Learned something new

Orange Bottle always was a good oil.

HP Ultra has been fine and even does well in SOME tests. I've taken engines apart that see nothing but, and they look great inside. But interesting point on shelf-life and ambient environment. From Stihl USA's website:

Hmm.

These products are often bought in bulk and who knows how long that six pack or can of MotoMix has been kicking around in a distributor's warehouse, and/or a dealer's storage. I've had a bottle or three kicking around my garage for a couple-three years before too.

These days, I make an effort to NOT keep more than about a 6 month supply of consumables. Both to avoid complicating my organizational disfunction, and to prevent unexpected issues from aged inventory.

 

Gotta know where to look!

Golf course equipment is one. Their stuff is used daily, and usually well looked-after. I have a little Honda GX120 on a greensmower that has to have five-figure hours on it. It knocks, rattles, and carries on, but runs decent and cuts my lawn 3+ times a week with little complaint. ('bout 1.2 - 2+ hours per cut too) It refuses to quit, but for a trained ear, I find it hard to listen to knowing it's THAT worn out. Had a Briggs Quantum on my old Deere 14PZ mower, loved the mower, but felt like I should have been wearing Kevlar listening to that motor run. Same thing, ran pretty good, but obviously had a metric fecal-load of hours on it. Rod bearings were S-H-O-T. and a cylinder leak-down test made me . Our fleet of Toro 3100's at the golf course all had 4,000+ hours on them and those little 16HP Vanguard twins were still merrily purring away, nowhere near as crisp as they were in their younger years but not anywhere close to quitting either.

 

Seldom makes sense on a personal vehicle unless it's to provide data on internal engine wear (I'm looking at YOU BMW.... lol). The savings come with setting maintenance intervals on a fleet, where you are only sampling a few engines out of a larger population of similar engines working a similar application, like a fleet of garbage trucks, or school buses, or OTR tractors.

OR, you are protecting a high-value asset as is often the case with Ag and Construction equipment, Aircraft, Marine engines, etc.

 

It's great cow-fuel, if you use the whole plant, not just the kernels on the ear.

That whole four-stomach thing means they are built to use ALL of the plant.

 

BMW world is similar. BMW VANOS problems = Ford (and other brands) Cam Phaser Problems. GM LS truck engines plugging up their oil pressure sending units, and the EcoTec 2.4L cam phaser saga is a similar situation.

Turbos do not break down oil. Heat and physical shear does. A journal-bearing turbo puts no more stress on the oil than a crankshaft main bearing does. Hydraulic valvetrain components (lifters and high-actuation solenoids), gear-drive valvetrains and diesel HEUI fuel systems are hell on oils. There are three main ways to mitigate the oil breakdown over time. Reduce heat (which means less power per L of displacement) and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Change the oil more frequently, which is the common recommendation. Or use objectively better oil. Superior additive packages mitigate the effects of heat and contamination. Superior base stocks (we're talking about Group IV PAO and Group V Ester-based synthetics now) mitigate the physical shear (wear) on the oil. The filter only needs to filter out particles large enough to harm the engine and you might be surprised how large that threshold actually is.

You're on to something there - crankcase capacity. Plenty of domestic V8's with 5+ liters of displacement, that have hydraulic valve lifters, variable displacement/cylinder shut-off, dual overhead cams, variable cam timing for both the intake and exhaust cams, 400+ HP, operate at 6,000+ RPM redlines, and have a 6qt crankcase sump capacity. Racers and hot-rodders commonly put upgraded oil pans with much larger sump capacities on their engines and it's not just for show or aero... Why does a big-block Chevy/Ford/Mopar making 2-300HP live out 200k miles just fine with a 6qt (or less) sump and yet the engineers that crafted the 7.3L PowerStroke (similar HP output...) decided it needed a 15qt sump? (Gear driven valvetrain, check. HEUI fuel system, check. Frequently sees 75% or more of it's rated output, check.) BMW builds/built countless inline-6 engines, just lil' 3-liter gassers, with 7 qt oil sumps. It's partially (mostly?) to support those OEM 10k mile oil service intervals. And those engines only have 2 cam shafts, 2 phasers, where a DOHC V6/V8 would have 4 of each. But nearly twice the sump capacity of your typical Ford/Chevy/Mopar of similar displacement and power output. My '18 M550 is only 4.4L, twin-turbskis, making 470HP. Not that much more than a modern 5.0L Ford. But it's a 10 qt sump.

A high-output engine has me using better oil, tiny sumps would drive me to change the oil more often, regardless of output. The additive package in the oil (and how long it remains active) can have a significant effect of the life of things like timing chain guides/tensioners too.