What kind/brand of oil do you use?

[15min5k]

why do you change it every 3! Yikes I was changing mine every 5, and still felt bad about it. During the winters months I may not change it till every 10k depending on some OA results. But during the summer when I track the car it will be 5k

I'm sure you're fine at 5k I'm just a bit peronoid I suppose. Last thing I need right now is car problems.

 

[FrequentFlyer]

In regards to comparing a big domestic V8 to the 2.3 and oil viscosity, one issue would be bearing clearances. The V8 is going to have greater bearing clearances so you would want to run a thicker oil. Imagine as your motor is running, the only thing between the bearings in your rods and crank journals is this pressurized film of oil. Too thin and it might not protect the bearings when you zing the motor or worse yet, LUG the motor. Low RPM is lower oil pressure and high load is more "squeeze" between journals and bearings. Not a good combination.

In addition, most of those older V8 motors ran flat tappet cams and sled fulcrum rockers. To combat wear in these areas, you want an oil higher in ZDDP, which is one lubricant that helps prevent wear (Zinc dithiophosphates ). Lots of guys running flat tappet cams run Rotella oils which are high in ZDDP. Problem is this stuff plugs up catalytic converters more quickly.

Modern oils have a lot less ZDDP than they used to for this reason. You can add ZDDP to your oil and help reduce wear, but it's possible it will plug up your cats sooner. It's an eye and skin irritant too. I think STP makes an additive as does Crane and Comp cams. Check out Valvoline racing oil at NAPA. Right on the box it says Not Legal for Street use. This is due to the high levels of ZDDP. Got a case of 10W40 full synth sitting in my garage and thinking of giving it to my neighbor who has a 70's GTO.

Personally I like either full synth Mobil 1 or Valvoline and that's what I'll run in my MS3 eventually. Also have ran Royal purple but it's pricey. Amsoil is also very good but best way to get it is to become a distributor yourself, and sell to your friends. Used to do that too.

In contrast, local race engine builder swears synthetic is a waste of money. He always recommends mineral based oil and change it every 3K. They don't even like to run synth in differentials or transmissions.

I'm running Rotella T Syn 5W-40 in my Speed. I'm on the 3rd change with it. I just got an analysis done by Blackstone labs after 5,000 miles with good results. They recommended going 6,500 miles on it. Rotella is full of additives and wear reducers. The only reason why they got rid of ZDDP in most oils (except HDDO's like Rotella) is that catylitic converters are required by Federal law to last a lot longer than they were before. It used to be 50,000 miles before OBDII and now it's 80,000 miles. I gaurantee our pig rich AF ratios and high EGT's will cook our cats long before ZDDP's from oil do, unless you're burning lots of it (smoking turbo?).

I take local race engine builders advice with a grain of salt when it comes to what I put in my street driven vehicle. How often are "race engines" rebuilt? Quite often. How often is my street driven engine rebuilt? Hopefully never. Race engines aren't built to last. They're built to make max power, so one doesn't care if the oil they put in it will last for 5 or 6 thousand miles. Then again, if someone's got the money to build a race engine, why would they go cheap on oil and complain synthetics are a waste of money? If I'm going to change conventional at 3,000 miles to play it safe, but can go 6,000 on synthetic, the money spent is actually the same, if not less in the long run on a better oil.

 

[Wurf]

I'm running Rotella T Syn 5W-40 in my Speed. I'm on the 3rd change with it. I just got an analysis done by Blackstone labs after 5,000 miles with good results. They recommended going 6,500 miles on it. Rotella is full of additives and wear reducers. The only reason why they got rid of ZDDP in most oils (except HDDO's like Rotella) is that catylitic converters are required by Federal law to last a lot longer than they were before. It used to be 50,000 miles before OBDII and now it's 80,000 miles. I gaurantee our pig rich AF ratios and high EGT's will cook our cats long before ZDDP's from oil do, unless you're burning lots of it (smoking turbo?).

I take local race engine builders advice with a grain of salt when it comes to what I put in my street driven vehicle. How often are "race engines" rebuilt? Quite often. How often is my street driven engine rebuilt? Hopefully never. Race engines aren't built to last. They're built to make max power, so one doesn't care if the oil they put in it will last for 5 or 6 thousand miles. Then again, if someone's got the money to build a race engine, why would they go cheap on oil and complain synthetics are a waste of money? If I'm going to change conventional at 3,000 miles to play it safe, but can go 6,000 on synthetic, the money spent is actually the same, if not less in the long run on a better oil.

