Cheap synth overkill for under 2000 miles in 4 months?

[BISCUT]

98 LeSabre it's a good condition. It's just over the years,it's all stop n go....conventional turned all thick n black. Engine wasn't liking it. Changing it,fresh dino,it lived it,ran so much better.but with group 3 synthetics, it was much more durable an oil. It wasn't in as bad shape as conventional

SO I was woefully bad at guessing! Should be 3800 Series II engine in that. I took care of my mother's 95 3800 engine many years. That wasn't a short tripper and saw mostly Castrol GTX dino. As stated above, color isn't a reliable indicator. Might want to think about a UOA or simply use a synthetic for 3k runs.

If it were mine I'd change the PCV. Pretty easy on the 3800 and cheap part. This car sounds like a good candidate for an HPL cleaner run.

 

[ATex7239]

Not a waste. But if it were keep in mind you likely waste way more important things everyday. Food, water, your time to name a few.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

I am not really sure I buy this "Type X and Name Y oil is complete overkill" argument. We have the inverse of such argument when we talk about simply using an oil that meets the spec.. and that Supertech of today is an API SP oil and 10x better than oils of yester-year, mostly Group 3 as a base that can compete pretty well with pricier oils.. so the logic there is that it is good enough, and specialty/boutique oils are not needed (my prodding on the abundance of conversations on what % base oil Type A Name B oils were vs the overall quality of said oils seems to have been resolved with the overall result of a fully-formulated motor oil prevailing over specifically what it is made out of)... that would be one side of the coin...

So now, we explore, "This oil is complete overkill for this application." Having pondered this side of the coin myself, I cannot come to that conclusion because you can usually justify it simply by going farther on an OCI, and that the oil may be holding up better at higher mileage, your 6k, 8k, 10k, some run 12k miles OCI as have wised up that the oil is OK during this time, barring fuel dilution, of course.

I can't fault the oil for perhaps being too good for an application, and it may even help even with peace of mind. That's the freedom to choose.

Maybe increase OCI duration? It could be construed as wasteful to use a GREAT oil for short times, (HPL holds up VERY well. As do others) but, if your oil is experiencing problems, as stated, look for underlying engine issues .

 

[ziggy]

SO I was woefully bad at guessing! Should be 3800 Series II engine in that. I took care of my mother's 95 3800 engine many years. That wasn't a short tripper and saw mostly Castrol GTX dino. As stated above, color isn't a reliable indicator. Might want to think about a UOA or simply use a synthetic for 3k runs.

If it were mine I'd change the PCV. Pretty easy on the 3800 and cheap part. This car sounds like a good candidate for an HPL cleaner run.

Already did that.2 years ago.prib good idea soon again .

 

[ziggy]

Think the frame synthetic would be ok for 6 months intervals? Feul dilution,carbon acids ect? What I'm not doing is burning it out the tailpipe,Italian tuneup* long drives. That's why In 3 months the oil is just.. **** what happened.its a pita cause I use a store parking lot hidden on side of wall barrier . They can call police n have me stop..never happened.so it's cleanliness and longetivity I'm looking for.
Don't think the dino will hold up

 

[ziggy]

Think il Gunna try fram synthetic 10w30 and run it 6 months.i know for fact conventional is not Gunna make it that long .

 

[wpod]

What would you look at on a UOA to determine whether you needed a synthetic oil?

How would a uoa tell if a syn oil would be needed?

 

[ziggy]

How would a uoa tell if a syn oil would be needed?

Its tbn over mileage and time. Also possibly the wear metals.