Is synthetic really better?

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It's not that the oil you use matters, it's when you change it. People prefer synthetic for better cold flow & extended change intervals. Whether or not you should use conventional, blend or full synthetic depends on YOUR application, YOUR conditions & when YOU want to change it. All 3 will push your engine for hundreds of thousands of miles if changed at the appropriate intervals. Conventional changed every 3,000-5,000 (depending on conditions) will keep your engine running forever. Synthetic blends changed every 5,000-7,500 will also do the same. Full synthetic every 7,500-10,000 or beyond will do the same as well. You pick the oil appropriate for your vehicle & conditions & change it accordingly.
 
I've got it stuck in my head that full synthetic oil is the least likely to cause varnish stains if I keep it changed out regularly. I don't see the point in paying the high cost of full synthetic if you're gonna let the oil go long enough to cause varnish.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I don't see the point in paying the high cost of full synthetic if you're gonna let the oil go long enough to cause varnish.


^^Absolutely!! I've seen a ton of opened up engines on here run on synthetic oils for uber long oci's and they're varnished to the max.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
As far as your town car and those crown Vic's the only thing they have in common is the number 4.6. Other than that then engines are very different.


Thanks for the laugh
 
Originally Posted By: buck91
Originally Posted By: Clevy
...As far as your town car and those crown Vic's the only thing they have in common is the number 4.6. Other than that then engines are very different....


You may want to double check your facts before spreading this misinformation.

+1

Originally Posted By: Dan55
An interesting article from years ago http://www.xs11.com/xs11-info/xs11-info/articles/51-consumer-reportstruth-motor-oils-july-1996.html


Thanks for the article! Great read.

Originally Posted By: KD0AXS
The 4.6 and its big brother, the 5.4, are well known to be high mileage engines no matter what oil is used. I work for a local courier/delivery service. We have a whole fleet of Ford vans with 4.6 and 5.4s, many of which have 300K, 400K, 500K miles on them. We even have a couple over 600K. The oil used in them is just the cheapest conventional 10w30 in 55 gallon drums from our local supplier. The planned OCI on these vehicles is 5000 miles, but it's pretty common for them to go 7000-8000 miles because we're busy and they're needed on the road.

Very interesting. I'm tempted to just start using Mobil Super 5000 from now on since their engines seem indestructible lol. But then again I plan to use the PUP for 10k so the price comes out to pretty much the same.
 
Pardon?

The Lincoln should have a dohc 4valve heads,an intake that actually has a baffle that moves to vary intake runner length and various other little differences.

The crown Vic's of that era have a sohc 2 valve head and none of the little extra.

Exactly what am I mistaken about exactly.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Pardon?

The Lincoln should have a dohc 4valve heads,an intake that actually has a baffle that moves to vary intake runner length and various other little differences.

The crown Vic's of that era have a sohc 2 valve head and none of the little extra.

Exactly what am I mistaken about exactly.


The Town Car did not come with a DOHC engine. It had the same old SOHC engine the crown vics had. The continental and mark VIII had the DOHC, but not the town car. Actually the only production panther to have the DOHC was the Mercury Marauder.
 
To me, it depends on how long it will sit between starts. All synthetics I have tried have exhibited drain-off issues. The inherent lower surface tension of the oil leads to less capillary fill.

So if a motor will sit for days w/o starting it always gets conventional oil. If it will be started regularly and it's a tight motor, syn is fine.

High mileage motors with increased clearances need better cold start cushion until pumped and slung oil gets distributed. I don't like listening to 10 seconds of clatter in any motor ... That's potential damage I'm not willing to put up with ...
 
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
To me, it depends on how long it will sit between starts. All synthetics I have tried have exhibited drain-off issues. The inherent lower surface tension of the oil leads to less capillary fill.

So if a motor will sit for days w/o starting it always gets conventional oil. If it will be started regularly and it's a tight motor, syn is fine.

High mileage motors with increased clearances need better cold start cushion until pumped and slung oil gets distributed. I don't like listening to 10 seconds of clatter in any motor ... That's potential damage I'm not willing to put up with ...


I've experienced that very same thing in a few cars I've owned in the past.
 
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
To me, it depends on how long it will sit between starts. All synthetics I have tried have exhibited drain-off issues. The inherent lower surface tension of the oil leads to less capillary fill.

So if a motor will sit for days w/o starting it always gets conventional oil. If it will be started regularly and it's a tight motor, syn is fine.

High mileage motors with increased clearances need better cold start cushion until pumped and slung oil gets distributed. I don't like listening to 10 seconds of clatter in any motor ... That's potential damage I'm not willing to put up with ...


I would fully expect of someone that touts "marine engineering" in their signature on every post to have a more cogent position.

You're going down the route of false cause (correlation/causation) here, as there is no data to support such facile reasoning (conventional good, synthetic bad over longer periods).
 
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