Synthetic or conventional?

[Dually]

I have a 06 Grand Cherokee with the 5.7 liter Hemi engine.I do 300-400 miles a week on the highway.I have a little over 2K miles on her and at 6K miles I want to switch to synthetic(Mobil 1)My two questions are what is the best way to break in a new gasoline engine? Second question is should I stay with conventional oil(Mobil 5000)and change it every 3K or do I switch to synthetic(Mobil 1) and change it every 5-6K.Any info would be great.Joe

 

[Al]

Its already broken so forget that part. You can go to Mobil 1 anytime. I put it in when I got home from the dealer. Your option with changing. If your engine has no fuel dilution, or antifreeze leaks....You can go the interval you are comfortable with. It would be nice to do an oil analysis before you go extended intervals.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

If the car is equipped with an oil change monitoring system, you could just stick with that and use whatever oil is recommended in the manual. That will save you money and the engine will be just fine. Plus, if you have an engine problem under warranty, they can't tell you that your oil choice caused the problem. Keep the receipts! Use the Jeep-recommended oil grade and filter. You'll probably never see any real benefits from the synthetic oil, and I'm almost 100% certain you won't get your money back out of it.

 

[Mr Magoo]

400 miles per week on the highway is a piece of cake for any conventional oil.

If you are cheap like me

......install a Fumoto valve and use SM GF4 Exxon Superflo which is 59 cents after rebate(same oil as Mobil 5000) and change it every 5000 miles.

Or you can use Mobil 1, GC or Amsoil and do 10K oil changes. You have to decide how much do you want to spend on oil.

 

[Highroller]

Do anyone think it's wise or okay to blend havoline 5w30 conventional with a little of mobil 1 5w30 syn?

 

[BigAl]

quote:

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Do anyone think it's wise or okay to blend havoline 5w30 conventional with a little of mobil 1 5w30 syn?

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I doubt that anything really bad would happen, except that you would waste a perfectly expensive bottle of synthetic. It might make things a little better or a lot worse. Without a test lab, mixing is a shot in the dark.

 

[glennc]

Highroller:

"Do anyone think it's wise or okay to blend havoline 5w30 conventional with a little of mobil 1 5w30 syn?"

Making your own blend seems like good sense to me. Many used oil analysis here on home blends are excellent. You will get some of the theoretical advantages of the synthetic at some of the cost of synthetic.

The only argument I'd have with it is that Havoline by itself seems to be as good as any oil out there for wear, so why bother?

- Glenn

 

[Highroller]

Good point glennc.

although this may also seem like a redundant question but why people mix/blend the oils? Im trying to answer my own question but hopefully i get a better point of view from you guys. is it that many of the synthetics dont possess the "moly" or better base oil of the conventionals?

One other question is about the SL vs SM. It seems like SM has its disadvantages in the area of anti-wear properties. So that being said, is it okay to mix SL and SM oils together along with let's say havoline dino and redline synth?

high

 

[Highroller]

Like if it's ok to mix SM havoline 5w30 conventional and SL redline synthetic 5w30 together.

 

[mikemc]

If your miles are mostly highway, you should be safe with a good dino for a 5,000 mile interval. Havoline is my pick, but there are other good ones. I see no point in using synthetic unless you are interested in extended drains (over 5,000 miles) and I would not recommend going past manufacturer's interval while under warranty.

 

[Highroller]

Also good point BigAl =)... i really dont see the point of mixing/blending oils. Id say if you want full synthetic just use fully sythetic oils.

Can someone share some light to this? Id appreciate it. right now my new 06 truck is at 1500 miles. I plan on doing an UOA at 5000 miles. So far ive changed out the factory filled oil at 400 miles to havoline 5w30 with pureone oil filter.

Basically im trying to see if i should mix/blend oils or just stick to synthetic.

Also, I have never seen a redline bottle but i know a place that sells some. Im wondering if redline synthetic are api certified and energy conserving?

High

 

[Highroller]

Yes i do plan on going to 5k interval. Since my truck is under warranty ill just stick to 5k OCI for right now and see what the UOA will tell me.

 

[Highroller]

My miles are about 80% city per month since i live in the subdivisions. Short trips of about a total 12 miles per day (to work and home).

 

[glennc]

Highroller:

"although this may also seem like a redundant question but why people mix/blend the oils?"

In my case I use 15w40 as my "base" viscosity, as it is recommended in my E30 BMW for temps from around -4F to 80F. I was using BMW conventional oil, which is only available in that grade, and now use Delo (thanks BITOG!), which is only widely available in that grade as well.

To extend the characteristics of the oil for the season I add in a little 5w30 in winter and a little of something heavier in summer. Since I have some M1 in the oil pantry, I've been using that as the mix-in oil most of the time.

What will that give me? A viscosity closer to ideal for the season. The heavily fortified add pack of a first-rate HDEO. A slight improvement in extreme temperature performance thanks to the temperature stability of the PAO mix-in oil. The combination should give me very good protection from oxidation, very high base number, excellent extreme pressure protection, flash and pour points well beyond what should be necessary, plenty of friction-and-wear reducing moly, and high detergency.

Recently, while running A-RX, I've been using Chevron Supreme and Havoline as the mix-ins, which is fine as well, except I don't get the slight advantage of a 20% PAO base oil. That's no practical loss as far as I can tell from used oil analysis. I have no intention of returning to synthetics for this car, except possibly to use up some stock.

I think Redline is great oil. In fact, from what I've learned here if I were going to run a fully synthetic oil in anything from now on, I'd probably just go with Redline, as I'd save more from the extended interval I'd be comfortable with than I would spend upgrading from M1 (which is up to $5 a quart anyway!) I don't believe Redline is API certified, presumably one of its advantages. I have a high level of confidence in the product and I've used the transmission/gear oils for years.

- Glenn

 

[Highroller]

Glenn i agree with you on redline. i have never used anything else besides mobil 1, havoline, and castrol gtx but from what i have seen; mostly numbers... redline is by far if not but THE best overall synthetic oil out on the open market. Amsoil is second and mobil 1 is third in my opinion.

i plan on going full synthetic and presumably choose redline.