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Add me to the I'm particular to both valve oil and gas choice.
Tom

Do you have even the foggiest notion of how ridiculously expensive and pointless it is to own a car in New York?

Meh, I'll start a poll about it.

I've used the same valve oil for as long as I've owned a piston tuba, which isn't terribly long, but I'd rather not play around since I know what I use works.

After I used up the valve oil supply that came with my tuba, I became interested in B.E.R.P. bio-oil and bought some. It was slippery but very thick, left a weird filmy gunk on the inside of my pistons, and tended to gum up. It smelled good at first, but after a while, I suppose the canola-oil base started to go rancid...?

I bought some light music-store-brand cheapo oil at a local place and it works as well as anything, doesn't leave weird polymer-like gunk in my tuba, and smells like valve oil instead of rancid canola.

As far as gas, I go wherever's cheapest in town or what's convenient on my way.

I figure that as long as I change the oil every 5,000 miles I can use whatever oil I want. The only problems that I ever have with valve oils is that I may need to apply certain brands more often.

ginnboonmiller wrote:Do you have even the foggiest notion of how ridiculously expensive and pointless it is to own a car in New York?

Sort of... I'd say it is expensive and almost pointless to have a car in Manhattan. But for the outer boroughs, it makes a whole lot more sense -- I have always had a car up here, and while I've almost never driven in *Manhattan*, I wouldn't consider going to Queens or a lot of places in Brooklyn without driving. New York is a big ol' place and some spots are more driveable than others.

Bloke -- I buy whatever gas is cheapest, and always the same oil. My car never "sticks" because of gas, but my valves have gotten "stuck" because of oils.

arpthark wrote:After I used up the valve oil supply that came with my tuba, I became interested in B.E.R.P. bio-oil and bought some. It was slippery but very thick, left a weird filmy gunk on the inside of my pistons, and tended to gum up. It smelled good at first, but after a while, I suppose the canola-oil base started to go rancid...?

I bought some light music-store-brand cheapo oil at a local place and it works as well as anything, doesn't leave weird polymer-like gunk in my tuba, and smells like valve oil instead of rancid canola.

My wife brought some of this home from TMEA. According to the BERP website, you are supposed to clean the oil off periodically (every two weeks or so). I suppose this is to combat the "malodorous effluvia" you are describing.

Which made me wonder if the oil actually is as good as they say, or if any improvement noticed is due to the valves getting a cleaning every two weeks.

FWIW, I'm still using my homemade lamp oil/3-in-1 on my pistons, and have relegated the BERP Bio to my rotary linkages.

bort wrote:

ginnboonmiller wrote:Do you have even the foggiest notion of how ridiculously expensive and pointless it is to own a car in New York?

Sort of... I'd say it is expensive and almost pointless to have a car in Manhattan. But for the outer boroughs, it makes a whole lot more sense -- I have always had a car up here, and while I've almost never driven in *Manhattan*, I wouldn't consider going to Queens or a lot of places in Brooklyn without driving. New York is a big ol' place and some spots are more driveable than others.

Bloke -- I buy whatever gas is cheapest, and always the same oil. My car never "sticks" because of gas, but my valves have gotten "stuck" because of oils.

We'll have to get the thread going in the off topic forum - I've lived in Brooklyn for about 15 years and I owned a car for about 6 months of it. Ugh. Not worth it, and as far as getting to the outer reaches, Zipcar is always cheaper long term.

As far as valve oil goes, I'm not picky but I'm also not curious. I use the Bell's lube stuff. Odorless, affordable, works well. And as long as they can stay in business I'm going to keep using it so I can focus on making music. If there's a cheaper option, that's great. I'd rather nail the lick than find the lube every time.

I have always heard it is not good to mix brands of valve oil. When I had piston valve tubas I always used Al Cass. On my rotary tubas I use the Lubrass oil that B&S/Melton provided with them. As rotary valves require so infrequent oiling, I have yet had to buy more.

For engine oil, I leave that up to the Mercedes garage - never add myself.

For gas (what we call petrol in the UK) I tend to use Shell, but will go elsewhere if cheaper.

I use Hetmans and in the quantities I use it's not expensive enough to worry about. I like it because it lasts longer than the typical Al Cass stuff. Unlike some synthetics, it mixes with regular oil without issue, and I've certainly never had a problem with gunk or precipitate. But it will not overcome the effects of a dirty instrument, which is what causes valves to stick.

I use Mobil1 pure synthetic in my long-term vehicles. I like it because it does not coke up the way mineral oils can. I use synthetic grease in my vehicles that is fortified with molybdenum disulfide--Valvoline Synpower. That grease is the highest temperature stuff on the market, and it will handle high-friction without losing film strength. My motorhome is front-wheel--drive, and CV joints on a 10,000-pound vehicle will test grease. I once used regular grease for the low-speed, high-angle CV joint in the steering column of that vehicle, and it bound up. The high angle cause the balls of the CV joint to catch and push through the film and bind. They could not push through the moly-fortified Synpower film--problem solved.

Rick "who finds engines run on pure synthetic oil stay cleaner" Denney

Me too, Rick. All Mobil 1 all the time. It's expensive and some always say not worth it. Maybe they're right. But my car has 235k miles on it and the engine is clean and strong. The mechanic had the valve cover off for other reasons right at the first of the year and commented on how clean it was. Perhaps it would be anyway, but I suspect not.

I'd be open to becoming that particular about valve oil, but I don't know enough about it to be.

I put Mobil 1 full synthetic in my car. I'm very picky about that.
My wife's car gets whatever motor oil the changer puts in it, but it's motor oil for a diesel.

As far as gas goes, my car gets lousy mileage (it's a six liter V-8) , so I can't be all that choosy as to where I fill it up. Cheaper is better. The wife's car gets diesel wherever we can buy diesel. Lots of gas stations don't have it.

I put Hetmans light in one particular tuba which has extremely tight valves, far tighter than a typical new tuba. The light piston actually works better than the light rotary even though it's a rotary tuba. My homemade stuff works perfectly on everything else.

On the other tubas, I'll either use the Hetmans or a the homemade concoction of unscented lamp oil and singer sewing machine oil, whichever is at hand.

I find the homemade stuff to be neither cleaner nor dirtier than the Hetmans. It's about the same for me. It doesn't last quite as long, but it's 100 times cheaper.

I might buy a few bottles of Hetmans every other year when I order something else from an online store that carries it. I really don't keep track of it.