The
oil stock itself never wears out. Both
synthetic and non-
synthetic. It is the attitives that give out (recycle it folks. the energy required to refine the
oil in my car would power my home for 24 hours). To make a
oil go longer between changes more or better quality attitives are required. A large part of the premium that you are paying when you buy any oil that claims to be extended change type oil.
You can stick virtually any darn oil you want in a car, change it reguarly and the motor will live a long and happy life.
So why do I run Mobil 1 in my Cobra? Because
........ I like it
Seriously. I have heard/read a number of stories about the added protection, some on paper benefits and some real world benefits as well. Throw in my anal retentive nature and there you have it, I use full
synthetic.
I have plenty of experience with both Mobil 1 and Red Line and none with Royal Purple and
Amsoil. But there is no reason to think there is a problem with them. Mobil 1 is sold in more outlets and I watch it to go on sale and can usually pick it up for $3.75 a quart (anal and cheap!).
We used to run our formula ford race engines for an entire season on Red Line and never once had a failure. The motors "needed" only a basic freshning ever year. DV spun the bearing in DVII while doing skid pad testing using Mobil 1. What he discovered is that the car was running at 0 pounds of pressure during the test since the stock pan was not up to the task (ALL the oil was up in the outside valve cover during the skid pad runs). This was after a LONG day of testing. He swears that the damage would have been more substantial if it where not for the Mobil 1.
If you want to do your motor a favor, buy it the best filter possible and consider one of those two stage jobs. But, this will just make it last longer and how many of us are going to put 150,000+ miles on a Cobra motor without the little voice in the back of our heads telling us to rebuild the motor. I know I would rationalize the new motor long before then, sell the idea to the wife as proactive and then pull my perfectly good motor out and sell it to some hot rod kid.
Happy lubing!
Rick