Engine oil ?

Anybody that wants to give there opinion. What is your reason for using 10w30/5w30 full synthetic engine oil in your car or any car? Any reason why you wouldn’t use full synthetic .Give me your reason why you would use 20w50 dino engine oil in a car and why you wouldn’t use it. Weather it be for daily driving or Racing or both. What brand synthetic do you use? I have heard that Mobil1, Castrol, Pennzoil are not rely full synthetic and Redline, Royal Purple, Amsoil are what is your opinion on this.

Royal purple for any older engine I plan on putting alot of miles on, becasue it still has zinc in it, and engines last longer with synthetic oil, and royal purple is the easiest to get of the good oils. Valvoline dino oil in my 70 chevy pickup becasue its an old worn out engine and it doesnt get driven much.

Go read Bob is the Oil Guy but just to humour you...

I run Royal Purple in nearly everything. I'm talking the gear oil in the rear diffs, SynchroMax in the T5 manuals, PurpleICE in the coolant, the works. I use the recommended viscosity in each vehicle (10W30 in the GT, 5W20 in the P71) of RP's regular full synthetic form. I go 5,000 miles between changes and use quality filters (WIX Gold or a K&N if I need the nut). I've seen proven fuel mileage increases and horsepower increases (lowered ET's in the 1/4) switching from Dino to RP.

I have exactly one exception. Rotary engines. Because they are designed to use oil (it's injected right in there) I use a dino Diesel oil in them (Rotella or Valvoline/Ashland) for clean burning and to keep the side seals from swelling.

Dino juice, straight 30wt diesel oil from valvoline.

I run a 30 year-old turbo car, this is what it was designed for.

Straight weight reduces coking.

Diesel additive package to keep the flat-tappet cam alive.

Non-synthetic oil to keep all the 30 year-old gunk in the seals to keep the engine sealed up (Pontiac motors are notorious for rear-main leaks)

Synthetic oil is great to run AFTER you've broken your fresh overhaul in on dino-juice. If the motor has any real miles on it, I don't see an advantage to running synthetic.

I tried Amsoil once in a Toyota 22R. Never could keep it from leaking out. Switched back to old-fashioned oil and the problem went away.

It's probably great oil, just my engine didn't like it.

Shawn

I buy walmart oil.

It makes my cars happy.

There are many pundits giving bad advise regarding oils on the internet. You can not go wrong if you use the viscosity and specification the vehicles owners manual recomends.

I run Dino in everything because I'm cheap. Usually Havoline in what ever weight the manufacture calls for. If it's an old high mileage engine that has low oil pressure I will step up to 20W50. Put close to 300K on several engines this way, don't see any reason to change now.

I have 5w30 synthetic in the Malibu. I did it since the first oil change and havent had a problem. I've had Mobil 1 save a couple race engines that should have cooked, since then I've used it in everything. I guess just because I've had good luck with it and have now had two engines clear 250k without any oil consumption.

I don't use oil. I just dump a bottle of Z-Max in there along with some sand, pebbles, and M&Ms; unbolt the valve cover, and run the piss out of her.

Wait. I got sidetracked.

I have always used Casterol Syntec's "Full Synthetic" stuff. When I bought the Miata (with the intent to race it), I filled it with Royal Purple for the first two changes. When I realized that it was burning more oil than gasoline (and oil is way more expensive than gasoline), I switched back to Casterol Syntec and now to Mobile 1 Synthetic.

Speaking of burning oil (sorry to hijack), has anyone run the "stop leak" products in their oil to prevent oil consumption? Do they work, and do I just add it on top of the 4 quarts that the car already has in the oil pan?

DO NOT use stop leak crap!!! any of it, in anything, period. dont do it. it might stop a leak but itll clog up passages or god knows what else. if your burnin oil just use regular dino oil till you get the problem fixed. sometimes a good synthetic will help but it seems youve already tried that.

I use 20W50 Mobil 1 in my 20/22R Toyota engine. I have always run full synthetic (excluding break ins) and never had any problems with it leaking. However, it is true that switching to synthetic after extended use of conventional (IE greater than 30,000-40,000 miles) can cause the built up sludge to dissolve and expose leaks in the seals.

