The favored lubricant thread

[Gordon Maney]

We all use motor oil, gear lubricant, and chassis grease. It would be interesting to know your favorites and some comment as to why.

Has anyone hit upon a motor oil you use in multiple applications in your fleet? ....in your truck, car, motorcycle, tractor, and so on?

Feel free to comment on any automotive lubricants you feel useful, and are not covered in the motor oil, gear lubricant, and chassis grease phrasing.

Discuss.

[Clint Dixon]

We all use motor oil, gear lubricant, and chassis grease. It would be interesting to know your favorites and some comment as to why.

Has anyone hit upon a motor oil you use in multiple applications in your fleet? ....in your truck, car, motorcycle, tractor, and so on?

Feel free to comment on any automotive lubricants you feel useful, and are not covered in the motor oil, gear lubricant, and chassis grease phrasing.

Discuss.

I use Pennzoil in all of my engines. Always have, always will. And, this is after hearing all of the horror stories of why one should never use Pennzoil.

I guess I got started on Pennzoil because that was what my father and grandfather used (sometimes they would use Valvoline or Quaker State.) I have torn engines apart that I have run Pennzoil in for years and have never encountered a buildup of sludge. I even ran Pennzoil 2-cycle oil in my motocross bikes when everyone else was running Golden Spectro or Bel-Ray. I always liked the aroma of those exotic racing oils as they burned, but I never got to enjoy it for long, I always seemed to end up ahead of those guys at the finish line. In five years of hard racing, I never had to split apart a motorcycle gear case for repairs and I never had a piston seize in the bore. The only engine I have that receives a special manufactures suggested oil is my Stihl chainsaw.

For gear lube, I run the generic 85w140 from the local farm supply.

[74w300uteline]

Valvoline, despite bad business model

I could hardly contain my joy when Valvoline bought out the local qwickie lube. No more rolling around on the ground for me!! My joy was short lived when mechanic began a 4,782 point check on my beater VW. Wipers, blinkers, horn,reverse lights, brake lights,tire pressure GET ME OUTTA HERE!!.That level of soccer mom service was not what I expected. I was expecting the same 10 min slam bam oil change, but with a superior product. I'm back to rolling around on the ground.

[oldmopar]

Motor oil whatever name brand is on sale. Chassis, wheel bearing grease, gear oil, I get at NAPA, brand is StaLube or something like that

[Joe Flo]

Whatever motor oil is on sale and meets the API Service SM category. Walmart's brand seems to be the cheapest around here.
My father was a chemist and years ago he once made a gallon of lithium grease for his car. I still have a little left and only use it for special things. I like Never Seez for certain high temp situations and a product from Wynn's called Viscotene for lubricating linkage, chains and waterproofing electrical connections. It's water resistant and doesn't sling off.

[pwdave]

lubes

Well, I guess I may as well pitch in too. I use Rotella 15/40 for the power wagon and the 95 cummins, makes it very handy for me at rallys or on the road to a rally. I only have to worry about one oil for both, and it does a good job for the FF (it doesn't use any more than it did with the mobil one) and has more zinc to boot. the cummins goes without saying. I use farm store transmixer oil 90/140 for all the stuff with teeth, and use that red sticky grease or the black moly grease for all else(knuckels included) whatever is in the gun at the time. I use cornhead grease in the winch and the steering sector. I like all of these lubes as they seem to do a good job for me(10,000+ mi. in three yrs) the only bad experince I've had is with lucas condictioners, all it is is another form of stp, and from all I can tell all it does is makes the lubes thicker, that does not mean it lubricates any better, NEVER again! Dave.

[TommyDodge]

I only use Valvoline 10w40 in both the Ram's I have. and when I obtain any other vehicle will use Valvoline in that as well. I have used Valvoline since 1979 when my Dad's buddy retired from running a service station and have had zero problems or engine repairs save for valve cover gaskets

[Kevin Mienke]

I've used Phillips 66 products since I first started driving, as did my father and Grandfather. The local 66 station delivered it to the farm in 55-gallon drums. We used it in car engines, truck engines, diesel tractor engines, two-cylinder tractor engines, knucklehead engines, panhead engines, flathead engines, lawn mowers, etc..

