Bluestone Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Been using full synthetic motor oil in my Subie, exclusively, since the 3000 mile mark, with changes every 5k miles. Valvoline SynPower 5/40, or Castrol Syntec...both 5/30 and 5/50. I'd prefer Valvoline 5/40 but no one around here carries it anymore; apparently that viscosity isn't a big seller. I'd like to go to Red Line 5/40, but Red Line costs about 50% more than the other synthetics. Red Line says 10k to 18k miles (or one year) between changes for their oil. Does anyone see a problem running Red Line for 10k miles before changing it? Don't know if I want to pay $9 a quart and change it at 5k miles. By the way, what are your opinions of Motul Synthetic oil. I think it sells for about the same price as Red Line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 For daily driver use in a mechanically sound n/a engine where the engine oil reguarly gets up to operating temp (i.e. 180F) (not a lot of short trips or cold cold weather driving), you can probably get the 10-20k mile oil change interval on that oil. Generally the first time you try to do it you'd do oil analysis to make sure the oil is holding up in your application and not getting excessive wear metals (which could point to an engine issue), etc. I've been doing ~20k change intervals on the amsoil 5w-30 hdd diesel oil, but I am also running the engine oil bypass filter as well. The 18k mile uoa looked very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhise Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Non-turbo Subaru's tend to be very easy on motor oil. I would still get a UOA done around 8k just to make sure there are no coolant or fuel dillution issues. There just isn't any other way to really know how the oil is holding up. Once you establish that the oil will go that far, you won't need to test it so often unless the car has other issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulwnkl Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 I've run Red Line 10k before, but not in a Subie. I agree that it should run that far in a N/A Subie w/o much trouble IF you drive highway miles. All or a lot of city, short trips, whatever and it may well not. I never tried anything close to 18k on Red Line. You'd be very, very wise to get an analysis on anything you want to take that far. And don't wait for 18k and then test it! Red Line looks different in analysis and, especially if you're using Blackstone, the TBN can look lower than other oils and still be operating fine. Also, keep in mind that if your engine develops an internal HG leak, long drains w/o analysis in between can be extra bad compared to 'normal.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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