I would've preferred to have done this product review as a Mythbuster article. However since I wasn't able to scientifically properly test this brand of oil I cannot call it a Mythbuster. However the next upcoming Mythbuster is gonna be a big one I promise.
Anyway, a salesman approached me sometime ago and asked if I was interested to review their oil brand : Rock Oil. My immediate response to him was :
"What oil?"
"Rock oil"
Being in the Oil&Gas industry, I've heard my fair share of brand names but this was not one of them. So at that point I put on my skeptical face and asked :
"You sure? Because if I find anything bad I will still post it up regardless."
The salesman was so confident of his brand he offered to give me free bottles of their fully synthetic 5W40 (which isn't their premium range, they have one range called the 'Sports' range) and several 1L bottles of their fully synthetic multi-ATF.
"Wow you got balls... you give me your average joe oil and a mutli-ATF which I detest to bits"
(Reason to be revealed later)
Ok.
To make this a fair comparison, I didn't ask for the price of the oils and just compared it based on what I was using which isn't half baked oils mind you but not quite premium either. At least I'm familiar with my current oil and can compare it easily with the Rock Oil and won't be influenced by the pricing.
First up, their engine oil. Some of you might remember an article I wrote about choosing the right oil for your car. According to API, they are certified. And they also claim to be ISO 9001 and recommendations by many leading manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Iveco, Triumph, Kawasaki and Suzuki plus JASO, API, ACEA, CIK and NMMA accreditation.
Not bad.
You can't publicly claim all this without proof otherwise you're gonna have your ass sued to next tuesday.
I have a complaint though - why the heck is the packaging so awful looking?
I normally use 5W30 or 5W40 for my beloved Wira (I repeat : I am not pro-Proton) so this oil weight was just nice. Some of you might remember a 4G1Series track day that was arranged by out very own big kahuna fstrader and I was a participant.
I spent quite a lot of time changing the oils for my car to ensure I got the best out of the car. The Honda 5W40 oil is quite a good oil and is quite rev happy and it did quite a good job of keeping up with my constant redlining that day. Unfortunately however the oil started breaking down earlier than expected and the car started to feel sluggish and was quite heavy on the FC. So even though it's less than a couple of months and definitely way before the oil change interval, I thought I'd just swap out the oil with this new Rock Oil 5W40 fully Synthetic.
Now, some of you may ask : Why didn't I go for a dyno to compare?
Let me tell you a little secret - Want higher dyno figures? Change your engine oil before you go for a run. Guaranteed higher figures! Yes, don't believe me try it yourself. If you ask me, dyno testing after changing your engine oil and claiming it gives you higher BHP is rubbish. The caveat is you have to use semi or fully syn oil. May not work with mineral.
First impressions
Lo and behold! My engine was quieter..... not.
I adjusted my tappets to give me maximum power (10 intake 15 exhaust using the measuring gauge) and that by no means makes the tappet quiet. It's as noisy as a truck but I like the power so I live with the tappet noise. What I did notice is how much easier the car moved from cold startup. Previously with the Honda oil I could feel the roughness whenever I accelerated a little bit harder to move the car (3-speed auto mah...) but with Rock Oil that roughness was not there. In fact the car happily moved with less effort.
Why is this important? Because 70% of all engine damage occurs at startup and when the engine is cold. So the oil must be able to lubricate well when the engine is cold. I don't want my piston rings to wear out faster than normal nor do I want any other metal-to-metal parts in my engine to have any friction damage. 1000 rpm (revolutions per minute) may not seem like much on your rev meter (it just shows a really large "1" and a really small "x1000" in most meters) but think about it, the piston moving up and down 1000 times per minute is not a small task. Imagine the wear and tear if there wasn't any lubrication!
For engine oils, the first number indicates its performance when cold so in this case it's "5" from the 5W40. In Malaysian weather realistically I don't really need anything more than 10 but hey, more is better than bare-minimum right? Compared with my previous Honda 5W40, it surprisingly worked better in this respect. Different oils contain different additives such as friction modifiers, detergents and so on. Guess the Rock Oil had better friction modifiers that helped rid the rough cold movements.
Honda - 0 Rock Oil - 1
Next up, it seemed to fare quite well when pushed to constant redlining. Engine always seemed smooth and didn't give any indication of slowing down usually felt when the oil breaks down due to extreme heat or too much contamination. I must point out by now the car had already traveled quite a bit. This wasn't the 2nd day the car was on the oil, this was nearly 2 weeks and more than 1000km later. To be fair my Honda oil did pretty well in this department as well so both oils get a point.
Honda - 1 Rock Oil - 2
Now that I've touched the 5000km mark I checked the dipstick to see the colour of the oil. Golden brownish. Good! Meaning it's doing its job of cleaning too. Forgot to take a picture with my cylinder head cover off, I can assure you everything was still silver where it was meant to be silver and no indication of varnish anywhere. Why is that important?
Varnish is a thin layer that coats the internal engine components. It's comprised of chemicals associated with oxidation or thermal degradation. Varnish buildup causes excessive wear on parts, can lead to bearing failures, and in some extreme cases - cause components to seize.