I thought of mentioning it when I posted last, but even though they build race engines, they make their living off repairing passenger vehicles and street rods. I've seen everything over there from Superperformance Cobra, to a Pantera, the ubiquitous BBC powered Novas, Camaros, Mustangs, etc. I've even seen them rebuilding a VTECH some kid had in a Civic wagon. They only do the assembly and very limited machine work. We have another local speed shop for machining and they do a great job.

Anyway, the guys are almost religiously against synthetics and have told me stories about rear ends running synthetic oil going up in flames and motors having other problems running it. Almost seems to me they are superstitious about the stuff. I think their primary beef is they believe it to be a waste of money.

I go 4K on Mobil 1 5W30 synth and maybe push it to 5K sometimes before changing it. This is in my work car and it's the boss' preference.

I usually run Valvoline full synth in my personal cars, but have run most everything. My wife drives so few miles that I change her oil about every 4 months even though it only has about 2K on it. She drives short distances and the oil doesn't get much opportunity to get really hot so it's pretty nasty after 4 months. It's a 2002 Nissan Maxima SE automagic.

So you think the high ZDDP oils are OK with a car with CATS eh? I'll have to check if I can find that Rotella locally.

 

[tiagotiago]

Mobil 1 5w-30. So far the car hasn't burned any noticible amounts of oil (not even during break in!).

I've used Castrol and Shell oils in the past, with no bad experiences to date (those were on my previous car though, a 2.0l gas beetle that did burn oil since day one )

 

[FrequentFlyer]

So you think the high ZDDP oils are OK with a car with CATS eh? I'll have to check if I can find that Rotella locally.

Honestly I'm not worried about it. ZDDP had been used in oils quite commonly up until about 3 years ago when the EPA rapidly phased it out and now with today's SM ratings, it's pretty much non-existant in oils. Phosphorus and Zinc are low-level contaminants. Much less significant than contaminants such as lead, manganese or silicon. It's a lot easier to rid the catylitic converter of these contaminents by running the motor at high loads (high EGT's) which can blast the crap right out of the cat. Most of us have no problems doing this in the MS3, I would assume.

If my cat fails with 80,000 miles on it from ZDDP, I'll just get aan aftermarket catted downpipe!

Rotella is available at Walmart and Pep Boys, that I know of. Pep Boys had the best price at $18.99 for a 4 quart jug.

 

[Haxir]

after all the research i've done on these fourms and around from like oilguy.com or w/e. One of the best oils to run is Royal Purple. I use it and always have, such a great oil. Now the weight depends on the weather. If its summer and it gets actually pretty warm where you live, go with 10w40 for the 1 summer oil change, rest of the year use 5w30. If you do your research about all the brands of oil and how they claim to be synthetic. You'll find most are s*** and are barely "syntetic". Royal Purple is one of the few remaining oils that are truely fully synthetic.

 

[ericrapp]

after all the research i've done on these fourms and around from like oilguy.com or w/e. One of the best oils to run is Royal Purple. I use it and always have, such a great oil. Now the weight depends on the weather. If its summer and it gets actually pretty warm where you live, go with 10w40 for the 1 summer oil change, rest of the year use 5w30. If you do your research about all the brands of oil and how they claim to be synthetic. You'll find most are s*** and are barely "syntetic". Royal Purple is one of the few remaining oils that are truely fully synthetic.

Thank you, Haxir and Bob the oil guy.com too! To each their own, but the Purple is awesome s*** and has been good to me. I have used it for years.

 

[Wurf]

Well my $.02 is I'm not paying nearly $8 a qt for oil, especially when this thing gulps 6 qts per change. This is what's called the law of diminishing returns. You're spending nearly twice as much per qt for Roy Purp VS Valvoline or Castrol and it's not twice as good oil. I go to Wal-mart and buy the 5.5qt jugs for like $19 and change.

 

[15min5k]

Amsoil b****!

