C66 Racing

While I believe that Mobil 1 is an excellent lubricant, and may be the best of the major brands available at your favorite auto store, I also want to share some independent lab tests that show it isn’t necessarily the best lubricant on the market.

Comparative Oil Test
AMSOIL vs Mobile 1 Oil Test

AMSOIL 100% Synthetic 5w30 Motor Oil is formulated with advanced Polyalphaolefin (PAO) synthetic base stocks. PAO base stocks are the industries premier base stock technology, and when combined with an exact blend of premium additives, provide second to none protection and performance in the most demanding operating conditions.

Why AMSOIL?
•First to develop an API-rated 100 percent synthetic motor oil.
•First to introduce the concept of "extended drain intervals" with a recommended 25,000-mile/1-year drain interval.
•First U.S. company to utilize the NOACK volatility test as a standard of performance excellence.
•First to produce synthetic motor oils for diesel engines, racing engines, turbo and marine engines.
•First to introduce synthetic oils that legitimately contribute to improving fuel efficiency.
•First to manufacture synthetic gear lube for automotive use.
•First to manufacture a 100:1 pre-mix synthetic 2-cycle oil.
•First to manufacture a synthetic automatic transmission fluid for automotive use.

AMSOIL’s extended drain intervals actually save money (and obviously time):
Cost Savings of Longer Drain Interval
AMSOILs actual recommended drain intervals can be found here:
AMSOIL Product Change Interval Guide

While I understand many of us are resistant to the time honored 3 months or 3000 mile change interval, the industry is slowly coming to see the benefits of extended drain intervals. AMSOIL is leading the effort with their high quality synthetics. However, GM appears to be the first major automobile corporation to be embracing this philosophy with the oil life system calculator in its vehicles. AMSOIL’s lubricants have been formulated to address the trade-offs involved with extended drain intervals as the above comparison information shows.
Motor Oil Drain Intervals: An Ethical Burden?

Buy AMSOIL at Wholesale
AMSOIL Preferred Customer Program allows you to buy any AMSOIL product at wholesale, which is about 15-20% less expensive than retail. Cost is $10 per six months and you can buy as much oil as you want during that six months. To sign up, all it takes is one phone call to 1-800-777-7094. Give them reference number 1206638.

Or you can use this link:
AMSOIL Preferred Customer Program
Again, please put 1206638 in the customer number block.

While I understand many (most?) of you will probably never use AMSOIL in your Corvette as GM recommends Mobil 1, I would appreciate it if you would consider trying AMSOIL in your other vehicles. AMSOIL makes products for almost every type of machinery that has an engine, from cars to diesels, to farm equipment, to snowmobiles, watercraft, ATVs, etc, including lubricants, appearance products, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs (Bosch), wiper blades (Bosch), etc. More information on the full AMSOIL product line can be found on their corporate homepage:
AMSOIL Corporate Homepage


Own a business?
AMSOIL has two programs that may benefit your business.

Retail Sales Program
If you own a business a retail business with no more than 12 retail outlets that sells products "off the shelf", you may buy AMSOIL products at wholesale and sell them at retail, keeping the profits.

Commercial Program
If you own a business that uses lubricants, such as a vehicle fleet of cars, trucks, farm equipment, recreational vehicles, etc, you may buy AMSOIL products at wholesale and use them for your business.

Both of these programs involve no cost to start. Several forms are required to register your business account with AMSOIL. If you are interested, please contact me at c66racing@hotmail.com and I will provide you with more information.

Thank you for your consideration and support.

Zix

Here's an independant test from a Motocycle Magazine a few months back;

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Amsoil is a good product, and a fine alternative to Mobile1. It's the availability that usually brings me back to Mobil1 though, I like the fact that I can find it almost anywhere.

c4cruiser

While it may be a good oil, the lack of easy availibility would probably be the primary reason that many Corvette owners would not use it. Most all auto parts stores and repair shops and even Wally World will have it available. The local drive-up lube shops even have it.

Another thing about GM and their recommended oils is that the owners manuals states that the engine requires a synthetic oil that meets the GM4718M standard for the LT1 and (I'm assuming) the LS1 and LS6 motors.

I would hesitiate to use a different non-approved oil if my Covette was still under the factory warranty. An engine failure that was suspected to be the result of a non-approved oil would most likely be grounds for a dealer to not honor any engine work under the warranty. I think it is fairly common practice for a dealer to submit samples of oil from the crankcase of a damaged motor for testing to determine if the oil meets the GM standards.

From what I have seen on various bottles of synthetic oils, only Quaker State's fully synthetic oiol and Red Line shows that their oils meet the GM4718M specs. Pennzoil synthetic used to show it, but for whatever reason, the bottles no longer show that spec.