The presence of the huge drum of oil and several grease guns hanging on the wall in my grandpa's garage set the tone for teaching me how important fresh lubricants are.

I have never had an oil related failure in any vehicle, probably not so much because Phillips products are better than other brands, but rather because I refresh the lubricants on a regular basis. I don’t mind taking 10 minutes out of my day to unscrew an oil pan plug or grease a zerk.

Changing oil has become like an addiction for me. I can picture the clean new oil passing through a clean filter and slathering up the bearings and cylinder walls.

I don't have a closed mind to the new products on the market, but I'm confident that as long as I keep a regular maintenance schedule, my vehicles are well lubricated using the same type of oil and grease that my father and grandfather used.

[Desoto61]

I don't have a closed mind to the new products on the market, but I'm confident that as long as I keep a regular maintenance schedule, my vehicles are well lubricated using the same type of oil and grease that my father and grandfather used.

That's basically the conclusion I've come to. The synthetics are better lubricants, but in a normal use engine with oil changed at regular intervals I don't think the benefit is large enough to justify the cost.

I like them for gear boxes or greased items because of the longer service intervals they enjoy, but for engine oil I don't think it's worth it unless you plan to either extend the oil change intervals or have an engine that is high performance or worked hard.

So for most of my engines I tend to use any properly qualified engine oil, but usually stick to the larger brand names. For greases and gear lubes I tend to lean toward any of the sythetic versions depending on what's available. I have some Valvoline Synthetic Grease in my gun right now but will say I'm not thrilled with it. The oil seems to like to seep out of suspension over time, this may not drastically affect the performance but it doesn't look good and can't really be helping it's performance.

For the Power Wagon I've picked up Royal Purple lubricants for the differentials and transfer case. All I've seen said they were some of the best, Charles Talbert's recommendation of them after the fact just helps to justify the decision. Considering the expense of rebuilding these components I consider the extra cost well justified.

[Jason Mills]

I have experienced that synthetic engine oil has "Repaired" the lifter noise on a mercedes engine. That is something in my book.

Otherwise, I use 15W-40 in as many vehicles as I can, and change the oil often.. oil brand is less of an issue.

[Gordon Maney]

If I have been inconsistent in a way, it has been with regard to chassis grease. I go to the auto parts or farm supply store and buy two or three tubes of grease, after having looked at the array available. Next time I buy, I don't necessarily remember what I got last time.

According to the labels they are all high quality, but that is just marketing language. You will occasionally see boat trailer grease in tubes. I wonder just what difference there is in that grease.

I would like to hit upon one grease and just buy that.

Kroil is my favorite penetrant. I also like to keep electric cleaner, brake cleaner, and spray silicone, though the nozzles on the silicone cans seem to plug before the can is empty.

[Desoto61]

You will occasionally see boat trailer grease in tubes. I wonder just what difference there is in that grease.

My understanding is that boat trailer grease is more water resistant, both in terms of it's protection, and it's resistance to being diluted since boat trailers are regularly submersed in water.

[medic1241]

Ok... I use AMS Oil... It's a synthetic. I just recently had it changed. I had right at 42,000 miles on it. I have a 2003 3500 quad cab Cummins 4x4 slt. I will be sending a sample off the week after I return from the PW Rally to have tested. It's about $125 to have the oil and filter changed. I also have it in my differentials and automatic tranny as well.

Mike M.

[Gordon Maney]

Ok... I use AMS Oil... It's a synthetic. I just recently had it changed. I had right at 42,000 miles on it. I have a 2003 3500 quad cab Cummins 4x4 slt. I will be sending a sample off the week after I return from the PW Rally to have tested. It's about $125 to have the oil and filter changed. I also have it in my differentials and automatic tranny as well.

Mike M.

You mean you ran that batch of oil the whole 42,000 miles?

[medic1241]

Sure did... I had it changed at 25,000 and recently at 66,000. I have about 72,000 on it now... Mike