I'm about to install synthetic

[Nebraskan]

Synthetic : Better mileage (sometimes up to 12% or better! Better heat range! Better shear and viscosity loss (less is better and synthetic looses less in the long run in volatility).

Better change to synthetic. I'd go a lot longer than 3,000 miles though

Go one year change if it's less than 12,000 miles. that's only 1000, per month.

My wife has a Chevy Lumina with 205,000 miles on it. I chaged to synthetic soon after we bought it at 137,000 miles. Changed oil every fall and every spring. 10-30 summer Valvoline Synthetic and 5-30 Valvoline Synthetic in the late spring. She drove 87 miles one way to work. Take that times 2, time 5, and times 52 to see how many miles she drove from oil change to oil hange.

Gets' great gas mileage with lots of zip!! remember OVER 200,000 miles on it, no valves, rings or other major engine work.
Vern

 

[Nebraskan]

Also some storm chasers (gathering data for NOAA) have changed to synthetic. Sometimes they have put on 35,000 miles within a 2 month period. Synthetic gives them the opportunity to go further than a few days between oil changes

 

[will24]

Newer cars these days have an OCI of 5k on conventional oil. The newer Japanese brand cars at least.

 

[AndyH]

quote:

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Originally posted by Nebraskan:
Synthetic : Better mileage (sometimes up to 12% or better!

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"Sometimes" being the operable word. I also question what viscosity conventional oil was used prior to running synthetic oil in order to see a 12% increase in fuel economy. I might believe it if the person in question switched from a 20W-50 conventional oil to a 5W-20 synthetic oil. But if that person stayed with the same viscosity oil for both conventional and synthetic, then I'm going to have to call B.S. on the 12% fuel economy increase without seeing some supporting documentation.

 

[KieferS]

Simple. Synthetic= man made= perfection over nature= better for the engine= less internal friction= more performance/efficency= slightly better gas mileage and engine performance in the motors golden years. Or... brown years. It's ludacris to say that dino and conventional are the same. I agree that you can get 300k over a conventional- ive seen it on 3 cars that my family and i have personally owned- on these cars, performance was lost, not because of other reasons, but because the engine is a wear and tear item- and it was wearing. on the third pathfinder- we decided to use synthetic, and even at 300k+ the engine still felt really good- like new actually. The other two- i could feel the engine was beat.

 

[mossad]

quote:

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Originally posted by KieferS:
Simple. Synthetic= man made= perfection over nature= better for the engine= less internal friction= more performance/efficency= slightly better gas mileage and engine performance in the motors golden years. Or... brown years. It's ludacris to say that dino and conventional are the same. I agree that you can get 300k over a conventional- ive seen it on 3 cars that my family and i have personally owned- on these cars, performance was lost, not because of other reasons, but because the engine is a wear and tear item- and it was wearing. on the third pathfinder- we decided to use synthetic, and even at 300k+ the engine still felt really good- like new actually. The other two- i could feel the engine was beat.

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Thus, even if you use a short OCI with synthetic, your engine will wear less compared to dino. Correct?

 

[sxg6]

quote:

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Originally posted by KieferS:
Simple. Synthetic= man made

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I wish that were true.

quote:

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Originally posted by mossad:
Thus, even if you use a short OCI with synthetic, your engine will wear less compared to dino. Correct?

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In my opinion and what i've seen from uoa's, no. Synthetic and dino wear numbers are pretty much the same.

