Royal Purple High Performance Street 5W-20 Oil - 1 Quart

Royal Purple High Performance 5W-20 Motor Oil - 1 Quart

You're standing in the oil aisle at AutoZone staring at twenty different bottles and you've got no idea what to buy. Your Civic Si needs 5W-20 and you know you're not running Walmart SuperTech but you're not sure if you should grab Mobil 1 or spend the extra money on Royal Purple. Here's the deal. We've been running Royal Purple in customer cars and in our own Hondas for fifteen years. The stuff works. Your oil stays cleaner longer, your engine runs quieter, and when we pull oil samples and send them to Blackstone Labs, the wear numbers are lower than what we see from Mobil 1 or Pennzoil. If you're keeping your car past 150,000 miles and you actually care about the engine lasting, spend the extra $8 per oil change and run Royal Purple. This is a single 1-quart bottle. Your engine takes about 4 quarts so you'll need four or five bottles depending on what you're driving.

Here's What We've Seen Running This Oil

We did an oil change interval test a few years back. Took three identical 8th gen Civic Si motors. One got Mobil 1, one got Pennzoil Platinum, one got Royal Purple. Same oil change intervals, same driving conditions, same everything. At 5,000 miles we pulled samples from all three and sent them to Blackstone. The Royal Purple sample came back with iron at 8 ppm, aluminum at 2 ppm, copper at 4 ppm. The Mobil 1 sample was iron at 12 ppm, aluminum at 3 ppm, copper at 6 ppm. Pennzoil was similar to Mobil 1. Lower numbers mean less metal's wearing off your engine parts. The Royal Purple oil also stayed cleaner. When we drained it at 5,000 miles it was still amber. The Mobil 1 was dark brown. That doesn't mean Mobil 1's bad. It just means Royal Purple's holding up better. We've also noticed engines run quieter on Royal Purple. The valvetrain noise on K series motors quiets down after you switch from conventional oil or even from other synthetics. That's because the oil film's stronger and there's less metal-on-metal contact at the cam lobes.

It's Not Magic, It's Just Better Additives

Royal Purple isn't doing anything revolutionary. They're using a synthetic base oil and they're adding better additives than what you get in cheap oil. The key additive package is what they call Synerlec. Strip away the marketing and what that means is the additives are designed to stick to metal surfaces. When your engine's running, there's an oil film between all the moving parts. When you shut the engine off, gravity pulls most of that oil back down into the pan. When you start the engine the next morning, there's a few seconds before the oil pump gets oil back up to the cam and the crank. That's dry startup wear. Royal Purple's additives don't drain off the metal as fast. They stick. So when you start the engine, there's still a protective layer on the metal even before fresh oil gets pumped up. That reduces startup wear. The additives also work better under load. When you're accelerating hard and the oil pressure between your crank bearings and the crank journals gets squeezed down to almost nothing, the additives create a sacrificial layer that keeps metal from touching metal. Less metal contact means less wear.

Cold Starts Don't Beat Up Your Engine As Much

5W-20's a thin oil. The "5W" means it flows like a 5-weight oil when it's cold. Thin oil's good for cold starts because it gets to the cam and the crank faster. If you're running 10W-30, that oil's thicker when it's cold and it takes longer to circulate. More dry running, more wear. Royal Purple's 5W-20 flows at temperatures down to -40°F. We're in Louisiana so we don't see -40 but if you're in Minnesota or Montana and it's 10 degrees outside, this oil's still flowing. Your engine gets lubricated faster. You're not sitting there at idle for five minutes waiting for the oil to warm up before you can drive. The "20" part means it protects like a 20-weight oil when the engine's hot. Some people think 5W-20's too thin for hot weather or hard driving. Royal Purple's additive package makes up for it. The film strength's higher than you'd get from conventional 5W-20 so you're getting the cold-start benefits of thin oil without giving up protection when the engine's hot.

Don't Mix This Up with Their Race Oil

Royal Purple makes a few different oils. This is their High Performance oil. It's for street cars. It's got detergents to keep your engine clean and it meets all the API and ILSAC specs so it's not going to void your warranty or kill your catalytic converter. They also make XPR race oil. XPR's got way more zinc and phosphorus (ZDDP) for anti-wear protection. That's great for race motors that get rebuilt every season. It's terrible for street cars. The extra ZDDP will poison your catalytic converter and you'll fail emissions. Don't run race oil in your street car unless you've deleted your cats and you don't care about emissions. Run this oil. It's designed for what you're doing.

How Much You Need and How to Do It Right

Most 4-cylinder Hondas and Acuras take between 3.7 and 4.4 quarts of oil with the filter. K20 in an RSX or EP3 Civic Si takes 4.4 quarts. K24 in an Accord or TSX takes 4.4 quarts. L15 in a 10th gen Civic Si takes 3.7 quarts. V6 motors like the J35 take about 4.5 quarts. Buy four or five bottles depending on your engine. When you're doing the oil change, warm the engine up first. Drive it for 10 minutes. Warm oil drains faster and you'll get more of the old oil out. Pull the drain plug, let it drain for at least 10 minutes, don't rush it. Change the filter. We use OEM Honda filters. Put the drain plug back in, fill the engine, start it up and let it run for a minute, then shut it off and check the dipstick. Top it off if you need to. Don't overfill. Too much oil's just as bad as not enough.

What You Get

• Royal Purple High Performance 5W-20 full synthetic motor oil - 1 quart bottle
• Designed for street-driven Honda and Acura engines (and everything else that takes 5W-20)
• Synthetic base oil with Synerlec additive package
• Better wear protection than conventional oil and most other synthetics
• Flows at temperatures down to -40°F
• API SN PLUS and ILSAC GF-5 certified (won't void warranty, safe for cats)
• Purple color so you know what's in there when you check the dipstick
• Sold individually - buy 4 or 5 bottles depending on your engine

Note: Sold as single 1-quart bottle. Most 4-cylinder engines need 4-5 quarts, V6 engines need 4.5-5.5 quarts. Check your owner's manual. Change your oil every 5,000 miles if you're driving it hard or tracking it, 7,500 miles if you're just commuting. Royal Purple says you can go 12,000 miles but we wouldn't. Oil's cheap, engines are expensive. When you drain the old oil, let it drain for 10 minutes minimum so you get as much old crud out as possible. Use a good filter - OEM Honda or Wix. The oil's purple so you'll see it on your dipstick and you'll know you're running Royal Purple instead of whatever the quick lube place put in there.