Oil Recommendation 2013 Civic Si

[Iketh]

1. What kind of vehicle you have

2013 Honda Civic Si

2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well

Premium-grade 0w-20 detergent oil with an API Certification Seal on the container. Viscosity doesn't change with environment. Interval is based on driving habits monitored by the computer. The computer tells me to change on average between 6k-8k miles.

3. Where you live

Orlando, Florida

4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)

hard and fast lol, up to 120mph maybe 1-2 times per week, rarely up to 140

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)

city and highway, but little more city

6. Whether your car has any known problems

No


Engine only has CAI and a tune is in the process. Should be 190+whp after tune. Stock whp is ~170. Car weighs 2994 lbs stock and I currently have it down to 2753.

Money is not really a concern and I plan on driving this to 200k miles easy (42k on odometer after first year) so i'm thinking of going with Royal Purple XPR. If I go with an oil like this, what weight do you think?

I don't mind ordering online.

Currently running Royal Purple HPS 10w-30. Actually I changed the oil 2 days ago and put 3x royal purple, one M1 10w-30, and one M1 EP 0w-20 because I had spare bottles laying around.

I did a test in my 86 Honda Accord several years ago between conventional and synthetic using a magnetic drain plug. 3000 oci, the Castrol dino oil had the magnet completely covered in metal filings while Mobile 1 had a very thin spiral of filings that wound up the magnet. The difference was night and day. I've never used dino oil since. The car had 220k miles at the time so it wasn't due to break-in.

Glad I found a group of people obsessed with oil like I am! I've read through some of the posts and I already get heated at some of the discussions just like you all do lol

 

[901Memphis]

No reason to go any thicker than 0w20/5w20. Your 10w30 is too thick at all temperatures especially at startup. 10w30 will produce increased startup wear and also cause likely cause more bypass events of your oil filter due to the higher pressure.

Top choices for 0w20 are genuine Honda 0w20, genuine Toyota 0w20 (TGMO), or Mobil 1 AFE 0w20.

Cold air intakes are okay if the engine responds to them, but certain filters like oil cotton gauze filters can cause increased dirt to get into your engine causing more of those little metal flakes you have seen. What type of filter is on you CAI?

 

[Ramblejam]

The car calls for 0w-20, yet you're running 10w-30...

Do you have any data to support this selection?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Nice car, and fun car! Need pics!

It sounds like money is not really a concern, and warranty probably isn't a concern either (if you're already using a 10W-30). I see little reason to use anything other than a top-shelf 5W-30 in your case. Many of the best 5W-30s (like Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, etc) meet and exceed requirements set by dexos1, Honda HTO-06, etc. These are all more than enough to protect your engine, even driven "spiritedly". Quite frankly, the 0W-20 oils are more than enough to protect your engine as well, and the others are right that thicker oil just produces more drag within your engine. That said, I've run 30 grade oils in my K24 before and perceived very little difference. I WOULD recommend at least moving to a 5W-30, however, or a 0W-30.

Even though you said you don't mind ordering stuff online, I don't see a good reason to not use the more readily-available products like Mobil 1. It's my opinion that you don't have much to gain with the mail-order oils, especially with a Honda K-series engine. These are pretty straight-forward and don't beat the oil up.

Welcome to BITOG.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Nice car, and fun car! Need pics!

It sounds like money is not really a concern, and warranty probably isn't a concern either (if you're already using a 10W-30). I see little reason to use anything other than a top-shelf 5W-30 in your case. Many of the best 5W-30s (like Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, etc) meet and exceed requirements set by dexos1, Honda HTO-06, etc. These are all more than enough to protect your engine, even driven "spiritedly". Quite frankly, the 0W-20 oils are more than enough to protect your engine as well, and the others are right that thicker oil just produces more drag within your engine. That said, I've run 30 grade oils in my K24 before and perceived very little difference. I WOULD recommend at least moving to a 5W-30, however, or a 0W-30.

Even though you said you don't mind ordering stuff online, I don't see a good reason to not use the more readily-available products like Mobil 1. It's my opinion that you don't have much to gain with the mail-order oils, especially with a Honda K-series engine. These are pretty straight-forward and don't beat the oil up.