I however did just that in my 5.0LHO Ford in my Crown Vic not too long ago. After I learned more about oils and the chemistry and physics behind their function I switched my Vic to synthetics. I had been running Penzoil 10W30 from 0 miles to 110,000 miles with regular oil changes at least every 3000 miles and sometimes less (depending on how the oil looked). After switching to Mobil 1 10W30 full synthetic I did not develop any leaks at all. I now have just over 150,000 miles (which includes several HPDE track weekends and it's most recent duty of towing the new track car and trailer to and from events) on the engine and everything is doing great.

If you know the inside of your engine is very clean, then switching will not cause it to start leaking.

I remember several years ago someone did a test of synth oil in a Firebird (maybe Camaro). The plan was to send oil samples out to be tested at 3000mi intervals. The oil filter was changed at 3000mi, but the oil was not. Only topped off if there was any loss. The $$ for the tests was donated by some forum members.

If i remember correctly, they got to over 18000 miles or more before the oil tests started showing any signs of the oil breaking down.

I think the site was taken down due to threats from Mobil, but i can't be sure.

Anyway, does anyone remember this test? Is the info mirrored on the web anywhere? It was a very popular site at the time.

Ever since i read that site i've used it as justification to fill my engine w/ synth and change the oil whenever i got around to it and to stop worrying about the 3000 or 5000 mile intervals and whatnot.

I use full synthetics in all our cars. Two of them require it from the factory. After break in on the new truck, first change went to Mobile 1. I figure we'll put a lot of miles on it, extra protection wouldn't hurt.

I believe in it after changing the oil on the MINI one day and not putting the oil ring gasket in the right groove. Lasted about a day and puked oil after a "sprited" drive to work. It was down to 1/2 a quart. 20000 miles later and still doesn't burn a drop of oil.

-Rob

-Rob

problemaddict wrote: I remember several years ago someone did a test of synth oil in a Firebird (maybe Camaro). Anyway, does anyone remember this test? Is the info mirrored on the web anywhere? It was a very popular site at the time.

Yeah, i remember reading it, I found the link: http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html

Here is a good read about engine oil. It's an older test but the synthetics were tested as well. 60000 miles on 75 NYC cabs with 20 different oils.

http://www.moneybluebook.com/articles/consumerreports.oilchange.php

Toyman01 wrote: Here is a good read about engine oil. It's an older test but the synthetics were tested as well. 60000 miles on 75 NYC cabs with 20 different oils. http://www.moneybluebook.com/articles/consumerreports.oilchange.php

I remember that one as well, it led me to conclude that "oil is oil". For most of my cars I get the cheapest that is the correct viscosity. But for severe duty / long changes (like my motorhome - i only change it annually) i use Mobile 1.

We sold synergyn oils at the shop i used to work at. Great stuff, smelled awesome! Mobil 1 was a bit cheaper, but in all the hot rods/muscle cars we'd recommend that.

I have put 200k miles on my 4 cyl Ranger with Valvoline dino oil. It doesnt leak any aprpeciable amount and doesnt burn any. I change it betweene 3k and 6k miles and dont worry about it. I service the fleet of cars for my self, parents and sister. 200k+ miles without any problems is the norm. Why Valvoline multi vis? They gave me a white shirt with 2 greasey hand prints that I gave to my then girlfriend, The hand prints were in "just the right place" and she was um... healthy . Why change? If E36 M3 dont stink, dont stir it.

Hmm, wonder where i can find another shirt like that? Off to Ebay I go.

Eh, it kinda depends.

On a regular car, I'm perfectly happy using regular dino oil, changing it every 3-6k miles, and getting 200-300k miles out of the engine before I finally sell the car. Seems fine to me. No need for synthetics imo as I've never had an engine fail from oil problems running regular oils.

On a turbo car, maybe. I like the thermal stability of the synthetic oils for the turbo to prevent coking. Current turbo car has synthetic oil in it, and I might put synthetic it it again at the next oil change. That said, the other turbo car has 298k miles on it running regular dino oil, without any problems.

In my cars I use mobil 1 in the viscosity recommended by the manufacturer because I can buy it locally.

On the wife's car I use whatever oil/filter combo is on sale.