 

[ericrapp]

But some oils really are twice as good honestly. But if you change your oil religously to remove contaminants and broken down friction modifiers. Every one should be fine. Mazda does not recommend synth so they should know best. Seriously. They want their motors to run as long as possible! But for some folks, like me who are bouncing off the rev limiter and are running higher in the rpms under load for sustained periods of time, some of the high end oils like RP and Amsoil, Redline and Rotella(sorry FF ) and such really have been proven to help keep a motor or tranny together longer. I think you mostly do get what you pay for in this case. But i guess how you drive your car really should help you decide what works for you. I actually am running my motor oil to 4k. And RP is rated for closer to ten thousand on a daily driver. There are many modified oils in between, in quality and price to. I think i just spent more like 10 cents! with my opinion

 

[fastguy]

i use mobil one full synetic and it runs great 5w 30

 

[karl hungus]

pp 5w30 from walmart. 5 qt jugs were going for $23 last week.

 

[SvenSPEED]

I just had the first change done, free at the dealer, idiots. I told them the speed 3 takes 5W30 and they said they use 5W20 on the 3. I showed them in the book where it says 5W30 but they put in 5W20 anyway, said ‘the tech checked with Mazda and it was okay, and in our climate it was better’. I live in Phoenix and it’s already in the 100's here, wouldn't you go with a higher viscosity in extreme heat?
I think they did not have the Mobile 1 in 5W30. But they did Mobile 1 for free thinking I will go back to them.
Btw, I believe the 3K oil change only benefits those selling it and is a waste of money. The book states 7.5 K in normal conditions and 5K for heavy conditions. So running Synthetic for 5 – 7k should be very safe. The nice thing about synthetic is if you go past where you should, you have a little extra protection.
My .02 on oil, a fascinating subject by the way.

 

[MikeHTally]

I just had the first change done, free at the dealer, idiots. I told them the speed 3 takes 5W30 and they said they use 5W20 on the 3. I showed them in the book where it says 5W30 but they put in 5W20 anyway, said the tech checked with Mazda and it was okay, and in our climate it was better. I live in Phoenix and its already in the 100's here, wouldn't you go with a higher viscosity in extreme heat?
I think they did not have the Mobile 1 in 5W30. But they did Mobile 1 for free thinking I will go back to them.
Btw, I believe the 3K oil change only benefits those selling it and is a waste of money. The book states 7.5 K in normal conditions and 5K for heavy conditions. So running Synthetic for 5 7k should be very safe. The nice thing about synthetic is if you go past where you should, you have a little extra protection.
My .02 on oil, a fascinating subject by the way.

Sounds like your oil change cost what it was worth. No way anyone (with a brain) at Mazda told the tech 5w-20 was OK in AZ. I would contact the service mangler, and then never set foot in the place again.

 

[ericrapp]

I myself would not run a 5w because i do not drive this car in winters. But the car asks for some pretty slippery stuff. Some have moved to thicker viscosities after remove cats and increasing the horsepower and boost a little. I have just purchased another batch of Royal Purple at 10w30. It has been 9778 miles. The oil has actually started to break down. finally. By the way i will probably not run this far again. it makes me nervous coming from the old school 3000, change period. my car is well broken in and i will probably go 6000 next time.

 

[SvenSPEED]

So, i check the oil and it seems a little overfilled, so, i stop back into the shop and ask them to check it and it is a little over the full mark. the mech said it would not hurt anything. He offered to drain it, but, said it didn't need it, so, i passed, i had to get to my other job. hard to say how over it really is, but, it is nagging at me, is he right? could it damage anything being a little over?

 

[MikeHTally]

Probably not if it is just a LITTLE over. I prefer a tiny bit under as opposed to any over. "Roger, over." "What?"

 

[Wurf]

That depends.
If it's enough extra oil in the oil pan to contact the crank all the time, as in the crank is partly submerged in it, then yes that's bad. You'll aerate your oil, lose significant HP to windage and possibly foam up your oil which is horrible for bearings etc. That would be a worse case scenario and I highly doubt you're at that point with just a bit over full. The dipsticks probably aren't marked accurately enough from car to car for this to come into play.

I would say if the mechanic said it was OK then just run it and check it in a couple weeks. If you were a quart over, then I would drain some for sure.

 

[SvenSPEED]

Thanks for the reassurance, I don't think it is that over filled.

 

[18psiWhiteMS3]

im about to do my first oil change at 2000 miles. should i use conventional oil or should i switch to synthetic. isnt 2000 too soon for synthetic tho??