Best Engine oil for Subaru Outback

I'm using Valvoline 0W-20 Restore and Protect, changing every 4,000 miles. '23 OBW, 56,000 miles. FYI, I did an oil analysis at my last oil change. Wear numbers were excellent, less than 1.5 ppm/1,000 miles. 3 iron, 2 aluminum, 1 copper over 4,128 miles. Fuel dilution was HIGH though, at 4.3%. They expect 1.5- 1.8% for direct injection turbos. According to the Motor Oil Geek, less than 5ppm/1,000 miles is considered good. I do a fair number of short trips, but also some longer runs. I'm going to go to max of 4,000 miles due to the gas dilution.

I wouldn’t go with 0W20. Most people thicken the oil up in these when they start getting excessive oil burning. Lots of folks running Rotella 5W40. I ran it for years before I got tired of paying the premium price.

Running it in my Subaru outback 2.5 with 50k miles. I noticed a difference in the first 1k miles.

Better compression and better mileage (2 to 3 mpg!) a lot quieter!

Also running it in Subaru outback 2.4 turbo with 30k miles. A bit better. Not huge. But noticing.

Also a lot quieter!

I have done all my oil changes myself since I bought my 2019 Subaru outback 2.5l new using 5w-30 and have never had issues! Just hit 120k ????

My 14' outback burned 1-2qts between oil changes based on driving (lots of short trips or visits to the mountains burned more.) Never had any blue smoke on startup or during driving.

Down to .5-1 qt low after 5000 miles now.

It is well established that boxer engines want their oil changed and I do not think for a second that a visual inspection is valid for determining if it is time. Highly, **highly** recommend you change the oil per the manual without hesitation and regardless of what it looks like.

Owner of an often abused 250k+ mile 2002 Outback here. I use Mobil1 full synthetic 5W20. Runs like a top.

I second those saying bring a spare quart of oil. I wouldn't be too worried about taking my 2012 Outback at 170K miles on such a trip...but would agree check the oil every 1000 miles or every morning (depending how far you go in a day) just to make sure it isn't getting low.

I personally swapped from 5w-30 in my OBXT to T6 5w-40 and have noticed a decrease in oil consumption (newish engine with 28k so that also helps).

All 4 of my Subarus have serious consumption problems with Mobil 1. On my current 15 outback I tried liquid moly and it consumed it. I went back to the Subaru dealer parts department and so far 1200 miles the level is still full.