Trugrider

iTrader: (13)

Well I got an oil change at a local shop where I live and I was told by someone working there that when you run Royal Purple oil it doesn't have to be changed every 3-4000 miles which is about how often I change it. They said they had a Royal Purple rep. come and talk to them about their product and how your not getting your money's worth if you change it before 6000 miles. They recommended that I come back at 3000 miles and just change the oil filter and just top off the oil. Anyone here already do that? I know this is pretty good oil and I've used it a long time on now 4 different cars and never had any problems with it but I've never been told that. Now of course most places wouldn't tell ya cause they want the business. Sure would save alot of money!!

exZilaration

iTrader: (1)

I always change my oil at 3,500 and I use Mobile 1 Synthetic. I wouldn't recommend going over 4,000 miles with ANY oil especially if you do tons of city driving and in that case 3,000 miles might be your best bet. Better safe than really sorry.

kakashishin

Well sport compact car magazine did a article on them before they went out of business and they said that you could go about 10k with there oil but as exZilaration said I wouldn't try it, especially if you drive your car hard.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

Look at how much you save over the course of your ownership of the car and decide for yourself if it's worth any potential risk. I run Royal Purple's XPR oil in my car per my engine builders suggestion, and it's not cheap ($15 a quart), and I change every 3k because I'd rather not take any chances with an engine that revs as high as mine, nor that cost as much to build. While the oil changes aren't cheap, to me, it's a small price to pay for ensuring reliability. Like anything else, YMMV

Trugrider

iTrader: (13)

Well to me the risk isn't worth the savings but I was curious if anyone had already tired this. Think I'll just stick to changing every 3-4000 miles. Anyone invested in the oil filter that you can reuse? Think its like $200 or maybe $300 not sure but apparently you can just clean and reuse it plus its suppose to be more effective than any filter you can buy at any store.

Eddie K.

I have been working with a Royal Purple rep. about using this oil, I have this oil in all of my cars and trucks. I can see a drop in engine temp, increase in oil pressure and it helps alittle on my mpg. They say it increases your HP? I can't tell I've not tested this out. Studies have showed that changing your engine oil, trans and rear rear end fluid increases about 8 HP.I found that with this oil it does not break down like other oils. Having this oil tested you can go 12k miles on it.The first time you go to this oil you change your oil & filter at 3k miles, then the filter every 6k and oil & filter every 12k miles. At 12k miles I'm still not having any oil break down. But I think 12k miles is good enough for me. I'm sure every car & driver the oil break down is going to change.

Trugrider

iTrader: (13)

Thanks for the input Eddie.

Nexx

iTrader: (41)

rofl, 12k? royal purple is all hype. in the VQ its been tested as one of the poorer oils. mind you, its not terrible just not one of the better oils for the Z. not only that, because its so thin, it tends to burn off a bit more than your other oils. noway in hell im ever putting that stuff in my car.

Resolute

iTrader: (2)

The UOA results for RP 5W-30 are consistently average to one SD below average. Of 8 total samples, it has sheared to a 20 weight oil in every case but one, although the shear stability and wear protection on the current formula is better than what it used to be. That being said, the TBN has always been very stout and I don't doubt it will last 7500 miles in a VQ engine without any detriment to its ability to resist oxidation. However, there are a number of other oils which also have a shown their suitability for extended drains, with better average wear protection, and lower pricing.

Will

Eddie K.

They do have other weights if you like up to 20w-50 for autos but I perfer to stay with what the factory recommends.(5W-30) I've seen this oil first hand tested against other brands even Mobil 1 and it beat it hands down. Now I'm not saying that other brands of oil are bad but if you seen some of the tests that I seen where it is tested by putting pressure between two small aluminum wheels one on a electric motor and the other on a shaft, weights are added to the end of the shaft causing resistants between the two to see how much pressure it will take to break down the oil between the two parts. Gess who won? Some other tests show how well it seperates between it & water and don't break down. What I'm saying here is everybody has their own opinion but when someone comes along and proves their product really works some of us buy in to it.

johnha209

iTrader: (5)

royal purple = goodstuff!!! i notice my engine is a lot quieter at idle when i have royal purple in it.. i used to use mobil 1 and that stuff is good too.. but i just like royal purple better.. as far as going over 4k with it... i dont even wanna try..

