That’s why I only use free range organic oil. It passes the taste test as well.
Your discernment, refinement [NPI], and urbanity set you apart from the crowd.
It’s always heartening to encounter a petroleum bon vivant 
With no disrespect to @DavidNRockies or @Saint_Cad, your running discussion of testing standards reminds me of discussions about stereos back in the analog 1970s days. Discussions many of us participated in.
One side would argue that Brand X has better specs for THD, ABC, & PDQ factor than Brand Y. So is clearly superior.
Others would argue that once the measured values of those parameters are above some very minimal baseline surpassed by standard tech 10 years ago, what matters is how it subjectively sounds. And improvements in those parameter values (once better than objectively bad) are not predictive of improving the subjective sound. But they are easy to measure & look great on a feature comparison chart.
Returning to oil, my own (very non-expert) view is that the rest of the vagaries of using a car over a long time / great mileage utterly overwhelm any niggling differences between brands or marketing terms. If it’s the right viscosity & meets whichever API standard is applicable, you’re done.
The difference between the engine surviving to 250K miles versus 240K miles is down to whether you drove through four dust storms 150K miles ago back in '06, or only three. Not down to whether you used Castrol SuperFancy XYZ123 or O’Reilly’s budget brand the whole time.
Nah. What essentially amounts to ‘diminishing returns’ is a perfectly valid knock.
Go onto any bicycling forum and start a thread about the best chain lubricant to use.
And then duck.
I’m guessing that many pastimes or fields have similar taboo topics that are fraught with alchemy and voodoo.
And, yeah, “Hi-Fi” is a great example.
But I’m patient and generous with those who will argue passionately about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
Were it not for people of that particular bent, I would also argue that the SDMB (nay, the Internet writ large!) would cease to exist 
At this point, I feel obligated to unleash the big guns: a 354-page PDF of a 1972 paper titled “Boundary Lubrication.”
Pretty slick, eh?
Immersive hot wax. Case closed.
< pedals away very fast >
For me, it was 50/50 mineral spirits and Mobil 1. I kept my chains pretty clean and pretty well lubed, and (as the late, great Jobst Brandt used to say) rode the damned bikes!
But anybody that would have put a bunch of chains on a machine and ran them for several 000 miles – bathed in various lubes – and then measured the chains for wear afterward … would likely have gotten my attention
Again: diminishing returns, but fascinating stuff nonetheless.
Also …
Band name.
Words cannot adequately describe my affection for you at this moment.
Crappy weather tomorrow. I’m all over this pig!!
Thank you
Speaking as a very amateur cyclist living in an utterly flat geography, i would be much more interested in “zero wind cycling” vs. “zero friction cycling”.
But I’m built very lazy. So there’s that.
Check out bicycle fairings.
He’s retired with nowhere in particular that he needs to be. Just ride in the wind and if you go slow, big deal. You have all day to ride.
That’s how a retired friend explained it. I’ve yet to try it myself, but the reasoning is sound.
Oh, and if you Iive where it’s dry, Finish Line dry lube is great. And if you find DuPont dry lube, it’s cheaper but if you read the small print on the lable it’s made by Finish Line. Same stuff. Gotta stretch that fixed income.
If you live where it’s wet, then move. Fixed income be damned.
TriFlow is the absolute worst, unless you love cleaning gunk from your chain constantly.
Thanks everyone for your responses. I’m trying to understand some of the changes since I last DIY-ed my oil changes, and establish a good brand/type to stick with. At nearly 2 gallons per change, I want to take advantage of any significant savings, but only if the oil is the same as the “boutique” brand.
I’m still skeptical about the oil-life indicator in the truck, since every mechanic I’ve talked with opposes those higher mile schedules. Mine seems to be aiming for around 8000 or 9000 miles (extrapolating the displayed percentage), but I’m sticking with 5000 mile intervals for now.
Agreed. Although I mourn the passing of Andy Granatelli, I sure as heck wasn’t a customer. It’s amazing how many people swear by additives. I once stopped an A&P from putting Marvel Mystery Oil into my plane, claiming it would extend the engine life.
I wonder if anyone here remembers the Frantz Toilet Paper oil filter that people added to their cars in the 70s? (“You’ll never need to change your oil again!”)
One clerk actually tried to sell me this, explaining: “I spew bullshit at customers.” OK, that isn’t an exact quote… he really said: “It is specially formulated!” Which I interpret as the same thing. I rejected this one not due to the fancy name, but no trademarks (starburst/donut).
My grandfather swore by Rislone. I realize much later in life it was because he thought modern oils were still based on 1940s technology. You know, thinking that as your rings wear you move up to a higher viscosity oil and the best oil was Delo 400 15w40 since that’s what the navy used on submarines.
A guy I used to ride with in Southern California had a Big Ol’ GutTM.
He called it the AeroBelly.
So that’s an option. I think its effectiveness varies based on whether one is beating, running, or reaching, however.
