gcs118

What on earth costs $58? I thought Mobil1 was pricey at $31 for 4 quarts and filter...but damn!

Roddimus Prime

Redcivic, how is this talking out of his ***?? He's speaking from experience. The same experience I have with them. I worked for the Southeasts largest quicklube for over a year and say more damaged, swollen, exploded FRAM filters than anything else. FRAM's are made with cardboard and not sturdy at all. I can palm one and crush it with my hand. Not a quality piece. I'm glad your honda lasted that long but I assure you it had more to do with regular servicing than the FRAM filter.

davens

Older civics (more 84-87, somewhat 88-91) were bulletproof. You probably could have used the leftover oil from a domestic and it would have been fine.

There used to be an oil study online...way back in '96 when the internet was still relatively new to me...it measured out different engineering specs of most of the top engine oils on the market, both synth and conv. I got into it because there were recalls on whole batches of Mobil 1 oil.

Pennzoil got trashed for having such a high paraffin content. Castrol GTX was tops for conventional.
The synthetics were all to close to declare a clear leader. But, formulas change and it's hard to say what's best now.
Based on that study and a tear down of a 150k Integra GS-R engine I'm a GTX fan. That engine saw nothing but Castrol GTX every 3500-4000 miles and it was nearly clean enough to eat off inside...no sludge, no buildup, no deposits. It was amazing, bright shiney silver everywhere...none of that brown varnish dry film. If he hadn't popped the engine with a careless NOS setup, it probably would have lasted another 150k, no problem.

For filters...K&N is the best. OEM can be tricky. Generic off the shelf brands can be outright crap. I just posted a whole bit about filters here: http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34466