Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Just got my new 2007 civic Si and I'm already thinking about what brand of oil to use after its broken it with the stock oil. What oil do you guys like?? Mobil 1?? Royal Purple?? Amsoil?? Any bad experiences with a higher performance oil?? Ive read some independent:2pimp: oil test results online, but the results conflict with the wide variety of tests they do. I'm in Florida, so despite the fact we do have a winter, it would get near freezing all that much. Thanks for the input. :cool:

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

I use Mobil 1 5W-20 and nothing else. I have 190k on my 7th gen Civic LX and go about 10K between oil changes with no problems. In comparison to other syn oil. I have used Valvoline 5-20 full synthetic and after 6k miles my engine started sounding like there were marbles in it when revved past 5,000 RPM. I switched back to mobil 1 and the problem was instantly solved.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

190k on a 7th gen?? Wow, that's a lot of miles. What year LX? Did you try Val Max life on just the general syn??

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

It's a 2001 Coupe. Isn't valvoline maxlife just a fancy dino oil with additives? I used the full synthetic version called "Syn Power."

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

so whats the best for an Si, i would think it would be different than the lx.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Royal purple FTW!
i love the shit, and i do recommend it for your Si aswell, With either a boosted engine and/or N/A honda engine its a good thing to use synthetic.

Turbo generated alot of heat
Honda engines are generally high RPM cars

so...either way you cant go wrong with Synthetic oils/

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

lol ive never even heard about it... ill look into it thans! a

any other suggestions for the 8th gen Si?

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

You won't find many independent tests on Amsoil or Royal Purple because they are not involved with some organization.

Mobile 1 is good for everyday driving, but wears quickly. I found Amsoil is great. I have never used RP though.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

all i know is my oil needs changing soon as the dummy lights at 20% now, guess whats going into the engine?

Royal purple w/wix filter ftw!

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Check this out as far as independent tests go.

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

This is a thorough a test as I have seen. These guys have nothing to gain (that I know of) from the results. The bottom line is oil longevity, how long do you want to keep the same oil in your engine? Me, I can’t bring myself to keeping it in 5,000 miles! On both my cars 2006 Jeep Commander and my 2K EX I change it every 2,500 miles. The EX get a new filter with each change (usually Fram or Bosch), the Commander gets a new K&N filter every 5,000 miles. I use Castrol GTX 5W-30 in both. I’ve always used this oil and this oil change schedule with these results:

1982 Datsun 310 GX sold at 210,000 miles
1981 VW Sirocco sold at 215,000 miles
1996 Volvo 850 GLT sold at 165,000 miles
1996 Saturn sold at 80,000 miles
1999 Plymouth Voyager Minivan sold at 190,000 miles

None of these cars had any major engine work required. I’m not going to do anything different than what I have done. The only other thing I have done with new engines (the Saturn, Plymouth, Commander and some boat motors we built) is change the oil at 500-mile intervals till they hit 2,000 miles (in the boats we did it for every 1 hr of run time for the first 8 hrs or so). I know people will argue, but metal wear will occur in the beginning.

If you change your oil at 5,000 miles the difference between Mobil 1, Amsoil, Redline, Royal Purple, etc is insignificant. Mobil 1 costs about ½ of what the others do and you can get it anywhere. I would definitely stick with a premium filter (K&N, Wix, Hastings, etc).

Keep in mind these comments are for a daily driver. If I had a car that I raced on a frequent basis, for my own peace of mind I would go with Amsoil, Royal Purple or Redline. Probably more psychological than anything. Well, that’s my long winded 2 Cents.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Ditto on the Amsoil or Royal Purple!
G

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

royal purple sucks, only lasts 2k miles tops.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

I would vouch for amsoil all the way. I think it's the best oil out there. It's way expensive, but it is great stuff that is good for up to 35000 miles or one year. That's for very mild driving and I wouldn't keep it in that long unless I drove 150 km's highway every day. I use the 0W30 full synthetic in our van and it's super stuff for wear, fuel mileage, low volatility, etc.

