Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: Olas
Best synthetic no matter the cost?
Redline.
/thread
I'll have to second this as well. To my layman's knowledge of motor oil,I'd think ester base stocks have to be extremely high end,if not top of the line,right? Don't esters surpass pao's? From what I understand,esters don't need the vis modifiers that grp III's and pao's need (at least that's my understanding).
The higher the group number the better, right? Well, except for the fact that Group III carries additives better than group IV... and group III and group IV both hold TBN better than group V... and...
Redline is good oil for what its intended for: pushing the engine hard in competition. For a daily driver, IMO, not so much. Viscosity index of Group III oils can be really really high these days, so I don't think there's nearly the advantage with ester base stocks that there was 10-15 years ago.
Honestly, I don't think you could slide an atom between the real-world performance of most good oils these days, and more and more are a blend of groups III, IV, and V (sometimes only at additive doses) to get the benefits of each. For a GM v8 that's ridiculously easy on oil, you can hardly lose.
What about in a rear diff? How well do ester based gear oils do compared to others? I've been thinking about giving Redline 75W110 a try.