Why bother mixing engine oils?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
843
Location
Grove City, OH
I have noticed a few people on here mix or home brew what they think is their ideal engine oil. With the enormous amout of choices we have to choose from, what is the purpose?
 
Many mix Mobil 1 to achieve around a 12 cst oil. Some believe the M1 30 wts. are too thin and the next step up is too much. Some prefer thickening M1 30 wt. w/ 15W-50 and feel it is superior to the 0W-40. Thicker 30 wts. aren't all that available otc for everyone.(Amsoil & GC)
 
I agree. I don't think we can out think what the chemists are doing at these refineries.
To me mixing oils is like mixing 2 glasses of dirty water with 2 glases of sparking spring water. It is still dirty water.
 
JonS wrote:
quote:

To me mixing oils is like mixing 2 glasses of dirty water with 2 glases of sparking spring water. It is still dirty water

What kind of analogy is that?????????????? I think a better analogy would be mixing 2 glasses of sparkling water with 2 glasses of flavored sparkling water. Then one can wondered what the end product is.
 
Well in my case I got a lot of different oils on clearance. The only problem was that Walmart did not have enough of each gradde for me to get the right amount of each. So I have to mix Castrol Syntecs of different grade for one oil change.

I some time dumb my left over 1/4 and 1/2 quarts of oil into one big gallon jug. It does not matter what brand or weight because it is going to be used for lawn and garden equipment etc.

I do not mix grades or brands to try to out fox the comercial oil formulators or anything like that. I normaly run what I want to run if I can get enough for an oil change. I also do not much care. It is just oil and nothing I could ever mix would hurt anything. Like recently I mixed two quarts of GC 0W30 and two quarts of Syntec 10W40. It is now 25F-35F so I am not hurting anything.

The same happened to my M1 40Wt. Walmart had two 5W40's and did not get any more for a couple of weeks so I bought two quarts of 0W40 at AutoZone becasue they do not carry 5W40 TSUV.

For a long time M1 did not have a readily available 40Wt. so alot of people that wanted a Mobil-1 product mixed 15W50 and 5W30 to make a thick 30Wt. or a thin 40Wt.! Some people have been mixing Redline 50/50 30/70 etc.... with other synthetic. They have been able to gain the benfits of Redline with much lower cost. THey also have not experinced the sever leaching or cleaning that Redline is known for. If you want a product that is not made you sometimes need to make it yourself.

Todate we have not seen any down side to mixing oil.

[ February 24, 2005, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: JohnBrowning ]
 
quote:

Originally posted by haley10:
Many mix Mobil 1 to achieve around a 12 cst oil. Some believe the M1 30 wts. are too thin and the next step up is too much. Some prefer thickening M1 30 wt. w/ 15W-50 and feel it is superior to the 0W-40. Thicker 30 wts. aren't all that available otc for everyone.(Amsoil & GC)

Yea this really ain't rocket science. We know that 0W-40 is not that shear stable. But we know that 10W-30 and 15W-50 are. We also know that the additives in both are prety much the same except 10W-30 has ant-friction additives. We also know that the final viscosity will be somewhere between the two. We also have good results posted in UOA's with this mix.
 
This is similar to another thread....

I was using a factory synthetic blend in my truck until it became unavailable, XD-3 Elite, in fact there are no synthetic blend HDEOs that I've run across around here. I need to adhere to recommended oil change intervals for my 100k warranty as Cummins says that you can't extend the oil change interval just because you're using a synthetic, and I'm not going to dump 3 gal of Delvac 1 every 3750 miles as the stuff is expensive. Adding 1 gal of Mobil 1 T&S to 2 gal Delvac 1300 seemed to be within my capabilities, but I confess that I'm confused about which one to add to first when I'm doing an oil change :^)

I find that synthetic blend works well in the cars too, no one offers an blend with Mobil 1 T&S, so I do my own.
 
With the big gap between 10cSt(30) and 14cSt(40) I am kinda thinking that you are supposed to mix within brands to achieve desired final visc. I've been doing it for a long time. Right now, I am installing a blend of Delo 15w-40 and Havoline 5w-30 since GF-4 and SM oils appear to be a bit weak in the additive dept.
 
I'll probably get screamed at for this
blush.gif

,But I have 2 qts of MC 10/40 and 3 qts of MC 10/30 in my 4.6L T-bird now. I have no idea what kind of cSt @100*C this achieves, but the engine sounds/feels fine and smooth...with MC FL-820s

If I had a little more money right now, I'd do a uoa, and see how this mix is doing...perhaps someday soon.
 
I started running Delo 400 in 30w in the old '67 aircooled Porsche. Leftover 2 Qts of Delo 400 30w mixed in w/ 2 Qts of Chevron Supreme 5/30 in the Mazda 626. I did it because I could and have no high expectations.
 
quote:

Originally posted by 97tbird:
I'll probably get screamed at for this
blush.gif

,But I have 2 qts of MC 10/40 and 3 qts of MC 10/30 in my 4.6L T-bird now. I have no idea what kind of cSt @100*C this achieves, but the engine sounds/feels fine and smooth...with MC FL-820s


Don't worry, you're fine. I have a '97 Expedition 4.6L. Tomorrow evening or Monday, I will be changing the oil, using 5 qt's. of circa '94 Quaker State semi-syn. 10w30 API SH
shocked.gif
& 1 qt. of MMO.

I'm going to run it for 1-2k miles & drain it. I will take a look down the oil spout before & after to see if any cleaning takes place.
 
quote:

Originally posted by 97tbird:
I'll probably get screamed at for this
blush.gif

,But I have 2 qts of MC 10/40 and 3 qts of MC 10/30 in my 4.6L T-bird now. I have no idea what kind of cSt @100*C this achieves, but the engine sounds/feels fine and smooth...with MC FL-820s

If I had a little more money right now, I'd do a uoa, and see how this mix is doing...perhaps someday soon.


Planning on doing the same mix
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top