i have a honda prelude vtec, and my 85 mirage turbo. i bought the lude new, and after 1500 miles, changed to valvoline durablend (mix), and 3 changes later to synpower (their full sythetic) i change the filter with the oil every time (mobil 1 filters)
the car runs great and only burns oil when i ride the vtec alot and continuously, even when i was running n2o on it. after 3k miles it always changes color to the amber of regular oil.
i changed to amsoil (their top grade series 2000) for 2 changes and noticed 2 things-- 1. i burned more oil with heavy vtec use (1 pint for a 200 mile trip that was constantly above 5k rpms for valvoline to 1 quart on the same trip with amsoil) 2. when i changed the oil -- still every 3k miles, it looked just as dirty as the valvolene always did (i know, unscientific) plus, the bottle being an odd shape, didn't like to stay closed and wouldn't fit in with my spare tire jack, where i would typically keep some extra oil. their damn bottles won't seal after being opened, and so i had to rubber band a plastic bag around the neck to carry some oil with me!
going by the price difference 4.50/qt for valvoline, 10/qt for amsoil valvoline won, hands down.
i use valvoline max life in the mirage, for the coulple of oil changes i've done, as i don't feel like having $35 oil changes (and i change it myself!) on that car. it works great, and doesn't burn too much oil.
and that vette gaining 8 whp from a oil change, that's not a good example-- 1. they shouldn't have changed anything else-- that coolant additive could be responsible for the gain. (not likely, but a proper experiment limits variables)
2. power should have been compared vs. a fresh oil change, not some skanky oil that's been in the car for a few months. ideally, 2 vettes should have been dynoed with oil in similar condition, one changed to purple, one to the factory reccomended mobil1 compare the gains in power. then, use the dyno to put some miles at high rpm and load on both cars, dyno again to see if any power was lost. finally, change the oil in both cars but change brands to see if the power gain is similar in each car (ie is 2nd oil change power= to 1st oil change power).
_________________ Daily driver? Yes. Daily racer? I hope so!
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