For the longest time i've used M1EP + M1EP oil filters. All Blackstone UOA's came out pretty good.

This last change, i used Castrol Edge with Syntec + M1EP filter. The car runs just fine, if not actually a little happier to rev.

I also noticed a few other things such as consistent 22+ mpg in mixed driving (i've logged every tank since 13k miles on the odo, and now have 95k miles on it, so about 0.5 - 0.75mpg improvement), oil checks via dipstick comes out with much lighter oil (vs. very dark oil with the M1), plus at a little over 5k miles since the last oil change, i haven't had to top the oil off at all.

What do you guys make of this? It runs nicer, slightly better mpg, no burn and cleaner oil on the stick? Does that mean the engine is cleaner now? I've been so used to oil turning pretty much black after only a few hundred miles. This is surprising to me.

Thanks.

 

Sounds good to me. Maybe get a another UOA at the next change to confirm?

 

my imagination has also led me to believe that castrol is better than m1

 

This is rather interesting, since Castrol is the one that lead the charge through the courts to get their Group III oil classified as "full sythetic", when it clearly isn't. Mobil 1 had a blend also, but used far more full synthetic base than Castrol. After the Castrol won their lawsuit, Mobil 1 supposedly started adding (diluting) their richer synthetic base to save $$. To the last of my reading on it, Mobil 1 supossedly still retained more fully synthetic base than Castrol Syntec.

I can't explain your particular results Mike, but heck if it works, go with it. You know my take is that as long as it's changed regularly, it really makes little difference anyway.

 

was this a good thing or a bad thing from what ur saying? couldnt decipher that

 

Well, if you follow the BITOG cult, any dillution of a full synthetic is heresy, so yes, it is a "bad" thing. But what I was pointing out, was that even at their rate of dilution, they still held more % of full synthetic than did Castrol, so that's a "good" thing. But seriously, I personally think that 99% of all this oil hype is just good old fashioned marketing.

 

OMG....can you imagine the results you'd get if you used a real quality synthetic like AMSOIL 10w/30 and WIX #51356 oil filter? I dare you to try it and keep tracking your mileage!
Gary

 

Mike if you read through the plethora of oil threads in the main Tech section you'll see a pattern of Castrol outperforming almost all other major oil brands in UOA's including Mobil1, Royal Purple, and even Gary's beloved Amsoil. Granted most of those analyses are on first gens, but I would imagine the results would be very similar for the HR and VHR motors.

Sorry Gary, it's true..............

 

Is that the GC that you're referring to?

 

Both GC and regular Castrol synthetic but GC performs better than the reg.