Worst oil you have put in your car?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Left 20W50 in my 1988 Jetta GLI 16v over a new england winter. It made lots of interesting sounds starting
smile.gif
It was installed in New Mexico in summer by an import shop.

Thankfully most cold starts were in a 35F garage. But the ones
 
In the mid and late 60s I used QS in my 64 Valiant slant 6. I used it for 50K at 2K OCIs and it sludged the engine to the point I had to scoop the stuff out. I switched to Valvoline HD straight 20wt and it was much improved.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I put 5w20 in a tired dodge 3.9 and the oil light kept coming on at idle.
lol.gif

Looks like Dodge followed Ford on the dummy gauge idea.

Hey what muffler do you have, has a nice tone to it. Lets hear it really rev up.
 
Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I put 5w20 in a tired dodge 3.9 and the oil light kept coming on at idle.
lol.gif

Looks like Dodge followed Ford on the dummy gauge idea.

Hey what muffler do you have, has a nice tone to it. Lets hear it really rev up.


It's an $18 Thrush turbo full size (not cherry bomb) that exits rear of the cab and has a two inch flat cut off spout. Truck is out on loan but when I get it back I'll make a video.

It's particularly awesome decellerating in 2nd gear with a cold motor.
 
Worst oil was a bad batch of Amsoil 20w50 I put in my harley. Engine started getting real noisy about 40 miles into my ride. I went right home and dumped what looked like water out of it. The OCI could have been measured in hours. That was the first and last time I tried Amsoil. Went back to running Redline and never had another problem.
 
Castrol edge = worst vavetrain noise ive ever heard in a vehicle. And as of now the amsoil 10w40 in my quad has been a bad batch...terrible ticking noise...
 
Hi,
Indylan - The original Castrol Forumula SLX 0w-30 (German made - ester based - green) of around 1996-7

It was prone to rapid and serious varnish deposits in some engine families

After a number of engine issues the product was rapidly updated and finally withdrawn
 
Originally Posted By: Blkstanger
Worst oil was a bad batch of Amsoil 20w50 I put in my harley. Engine started getting real noisy about 40 miles into my ride. I went right home and dumped what looked like water out of it. The OCI could have been measured in hours. That was the first and last time I tried Amsoil. Went back to running Redline and never had another problem.

Funny you mention that. Last year I tried the Amsoil 10w-40 in my yamaha 1100 v-star. Same thing. Top end noise was unreal. Drained it for gtx and the bike ran great. Then I discovered rotella and stuck with it.
 
I can honestly say I've never put anything but the best oil of the era into any of my cars - and I'm 59 years old.

Even an well used 1963 Chevy Nova with a big inline six (292cu?) was given Castrol GTX, probably 20W-50, when my wife and I were first married and so broke we were eating rice and beans.

GTX at the time was considered good stuff. This was when it was in the old cardboard cans!

Scott
 
Any time I used Valvoline oil in my cars, or even my lawnmower, I experienced rapid oil consumption. The only time I ever had to add top off oil to my Saturn was when I used Valvoline synthetic.
 
About 5 years ago, I ran QS 5W-30 in my daughter's 1999 Accord and it consumed it at about a quart every 1k miles. I ran Mobil Clean 5000 next and it consumed about a quart in 3K. That formulation of QS didn't work well in that Accord.

This illustrates the magnitude of problems I've had running name brand dinos and synths for the 42 years I've been maintaining many cars.
 
I know it's a site favorite but pennzoil yellow bottle. Because of what I've personally seen it due to several engines; I won't ever use a pennzoil product again. Absolutely nasty sludge inside the engine. Plus, it cooked off in a friends camaro during a high speed run; it ruined the engine. The camaro had nothing but pennzoil yellow bottle in it for its whole life.
 
Originally Posted By: 04SVT
I know it's a site favorite but pennzoil yellow bottle. Because of what I've personally seen it due to several engines; I won't ever use a pennzoil product again. Absolutely nasty sludge inside the engine. Plus, it cooked off in a friends camaro during a high speed run; it ruined the engine. The camaro had nothing but pennzoil yellow bottle in it for its whole life.

Thats funny, I work with a guy that has run nothing but PYB in his Chevy Cavalier since new, and he now has almost 350,000miles on it. Running on borrowed time I guess.
 
Buddy had a Beretta with the 3.1 in it. It started knocking like crazy, so we dumped in 3 quarts of 20W-50 and 2 quarts of STP oil treatment. I've never heard one of those GM V-6s run so quiet.
15.gif
 
Back in the '60s when I didn't know any better, I was buying Kenwood 30W for a old oil burner '57 Ford I had(1st car)... Stated on can was for Hi-Compression engines, hydraulic lifters, etc but had no API classification... I found after maybe three months there was sludge building up inside the valve covers, didn't have that problem with QS HD 30w I had prev used... After I cleaned out the covers, I went back to the QS and had no more sludge...

As far as running, was no different than any other oil... Only time I've seen a noticeable difference in 46+ years of oil changes is immediately after a change when the oil likely had significant fuel dilution, or had dumped something like Rislone or MMO in the crankcase... I haven't used any of that stuff in the past 25years or so, last was in sludged up 3.3L Chevy V6...
 
Originally Posted By: afoulk
Thats funny, I work with a guy that has run nothing but PYB in his Chevy Cavalier since new, and he now has almost 350,000miles on it. Running on borrowed time I guess.


That is cavalier for crying out loud. Probalby just puts around from point a to point b. Normal commute and all. I never said one would be running on borrowed time with it. I bet the inside of that motor is nasty though. My grandfather ran PYB in his 63 step side and changed it religiosly at 3k miles. The inside of that engine was disgusting. Dirtiest engine I've every been in. Tore down another buddies 302 that ran pyb also; same thing.

I'm sorry if you like PYB and I offended you. There is no reason to get offended because someone doesn't like the same thing. Heck, there is no reason because someone says something I like is garbage. I bet there are a ton of people that think my mustang is a piece of junk. Even if they told me; I'm not going to get offended and try to defend it. I like it; and that's good enough for me. Again, sorry if I upset you. It truly wasn't my intention. I just stated what I think to be the worst oil I've ever used.
 
me 2: Mobil 1 15w-50 (in bmw 6 cylinder). did not give any benefits.
(probably for very hi temp- racing)
20W straight (for california) heard noise right away
Subjectively: Valvoline doesnt seem that good
Used these in my bmw- smoke@tailpipe@ 60k miles,
frequent oil change, original owner.
 
Last edited:
I did one 6K run of M1 15W-50 in my four cylinder BMW.
I used the oil because I had it, having bought it on clearance figuring I'd either trade it or find a use for it.
I'd bought it cheaply enough from Meijer and Target that I could have used it in my mowers.
The engine seemed perfectly happy with the oil, smooth, quiet and as willing to rev as it is on the forty grades I've mostly used.
I can't think of any oil I've ever used in any engine that seemed really bad.
I have used oils with high expectations that went unfulfilled, like Edge SM, but I can't recall any oil being notably bad in use.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
In the mid and late 60s I used QS in my 64 Valiant slant 6. I used it for 50K at 2K OCIs and it sludged the engine to the point I had to scoop the stuff out. I switched to Valvoline HD straight 20wt and it was much improved.


Same experience with my '74 and '78 leaning towers of power. I changed it before I had to scoop it out though.

To this day I have an aversion to Quaker State.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top