I've always heard Penn Grade 1 is really good oil. I have no experience with it myself, but as with anything, research helps. Did they send oil analysis to Blackstone to test wear protection\thermal breakdown for their results, or something similar?


The thing is, there is nothing wrong with semi-syn oil, it just generally isn't worth the price when you could likely get identical protection and life from regular oil for half the price...in a standard application.


Air cooled is definitely a specialty application...these cars and bikes will break down oil faster since their temperature constantly fluctuates and spikes much higher than liquid cooled engines.

 

The analysis was done by LN Engineering in Ohio. They handle a lot of the lube tech for racing teams. Living in South Texas summer heat is always an issue. Definitely most of the conversation was about additives and thermal breakdown. Interesting thing from my memory was that Mobil 1 did not come out well at all.

 

I stay away from Mobil myself. It's fine for 5000 mile intervals, but in college I took it on a longer journey (Mobil says it's good for 15,000 miles intervals, right?) and eventually had excessive blowby in my 98 Protégé. I used it for 3 oil change intervals and never got more than ~7,000 miles out of it before backfiring and pretty poor engine performance. The oil always smelled like there was fuel in it when I changed it. I doubt it's improved in the last 15 years, because Mobil was all marketing then, and they're all marketing now.


Basically any modern oil should last ~5,000 miles, even on an engine designed for 3,000 mile interval changes (like my 98 protégé 1.5L) but NEVER believe the marketing hype than an oil can extent your oil change interval length 3-5x what the manufacture has designed the engine to consume and process oil at. The only real way to extend your oil life/change intervals is to extend your oil capacity with a deep sump pan or reserve (dry sump) oil feeding system. This also stabilizes oil pressure and temperature. These systems are typically used on motorcycles, high performance cars, and supercars, but are entirely unrealistic (expensive, less reliable, high maintenance, etc) for a daily driver. You'll never make your money back in savings from simply increasing the change intervals and decreasing the labor involved.


Dry sump kits are "popular" for rotary engines for obvious reasons, and I say popular only because as far as I know, these are the only Mazda engines to ever get a dry sump following. It hasn't proven necessary or cost effective ($3000+) for Miata owners, with MX-5's being among the most dependable autocross vehicles just the way they are.


Long story short, don't waste your money on Mobil 1's marketing hype. A number of technical studies have proven time and time again that Mobil 1 Full Synthetic is very average oil. They spend so much on advertising they don't have anything left over for a high quality additive package.


Pennzoil and Valvoline Synthetic's are 30% less than Mobil while exceeding the same API.

 

So here's what I got out of this thread.
1. Stick with the factory oil filter.
2. Choose a quality oil.
a. Mazda's branded, Royal Purple, Racing oils are good (Amsoil)
b. Other oils such as Castrol, Mobile 1, Valvoline, and Quaker State oils are ok depending on whom you talk too...

My input is that you can't go wrong with the factory branded filters and oils.
Today's oils, specifically the full synthetics are very advanced from even ten years ago. So with that said, I would be confident putting any of the major brand full synthetic oils in my car.

I may be somewhat "old school" on changing my oil every 5000 miles. Here's why.I have every confidence that the oil will lubricate my engine at twice that amount of time, but I'm not sold on circulating dirt throughout the engine. The oil filter will not catch all of the dirt.

Try to imagine once that your mouth is the inside of an engine and that you teeth are the engine components. Add a little oil and chew. Your teeth will be protected and well lubricated. Now take a spoon full of dirt with the oil in your mouth. The oil may be lubricating your teeth, but the dirt is grinding away your teeth. The problem isn't the oil in your engine, it is the dirt that is causing the damage.

This being said, wouldn't it make more sense to try and keep the engine as clean as possible? That should make the engine last longer... Right?

 

So now we have a Mainiac and Maineiac on the Forum. This could get confusing.

 

It is a fine name!

