Synthetic motor oil?

[ZX9RCAM]

The Porsche Manual actually suggests 15,000 between oil changes with Mobil 1......


Not me!

 

[Texas1911]

So If I'm using 5w-30 now that is what I should put in with the synthetic?

Yes. 5w-30 is a good all around weight. It's good on fuel economy and flows well at start-up. A lighter oil should be used in the winter, but I would only be concerned if the motor was using a greater than 40wt. oil, and if I lived in the panhandle where temps are consistently low in the winter.

 

[Texas1911]

The Porsche Manual actually suggests 15,000 between oil changes with Mobil 1......

Again, the oil does not wear out. It's just the additives in the oil, like friction modifiers like zinc and moly, that dilute or get salted out, or the increase in particulates. If you have a large filter that is well built then you can easily go 10K - 15K miles on the change.

Porsche knows more about their cars than anyone else. If they stand by 15K changes, then I'd feel comfortable going that far. I probably would change the oil every 7 - 8K instead on my personal vehicle.

On my BMW the filter can be changed out without getting under the car, and without spilling half the oil on the ground. That enables me to go longer on the oil change, since I can change the filter more often.

 

[Big country]

I'm not to worried about switching in the winter around here with any 5w-30. Do I have to go to the Nissan dealership to get the Nissan oil filter or do they have them at Auto Zone or Oreillys?

 

[Texas1911]

I'm not to worried about switching in the winter around here with any 5w-30. Do I have to go to the Nissan dealership to get the Nissan oil filter or do they have them at Auto Zone or Oreillys?

Unfortunately, Nissan. I just buy like 5 - 6 of them at the same time.

 

[country_boy]

I was always told never to use synthetic oil in an older vehicle, the gaskets will leak etc. I wouldnt recommend Pennzoil for anything but, for lawn mowers. Mobil one is a very good synthetic as noted and amsoil. The only thing I have a big problem with synthetic oil is spending lots of money. I use Valvoline 20-50w in my truck, ive used it for 6 years without problems.

 

[Shorts]

I'm thinking about making the switch from Castrol or Valvoline 5w-30 to a synthetic motor oil. I will not use Pennzoil and I'm not sure if the two brands I like have a synthetic. I hear Mobil has a good synthetic, but I don't know for sure. Anyway what I want to know is do I use the same wait (5w-30) in synthetic or dose that have to change. And what kind of synthetic do y'all use?

I used Mobil 1 Synthetic and Royal Purple Synthetic and both ran well.

In the gassers I use 10w-30, in the Isuzu diesel & Ducati (dry clutch) 15w-40.

On the Cummins I like Rotella 15w-40

 

[Texas1911]

I was always told never to use synthetic oil in an older vehicle, the gaskets will leak etc. I wouldnt recommend Pennzoil for anything but, for lawn mowers. Mobil one is a very good synthetic as noted and amsoil. The only thing I have a big problem with synthetic oil is spending lots of money. I use Valvoline 20-50w in my truck, ive used it for 6 years without problems.

Some of the reason is that the regular oil is more viscous than the synthetic. Especially at cooler temperatures. This means it will seep into pores of the gaskets, and sometimes leak. The synthetics today have alot of swell agent in the additive package and this helps to seal the gaskets.

20w50 is an extremely viscous oil. Is the truck rated for this oil, and do you do any towing?

 

[country_boy]

no just 10 min of driving 5 days a week. Thats what I was told to use by uncle who knows cars for 20 plus years. My truck always seems funny with a lighter weight oil, but i put the heavier weight in her and she runs fine. Wow royal purple oil... I was told to stay clear from that also simply because it cost 6 something a quart.

 

[Texas1911]

no just 10 min of driving 5 days a week. Thats what I was told to use by uncle who knows cars for 20 plus years. My truck always seems funny with a lighter weight oil, but i put the heavier weight in her and she runs fine. Wow royal purple oil... I was told to stay clear from that also simply because it cost 6 something a quart.

Royal Purple is fine, but it can be a little over-hyped.

Define funny.

20w50 is horrible on start-up wear, and puts alot of strain on the oil pump. It's also going to backfeed alot of oil through the pressure relief valve until it warms up.

 

[country_boy]

The way he said about royal purple is: why pay all that money when the other works just fine. I guess it falls under the category of to each to his own.

I know 4 other people that use the heavier oil in texas due to high heat and I havent any problems. Thanks for the concern though.

 

[Big_Blue]

I use Amsoil in all of my Diesel Trucks and Wife's Tahoe, and have had great success with it. Cost a little more initially, but I can go 15k on a change, and more on my Truck's with a Bypass Filter. The Bypass Filter takes about 10% of your oil at a time, and cleans it down to below 2 Microns, and puts it back into Circulation, to extend change intervals. I drive an 07 Dodge Ram 2500 w/ 5.9L Cummins, and go 25k with just changing the Filter at 10 and 20k!! Good luck on finding a Synthetic that works for you guys!!

