Engine Oil Mythology

[Budnicks]

Don't be too quick to shoot down "cheap Walmart oils". I've used it for years in my daily drivers and from what research I have done, Walmart SuperTech oils rate pretty well. I have never seen any ratings like Rat's PSI rating on it though.

I was using WalMart as a "metaphor" basically as "cheap crap"...

Nothing more nothing less...

 

[Cranky]

Also, all oils are rated and if it matches the recommendation for your engine, it really doen't matter who sells it or for what price.

 

[SlinktRR]

read everything from multiple sources and then decide. I think 540rats test method doesn't appear to have too much bias, most of the negative reviews I have seen are personal and ego driven. It is important to keep up with the oil specification changes though as it will affect a flat tappet engine. The new passenger car spec SN has too little zddp for a flat tappet in my opinion at 800 ppm. SL is ok, but most of the new formulations are ditching the old API SL as it is not compliant with the vast majority of new passenger car engines. Flat tappet cams need more zddp than SN can provide, Mobil 1 says as much in their breakdown of different oil formulations on their site. I used to use Quaker state defy in a MP484 383 as it was still SL and ran great with the defy. They just converted to SN doughnut so I am buying different oil. Sucks because it was 15 bucks a gallon at WalMart and had 1200ppm zddp, no longer. Still use it in my LS truck engine with 200k miles but not in the 383.

540rat blog is just a guide not an oracle. Oil does more than just prevent a wear scar in a benchmark test. I wouldn't use Valv VR1 for 10k drain intervals for example. And 2000ppm zddp is probably too much of a good thing in most engines.