Here's what Pennzoil says about blending....

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It is not harmful but it is definitely not optimal for the oil. If you are doing 5k OCIs, go for it. If you want to push the limits of your oil, you won't find out what that oil can really do by blending.
 
"complex mixtures of additives and base oils that can be
destabilized"

i almost fall from my chair when i read this statement.... engine oil is know to be so stable that mother nature needs decades n decades to break it down.... by mixing 2 or more type of oil can make it unstable? LOL
 
trust me my friend, i have mixed many different type of oil from Castrol, amsoil, Toyota OEM, shell & etc... all were left over oil from the previous change... sometime, the mixture can be leftover from 4 to 5 different brand and yet, my dad's Nissan Sunny last us for 20 over years.
 
Some of the responses in this thread border on the idiotic. Those of you with a chemistry or tribology degree raise your hands............ Yeah, thought so.

Molakule and Bruce381, where are you when we need you!

Apologies for my trollish behavior but you can't simply dismiss oil recommendations so cavalierly without knowing what you are talking about. And it's clear some of you don't. Additive clash and other chemical reactions can happen. If you [censored] some mixture and your engine didn't blow up, it's more a testament to lady luck or the general robustness of an engine than it is to your genius. Some combos of oil may be beneficial but you really ought to know something of the chemistries in each oil before you start dumping them together. If you are lucky, the worst that happens is sub-obtimal oil performance.

For the record, I'm not a tribologist either. I've also blended oil but I did so with considerable thought and verified the results with UOAs. The oils were from the same blender, they were the same viscosity and shared the same basic additive package. All I did was mix Grp II+ and Grp III base stocks to make my own "Syn Blend" oil.

I encourage all of you to go back to the BITOG thrilling days of yesteryear when we had a goodly number of industry professional that posted here. The old forums are a goldmine of information, the likes of which we seldom see at the moment. You'll see many discussions that will tax your understanding of the topic. I make no claims to understand much more than the basics, but I know my limitations.

Again, I apologize for the trollish tone but not for the meaning.
 
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Troll away Jim Allen, troll away.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Reading on oil cans here on the other side, they generally say "can be mixed with similar kinds of engine oil". Looks like the pennzoil response which needs to be read: "you can mix oils but don't expect it to be as good as the initial oils"
The baseoils can always be mixed since they are just oils. You may get different viscosity as expected.
If the oils have the same add pack then all is good.
If the add packs are different, you will get a less than optimal oil. (because I am assuming that if it was as easy as mixing two add packs to make it better, what are the chemists doing?)
But engine oils are quite sturdy and should take lots of chemical abuse so don't worry about it but don't make it a hobby either.
 
People have been mixing oils forever and I've yet to see a stat the number of destroyed engines.

It's ridiculous. Blend away.
 
The oil companies say not to blend as a legal liability defense. They are worried about some lawsuit in which they may be accused of "failure to warn." They are worried that some guy will blow his engine, file a small claims action, allege a ridiculous cause of action, and win it due to a sympathetic judge who does not give three hoots about logic. I have seen this sort of thing before.

This says more about the sheer bulk of frivolous litigation in our society than anything else. It reminds me of warnings on spray containers of mosquito repellent saying to not spray it directly into your eyes.
 
Originally Posted By: Cristobal
The oil companies say not to blend as a legal liability defense. They are worried about some lawsuit in which they may be accused of "failure to warn." They are worried that some guy will blow his engine, file a small claims action, allege a ridiculous cause of action, and win it due to a sympathetic judge who does not give three hoots about logic. I have seen this sort of thing before.

This says more about the sheer bulk of frivolous litigation in our society than anything else. It reminds me of warnings on spray containers of mosquito repellent saying to not spray it directly into your eyes.


I agree, its more about them covering their Arses than anything else. Many people here are doing it with very good results. IMO for the sake of argument mixing PP and PYB 50/50 to get a blend that's better than just about any blend you can buy. That's if you're looking for a blend. You can also custom tailor viscosity as well. Nothing wrong with it IMO.
 
Originally Posted By: shrooms
People have been mixing oils forever and I've yet to see a stat the number of destroyed engines.

It's ridiculous. Blend away.


and there is no evidence to show a home brew protects longer, oxidizes less, protects better, etc. than a consistent, non-blended fill.

No one argues mixing oil is essentially harmless but to say it is as good is a complete joke unless you take "as good" to mean the bare minimum in the scientific sense.
 
