Why soooo much moly in Havoline 5W20?

[martyi]

Because of the many good reviews here, I have pretty much decided to try Havoline when I dump the factory fill in my Honda V6 VTEC.

I was looking at the VOA charts for various oils and noticed that the Havoline 5W20 formula has 406 units (or whatever 406 stands for) of Molybdenum. Most other oils have no where near that number (except Redline oils which post figures in excess of 600). In fact, some oils have zero moly. Another oil I considered, Motorcraft 5W20, shows only 33.

This does not seem to be the case with all Havoline weights however, as the 15W40 for example shows 93 moly content coming out of the bottle. I understand every manufacturer puts together their own formula package in their own way but why is it that this particular brand oil and in this particular weight has soooooo much more of this additive than nearly every other oil on the planet?

BTW, a guy at the Honda Ridgeline forum had his first oil change at 6863 miles (he went by his oil life monitor which is what the manual tells you to do, even with the first factory fill). He had a used oil analysis done of the factory fill and molly was shown as 385 which again, is much more than nearly every other oil (I understand the Honda factory fill is made by ExxonMobil but don't know this to be a fact). Maybe Honda's V6 engines like lots of molly?

 

[Ray H]

Molybdenum's an excellent anti-wear agent, and quite cost effective, too. But, it's by no means the only game in town. (witness the comfortably low wear numbers achieved with Motorcraft 5W-20 synthetic blend motor oil in Honda and other make engines) Honda's engines are liberally slathered with assembly lubes during assembly - which may contain the copious amounts of molybdenum found in the factory fill oil at first change. The oil, regardless who actually formulates it for Honda, would wash the excess assembly lube into solution during startup and initial running. Whether Honda engines thrive any more than other manufacturer's engines on high molybdenum content motor oil with subsequent oil changes is a matter of conjecture. It certainly can't hurt 'em, though. Also a matter of conjecture is the notion that oils high in molybdenum would autmatically result in increased engine longevity over use of oils with lower or no molybdenum content in deference to other anti-wear additives. Some very pricey Euro-synthetics have NO molybdenum. Does it necessarily follow that those companies' oil formulators are morons? (Yes, that is a loaded question.)