 

[Black Bart]

Seems to be some inconsistency in the advice of OCI here. I have a corvette that has a 406 cid with supercharger and Nitrous oxide and it makes a little over 1000 horsepower. I don't drive it much and only during the summer months. With the oil cooler it holds 10 quarts of oil. Last year when I posted here about trying to run two years on a oil change I was told that I was a cheap *** so last fall I drained 10 quarts of 20w50 M1 that had less than 1000 miles on it. I will do the same this fall. Why is it a waste for this guy to change at 3000 miles and the advice that I got was change at less than a 1000 mile

 

[bighead]

quote:

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Originally posted by Black Bart:
Why is it a waste for this guy to change at 3000 miles and the advice that I got was change at less than a 1000 mile

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Because your car probably beats the living cr@p out of the oil, and because it's driven so seldomly. Raped oil can't sit in the oil pan forever. If your car was driven more often (and perhaps more gently

) then you could extend your OCI somewhat. For a normal daily driver, yes, 3K on synthetic is a complete waste, and you will not see any less wear than using dino for 3K (unless you have a car that rapes oil, such as a turbo, or if you're 100% WOT).

 

[Black Bart]

Yes I beat on it that is what I built it for.
The clearances are a little more than stock also That is why i have been using the 20w50 but I always wait till the oil temp reaches 180 or more before going WOT but with the cooler I never see more than 240 I would think the M1 would hold up to a lot of that so are you saying that the oil is breaking down from extreme pressure

 

[bighead]

....pretty much. I mean, even though you let the oil warm up before you drive the h3ll out of it, the fact that A) it's supercharged (not as bad as turbo, but not as good as NA) and B) you got NOS on it? I mean, c'mon. You can't expect to run a 10K OCI on it, or even a 5K.

PS. I'm not getting on you about anything, believe me, I'd love to have a toy like that

 

[Black Bart]

NO offense taken I just did not want to drain the oil if it was not necessary. In the past since I was not sure I drained it to be safe.
The cost is no big deal we are talking 50 bucks a year. Nearly every time I drive it I use a bottle of NOS and that cost $45.00 a bottle add the $ 7.00 per gallon for race gas and the cost of oil begins to look cheap. We won't even talk about rear tire life.
THANKS

 

[bighead]

And I thought I had it bad paying $2.85/g for regular unleaded LOL...

Yeah, I would think with all those ponies keeping rubber on the rear end is next to impossible.

 

[KieferS]

If synthetic doesn't have better wear numbers- then whats the use of a synthetic?Im not buying it...

 

[bighead]

quote:

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Originally posted by KieferS:
If synthetic doesn't have better wear numbers- then whats the use of a synthetic?Im not buying it...

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Synthetics will have better wear protection PROVIDING the application will benefit from said protection. For example, a turbo will destroy dino oil, especially if driven hard all the time. In that case, a synthetic is pretty much mandatory. Another example, long OCI's in excess of 10K (about 99% of the time) are NOT the thing to do with dino, again, the use of syn is preferrable, if not mandatory. Yet another example, if you race your car at the drag strip and run timed quarters every weekend, or if you live in VERY cold temperatures most of the year, then yes, you too need synthetics. You see what I'm getting at here? For most everyday, to work and back, daily drivers yada yada, synthetics are not necessary. Certain applications NEED it, but for the most part, a short (3K) OCI will not yield any better results.

 

[Clyde65]

mossad,

There are two ways to ruffle feathers on this board:

1) Run a high quality synthetic oil and drain it at 3000 miles.

2) Run a high quality synthetic blend 10W-40 and claim that it gives better fuel mileage than a 10W-30 conventional.

I don't recommend either of these highly controversial tactics as they can cause the poster extreme backlash.

 

[KieferS]

is a synthetic blend- even the slightest bit better than dino?

 

[bighead]

quote:

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Originally posted by Clyde65:
mossad,

There are two ways to ruffle feathers on this board:

1) Run a high quality synthetic oil and drain it at 3000 miles.

2) Run a high quality synthetic blend 10W-40 and claim that it gives better fuel mileage than a 10W-30 conventional.

I don't recommend either of these highly controversial tactics as they can cause the poster extreme backlash.

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LMAOOOO

 

[bighead]

quote:

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Originally posted by KieferS:
is a synthetic blend- even the slightest bit better than dino?

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Eh.. I'd say bout that much --> || <--

 

[BrianWC]

It depends entirely on the application and the oil.