Where is the sweetspot for oil specs?

[mpersell]

There are oils that have great UOA results and have mediocre paper specs. There are great paper spec oils that have mediocre UOA results. I understand that UOA is not the end all rating but it does help compare a wide selection of oils.

So where is the sweetspot for NOACK for example? 8% 10% 15% ???

VI is usually a more is better proposition...

Pour point helps in northern iceboxes but in Texas here we look at other factors so thats a variable.

HTHS? Where is the sweetspot for HTHS?

Flash point?

High Temp viscosity?

 

[MolaKule]

Sorry, there is no such thing. Pick a good oil and do used oil analysis.

 

[XCELERATIONRULES]

Pick the cheapest oil that meets the specs you need,and sleep good at night with a few extra bucks in your pocket.

 

[TallPaul]

Or figure out the things that matter to you and find oils that meet those specs. Lower NOACK is a good spec to look for.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

The sweetspot is usually what the manufactere recomends. With the progression of standardized sequence testing to meet ILSAC requirements there is not much that is going to differentiate different brands in terms of performance per price point. You can increase perfromance with more expensive ingredients properly formulated together but the gains are of diminishing return compared to the baseline product meeting an ILSAC certification.

In other words the best performance for the dollar is usually the least expensive product that meets the specification required for the application.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I think the old technique of selection oil by paper specs is silly. Go ahead and optimize for climate and engine, but some guys get carried away with a few VI points or PP or whatever.

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Sorry, there is no such thing. Pick a good oil and do used oil analysis.


Or, pick a good oil, forget the used oil analysis and use a reasonable OCI.

 

[TallPaul]

Bottom line is follow the owner's manual, buy any oil that you want to that meets spec, and don't worry about it. OTOH, if you like to obsess about oil and such, then come to BITOG, run used oil analysis, extend OCIs, blend your own oil, run non-starburst oil, etc. and have a lot of fun. Of course, there are the usual plethora of oil problems that can posted here at BITOG, such as leaks, blue smoke, low oil pressure, oil soaking the air filter, oil blowing out the dipstick tube, grey foamy oil, brown foamy oil, etc.

My oil buying criteria is that I have to have a very good reason to buy non-Valvoline oil. Within Valvoline, I can obsess for weeks about what to run, but have narrowed it down to, when in doubt, run Maxlife.

 

[eddiedz]

Originally Posted By: mpersell
There are oils that have great UOA results and have mediocre paper specs. There are great paper spec oils that have mediocre UOA results. I understand that UOA is not the end all rating but it does help compare a wide selection of oils.

So where is the sweetspot for NOACK for example? 8% 10% 15% ???

VI is usually a more is better proposition...

Pour point helps in northern iceboxes but in Texas here we look at other factors so thats a variable.

HTHS? Where is the sweetspot for HTHS?

Flash point?

High Temp viscosity?


yea idont think there is a sweet point for many. however you can google some of them. for example the viscosity@100c for a 5w30 grade oil is like 9.something to 11.something .. but it differs between dinos, synthetic blend and full synthetics.. etc..

have fun googleing .. you'll get your answer faster then to have someone on here do it for you while you sit back and relax. LoL..

 

[TallPaul]

NOACK definitely like 8% and under.

HTHS 3.5 and up is good, which I think is ACEA A3 spec.

nothing else matters if you have these two and the viscosity you prefer (except of course that there is adequate detergent and antiwear).

 

[TallPaul]

This is too good a topic to let die. Bump. Besides I made an audacious statement in above post that surely some here would challenge. Bring it on!