warner

Have seen some discussion on synthetic oil versus dino oil here and many seem to question the value of synthetic. Stumbled across an excellent article that will shed some light on this. Being a proponent of synthetics I often wonder why anyone who runs their cars hard would use dino oil. You'll wonder the same thing after reading this:

http://mr2.com/TEXT/synth_oil.txt

FastZinTennessee

That's a long article!!! The only thing that looks a little screwy is where it said that synthetic oil was consumed less than conventional oil Synthetic oil is made up of smaller particles, therefore it will be consumed more. Or am I wrong here??

Anyway, I am a firm believer in synthetic oil. It is all I use. I haven't had a problem with it since I started using it on my last camaro.

John

warner

Synthetic oils are consumed Less. Don't have the burn off of dino oils. I'm sure that's why I show zero oil consumption, even after a day road racing.

dave1w41

Synthetics are not made up of smaller particles but particles that are of a more uniform size. Actually conventional oils have more smaller particles than synthetics. It is because of the mixture of large and small particles in conventional oil that they have to use viscosity index improvers to a higher degree so that the oil meets all of the requirements..

Patman

I use synthetic oils due to their ability to go longer intervals and the fact that they flow better in cold.

But honestly, if you live in a moderate climate, and change oil every 3k anyways, you don't really need synthetic oil. You can even ask Blackstone oil analysis labs their thoughts. They see thousands of oil samples and admit that there is no benefit in terms of engine wear, when running synthetic over conventional. I see quite a few oil analysis reports myself and agree with their findings. If you go for longer oil change intervals, you can see that synthetics are better built oils, and they do hold their TBN longer, oxidize less, etc. But in a short 3k interval, that makes virtually no difference. If you change your oil every 3k with ANY oil, as long as it's the right viscosity and meets the latest oil specs (SL formulation) your engine will probably last longer than you'll ever keep the car for.

I'm just calling it like it is.

Like I said though, I prefer to leave my oil in longer than 3k, so I use synthetics (or in the case of my Firebird, a synthetic blend called Schaeffer Supreme)

WayneE

Good info, Patman. I am the same way. On some of my vehicles I stick to 3k intervals and dino. On others I stretch as long as 10,000 miles (manufacturers recommendation) on Mobil1 (factory fill). On both of my German cars, the manufacturer recommends synth every 10k.

I think Porsche recommends 15k intervals on their 996 911.

Patman

That's exactly it Wayne, when it comes to oils there isn't really one size fits all. Every situation is slightly different. There are situations where synthetic is the better choice, and others where conventional is the better choice. It all boils down to how often you want to change your oil in a lot of cases. A good example is my sister, she drives about 500 miles a week. In her case I'm going to eventually stick with probably 20,000km intervals (12k) using synthetic. At first I'm going to do a few tests of 10,000km intervals with GTX, Syntec and Mobil 1 though.

In the case of my mom, she only drives about 50 or 60 miles a week now, so I'm contemplating switching her over to conventional oil now, and going to a twice a year oil change. Before she retired, she was driving 500 to 600 miles a week, so I changed her oil with Mobil 1 every 5 or 6000 miles (sometimes longer)