Give me the run down on motor oil PLEASE! Currently I am running shaeffer cause a friend told me it was good. well everyone else in the world hasn't even heard of it!
Whats good, whats bad, and what is best?

Thanks :-)

 

Here is some info on my truck to help:
2000 dakota sport, 113200 miles, runs great, doesnt burn oil, never any problems with it!
I drive quite a bit so looking for something that will be really good to my motor!

 

Any good quality name brand oil will do fine as long as you change it on schedule. Valvoline is good, so are Quaker State and Pennzoil. Use a good brand filter like Purolator/Bosch/Mopar (they are all the same) or Wix/Napa Gold/Carquest Blue (these are all the same filter too) and change it every 3000 miles and you will be fine. The only store brand oil I like is Napa and Carquest brand oil, they are made by the same company that makes Valvoline.

Personally I have never bought into the synthetic oil concept and I prefer conventional. Others use only synthetic. Visit www.bobistheoilguy.com and check out the oil forums for more info than you would ever care to know about motor oil and oil filters.

I have used Valvoline/Napa/Carquest for a long time but am switching to Quaker State conventional on my next oil change. I picked up 2 cases and 5 Purolator Classic oil filters for $2.16 per quart/filter last month at Advance Auto Parts.

Jimmy

 

I personally like Mobile 1 and Castrol.If you buy oil that lasts longer than 3000 miles remember to buy a filter that last longer like a fram tough gaurd for instance.

 

I used to run conventional oil and decided to try synthetic. After two oil changes, I checked my mileage and gained 2 mpg. Now I use Castrol Syntec every time. I also buy either Napa Gold filters or Mopar.

 

I agree fully.

Changing it on a normal schedule is the most important thing. I too have always used Valvoline or Pennzoil with a Mopar or Wix filter. The maintance guy at work orders me a case of pennzoil and a couple wix filters every few months. That's why I used to run it, but come to learn Wix filters are one of the better ones out there. But lately I've been running synthetic to see if I notice any difference, but I'll most likely go back to conventional. I don't think it's worth $7 an oil change. We'll see. I'm still up in the air.

 

I had a stash of Napa and Carquest conventional 10W30, Napa Proselect and Carquest Red label oil filters that I had bought on sale last year. The oil cost me $2.00 a quart and the filters were on sale too and I got a free Proselect oil filter with each case of Napa oil I bought. Wix makes the Proselect filter for Napa to Napa's specs, and they do the same with the Red Carquest filter for Carquest. The Proselect and CQ Red are very similar in construction to the Wix branded filter. The only real differences are the Wix/Napa Gold/CQ Blue filters all have more media and a silicone anti-drainback valve. They also filter more smaller microns, but that really doesn't matter much to me. The Proselect and CQ Reds have better flow rates than the Wix/Napa Gold/CQ Blue filters, and they all have the same strong quality construction. But the Proselect and CQ Red only cost about $3.50 and the Napa Gold and CQ Blue around here cost over $7.00. For a 3000 mile oil change, the Proselect and CQ Red works great. So does the Purolator Classic. It is also a very well made filter that costs less than half the price of the Purolator Pure One. The Purolator Classic has a thread end bypass valve, and it and the CQ Red and Napa Proselect all have a rubber or nitrile anti-drainback valve. I never leave a filter on my truck anywhere near long enough for it to enter bypass mode and since the filter mounts on my 3.9 at about a 60 degree angle, the ADBV does not matter either. There is always plenty of oil in the filter at start-up. The Wix/Napa Gold/CQ Blue filters are all made to run for extended oil drain intervals, like 5000 miles or more. I always change my oil at or before 3000 miles. So I don't see the need to use a more expensive oil filter.

As for the oil, any oil will do as long as it's a good name brand. I used Valvoline for many years, and Pennzoil too. Valvoline is good oil but it just got way too expensive. It's nearly 5 bucks a quart here and that is for plain conventional. Plus they have a lot of hype and marketing cost associated with their racing heritage added to the price I guess.

I was running low in my oil stash when Advance ran their sale last month, 5 quarts of Quaker State Advanced Durability conventional and a Purolator Classic filter for $12.99. That comes to $2.16 each per quart and filter. I bought 5 of the deals and now I have oil and filters on hand for my next 6 oil changes with Quaker State, plus I still have 8 quarts of the Carquest brand oil and 2 CQ Red filters to use. I will use the CQ oil in the cooler winter months, because it looks to be a bit thinner than the Quaker State.

Napa brand synthetic is good too, and they sometimes have it on sale for $2.99 a quart. It is nearly the same as Valvoline Synpower full synthetic. I just never have used any synthetic and at 132,400 miles I would not want to try it now.

I don't pay a lot of attention to politics, advertising or marketing hype. I use what works best for my truck. But I will not use any Fram oil filter. There are too many better quality filters available for less money. The Quaker State deal at Advance was just too good to pass up. $2.16 a quart for a name brand oil with an excellent additive pack and a very high quality American made oil filter for $2.16 is a great deal. Especially when Valvoline is over $4.00 a quart.

Jimmy

 

Thanks for all the great info! :-) Definitely going to do a bit more research, always thought synthetic was the greatest ever cause of all the hype...conventional maybe the way to go though...

 

$5 a quart for Valvoline? Wow that is a lot. I just got 6 quarts for my fathers F150 and it was $15 for a 5 quart jug, so $3 a quart. Then I bought one quart extra to make 6 and that was $3.29 for a single quart.

I was running the Valvoline Max Life snythetic blend for a long time. And that's probably what I'm going to go back too next time I change my oil.

 

for those of you who have a lot of experience using different oils. can you actually feel the difference between brands? i certainly cannot. last time i changed my oil i used penzzoil full synth.

but my motor manages to be surprisingly clean even with the mileage, just did the sea foam in crank,brake booster and gas tank and had hardly any smoke.