[Shop-talk] Oil grade selection

[Randall]

Can't really prove it, but it's my belief that Valvoline full synthetic
(which is what I use in all my cars regardless of age) does have a higher
film strength than 'dinosaur juice'; which makes it better at avoiding
metal-to-metal contact.  So it's not a question of additives at all.

Which may be nonsense, but I've had good luck running the full synthetic for
10-15K miles between changes (changing the filter every time of course).
Current hauler (which turned into a daily driver somehow) has somewhere
north of 200,000 miles on the clock.  It's a bit overdue for it's second
tune-up (which shows as a tiny bit of roughness at idle) but otherwise looks
good for another 100K at least.  Then I might change that pesky front seal
<G>

I also stick with the manufacturer's recommendation for viscosity, except
the TRs get 20W50 instead of straight 40.

BTW, I've read a lot about synthetics leaking more than conventional; but
have never seen that with Valvoline.  In one case, oil consumption actually
went down markedly when I switched.

However, I recently tried using Mobil 1 and found that oil leakage did go up
substantially with it.  I'm sticking with Valvoline from now on !

Randall