The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk shelf life of oil

Curious as to how long a jug of oil would last without opening it. I usually get 4 quart jugs when they are on special at one of the discount stores and right now have 32 quarts of Quaker State 10W30 on hand. I have three vehicles and I change the oil frequently but don't drive them much. I figure my stock will last till next summer at least. As long as it stays good!

Send all unused oil to me. even if you wait 5 years.

Bill,

I think the "under the continental shelf" life of the oil was several million years.


Stuart

I once was given a bunch of 'old stock' oil. Maybe 6-7 years old. Oil was fine, 'cept when I poured it, it was full of white floaties from the shedding plastic jugs. Just check first.

btw, I found a can of Gulf 30wt oil on the top shelf in the shop. Neato, I wonder how old it is?

Right. The plastic will break down before the oil it holds. Decades for the plastic.

my grandfather had a couple cases of oil he bought before the shortage in the seventies and weve used it up until a few years age but it wasnt in plastic it was in the old cardboard cans with the metal lids.

Chester,
What else could it be from? I can't imagine the oil underwent any kind of change to produce 'little white floaties'. So in unsealed jugs that leads me to think that it must have been something with the jugs.
-shrug-

I wouldn't be afraid to use it. You can run it through a paint strainer to catch those little floaties can't you?

That is what I actually did John, not a paint strainer, but just a little wire strainer.
So, same as before, just check first oldblu.

Rusty Rod has NO problem going through oil at the cyclic rate... with 2 daily drivers and 3 rusty rods, it goes Quick... even quicker when Rusty Jr shows up with 3k more miles on his newbolt.

I was just given a quart of Chevron RPM 30 wt. oil in a metal can;anybody have any idea how old it might be?
Speed

I had some quaker state that had been in plastic for a couple of years, it looked very very milky when it came out of the bottle, it was about 2 cases and all but a couple of quarts were that way. It was all still sealed in the cardboard boxes. After seeing the crud that quaker state left in an engine I rebuilt I have never used it since. I know Trop Artic (phillips 66) oil left a pontiac engine I had clean as a pin and .003 wear on the cylinders after 100k. Hard to find that oil though.

So I guess if you buy a Qt of Oil from "Oh say 1950" on E-Bay wou might not want to use it? :rolleyes:


Cliff59

I remember back in the 70's, Quaker state had a recall because their oil would gell up and ruin the motors.

I wouldn't have a problem running old oil, but, why wouldn't you just buy new oil?

I grew up in northern Pa.(where the Quaker State oil refinery is) and worked in the oil fields there during the '70's and into the early '80's. Nobody that I knew would think of using Quaker State oil because of the extra high paraffin content in their motor oil. It was the paraffin build-up that caused the excessive gunk accumulation that the oil was infamous for. I dont know if this is still true today but back then it was gospel.

I am wondering if some of the "white floaties" and the "milky" could be due to condensate?? Changes in temp and humidity can affect oil (even in closed containers) just as it does cans of gasoline.

I had to smile when I read cjoes comment. I took the rocker cover off of an old Virginia truck one time and did the classic double take! The parrafin was so perfect it almost looked as though the cover was still on.

cjoe, I never thought of that. Could very well be, the oil was stored in a non-heated warehouse.

i have a barrel thats 50 years old still good but its non detergent so i just use it for chainsaws and lubing the rails on my mill

In 1950 my brother and i would stomp our feet on the side of empty metal oil cans and drive dad up the wall by clunking around the station. By 1960 cardboard cans were showing up, and i don't think i sold another all metal can after 1965. I have a couple of old metal MobilOil cans sitting on the shelf. some memories.

Quaker State back then wasn't detergent and did cause parafin build up as did Pennzoil. I have been running quaker for 15+ years with no build up. Recently switched to Quaker synthetic in the truck for better lubrication(they say)

I don't believe Quaker State oil has been from Pennsylvania crude in about 30 years. They changed their slogan from something like "Pennsylvania Crude Quality" to "Pennsylvania Quality Crude." That indicates to me that they've been using mainly imported crude for a long time.

Quaker State is now owned by Shell.

I dont know where Quaker State oil is refined now nor do I know what crude oil they use. With the oil shortage of the late 70's and early 80's there were many changes in the oil business. Lots of Alaskan oil started showing up and oil from many different overseas fields. I havent heard of parrafin issues since about 1980 so I am guessing that problem has long ago been solved. I do question the logic of using any oil that is that old to protect your auto. There are many safer uses that if a problem shows up wont cost a lot of money. Or just hang onto the oil for the interst value.