motor oils

[superchevy72]

im looking for opinions on synthetic and conventional oils. is synthetic really better? do alot of people on here use it and have you seen a difference? And what about brands? i work for pennzoil but ive never really been able to do any comparisons.

[launchin1st]

Amsoil.

i have used in all my cars. my entire family uses it.

 

i was switched to it by a former employee.

he a 91 galant vr4 with 198000 miles on the origanal motor.

when he finally took it apart to upgrade it, the bearings looked new and measured within new bearing specs, the cross-hatch in the cylinders looked like new. the entire inside of the engine was so clean it looked it had only a few K on it.

 

i go at least 5000 miles between changes, but i have known some brave people that go 10000, 15000 miles.

 

anyway its good shit.

[Lustalbert]

Run Amsoil in the farm equipment, reduced fuel consumption, diesels don't smoke as much, longer change intervals, practicly 0 wear on internal components.

Your first change it will plug the crap out of your oil filter quicly from all the dirt and sludge it breaks loose.

[Guest powers]

Amsoil is the oil used at IPS motorsports.

[Guest Removed]

Amsoil is what we use...

[rl]

ditto. Amsoil syncromesh = sex to tremecs.

[Dave1647545494]

changing your oil at the proper interval is the most important thing....

 

go to an autoparts store grab 1 of every brand of oil each one will have an api service rating on the back.... the last time I used oil that came in a quart bottle and not out of an overhead dispenser the service rating was SL..... if they all meet the same service rating, why pay more?

 

will running synthetic in your daily driver help much doubtfull, if your already keeping the oil changed at the regular scheduled intervals. will it maybe give you that extra .001 hp that gives you that extra .0001 at the track is it worth 5-10 bucks a quart for that in my opinion no.

 

its all in how well you take care of what your driving my 94 plymouth minivan has 390,000 miles on it. never had anything but regular old 10w30 every 3000

[superchevy72]

so sounds like amsoil is the best. sux we used to sell it at my shop but we dont anymore. what grades are best for v8's with no internal mods? i change my oil about every 1000-1500 miles just because its free and i can do it from my pit at work.

[Adam]

amsoil is the long sleeve mock turtle neck i prefer

[Berto]

Mobil 1 synthetic on my new car ever 5k miles.

 

where can you get amsoil?

[street pilot]

Dont switch to a synthetic on a motor with high miles that only had conventional.

[Lustalbert]

Dont switch to a synthetic on a motor with high miles that only had conventional.

 

Care to elaborate?

Aside from cleaning out the dirt that might have been keeping a seal from leaking, and in turn pluging an oil filter with said dirt, I havent seen any reason not to run synthetic in a high mileage engine.

[mmrmnhrm]

Second-ing Lustal... the gunk removal is the only reason I've heard of not to switch to a synthetic on a high mileage engine.

 

For what it's worth, my hybrid is going to be living exclusively on Mobil1 syth. The fact that they're the only ones who make 0W-20 probably has something to do with that, though.

[90_EAGLE_TALON]

I only use synthetic oil. Would never change back to conventional.

[RangerTurbo]

Amsoil.

i have used in all my cars. my entire family uses it.

 

i was switched to it by a former employee.

he a 91 galant vr4 with 198000 miles on the origanal motor.

when he finally took it apart to upgrade it, the bearings looked new and measured within new bearing specs, the cross-hatch in the cylinders looked like new. the entire inside of the engine was so clean it looked it had only a few K on it.

 

i go at least 5000 miles between changes, but i have known some brave people that go 10000, 15000 miles.

 

anyway its good shit.

 

used dino oil in my 94 ranger's N/A engine, pulled it at 208XXX miles for the swap and just like you stated above all my engine parts were within spec and cylinders still had cross hatch as well

[Mattsv8]

i use castrol gtx 20w50 in my race motor. motor was 8 years old, 13:1 many many miles and passes, i do oil changes at about every 1000 miles because it doesnt drive arround much. the cross hatch was new looking the bearing were all new looking and the most important thing is no sludge. nobody wants that falling down on their car. imagine cleaning that up.

[Akula]

We used to run pure synthetic in the race car but started blending to get the best of both worlds. The blend worked better/lasted longer in our motor. Granted we had some different issues due to the fact that we ran alcohol.

[superchevy72]

Second-ing Lustal... the gunk removal is the only reason I've heard of not to switch to a synthetic on a high mileage engine.

 

For what it's worth, my hybrid is going to be living exclusively on Mobil1 syth. The fact that they're the only ones who make 0W-20 probably has something to do with that, though.

 

we sell 0w-20 synth in pennzoil at my work

[gillbot]

Second-ing Lustal... the gunk removal is the only reason I've heard of not to switch to a synthetic on a high mileage engine.

 

For what it's worth, my hybrid is going to be living exclusively on Mobil1 syth. The fact that they're the only ones who make 0W-20 probably has something to do with that, though.

Synthetic can damage seals that have only seen conventional oil. Leaking isn't the only concern, the higher lubricity can remove gunk that has been "locked away" by varnish and can cause more contamination than good.

[mmrmnhrm]

Bill: Thanks for the lead on the Pennz... lots of folks on the hippie boards are bitching that they can never find the M1 stuff, so this'll at least give them another brand to look for.

 

James: What about switching over causes seal damage?

[street pilot]

Care to elaborate?

Aside from cleaning out the dirt that might have been keeping a seal from leaking, and in turn pluging an oil filter with said dirt, I havent seen any reason not to run synthetic in a high mileage engine.

 

You nailed it.

 

Put synth in a high mileage motor and it cleans everything out. Lots of dried seals that were plugged with sludge now begin to leak. A rear main seal replacement later, and you are looking at $1000 on most cars.

 

Rather than develop new leaks and repairs just by switching oil composition and hoping you will see some sort of improvement (doubtful) in performance, in my opinion it is better to keep running what works.

 

I suppose my original statement should have read "dont switch to synthetic in a high mileage motor if you are not prepared to possibly invest in repairs," because of course its not a given you will leak just from switching.

 

And I suppose in a worst case scenario you could plug the filter entirely and starve the engine, but thats a longshot, I think.

[Lustalbert]

Whenever I switch a motor to synthetic, I chage the oil filter at 100 miles, and NEVER use a fram.

BTW, I didnt switch to synthetic for a performance gain, more for the longer change interval, and reduced wear. The decreased fuel consumption is just a nice benefit. (on a BB car, milage is gona suck regardless)

[mmrmnhrm]

Here's another n00b question from the n00b... given that I'm going to be running synth the entire time, should I expect seal problems, or since I'm never actually changing over, will it be a non-issue?

[Lustalbert]

Did it come from the factory with synthetic?

Reason I ask:

When synthetics first started to come out, some guys at the shop tried it in brand new vehicles, and the rings never seated in properly due to the "slicker" nature of the synthetic oil.

Most of the change over issue is from the dirt that got into the seals and has been holding the dino oil in. If you engine is under 30K when you switch it should be a non issue.

[superchevy72]

we sell this gumout engine flush stuff, we put it in in place of the oil with a new filter and run for 5 minutes. its supposed to clean the shit out of your engine. wouldnt that be about the same as the seal problems when switching to synth? but weve never had a car come back with new leaks after the flush. also has anyone noticed when you buy a new cam, it says somewhere in there that your not supposed to use synth for the first 100 miles or so?