Again - my Honda oil did that as well so again a point each to both oils.
Honda - 2 Rock Oil - 3
I was told by the salesman that the oil pressure and oil temperature would be more constant with Rock Oil but since I didn't have a Oil Pressure and Oil Temp meter, I couldn't verify this. I'll be acquiring both meters very soon so I'll be able to tell you more once that's done.
Overall? Not bad. I quite like the fact that the cold protection and lubrication was good. If I'm honest I think it did quieten my engine a tad bit. But it's not significant enough to say it'll make your engine quiet but you'll never know.
Conclusion?
Is it a good oil? The certifications check out. The butt tests check out. Only thing left to do is to do a proper oil temperature and pressure test. Why is that important? If the oil temperature is constant especially when stressed, it indicates the oils ability to help keep the engine cool. Keeping the engine cool may not be its main function but if it helps, then all the better! I point this out because my Honda oil broke down quite fast. Way before the 10,000 km oil change interval. Maybe it wasn't designed to handle the stress of a full day on track and high revving on the highway back home to KL and a couple of aggressive runs on my personal 'track'. Rock Oil on the other hand didn't get thrashed on a track but I did push it quite hard (redlining a few times on "2" gear for some sharp high elevation bends for a good 1 to 2 minutes is harsh enough la) throughout the test and so far it hasn't felt sluggish and my FC hasn't been affected. So that's a point up for Rock Oil!
Honda - 2 Rock Oil - 4
As for oil pressure, it's good to have stable or not too stressful pressure levels. You don't want your engine starved of oil when thrashing it hard and too thick oil will end up killing the oil pump too. I can't test this so I'll leave it out for now. Would love to do a UOA (Used Oil Analysis) but I didn't buy the UOA test kit and have no budget to send it for analysis. So.
Next up, the gear oil.
Sometime ago I posted a DIY on how to install a ATF cooler for my Myvi. I have a confession to make, I messed up the install and caused a leak on my initial install. The gearbox actually ran without oil for about 20km, it was smoking by the time I stopped! Some very nasty gearbox torque converter noises were coming from my gearbox after I had refilled with Daihatsu Dexron III (manufacturer specified oil) and fixed the leaking problem.
The gearbox wasn't the same anymore after the extreme overheat. In "D" it would sluggishly go up the revs and you could only feel the 'mighty' 1.3L Myvi pull after 3.5k rpm (please note the sarcasm). I eventually found a quick fix for this problem with Pennzoils fully synthetic multi-ATF. It resolved the sluggish low rev problem I had but introduced a new problem - even though it was 100% synthetic it wore out really fast. As in every 10,000km the horrid low rev problem came back and it always had this weird boxer type of revving noise coming from the gearbox. It wasn't loud but loud enough to sound like a boxer engine revving at volume level 2.
Now my problem with multi-ATF oils is this : every type of ATF whether it's Dexron III, Dexron II, Mercon V, SP-III, they are not compatible mainly because of their operating temperatures and lubrication ability at optimum temperature. When a multi-ATF claims to be compatible with all of these I am very skeptical.
So imagine how skeptical I was when the salesman said this multi-ATF would be able to fix my GB problem.
Again - what's with the packaging? It's god-awful but the pouring tip and extension tube is pretty handy. This I like!
Anyway, flushed out my old oil (about 4L of it) and poured in the new ATF.
Impressions?
Ok... I hate to admit it but it really did solve the noisy boxer problem and it did solve the low-rpm-powerloss problem. I wasn't going to just leave it at that, even with the ATF cooler my Myvi still overheated when driven up hard the normal Genting roads. Being a stock NA 1.3, you have to shift to "2" or "L" for most corners uphill and using "2" downhill is the only way you're going to get around the rubbish spongy stock brakes.
That's not the problem. The problem is when you're shifting to "2" or "L" at speeds of 80km/h to 100km/h up/downhill then it becomes a problem.
Disclaimer : I do not condone speeding. But some might argue this isn't fast what... True. But try it on a stock Myvi with stock suspension, stock brakes and Yokohama AD07 tyres then tell me it's not scary.
Overheating an auto is the easiest thing to do. It wasn't though with the Rock Oil mutli-ATF. Surprisingly it beat the overheating where the Pennzoil failed. (Fully syn vs fully syn. Non mad-performance oil vs non mad-performance oil). So, not bad! In fact, damn good! Not only did it resolve my problematic gearbox problems, it performed quite well too. Especially for a multi-ATF.
Overall? Rock Oil is a worthy oil brand to consider whether it be engine oil or ATF gear oil. It may not be well known but it has all the necessary accreditation and works pretty well under stress so I'd say it's a good oil. Price wise you'll have to ask the salesman in his interactive Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/RockOilMalaysia.
Finding out about an oil you've never heard of even though you're in the Oil&Gas industry - Ok
Finding out the unknown oil produces good oil that fixed all my gearbox woes - Great
Admitting you f-ed up a DIY to everyone that thinks you know your 2-cents - Priceless
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