Syntec 10W-40 in 3800 Series II

[haley10]

GeneK, nothing wrong at all with the GC 0W-30 green elixir.

I hope to test several oils if time permits. I didn't mean to renew a bunch of old arguments.

In fact I was right by the bottles of green elixir when I picked this up.

I'm just trying to determine what works best in this engine for me in my conditions. I hear so much on bitog about this engine liking a thicker oil and want to see if this is fact or fiction. I will reserve judgement, but I'm thinking it's going to prove to be fictional for me.

I think my M1 10W-30 uoa is going to be difficult to improve upon, but why not have fun trying??

Motorbike went to the trouble to post a lot of info on this oil and I kinda promised him I'd check it out. I'm just now getting around to it.

 

[cweed]

Gene: nice post, and this is why I don't mind so much using Castrol's products. At first I was myself a bit skeptical about using their products, in fact I wouldn't use them simply because of their marketing and sales practices, I only used M1, but then after reading this board I noticed that what the oil is made of is not the final point in deciding on the right oil for a vehicle, its performance in UOAs and in real world driving is another important aspect of that selection process. And I noticed that althought the Syntec 10W-30 and 5W-30 may not be all that impressive, their 0W-30, 5W-40, and 10W-40 are actually decent oils that perform as good if not better than M1.

haley10, I think the 10W-40 is an awesome oil being such a low 40wt, its rare to find a 13cst@100 oil and i think there are many engines out there that could benefit from such weight, LT1/LS1 would be a couple. I'm not sure what the 3.8 likes, rather than hear us rant about our favorite oils or how syntec is not synthetic, give it a try and see for yourself, thats the best decision making you can do....

-edit- you replied at the same time as me haley10, i see you got the right attitude by reserving the judgement on the oil choice to yourself, let us know how you like it and post a UOA if you can -edit-

 

[haley10]

CWEED, I do intend to uoa and post. Depending on the results, I may or may not do GC at some point. Depends on how the thicker is better scenario is going.

If I don't see improvement, I will probably go back to M1 10-30 or possible compare with uoa on the Syntec 10-30 I ran for so long, but didn't uoa.

I'm not so sure this engine will really like something thicker. The LS1 does, but this one is definitely not an LS1.

, about 150 HP or so shy.

 

[cweed]

might not be an LS1, but may still like the slightly heavier oil. I've tried a few diff oils in my supercharged LT1, from 10 to 17 cst@100, some performed better than others, but generally I was happier with slightly thicker weights than the recommended 5W-30, let us know how your trial goes, btw I think your UOA on Syntec 10W-40 should be much better than from their 10W-30, i havent seen much good stuff about their 10W-30....

 

[haley10]

quote:

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Originally posted by cweed:
might not be an LS1, but may still like the slightly heavier oil. I've tried a few diff oils in my supercharged LT1, from 10 to 17 cst@100, some performed better than others, but generally I was happier with slightly thicker weights than the recommended 5W-30, let us know how your trial goes, btw I think your UOA on Syntec 10W-40 should be much better than from their 10W-30, i havent seen much good stuff about their 10W-30....

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Well, look at jthorner's recent Volvo uoa. That's about the only positive on bitog about the 10-30, but I love it. I haven't uoa'd, but my 2 vehicles "seem" to love it. The Buick cold starts better and actually runs "smoother" on it than the M1, but the M1 is cheaper for me and uoa'd great. The jury is still out, I guess. The Syntec 10-30 is a lot better than Bitog gives it credit for, just not many uoa's and the usual Castrol bashing.

 

[pscholte]

Gene K, haley10, cweed,

Thanks for taking the open-minded approach..you guys do make me feel better...even if you all end up using something else you at least kept an open mind. Gene K, especially, thanks for the excellent post.

See, I'm smiling.

 

[cweed]

pscholte, thats the only way you can make the best decision... with an open mind, otherwise you never know what you may miss out on... Right now I'm giving Castrol a try and so far so good, seemed smoother than M1, haven't had a chance to drive the car much though.

haley10, pour in the tide detergent and take the car out for a spin