Amsoil

[Conundrum]

I'm thinking about going to Amsoil in my DD since I drive so much to work and back; 180 miles round trip. Has anyone tried it and what do you think?

[nofear365]

It takes a brave man to start an oil thread on a car forum! :-)

I don't have the answer for this. However, through the years I've spoken to people that represent various oil companies, advertise for various oil companies, and sell for various oil companies. When the marketing hype was put aside, my takeaway was always that oil has come a long way. Keep it clean, keep an eye on it, you'll be fine. If your manufacturer specifically recommends synth oil, use synth. If not, you're probably not gaining much by using it.

I'm not saying Amsoil is bad. I'm not saying synthetic oil is pointless. I'm just saying that IMO any good quality DINO oil should be more than fine for high mileage.

[nullset]

I've heard recently that some (almost all?) "synthetic" oil is actually just normal Dino oil. I need to look this up though and see if there's any truth to it.

--buddy

[LEVY]

.

If AM SOIL where that good, you would find it on most autopart stores. I believe their business is not to sell oil products but to recruit dealers who then need to recruit more dealers in order to make any money.

Do a Google search and you will find a lot of "independent" dealers who will "help you" to start your own AM SOIL business.

Go to amsoil website and click on "Dealer locator" then enter your city and state. You will get a map with several dealer locations, click on any of those and you will likely see only names of persons, no company names whatsoever. Every single one of those persons invested their money to start their own AMSOIL business, if they have a website, they will even try to make you start your own business claiming that you will save money on oil for your own vehicles.

All those websites that claim they did a product research I believe belongs to AM SOIL.

This is just my point of view!

Levy


I'm thinking about going to Amsoil in my DD since I drive so much to work and back; 180 miles round trip. Has anyone tried it and what do you think?

[nofear365]

Couldn't agree more. Like I said, just use any quality DINO oil, use the proper weight, change your filters with every change, you'll be fine.

[DMCVegas]

I've heard recently that some (almost all?) "synthetic" oil is actually just normal Dino oil. I need to look this up though and see if there's any truth to it.

--buddy

That would essentially be correct. Crude oil is a mix of Hydro-Carbons (and other impurities like Paraffin) that are all different chain lengths of HC. Put as simplistically as possible, when you refine oil, you separate those different chain lengths and keep them together.

Shorter chains are Methane Gas. As you add chains together you can go from solvents to liquid fuels like Kerosene, Gasoline, then Diesel. Increasing hydrocarbon lengths you'll then go to Heating Fuel, to light lubricants, engine oil, heavy lubes, then Greases. And there are lots of little other things in between such as distillates, hydraulic fluids, weights of each, etc., but overall you get the idea.

As for engine oil, like all petroleum products you have a HC Chain length-range that qualifies them all for their respective categories, and in turn lubricant weights. Synthetic oil further refines the chains to match them all as closely as possible to all being equal lengths. As such when used in tandem with detergents, since the HC Chains are all equal, the fluid wears "evenly" and is able to keep it's lubricant properties for a much longer amount of time.

In regular engines that don't require synthetic, you can certainly have gains such as much longer intervals between oil changes, as well as increased fuel economy. Both I can attest to with our '07 F150. In engines that require the synthetic stuff right off the production line, it's usually because the engines have tighter tolerances internally that demand the freer-flowing fluid, and synthetic is better at standing up to being spread so thin and keeping the longer service intervals.

FYI: Synthetic Oil does NOT cause leaks in older engines!
For the same reasons that R-134a leaks out of old R-12 Air Conditioning hoses, so can you see leaks with synthetic oil used in older engines. If you've got tiny leaks, the longer HC Chains in conventional oil can't always flow through because they're too big to fit. With Synthetic though the chains are smaller and can fit through tiny spaces in older gaskets that have deteriorated over time. If it's a fresh engine build with known good gaskets, you won't have a problem with Synthetic in an older engine. But if it's an older engine that has tired gaskets, you may very well see some leaks that you wouldn't have. It's nothing wrong with the engine, you would just need to switch back to conventional oil.

Now as to what brand to use, you'll get plenty of responses there, and that's an entirely different argument...

[Agent Smith]

It takes a brave man to start an oil thread on a car forum!

No kidding. There's so much nonsense and misinformation in that last post I don't even know where to start.

[Conundrum]

I'm brave. I've been here long enough to trust the members of this forum. I just want something better for my DD since I run it so much.

I've seen oil debate over oil debate here and it does get annoying. I'm just wondering about Amsoil and any other oil that says "15K or 25K +" per oil change.

There's a guy I work with and he talks my ear off about Amsoil. I'm just curious. My next oil change, I may stick with what I usually use (which is Mobil 1 every 6K) or go to something that "says" it lasts longer just to try it.

[Bitsyncmaster]

.Do a Google search and you will find a lot of "independent" dealers who will "help you" to start your own AM SOIL business.
Levy

Remember AMWAY? For those of you that don't, your neigbor would invite you to a party, and pictch becomming an AMWAY dealer under him. So the chanin would grow and grow since he got a kickback for everyone he signed up.

[DMCVegas]

Remember AMWAY? For those of you that don't, your neigbor would invite you to a party, and pictch becomming an AMWAY dealer under him. So the chanin would grow and grow since he got a kickback for everyone he signed up.

*Checks Wikipedia and Google*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsoil

"AMSOIL markets their products through a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) network of dealers who sell to defined customer types known as wholesale customers, retail accounts and commercial accounts.

AMSOIL also wholly owns and manages an MLM subsidiary called ALTRUM, which markets nutritional supplements. AMSOIL also owns a natural liquid organic fertilizer division called AGGRAND, used in home, gardens, greenhouses, golf courses, lawncare, crop farms, ranches, and commercial farming."

Yeah, I'll keep staying away from that crap now, and will just stick with Mobil-1 like I've been using.

Big thanks to Bitsyncmaster for clearing up the mystery behind Amsoil's hype.

[SoCalDMC12]

Couldn't agree more. Like I said, just use any quality DINO oil, use the proper weight, change your filters with every change, you'll be fine.

Hypothetical question: If you have a garage queen that only gets driven a few hundred miles per year, it's a good idea to change the oil a couple of times per year, but is it necessary to change the filter every time?

Ya might as well, since it only requires an additional 2 minutes of work, but I'm just curious.

[nofear365]

My car lives in my garage year round and I put less than 1000 miles a year on it. I change the oil and filter once a year.