Lone Ranger

C66 Racing

Good points all.

AMSOIL Synthetic 5w30 does meet the requirement of GM4718.

I would've thought with the growing use of online sales that more people would've been likely to buy AMSOIL via the supporting vendor link to the left. For me, time to make a trip to the automotive store is hard to come by.

Any AMSOIL products listed on this online guide are certified and warrantied by AMSOIL to meet the manufacturers requirements:
AMSOIL Online Product Application Guide

Zix

It's not so much stocking ot for home use, for me it's the availablility if I'm on the road. I drive a lot between Boston and Phoenix, and it's nice to be able to get Mobile1 if I ever need it at almost any decent TurnPike stop, or gas station.

kenv

Are you an Amsoil distributer?

C66 Racing

Ken,
I am an Independent AMSOIL Dealer and a forum supporting vendor (although my tag is missing with the new software - they are working on that). Sales through the link to the left go to support this site and my SCCA race team (details in my website in my sig).

Zix,
For what its worth, AMSOIL is fully compatible with both other synthetics and conventional oils. You could use AMSOIL and put in a quart or two of Mobil 1 on the road if necessary.

frankrizzo1

no wonder....

93 ragtop

Even if amsoil is better, how much better of a oil do we need? What I am trying to say is there are very very few engine failures that are caused by the lack of quality oil, in the LT1. My own personal experience has been pulling the heads and cam off of my 11 year old, 100,000 mile motor and was amazed at how clean eveything was and little if any wear on the cylinder walls. For me, mobil 1 is available at wall mart, costco, k-mart, etc, and it runs between 4 to 5 dollars a qt. and that represents the best value for me.

93Robert

I prefer to evaluate & compare competing products without a salesman's assistance. Sometimes there's a conflict of interest.

rocco16

I'm in agreement with ragtop...100%.
I ran Amzoil in my water-cooled VW as an experiment, even changed gearbox lube to Amsoil at the same time I changed from Valvoline Synthetic to Amzoil to see if there was any performance/mileage improvements. There were none.
Amzoil says it lasts longer. Okay, but Amzoil also recommends an oil analysis every certain number of miles in lieu of the change. So where's the savings?
I spend $XXX for the Amzoil instead of $X for the Mobil/Valvoline and then have to spend $X every 5000 miles for the analysis (not to mention the pure hassle) anyway!!!
So Amzoil was the FIRST!!??? So what...they are not now the ONLY!
Today's brand name synthetics are plenty good enough to do the job and its now down to price and availability. On those counts, AMZOIL comes in at about fifth place. It's fine oil, just too darn expensive to justify its purchase.
Just my opinion.
Larry
code5coupe

c4cruiser

From looking at the AMSOIL website, it appears that only the XL-7500 synthetic oil meets the GM 4718M standards and the standard synthetic oil only shows a different GM standard. From the online ordering page, the 5W-30 XL-7500 is $5.20 per quart and an order of 6 bottles adds another $6.75 for shipping making the price of a quart slightly over $6.30. That's a 50% increase over Mobil-1 oil when I get the 5-qt jug at Wal-Mart or the 6-pack case at Costco.

larryfs

I've seen an LT4 spin a bearing with amsoil at pocono. reason unknown... I'll stick with mobile 1.

not that people with mobile 1 havn't spun bearings, but none that I've seen personally

C66 Racing

I did verify with AMSOIL that all of the oils on their online product application guide for any vehicle do in fact meet the manufacturers requirements. For the C4, these are:
Series 2000 Synthetic 0W-30 Motor Oil
SAE 5W-30 Synthetic Motor Oil
SAE 5W-30 XL-7500 Synthetic Motor Oil
Series 3000 Synthetic 5W-30 Heavy Duty Diesel Oil

I understand the convenience of Walmart. Been using it for years myself. But some of us don't have the time to make the trip. I buy most of my stuff online (and normally late at night after my daily routine is over).

For those that are interested, you can buy AMSOIL at wholesale, or about 15-20% off, by becoming a preferred customer (call 1-800-777-7094 and use reference #1206638). This only costs $10 for six months. Buy as much oil as you want in that six months. AMSOIL does sell oil by the quart, 12 quart case, gallon, four gallon, 30 gallon and 50 gallon sizes. I can get AMSOIL 5w30 in gallon size shipped to my house for as cheap as I can buy Mobil 1 at Walmart and save the trip. Is it for everyone? Certainly not. But it is a good alternative for some.