 

That's why the oil filter is just as important as the oil. Never use a Fram filter. Even their Tough Guard or premium lines. All crap. I don't think they make a single filter with a spring-relief backflow valve, usually cardboard. That's super important because if the oil filter keeps draining when you shut the engine off (especially in the case of the CX-5 because the filter is installed vertical) every time you start the engine, the initial cranking is dry until oil pressure builds back up.


If you're not going to buy an OEM filter, consider Purolator, Bosch, etc.


Not a single car manufacturer recommends Fram, nor do they use Fram as an OEM-supplier (Motorcraft is Purolator, AC Delco is Wix, Mazda is Denso, etc.)


Again, this just goes back to "keep it simple and use what Mazda says to use." The only car Mazda currently makes that people might want to get adventurous with is the MX-5 and perhaps the MS3. But it seems they are moving away from turbocharging (don't blame them) so there is less headroom in ECU tuning and needing higher performance oil than what they recommend. Anything other than mainstream synthetic oil at the change interval they recommend is a waste of money and won't net you any more protection under normal driving conditions. If you life in extreme heat/cold climates or drive in constant stop and go traffic every day, just change your oil using Schedule B (5000 mile intervals.)

 

Some people refuse to run 0-20 for all kinds of stupid reasons (it's too thin! or... I live in the desert- it's hot!).
Well, until you do an oil analysis, you really don't know!
I live in the desert. At first change, changed to 0-20 penzoil (the stuff made from natural gas).
We saw temps hit triple digits here, drove around vegas when it was 110, saw high way speeds of 95mph+ with triple digit temps. I ran the car hard, wife made a lot of short trips, then, I changed it after 8,000 miles.
I sent a sample to Blackstone labs (it is posted on the mazda 247 site).
Result? Excellent across the board. Iron was a little high but they said that was because there was residual metal in the motor from breakin (this was the first oil change) They recomended going 10,000 miles next time.

 

I actually think the heat helped your oil longevity. 0w-20 is still SAE 20 oil. (The initial "cold" weight is 0 but the operating weight is 20.) Considering your climate likely didn't even come close to freezing, and Skyactive has an incredibly aggressive (and wasteful) warm-up cycle, the oil probably reached operating temperature in under 60 seconds.


0w-20 is a great oil weight, if the engine is built for it. Those with low-tolerance engines like older, low compression Ford 302's (and even 289's) and especially GM 351's (some Vette owners blame engine leaks and lost compression on this weight of oil) should stick to 10w or potentially 5w on newer\rebuilt models with aluminum heads.


High compression import/European engines generally work great with 0w-20 with a slight improvement in fuel efficiency and longevity because the initial wear is reduced as the oil control rings simply function better with thinner oil. 0w oil in Skyactive is critical since Mazda uses a ceramic plasma coating on the compression ring which is ultra hard and will sheer an improperly protected sleeve. According to Mazda, 5w-20 is still adequate in warmer climates (it's the recommended oil weight in the Central America market) but 10w-20 or any SAE 30 oil will probably cause abnormally high metal content in an oil analysis.


High iron content in an oil analysis isn't unusual, especially on a new engine. It should level out around 30k. The most important details I look at in an oil analysis are fuel content (for obvious reasons) and chromium content since this is what piston rings are made of. Flashpoint and viscosity tells you how well the oil itself is holding up, but any quality oil should hold up with flying colors, and how well the oil holds up doesn't tell you anything about the engine condition. It's what's in the oil that is important. I know people make a big deal about iron, but the truth is it's highly variable because everything releases iron. Unless it's abnormally high (like quadruple your last sample or a magnitude over the baseline) it's really irrelevant and can be a byproduct of dozens of things. Timing chains, sprockets, valves, cams, and even spark plugs release iron, so using it to diagnose a problem is like looking for a habitable planet in space. Other tests are simply more dependable to narrow down these issues (visual inspection, compression test, ECU diagnostics.)


Anyway, glad you're having good results with Pennzoil, it's one of my favorite oils for the price.

 

do not change the oil so soon! wait until the manufacture specified mileage!