Welcome to BITOG.



^^^^ What he said. PP 5w30 or at least 5w20

 

[SF0059]

I agree with what has been said so far.

First, there is no reason to run something as heavy as 10w-30, even in the Florida heat. There is more harm than good to come out of that situation.

Secondly, if you are following the OLM there is no need for Royal Purple. M1, PP, et al will provide excellent protection for that length of time.

If it were my car, I would be running the Caterham blend (0w-20 TGMO and M1 0W-40). Search it, there is a ton of information on the board about it. You can vary what kind of 0w-30 you want to get out of it. Otherwise, go with M1 0W-30 or if you have to go 5W-30 just about any over-the-counter synthetic will do the trick.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

If not boutique, e.g: Motul or FUCHS or say AMSOIL ATM the PU 5w30 or 10w30 may do OK. ILSAC oils will become under additised for long term EP events. There are many better oils than RP for the price - Just as BOSE does not make good HiFi equipment.
10w30 is not "too thick" nor will it cause "bypass events" - that's is more likely with THIN oil at moderate rpm - the filter ouuytlet is not at atmosphere it see the impedance of the oil galleries which become LESS with thinner oil which leads to a higher delta at the filter.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: SF0059

If it were my car, I would be running the Caterham blend (0w-20 TGMO and M1 0W-40).


LOL...the guy's first post and he gets the "Caterham Blend"

Right now he is at Walmart then AAP and then Auto-zone trying to find Caterham Blend....all all the people are going Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot.

 

[Brule]

I'm surprised Honda went back to 20 oil on the Si. [I just sold my '03 SI oil burner.] Everyone is giving opinions and so am I...go with a 0/5/10w30 instead of 0/5w20 due to your warmer climate and the more aggressive way you drive. One grade up will hurt nothing, esp. with such a great Honda engine.

Additionally Mobil 1 always made my 2.0 noisier...Penn Ultra quieted it down.

Final advice...whatever oil you use always let the engine warm-up before you WOT and red-line it.

 

[dparm]

Until you start making huge amounts of power over stock, I would stick with whatever 0w20 synthetic that's on sale. The Honda-branded stuff is pretty good if you can smooth-talk your parts guy into discounting a case of it, otherwise you have choices like Pennzoil Platinum or Ultra, Mobil 1 AFE 0w20, Quaker State Ultimate Durability 0w20, and so on.

You can certainly use Royal Purple 0w20, but wait for it to go on sale.

 

[tommygunn]

Welcome to BITOG!

Use whatever 0w20 happens on sale, along with a Purolator PureOne filter, for the interval prescribed by your maintenance minder.

 

[JavierG]

Originally Posted By: Brule
I'm surprised Honda went back to 20 oil on the Si. [I just sold my '03 SI oil burner.] Everyone is giving opinions and so am I...go with a 0/5/10w30 instead of 0/5w20 due to your warmer climate and the more aggressive way you drive. One grade up will hurt nothing, esp. with such a great Honda engine.

Additionally Mobil 1 always made my 2.0 noisier...Penn Ultra quieted it down.

Final advice...whatever oil you use always let the engine warm-up before you WOT and red-line it.

I'm going to second this. I like the 5W30 option the most. And I had the same experience with Mobil 1 and Ultra. And definitely let the engine warm up before WOT.

 

[david_ES2]

I would stick with a full synthetic 0w20/5w20 if anything youre increasing start up wear and losing a little power with those thicker oils. Engine is not a high rpm motor with vtec on both intake and exhaust like the previous Si engine.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
No reason to go any thicker than 0w20/5w20. Your 10w30 is too thick at all temperatures especially at startup. 10w30 will produce increased startup wear and also cause likely cause more bypass events of your oil filter due to the higher pressure.

Top choices for 0w20 are genuine Honda 0w20, genuine Toyota 0w20 (TGMO), or Mobil 1 AFE 0w20.

Cold air intakes are okay if the engine responds to them, but certain filters like oil cotton gauze filters can cause increased dirt to get into your engine causing more of those little metal flakes you have seen. What type of filter is on you CAI?



It's a non-oiled cotton cone filter.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
The car calls for 0w-20, yet you're running 10w-30...