We have a 98 odyssey with 310 000 kms on the clock, with the 2.3 liter vtec, and on a good summer drive it will get 600+ km's on 55 litres of gas. Still runs great too. I did the conversions once: that's well over 30 mpg in a van! Somewhere around 33 mpg or so. The oil is awesome, use their own high mileage filter with the oil too. If you keep it in for long enough it will pay for itself, cause it's about double the cost of most other oils. IF you want to keep the civic for the long haul, spend the money and get top quality oil and air filter.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Wait a minute, the mileage figure I just gave might be too good to be true...my math's not that good. The point is it's very good. It's about 360 miles on 13-14 gallons of gas or so, nothing to shake a stick at in an older van. Your civic would be much better.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Redline 5w20 FTW. Just be sure that you take care of your air filter. If you have a K&N, be sure you don't under or over oil it, and you should be good. With synthetics, your biggest issue is ingested silicates dirtying up the oil faster than just carbon buildup alone.

I leave the redline in for 4K, then change just the filter. IMHO, this is the most economical solution that still keeps stuff clean. At 8-10K or so the whole shebang gets changed.

Also consider using the oversized s2000 filters (mobil1 m1-104) as I am told they have the same bypass and flow specs as ours, but contain quite a bit more filter media.

Best place to ask this question is bobistheoilguy.com forums. Most guys posting there are trying to get 350K+ miles out of the engine, so they definitely don't mess around with the oil... lots of people sending samples to blackstone labs for analysis. At $20 it is fairly cheap insurance.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

royalll purple .. gearbox is right it doesn't last tha tlong but its great stuff .. just make sure u change ur oil every 3-4000 km .. which is a good thing not a bad thing u don't want oil in there for months or like sumone said a yr

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Why would it be different?? They have a different weight recomendation, but as far as brand you can use whatever in either car.

Mobil 1 for my K20a2, not daily driven, just sees alot of time on the autox course or the track.

Mobil 1 for my wife's 01 civic lx

Valvoline high milage for my 91 accord daily driver.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Interesting how everyone swears by a different brand. In all seriousness there probably isn't much of a difference between most synthetics other than their price. I have been using Valvoline Durablend and I get great performance, but from what I have read in most tuner mags the best oil for constant high performance (as in, I'm headed to the track every weekend) is Redline 5w 20

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Wow, old thread, but kind of glad you brought it back. Since then I have switched to Eneos 5W40, it is the single best oil IMO. We did dyno tests with it at the local shop comparing it to mobil 1 and it made more power everytime, under every condition!! Hands down Eneos FTW, the local shop builds tons of cars, tracks them regularly, and has access to all of the major brands and Eneos is going in most if not all of their cars.

When I get a chance I will post up a thread with the dyno #s

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

I hear eneos is good stuff. I hate to be a downer, but I can give a rats ass about "power" from oil. I want oil that protects my engine, an oil that doesn't degrade that quickly, an oil that lubricates where I need it to lubricate. I never understood how oil made "power"??

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

I am leery about changing the filter from the stock Honda OEM filter until after the Powertrain warranty wears out at 5 yrs. or 50,000 miles is it?

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

honda filter isnt the greatest, there are two different models and one is a trashy fram underneath. the other one is "okay" at best, but there are much better choices such as mobil1, k&n, napa gold, and pure one. oil filters are not anywhere near as important as having good air filter and engine oil. if the oil stays clean enough for a long time, the oil filter is basically just extra insurance.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

Mobil 1, royal purple, and amsoil are all great synthetic oils, so either way they are all great choices. I have used all of them and they are all great but i like the amsoil more than the rest. For oil filters i say go with the k&n filter but never ever go with fram.

Re: Synthetic Oil Debate
 

X2 for mobile 1, we use it in all of our civics including the one with 298,000 on it finally died a few years ago but I think the oil helped. I use it because of how I sort of abuse my civic and also because of how far I go for installs "up to almost 3 hours away" so far so good.

I use ams oil in my Kawasaki because of the wet clutch good oil so far with 10,000 miles on the bike in 2 years.