[muscle_collector]

Originally Posted by Will

This is BS.

Any brand name oil is fine. Heck, the parts store brands are fine too. The important thing is to change it and the filter regularly and make sure the PCV is functioning properly.

My Formula had 130K on it when I tore the engine down, and I really shouldn't have done that because it was running fine other than it would puff a tiny bit of blue smoke if you jumped on it from a roll. But, I was a dumb kid and that's what dumb kids do.

That car had never had anything but Pennzoil in it, and it was changed religiously every 3000 miles. Engine was clean as a whistle inside, just the barest film of varnish. Bearings were all perfect, just a small ridge at the top of the cylinders.

My daily driver is currently a '97 Honda beater with 175K on it. I put whatever oil is cheapest in it and change it every 4K - 5K miles. I'm not planning to own this car for more than 2-3 years, at which point it will probably have another 40-60K on it. All it has to do is keep running, and I'm sure it will.

im not a chemical engineer, but I have torn apart countless engines over the last 40 years and I can tell you that back in the 70's and 80's when engines were plentiful if it was just a run of the mill 400 I would look at the oil sticker and if they were running Pennzoil I would pass on it because every time I took one apart that was running Pennzoil it was always full of sludge and carbon build up. this includes cars that I bought from the owners and they would tell me that they had run Pennzoil its whole life and changed it regularly.
no science here just a whole lot of personal experience.