Jalopniks why expensive oil is a wate of money

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Hi all,

I came across this a while back but never posted it. Jalopniks the garage section had an article, and this being an oil site thought it was interesting. What's everyone else's take?

the garage on jalopnik
 
Ug oh.. M1 has the highest wear in my GM. Time to move on..

Wait.. Is that just the high levels of Iron in the virgin oil skewing the tests?
 
It's what we've seen here, isn't it? Not a lot of difference between name brand oils as measured by used oil analysis.

The Blackstone samples referenced are skewed to short drain intervals because of the anal retentive BITOG customer base, so maybe you would get a different result with longer runs, but I doubt it. We've seen plenty of good long runs with Mobile Super 1000 oil.
 
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There is no question that conventional oil can protect an engine properly with regard to wear rate. That's never been an issue. However, today's engines are very expensive, and some engines have known issues. Various Toyota engines have trouble with oil drain holes on the piston oil ring clogging. The heat, combined with the small holes cause them to coke up, leading to oil consumption at relatively low miles. "Expensive" synthetic oils prevent this problem. Same with the famous Toyota "sludge monster" engines. Again, expensive synthetics prevent and/or minimize the sludge buildup and completely eliminate the problem. AND BMW, Audi, Ford, GM etc engines all have "known" oil related issues, that are effectively eliminated by quality oil. Consider the case of the Ford cam phasers. They are known to fail, and create an annoying engine rattle. Higher viscosity synthetic oils prevent the problem, completely. Same goes for GM's balancer chain wear issues, which require more frequent changes and slightly higher viscosity.

Not to mention turbocharged engines. Not only do they work hard, but the turbo's do still "coke up". Water cooling does not eliminate the extreme heat on the exhaust side of the turbine. Most people are unaware that modern, water cooled turbos still coke up. They are simply designed to be tolerant of it. Right up until sudden failure.

So if you drive any of the modern cars with known issues, you are well served by choosing an expensive oil, of sufficient viscosity, and changing it at the severe service interval.
 
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That study is not reflective of any amount of truth. It is so far off, I'm not sure what to even address.

1. Blackstone can't measure water, fuel, nitration, oxidation.

2. There are huge differences in oils, just because they can't measure them doesn't mean it's not true.
 
Originally Posted By: Powerglide
So the expensive oil is the crutch that props up or band aids a poor design. Now That's progress!


Sometimes, but that is a poor blanket statement. That is like saying high octane fuel is a band aid for high compression engines. Today's engines, while complex, do marvelously well given the amount of regulations burdening them.

I have a known oil burner Toyota engine. It has seen only synthetic since I got it at 13k miles. Now at 155k, the oil never moves any appreciable amount in 5k drain intervals.

However, your mileage may vary.
 
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