On the plus side, he found significant joy in the activities that helped him maintain that AeroBelly
At 8 quarts per change, you want something high-quality but not bank-breaking. If you have a Costco membership, their Kirkland synthetic oil (conveniently sold in boxes with two 1-gallon containers) is very good. Good enough that if you’re using proper oil change intervals, you should be fine.
About oil change intervals: There are two major components to your oil change interval, mileage and time. If you’re not meeting the 8 or 9000 mile interval in 6 - 9 months, you should change the oil anyhow. On my last ICE vehicle, I averaged about 7k miles per year and did the oil changes about every 12 months instead of the recommended 10k mile interval. That was on the advice of my independent mechanic who worked solely on my brand of vehicle (Volvo). I also took it to him for the oil changes, because even on a trouble-free car I wanted someone looking at it once a year and talking to me about upcoming maintenance. Those oil changes cost me $100+, but once a year I can afford $100.
About overfilling your oil: Overfilling by half a quart or even a full quart is not going to ruin your engine. Filling it up to the top of the oil cap will definitely be bad. You want to avoid cavitation in the pump, and that’s not going to happen with an extra quart in the pan, especially if your capacity is 8 quarts.
For filters, I use one of a few brands: Wix, Fram, or Mobil 1. You can also buy the OEM filters if you have a desire to spend extra $. The more important thing is regular changes and keeping your engine oil topped up. Check the level every month or every time you get gas.
Beyond “meeting the standards” the thing that’s going to have the biggest impact on oil life is just paying attention and following a proper schedule. I know people who used to do oil changes every 2500 miles because they liked to see that nice clean oil all the time. Huge waste of money. I know people who changed their oil so infrequently that when you opened the oil plug nothing came out. None of his cars lasted very long. Follow the recommended guidelines from a good mechanic, maybe have your oil sent out for analysis, and make sure someone qualified is looking at the car every so often, and it will last a long time.
Bike chain lubes, gun lubes, motor oils- they’re all roughly equivalent in terms of difficulty in determining effectiveness. While there are edge cases (TdF riders, machine guns, race cars), the vast majority of hobbyists/everyday users just flat out can’t tell whether White Lightning is better than Finish Line Dry, or whether Rem-Oil is better or worse than Breakfree, or if Pennzoil is better than Valvoline.
It’s a gear-related version of Sayre’s Law, which says “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” And in the case of bike chain lubes and gun lubes, they’re easy conditions for lubricants- low pressure, low speed, and moderate temperature. Grit, grime, and water are the major problems. Motor oil is a bit more highly engineered, but has a slew of standards and what-not. At any rate, your car will run forever on any of Valvoline, Pennzoil, or SuperTech, just like your gun will outlive you using Breakfree, Rem-Oil, or 3-in-1 oil.
There is a YouTube video, Just Rolled In, where mechanics send horror videos. The majority of them are autos with frame and suspension parts eaten out by rust but a close second are ones with astonishingly high mileage since the last oil change – I recall one at 60,000 miles and there were longer ones. Sometimes they drop the oil pan and scrape the tarry sludge out with a spatula.
The rust-outs are disquieting because, while a few of them end with, “The car was towed to the scrapyard,” all too many are, “Customer declined all repairs.”
The risk with overfilling is that the crankshaft could come in contact with the oil that is in the pan, and whip it into a foam.
Yes, this is very true, and is what would cause cavitation in the pump (I worded that poorly) or the pump not picking up oil in general. However there is a good bit of leeway before that happens. Much more than half a quart to 1 quart, because there needs to be ample clearance during deceleration (when oil would move toward the front of the engine) and turning (when oil would shift toward the side of the engine). I’ve seen videos where doubling the amount of oil still didn’t put it in danger of contacting the crankshaft. Not all engines are created equal, so I don’t recommend doubling your engine oil, but I’m saying if you go slightly over-capacity it is not a catastrophic scenario. If your engine calls for 4.6 quarts, putting all 5 quarts in isn’t going to do harm.
Another thing that comes up in debates: Do you fill the oil filter with oil prior to installing it? It’s recommended if you can, but if your oil filter is mounted horizontally (or worse, where the gasket is face-down), it’s a royal pain so I skip it.
Picking an oil for my motorcycle is very easy. From the factory it has a little sticker on the engine that says “Castrol,” and because a sticker wouldn’t lie to me, I put in Castrol T4 motorcycle oil every time. It’s worth not having to think about it.
Chain lube though, what to do? I wish it had a sticker, because I really have no idea what is best. It needs to work to lube the chain, and should be resistant to water, and I don’t want it to fling off and cover me and everything else in oil, and I don’t want it to attract dirt causing premature wear… Problem is all of those requirements are not compatible. Sticky so it doesn’t fling off? Attracts dirt.
F9 recommends gear oil. I even have some, because my old bike used it as transmission fluid. That stuff is stinky and messy, so I really don’t know if I believe them. I originally had been using some sort of Kawasaki spray on stuff, just because that’s all the dealership had.
My guess is, it really doesn’t matter too much, but then we’re back to not wanting the back of my leg covered in chain lube…