starchland

oh ok. haha thought your post was a little off man. what is your OCI? and what can you say about your car liking this oil? why did they lessen the additives? cost measure?

Im the kinda guy that just usually puts in whatever the manual says oil weight wise and calls it a day. syntec+oem filter with 7k OCI. car doesnt get driven too hard, open her up and VTEC when I can. 75/25 highway city. no short trips. always warms up nicely before getting on it. gotta do a UOA one of these days.

zeroptzero

I like the Amsoil 5w40 mainly due to subjective reasons right now, the car is definitely quieter at idle, and the engine seems to run really smooth with no apparent sluggishness, loss of power (butt dyno estimate only) or fuel economy loss. I'd actually go out on a limb and say the car actually feels stronger as compared to the Syntec 10w-30 that was previously used on this car, but that is just a subjective guess. I store the car in winter but I'll take it for a drive once or twice a month when weather is good, Honda recommends the viscosity for cold weather conditions so the oil is good all year long. I like the oil because it is a thinner 40 weight viscosity, so it isn't overly thick and hopefully doesn't rob too much power or mpgs. I'd like to get a UOA in the next year so I'll probably run it for 7,000 kms and see how it works. I think the previous formulation of this oil looked better on paper, it looks like Amsoil lowered additive levels and degraded the long term drain recommendation I haven't seen any changes in other additives to compensate for the lowering of zinc, calcium, and phos. , like you do see in some formulations. I don't care about long drain stuff as I won't run it that long. They've done this to meet the new oil standards to keep cats. living longer for the most part.

The previous owner reportedly ran this car on Castrol Syntec 10w30 for 4000 km OCI's. When I opened up the valve cover to replace some leaky gaskets and do a valve adjustment the top end was varnished up a lot more than I expected. I tried to clean it up as much as possible before switching to Amsoil. The car has 90,000 kms on it, and I expected the engine to be much cleaner than it was. I don't know if the pcv valve was a problem or if the varnishing was from the oil alone, but I changed it as a precaution for the little effort and cost. I don't think the engine suffered much though as it runs really strong, feels like a new engine power wise, it has good compression and doesn't burn much oil. This car was used primarily in short trip driving in the past, so perhaps the Syntec will work better in your case based on the better driving contiions. Lots of S2000 owners in Ontario seem to like the Syntec line. If I wasn't running Amsoil right now I'd run the Castrol Syntec 0w-30 German Castrol, which is a proven performer and looks to be better built than the other Syntec viscosities sold in our country.

starchland

Weird could have been the shorter trips that caused the varnishing. But on my previous car the engine was clean as a whistle, it looked amazing for the age (92 accord 380km) and that car was fed syntec for its whole life so not sure, is it possible the previous owner lied about the OCI?

zeroptzero

yeah it is hard to say for sure, it might have been related to a bad pcv valve, as it had a leaky valvecover gasket. I couldn't tell if it was bad or not I just replaced it as a precaution. You might want to consider the Syntec 0W-30, it appears to be their highest quality oil sold in N. America and is a perfect match for the S2000, yet doesn't cost anymore than the other Syntec formulas. Many people believe the 0w-30 to be a true group 4/5 synthetic offering from Castrol, whereas other Syntec formulas are mostly group 3. If I ever get away from the Amsoil I'll likely run the 0w30 GC Syntec.

starchland

yeah ive heard that as well about the quality and group 4/5. why is it labelled as a 0w30 then if its compliant with 10w-30?

and looked into castrol EDGE at all? not avail here but probably wouldnt be too hard to get some up here.

http://129.35.64.91/bpglis/lubtds.nsf/tech...70?OpenDocument

http://www.castroledge.com.au/downloads/va...y_EDGE_0w40.pdf

http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/bp_inter...astrol_EDGE.pdf

ahrmike

Hey, when I popped off my valve cover, I was amazed at HOW clean the valvetrain was... no varnishing at all - totally pure aluminum. at 55K miles. I thought it was a honda thing, guess not. lol

zeroptzero

Castrol's 0w-30 (GC-Geman Castrol) is definitely compatible with the 10w-30 oil requirement for the S2000, it works extremely well in hot temp conditions, but even better for cold weather conditions. With it being a real synthetic oil it can span the range easily and protect better than a conventional or group 3 synthetic 10w-30. Castrol's 0w-30 is even thicker than their 10w-30 in hot temps, yet flows quicker in cold temps. If someone drove their car in winter, or even started it up occassionally in winter I'd run this oil for sure, and wouldn't hesitate to use it all year round with it's hot temp viscosity being even greather than the 10w30. The GC syntec even meets higher test standards that their 10w30 Syntec doesn't meet. Your paying for real synthetic oil with Syntec you may as well get the good stuff. I know there is a few people on the forums running that oil. Castrol Edge sounds like a pretty good formula too, it may have been developed based on the GC formula, many people seem to think that it is a step up from the group three Syntec. For some reason I thought it was available up here, but come to think about it I haven' t seen it in any retail store. It took a while for us to get Castrol GC up here, so I imagine it is the same thing with Edge.

zeroptzero

Yeah that is how it should be, what oil are you running in that engine?, it sounds like it is doing an excellent job of keeping things clean.

On past Hondas that I've owned and opened up, they have exhibited that shiny clean aluminum look too, and I ran them on Mobil1. That's why I was surprised to see my car's engine varnished up at 55,000 miles.

starchland

sounds good. im just not sure about running a seemingly 30w closer to a 40ish weight engine oil in terms of thickness. The cold flow properties and oil makeup are not arguable.

starchland

Just wondering the op thought about varnish