yep, a dedicated cleaner product like HPL's is a great choice if you know you've got some cleaning to do. If you don't know, a run of M1 0w-40 will likely let you know via a filter autopsy.

This was my experience:
motorcraft8.jpg

motorcraft10.jpg
 
OCI is king. But a healthy additive pack with friction modifiers like boron and moly and a high VOA TBN to keep the engine clean. Take a dart and choose from many performers. My choice is PUP 0w-20. The MOFT bearing clearance at running temperature leans to higher viscosity but cold start up wear would point to the 0w-20. Idling is also not good for engine wear,
How does the TBN help keep an engine clean? Thank you.
 
TBN is the metal head portion of the detergent additive. It is the surfactant that is attracted to metal surfaces. It also is a rust inhibitor. Any foreign carbon deposits that are also polar are harder to attach to metal surfaces.


Starting at minute 3.3 it explains what detergents are made of and where the base number comes in.
 
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TBN is the metal head portion of the detergent additive. It is the surfactant that is attracted to metal surfaces. It also is a rust inhibitor. Any foreign carbon deposits that are also polar are harder to attach to metal surfaces.


Starting at minute 5 it explains what detergents are made of and where the base number comes in.

Yes, that's in the "keeping things clean" department. If we are trying to make something clean, we want additives that provide that function which are typically esters and part of the base oil blend (though can also be considered as an additive).
 
If you want to get into a Synthetic oil, I'd recommend Mobil 1 EP in the 5w30 weight. Excellent oil with a stout additive packet that's good for 20K miles. If you want to continue with a non-synthetic I like Pennzoil yellow bottle in the 5w30 weight. Ed
 
Kept clean and full, any API oil will most likely keep your VQ35DE engine running past 300k. Change it at < 7500 miles and it will be fine.

Personally, I would focus most care and attention on the CVT transmission in that truck and follow whatever severe service intervals that truck calls for. Especially if you're slogging it up and down the mountains like around the Wallace area where those runaway truck catchers are.
 
2014 Pathfinder Platinum, 102,xxx miles, I'm almost through my stash of 5w30 conventional and it'll be time to buy some shiny new oil before I know it.

Looking for something with excellent engine cleaning properties and good metal wear protection because I want to keep my Pathfinder until it hits 300,000 miles at the very least.

My Pathfinder specifies 0w20 OR 5w30 and I've used both in it with similar results so I don't mind recommendations for either weight.

It gets driven daily, my commute to work is about 15 minutes from the house and I do a lot of in-town driving on my days off, probably about 250-300 miles weekly is what I put on it.

I don't tow anything but occasionally I put the seats down to haul scrap and other odd objects for myself or family.

The area I live in is considered a severe service region by the dealerships here and the road to and from my house is an 8% grade, and the road to get up out of town is a steep enough grade (11% IIRC) that it's one of the few places in the US where there is NO fine for using a runaway truck ramp.

What would be a good oil with excellent cleaning properties and good metal wear protection for a daily driven vehicle in a severe service region like mine?

If your not in a smog check area, Royal purple HPS is really fantastic oil.
 
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