Originally Posted By: rufushusky
Originally Posted By: Balla
Looking for an oil to switch to and stick with for the life of the truck. I have about 20k miles on it now and would like to switch to a Synthetic. I have heard good things about Amsoil, Rotella, Shaeffer's. But don't know which one would be best? Thanks for any input.
The best is a tough word to define, really it comes down to your operating conditions and of course budget. If I may ask, why do you want to run a synthetic? Rotella is a great bag for your buck IMHO.
EXACTLY!
What does "best" mean to you?
There are only two good reasons to run synthetics:
1) extreme cold temps where start up is an issue
2) extended OCIs
#1 is obvisouly not an issue in FL. In fact, if you choose a 10w-30 dino HDEO, you can rest assured of decent starting all the way down to -10 deg F or lower. There really are not that many places that get that cold for the bulk of our membership. You certainly are not going to experience these kinds of temps, so this topic is moot in your application.
#2 How often are you going to change oil? If you intend to stick to a traditional OEM defined OCI, then synthetics are not "better". Please spend some time looking over the multitude of UOAs and you'll see that in short-to-moderate OCI durations, dino oils perform every bit as well as syns. Even under extremely heavy use (I have one such UOA as proof). Since syn's cost approximately 3x more money than a convantional oil, you'd have to run your OCI for 3x longer just to break even on money.
All that said, if you're going to extend your OCIs, then any of those three brands you mentioned are very capable products and I've seen excellent results from all of them.
Overall, believe it or not, most engines really don't care about the brand/grade of oil you put in them. As long as the equipment is in good operating condition, and you select a lube that meets/exceeds the OEM critera, it matters much more to your wallet than it does your engine. I've seen far too much UOA evidence to state otherwise. ALL the brand name oils do well because they are all well designed and made. Typically, it you see a poor UOA, it's not a matter of the lube but rather a parameter than has gotten out of control (contamination, leaks, overheating, mechanical failure, etc).
People want synthetics far more often than they need synthetics. I'm not saying you cannot use one; you certainly can. But until you define what "better or best" means to you, you'll have no idea what to choose or why. The components of your maintenance program should be complimentary, not contradictory.
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