I'm constantly amazed by statements like this. Go to any Trans Am, Pro Am, Indy Car, CART, F1, Sebring 24hr, or Le Mans race and look at what they're putting in their engines. Or better yet see what the fleet truck guys are using in theirs. You wouldn't fine much dino oil around.
Also this idea that synthetic is some how thinner is just plain incorrect. It is NOT thinner. It does have different properties at the extremes of temperature and pressure, but in most cases these are better than, not worse than dino.


This seem a bit excessive. I thought it was more like 300 to 500 miles, or the standard breakin period.

 

My family has always owned Toyota's. Never any problems with anything, put oil in them and they'll run forever. If only my Corolla (DD) could go zero - 60 in under 10 seconds i wouldnt have needed to buy my T/A!

 

*gasp*

 

Is synthetic no good? no im sure its great, but my opinion is that conventional is just as good if changed religiously at 3000. However i tend to change my oil whenever it looks like it needs changing, 99% of the time before 3000 miles but i never go longer than 3000.

 

honesly if i had to choose between a 94 f-body and a 94 toyota supra RZ i would take the toyota. The engine can take a lot of hp/tq with stock internals. Tranny is also bulletproof.. and mmmmmmmmmm twin turbos.

im gonna go hide now

 

Even when changed at 3000 miles, conventional oil is not as good as synthetic. You can't get around the fact that synthetics will flow better in the cold than conventional oil, so those who drive through cold winters have a better shot at long engine life with synthetics. And not only that, but they hold their cold flow properties better too, in other words the cold cranking ability of a conventional oil begins to degrade rapidly pretty much from the moment it gets a few hundred miles on it, while a synthetic is still holding it's original properties well beyond 3k. Synthetics are also better in the extreme heat, and if you drive extremely hard (which most of us do) they will provide better protection for your bearings. If you overheat just once, you'll be glad you had synthetic in there.

But most importantly (IMHO), synthetics keep your engine much cleaner inside. Even if you run 6-10k intervals with a good synthetic, your engine will be cleaner at 200,000 miles than that same engine which had conventional oil every 3k.

Simply put, an engine running on synthetic oil maintains it's "like new" status for much longer. So even if you say "my dad went 250k on dino oil in his car" I bet you his engine was pretty tired at that point, not making as much power as new, probably burning a bit of oil, and certainly not putting out very good emissions numbers. An engine run on synthetic wouldn't have that problem as quickly.

 

Uhhh, I hope 95% of the people here would take it also.

 

That's not nice.lol

 

sheeeeeeeeeeeet.....i would

 

Hey, good to see a Charlestonian in here! I don't know if you've met the other local people but there are a few from the Huntington area that are really cool. The name of the business is Absolute HP LLC. The reason I stick with the guy is he is more skilled than others in this area and also trustworthy. He is doing the build, Givens Crankshaft Service did the machine work, Lloyd Elliot did the heads. I've heard good things about Givens and Lloyd Elliot so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that stuff. If you want any names or #'s send me an e-mail ...I'm not sure my mechanic would appreciate his name/number on the internet.

For the others that question me for questioning him about the oil, he asked me to post this question out of curiosity. The simple fact is his experience has been that motors using synthetic never look as good as motors using dino oil, we all have different experiences and we wanted to tally up some more to form an educated opinion ...that's all.

 

I will get back to you if I ever get enough money to do a build. I have heard that Givens is pretty good. We use them sometimes here at work (Bert Wolfe Toyota) I have heard of a guy that works at a bodyshop in Huntington. Our driver has talked to him seems pretty cool from what he said.
On another note, do you know of any dyno's around here? I heard there is one in Milton but not much has been said about it. I wanted to run my car before I get to headers, cam and such to see what differences they make.
Sorry to make this long but if you ever see me(95 ram air formula red w/silver on the hood-previous owners doing) flag me down.
Good luck on the build!

 

Charlie, how far along is the build now?? Cant wait to see how it turns out for you!!! I have no experience with synthetic so I'm not even going to say one way or the other.

bt95formula, you must be talking about Sean aka funina91ss, he drives a red '95 TA, I used to own it, I must say it's just a little faster now than when I was driving it, but it doesnt look as good though!!! J/K Sean. It is cool to see other members of this board from the same area, we'll all have to meet up at Kanawha Valley this season and shoot the breeze. Later fellas.

Joe.

 

That sounds pretty cool. I haven't made it down there yet but would love to. Some people here at work race down there so I may go with them one day and catch up to you guys.

 

If you doublecheck my post, you'll see that I mentioned "tight clearances"

Take a look at your owners manual and see what the engineers specified for your engine originally.

If your builder is using looser clearances, then perhaps 20w-50 is more appropriate for you.

Of course, this is all just my opinion, and it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Of course, my opinion doesn't come out of a vacuum either. There is some experience behind it.


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In my opinion, which is in large part based on the break-in periods specified by many manufacturers, 300-500 miles is insufficient to complete the break-in process.

 

Yeah, I bet they were talking about Sean ....shoot, he even beat the guy that has the Lingenfelter twin turbo Vette in this area ....so his name and ride get talked up a bit (kind of cool that it use to be yours hugh Joe?) You may as well say it's all ready to go. Mark checked the clearances and found two rod bearings to be out of spec at .0028 and .0029 (shooting for .0023 - .0027) so we have to get a couple of + .001 bearings to correct them to .0023 and .0024 respectively. I have a Vortech V1 on the way, as long as it checks out I will buy it. I have also found a potential deal on a Spearco intercooler (air to air) which will hopefully go through as well. If anyone wants a Powerdyne mine will likely be up for sale soon, great ....quiet blower for stock or mild motors for <500 rwhp.