Do you have any data to support this selection?



No data, but this engine is so loud and metallic-sounding with 0w-20 that it makes me uneasy to redline. Going to 30 makes a huge acoustic improvement. Whether I'm doing more harm than good, I don't know. I'm using 10w-30 instead of 5w-30 or 0w-30 because it's all I could find in a case locally for Royal Purple. I figured the 10w doesn't affect me much since temps here rarely approach 0C. Am I right?

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Nice car, and fun car! Need pics!

It sounds like money is not really a concern, and warranty probably isn't a concern either (if you're already using a 10W-30). I see little reason to use anything other than a top-shelf 5W-30 in your case. Many of the best 5W-30s (like Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, etc) meet and exceed requirements set by dexos1, Honda HTO-06, etc. These are all more than enough to protect your engine, even driven "spiritedly". Quite frankly, the 0W-20 oils are more than enough to protect your engine as well, and the others are right that thicker oil just produces more drag within your engine. That said, I've run 30 grade oils in my K24 before and perceived very little difference. I WOULD recommend at least moving to a 5W-30, however, or a 0W-30.

Even though you said you don't mind ordering stuff online, I don't see a good reason to not use the more readily-available products like Mobil 1. It's my opinion that you don't have much to gain with the mail-order oils, especially with a Honda K-series engine. These are pretty straight-forward and don't beat the oil up.

Welcome to BITOG.


Yea I will definitely move to 5w-30 when I restock my oil. In the meantime, I have 12 qts Royal Purple HPS 10w-30 left so I'm thinking 3x RP and 2x M1 EP 0w-20 for each oil change. How does that sound for an immediate fix?

I'll take some pics after I wax which I might do today.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: SF0059
I agree with what has been said so far.

First, there is no reason to run something as heavy as 10w-30, even in the Florida heat. There is more harm than good to come out of that situation.

Secondly, if you are following the OLM there is no need for Royal Purple. M1, PP, et al will provide excellent protection for that length of time.

If it were my car, I would be running the Caterham blend (0w-20 TGMO and M1 0W-40). Search it, there is a ton of information on the board about it. You can vary what kind of 0w-30 you want to get out of it. Otherwise, go with M1 0W-30 or if you have to go 5W-30 just about any over-the-counter synthetic will do the trick.


Well like I said with the test I did, there was a large amount of metal on the magnet with conventional oil after just 3000 miles on my 86 accord compared to M1. I want to maintain max compression for as long as possible.

I will definitely read about the Caterham blend, sounds interesting.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
If not boutique, e.g: Motul or FUCHS or say AMSOIL ATM the PU 5w30 or 10w30 may do OK. ILSAC oils will become under additised for long term EP events. There are many better oils than RP for the price - Just as BOSE does not make good HiFi equipment.
10w30 is not "too thick" nor will it cause "bypass events" - that's is more likely with THIN oil at moderate rpm - the filter ouuytlet is not at atmosphere it see the impedance of the oil galleries which become LESS with thinner oil which leads to a higher delta at the filter.


Ty for this info. I understand your BOSE analogy. Is RP XPR also overpriced?

I should have mentioned I'm using M1 EP oil filter.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: Brule
I'm surprised Honda went back to 20 oil on the Si. [I just sold my '03 SI oil burner.] Everyone is giving opinions and so am I...go with a 0/5/10w30 instead of 0/5w20 due to your warmer climate and the more aggressive way you drive. One grade up will hurt nothing, esp. with such a great Honda engine.

Additionally Mobil 1 always made my 2.0 noisier...Penn Ultra quieted it down.

Final advice...whatever oil you use always let the engine warm-up before you WOT and red-line it.


I've heard about the oil consumption even on brand new VTEC motors so I think I got lucky because my oil level never budges no matter what weight I use.

 

[Iketh]

Originally Posted By: david_ES2
I would stick with a full synthetic 0w20/5w20 if anything youre increasing start up wear and losing a little power with those thicker oils. Engine is not a high rpm motor with vtec on both intake and exhaust like the previous Si engine.


My new tune is increasing redline from 7100 to 7500, but even if it wasn't, piston speed is still the same as the 2.0.