Resolute

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like a RP salesman made quite an impression on you. I'm glad you're happy with your purchase, but let's look at some other tests which actually apply to the oil's performance in an automobile engine and dispel the fallacy of the Timken load test you seem to be describing.

The Timken OK Load is a test whereby oil is pumped between two contacting disks. One disk is rotated about its axle, while the other one is attached to a lever arm on which weights are placed. As more weight is added to the lever arm, more force is applied to the spinning disk surface. The test, when done according to the applied specification of ASTM 2509 for which it was designed, determines the presence of Extreme Pressure (EP) additives. The lever arm is loaded with weight until a wear scar is produced on the disk. The weight applied to the lever arm is recorded. If more than 35 pounds-force is required to break the oil film between the disks and produce a wear scar, then EP aditives are determined to be present in the oil.

This test is often abused or misused by salesmen and marketers, and even a popular magazine article which continues to circle the internet, in order to determine which oil is the "best". They usually ignore the actual test design (ASTM 2509) and simply load the arm with a bunch of weight and measure the size of the resulting wear scar. This is repeated with several oils. By default of the rig's design, usually the oil with the greatest measure of EP additives wil "win" by producing a smaller wear scar than other oils, for a given applied force. This is completely misusing and misinterpreting the test design, which has little to no bearing on overall engine oil performance.

In fact, J.E. Leiser of the Timken Company did a study on the accuracy and effectiveness of the test in determining an oil's performance, both in an overall context and as an EP identifier. He concluded, In addition, the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers has concluded the Timken test to be and is no longer used by the API, SAE, ILSAC, ACEA, or JASO for any of their certifications applied to engine oil.

As to the performance of Royal Purple in these tests, it makes sense that RP would do well. RP 5W-30 and 10W-30 both use a high degree of sulfide based additives, which are common in engine and gear oils. The concentration of RP sulfide based additives is higher than most, however. This explains their relatively good performance on a test singularly designed for testing the presence of EP additives. As already discussed, interpreting the results of this test as anything beyond what it was designed to do (and arguably not even very good to that end) is a mistake. The use of such EP additives does offer a side affect not seen in this test, but which is very present in used oil analysis (UOA) and that is slightly higher copper wear from the sulfide compound's propensity for yellow metal corrosion.

UOA testing has shown a trend for higher than average copper wear results in the VQ engine, along with a propensity for viscosity shear, and relatively lackluster performance overall. Below is a comparison from one member who was using RP 10W-30 and noticed his wear rates were not as good as the average wear results for Amsoil SSO. He switched and had another UOA performed. He had a second one done to be certain the last result wasn't a fluke. His results are shown in the graph below, normalized for mileage:

Notice the much higher copper wear. He isn't alone, another member decided his wear with RP 5W-30 was higher than he liked. He also switched to Amsoil SSO, and here is his comparison normalized for mileage:

The UOA results for RP according to multiple used oil analysis from the VQ engine are average at best. It might excel at a singular test designed for one aspect of an oil's chemistry (and deemed not applicable to overall performance), but it doesn't have any quantifiable support as anything special. In fact, with all the UOA results for RP 5W-30 averaged together, it falls on the slightly worse side of the overall average of all the oils tested so far. It isn't statistically significantly worse than average, but it is on the worse side of it. Here's a comparison of the RP 5W-30 normalized average to the rest of the sample averages, with one SD difference included:

This is, of course, from the data submitted by users from their own used oil analysis results. Their results show that RP's performance could be bettered. BTW, I am not endorsing or suggesting Amsoil SSO as my preference, I simply used these two examples to keep the comparison even between the two. The fact is, the trend for RP to be average in performance means there are several oils which have better UOA wear numbers than either fo these two RP blends. If used oil analysis tests aren't enough for you, then consider this:

In April of this year, RP was taken to task by BP for its advertising claims. According to testing which has been statistically linked to actual engine oil performance, such as the Sequence IVA test, RP was... wait for it...... AVERAGE. Sequence IVA testing is done on a Nissan KA24 engine, btw, and includes physical measure of engine wear on cam lobes and a used oil analysis. As a result, Royal Purple will discontinue the claims, “most advanced,” “unsurpassed performance” and “unparalleled performance." Source:
http://www.imakenews.com/lng/e_artic...W6PM,b1M25KBSe

So, to the OP - Royal Purple 5W-30 is fine to use. It won't damage the engine and plenty of people are using it for longer than 3k miles without issue. However, despite the hype of advertising and salesmen, it is an average performing oil which costs much more than average. There are better alternatives for the money, and if you are going to continue a 3k mile oil change, I would suggest sticking with a good conventional oil like Castrol GTX 5W-30 or Pennzoil 5W-30.

Will

Nexx

iTrader: (41)

buwhahhahahhhahahaha! ^^ Will you own dude! i love it when someone tries to argue oil with Will.

Spork

iTrader: (6)

I currently use Mobil1, but thinking about switching to Castrol GTX, as the oil analysis showed Castrol GTX having less wear signs and elements in it. Anyone care to show some light on this? Is it a good idea?

Trugrider

iTrader: (13)

Thanks Will for summing it up in a nutshell..... Great info there!!

Zian

Great reply Resolute. Out of curiosity, (yes I know there are other threads related to this) which oils showed above average results during UOA testing?

Resolute

iTrader: (2)

Stock block, non FI, and standard 3-5k mile oil changes? If so, then I wouldn't hesitate to use GTX 5W-30.


There is a VQ oil analysis thread stickied in the engine/drivetrain forum. All the results are on the first page.

Will

SilverTrack03

I know this thread is a little old but I currently run RP in my car and change it at about 5k.

After reading this thread it makes me question it and might switch back to mobil 1. But i would like to ask will a question or anyone else. the test shown above against AMSOIL, i notice that royal purple was both pulled from the engine at 15k after they notice higher than what they like wear results. My question is that if the VQ is fully broke in by this time since the RP oil tested had ~5000 miles on it would mean the oil was put in a car with 10k on it, could the fact that the car was "new" and possibly have break in material (rings, bearnings, ect) still in the car or still breaking in cause the results to be a little off for RP? I would like to see a anaylsis done after the AMSOIL was in the car.

Resolute

iTrader: (2)

There are a number of UOA's on RP 5W-30 with higher mileage than this example. They are in the UOA thread, and the average result is very similar to this sample.

In fact, while this example is on the slightly higher side of the RP average for copper, all the other wear metals are almost spot-on to the average for the blend. More important to your question however, is the fact that the UOA was normal in every other respect. If this engine were still in break-in, several things would be different. Namely, the UOA would have higher silicon from the gaskets and leachete, as well as higher than average chromium wear from the rings seating. Fuel dilution would be higher than average from increased blow-by during the process, which helps lower the flash point. Looking at ZeeForce's or Nederlander75's UOA's provides good examples of this.

This UOA example wasn't used to make RP look bad. UOA's from the older formula would have been used if that was the goal. This UOA was used since the owner also switched to the Amsoil SSO, and therefore helped illustrate that while different user's UOA results will vary, the trend between them for one oil to the next is the same. ie, both switched to oils with better average results, and they both got better results themselves.

As the recent ruling against RP also corroborates, the UOA's for this oil all demonstrate average results. There is no need to switch if you like RP, there's nothing "wrong" with the oil. Whether you think you're getting your money's worth for the $7 or $8 a quart most places charge, that's really the pertinent question I'm presenting.

Will