 

[M. Sage]

Synthetic motor oil is much better than your standard dinosaur juice. If you change the filter every 3 - 4K then you can run it for up to 7500 miles before it needs changing. The oil itself will last forever, it's the additive package in the oil that is exhausted, as well as trace particulates that add up.

Where synthetic cleans house on regular oil is in the additive package. Regular oil you have a base oil and a viscosity modifier added to it. This is how they get it to act as a multigrade oil. Over time, the modifier breaks down (among other things) and causes the oil to thicken.

Thick motor oil is bad! The thinner you can get away with, the better.

Eventually, dino oil will sludge. Synthetic will, too, but it takes a lot more abuse and neglect to do it.

Synthetic doesn't use an additive package to become mulitgrade. It's been built at a molecular level to be multigrade.

At work we recommend a 5,000 mile oil change interval, mostly for the sake of the filter.

The 10,000-15,000 mile interval pushed by some Euro brands is flat-out BS. I'm pulling completely plugged filters out of BMWs and Mercedes at that mileage. Do not go that long without at least changing your filter! You'll also still wind up with particulate and things like fuel contamination over long periods of time, so I wouldn't bother just changing the filter. Change the oil at 5,000, period.

As far as brands, I'm partial to Red Line, Mobil 1 and Lubri Moly. Mobil 1 is probably easiest to find, and Red Line is great for certain apps, but Lubri Moly is probably the best daily driver oil all around. Royal Purple is highly overrated IMO. Amsoil is all hype IMO.

One thing to note is that Castrol Syntec is actually a very highly refined "regular" oil that does the same thing as a synthetic.

More than you ever wanted to know about engine oil: FerrariChat.com - FAQ: Motor Oil Articles by Dr. Ali E. Haas (AEHaas)

 

[Eli]

Use the synthetics, they really are far superior.
Use OEM filters, they are usually superior.
I wouldn't run Castrol in anything, but that's a long story. Let's just say it's only a licensed label put on low-bidder oil hyped by a misleading ad campaign. Even the name is misleading.
I generally use Mobil 1, it's the best bang for the buck. Some lab tests the race team I was involved in showed Red Line to be the best.
The added expense of synthetic oil will usually be more than offset by the increased fuel economy resulting from the higher lubricity of the synthetics.
I could say a lot more on the subject, years of automotive use and actually reading the technical papers, but I'm too damn tired.

Eli

 

[Big country]

Thanks for the info guys (and gals) I think I'm going to go with the Mobil1 synthetic with the next oil change and be done with it.

 

[Texas1911]

Synthetic doesn't use an additive package to become mulitgrade. It's been built at a molecular level to be multigrade

It DOES use an additive package ... it just uses an elongating chain to provide the multi-viscosity. It still has moly, zinc, etc. additives to act as wear additives. Long term lab testing shows that they are expended in the oil over time.

The 10,000-15,000 mile interval pushed by some Euro brands is flat-out BS. I'm pulling completely plugged filters out of BMWs and Mercedes at that mileage. Do not go that long without at least changing your filter! You'll also still wind up with particulate and things like fuel contamination over long periods of time, so I wouldn't bother just changing the filter. Change the oil at 5,000, period.

I think their long changes is due to their service plans giving away oil changes, well... to some degree. The oil itself will go that long, with regular filter changes. The key is the filter change interval.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I think their long changes is due to their service plans giving away oil changes, well... to some degree. The oil itself will go that long, with regular filter changes. The key is the filter change interval.

I wonder if the fact that my car holds 9 quarts of oil has anything to do with it, lol....

 

[Texas1911]

I wonder if the fact that my car holds 9 quarts of oil has anything to do with it, lol....

Well, it's more dilute, but still, you should never go beyond 5000 - 7000 miles without changing the filter.

My M3 holds 7 quarts, and aircooled Porsche's hold 10+ quarts, but I'm not risking either to a $10 oil filter.

 

[usmcpmi]

Started the new 4 dr. wrangler off with Mobil 1, Now I'm changing to Royal Purple... The Royal purple rep came into the shop and showed us some pretty impressive load tests with several oils... I've been bending wrenches for almost 30 years now...and I'm going to try it in my Jeep. I'll let you know how it stands up. MG

 

[Burt Gummer]

I used AMSOIL at first in my 04 Ram Hemi but it got too expensive. They boasted a "25,000 mile" interval between oil change but I could not bring myself to do that.
My former 05 Durango Hemi and my current Hemi all run Wix filters and Mobil 1 full synthetic.
Wal-mart always has 5 qts of Mobil 1 synthetic for 22 or 23 dollars. That, plus a $5 Wix filter and I can change my oil to full synthetic for about $35.

That is hard to beat, plus I get the satisfaction of knowing that I did it right. I have a hand full of Jiffy Lube and Wal MArt oil change nightmare stories from firsthand experience.