I agree that blending isn't very beneficial if done on purpose. Example: I have 0 qts on hand, and go to the store to buy 3 qts of X and 3 qts of Y to create a XY blend.

However, I also see no harm if I my car takes 5.5 qts, and I need that half quart here and there.

I have blended before, but it was to get rid of stash, and I kept it within the same family, viscosity, etc. Otherwise, I wouldn't do it intentional -- thinking I can create a miracle concoction better than Sopus, Mobil, etc.
 
To demarpaint's point : I plan on blending QSGB with QSUD 50/50 . Two QS products - one dino and one synthetic which should be better than QSGB alone .
 
Yeah you can no doubt mix PP with PYB and have a better concoction than the PYB but why??? It isn't going to be up to the specs of the PP & I want the best reasonably priced oil there is(I run my stuff hard, even the '98 Grand Marquis beater gets regularly beaten on)... Just buy the PP and be done with it... Yes I'd maybe mix one or the other at the end of OCI as add packs are some what depleted at that point anyway, but NEVER on the initial change...

BTW the above is just an example, for me same holds true for say a GTX mix with EDGE(I refuse to call these home made concoctions blends)
 
TFB1 : Yeah , you make some good points - I just wanted to try my hand as a "Oil Warlock" until the urge passes ...
 
Originally Posted By: ChrisD46
To demarpaint's point : I plan on blending QSGB with QSUD 50/50 . Two QS products - one dino and one synthetic which should be better than QSGB alone .


These discussions come up from time to time. IMO you'll have a product that is better than the dino, and not as good, or as expensive as the synthetic. The point is this it can be done, and for someone who wants a better blend, doesn't want to spend the money on synthetic, doesn't want to use straight dino, it is an option. Then there are people with a few qts of dino and a few synthetic that are cleaning house and do the mix thing. For someone looking to custom tailor viscosity for the sake of argument they can perhaps mix a 5W20 and a 5W30 and get something they like using a viscosity calculator. No harm no foul. To say it can't be done is wrong.
 
I have to agree with Jim here, what makes you think that blending Pennzoil Ultra with Pennzoil YB is ok? You aren't going to get concrete, but do you really think you are going to get anything close to an optimized blend????

One better, what do you think you will get from mixing M1 10w30 with M1 0w40? They are both M1, they are both synthetic, so what should be the problem? The fact that 0w40 is probably the highest PAO oil that M1 sells commercially along with the fact that 10w30 is the most commoditized oil they sell (has the last dime squeezed out of it) shouldn't worry you at all...

Different Aniline Points, different base oil compositions, different types of additive packages. A quick look on the Lubrizol site will lead you to the discovery that their additive packages are rated for certain base oil ranges.
 
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Originally Posted By: teddyboy
I'm beginning to believe that the information that you get from tech support people both online and over the telephone is random noise.

Exactly. Ask the same question four separate times and you'll get four separate answers. You may as well ask the monkeys at the zoo.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: ChrisD46
To demarpaint's point : I plan on blending QSGB with QSUD 50/50 . Two QS products - one dino and one synthetic which should be better than QSGB alone .


These discussions come up from time to time. IMO you'll have a product that is better than the dino, and not as good, or as expensive as the synthetic. The point is this it can be done, and for someone who wants a better blend, doesn't want to spend the money on synthetic, doesn't want to use straight dino, it is an option. Then there are people with a few qts of dino and a few synthetic that are cleaning house and do the mix thing. For someone looking to custom tailor viscosity for the sake of argument they can perhaps mix a 5W20 and a 5W30 and get something they like using a viscosity calculator. No harm no foul. To say it can't be done is wrong.



dude! QSUD is 19 bucks from walmart. thats as cheap as it gets for a good syn. why mix it with something else?

as far as grades i have mixed two qts VWB 10w-40 with five qts VWB 5w-20. it worked out fine but in the end i just switched to 5w-30
 
Well if its true that mixing oils is bad thats great news for us because thats all we do is rebuild engines and im sure now we will have thousands more rebuilds this year because almost everyone puts in anything that says oil..
mixing oil wont hurt anything but if it did my son would be in Harvard now
 
i am really convinced that any oil rated sn is great oil and there is no difference in engine life.. i have been looking into this for years.. and always asking the person that has his car or engine here what oil they used... Actually someone i know worked in a lab that tested oil and he uses super tech!
 
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