Larry,
Not exactly true. Just to clarify so as not to confuse those who are not familiar with AMSOILs extended drain recommendations, (as I wasn't until recently) for the AMSOIL Synthetic 5w30 AMSOIL recommends up to 25k or 1 year whichever comes first, with oil filter change at six months for normal use. No oil analysis is required. AMSOIL also warranties its oil for use in these intervals. For example, in my wife's Chevy Trailblazer, I can buy two filters, and 8 quarts of oil and be covered for a year (or 25k but we won't drive that far). 7 quarts and one filter to start. Change the filter and add a quart at six months (or 12.5k). And be under a warranty the whole time.

I lost a motor last year to bearing failure with Mobil 1 in it. Mobil 1 is an excellent oil, but it happens.

For all,
I understand everyone has their favorite oil, much like favorite tire, or favorite auto manufacturer (but we could probably come to a consensus on that one ). Please don't take my posts to imply that I think Mobil 1 isn't an excellent oil. I believe I said it above, but I'll say it again, Mobil 1, Redline and others are all excellent oils. I am only trying to show that AMSOIL is a good alternative and is available online and via this site. I'm sorry I antagonized so many people with this effort. Peace.

SilverBeast

Let's see: it costs twice what Mobil 1 costs and is not available everywhere. What shall I do?

93 ragtop

I know that you believe in your product and I dont doubt that it is a quality product. I just wanted to take a few seconds of your time to tell you what turned me against Amsoil.
A few years ago, I went to Carsile and was going to purchase a case of the automatic transmission fluid for my wifes dodge intrepid, which uses a fluid called type 7176. Well amsoil is compatable with this. While standing in line waiting my turn to talk to the sales-rep, I listened to him telling how there is no engine wear with amsoil, well I can somewhat buy into that, at least it would be reduced compared to dino oils. Then the customer ask him why it is not sold in stores, his answer was the auto parts industry boycotts them, because if they sold it, there would not be any breakdowns and this would hurt their parts sales. Well this kind of BS rally bothers me. Then he went on to explain how you could buy the membership to get the products cheaper, which is a idea I dont like. Its just more marketing hype. Well I turned and walked away, and about a hour later found a distributor of redline products and found they had the type 7176 fluid. I purchased a case from them.
The marketing techinque he was using reminded me so much of infromercials such as the toronado ads.

rons85

I've been using the Amsoil 0w-30 extended drain stuff now for a couple of years in my relatively high mile '85, in my ancient '78 chevy truck, in my girlfriends '97 cherokee, etc. I Used to use Mobile 1, and still do in the lawnmowers and all... Why? I put about 2500 miles per month on the 'vett alone - the nearly "once a month" oil change gets to be a hassle. With the extended drain I let it go 8000-9000 miles between changes - it simplifies my life! Buying online is routine, cmon - that's a silly excuse for not using the "good stuff"... BTW - I had the intake off the 'vette a couple of weeks ago, the Amsoil seems to be doing a decent job of keeping it clean in there. This thing Never sees short hops or stop/go driving so sludging due to condensation isn't a problem - but the longer drain intervals aren't hurting it either...

Strick

I don't care what oil you use, when extending oil change intervals, you have increased contaminants from blow-by. I think we all know that when we change our oil it has a darker tint than when we put it in. The oil hasn't lost it's lub properties, or has it, as contaminants increase?

Let's talk about oil filters. There has to be better ways to filter the oil. How about a finely woven stainless steel fabric that can be refurbished instead of tossed in the dump?

C66 Racing

I doubt there is any truth to that and I'm sorry the experience with one poor saleman turned you off to the product.

Why AMSOIL chose to distribute their products via Independent Dealers vs. major chains is beyond me. For whatever reason, maybe startup costs, they chose to start business this way back in 1972, much like Avon. After their product became more well known and accepted, and essentially led to the entire industry changing over to synthetics, AMSOIL has had numerous offers from major chains to carry its product. Not wanting to lose faith the network of dealers AMSOIL had started business with, AMSOIL has continued to say no to these offers. Recently, Walmart offered AMSOIL a multi-million dollar deal to carry AMSOIL in their stores. AMSOIL turned them down. I personally am pretty impressed with a little American company that thumbs its nose at the biggest corporation in the world.

You're free to do whatever you want.

But for those who would like to look into it, AMSOIL is available by phone (1-800-956-5695 use reference number 1206638), or online via the link at the left. The price is almost identical to Mobil 1 if you buy a six month preferred customer program for $10 and buy a years worth of oil (or more). You can do this by calling 1-800-777-7094, again using reference number 1206638.

Sales of AMSOIL via this reference number go to support my race team and this site. Oil bought at Walmart does not.

And finally, AMSOIL can be sold in retail stores with less than 12 retail outlets. If any of you own retail outlets and want to buy AMSOIL at wholesale and sell it at retail keeping the entire profit, with no start up fees or costs, drop me a PM or an email.
Thanks for your consideration.