synthetics rule!
 

so i made the switch to full synthetics over the weekend and i'm never looking back! my mpg jumped by about 5mpg! granted i needed an oil change and this is just over one full tank, but i'm still quite impressed. also having a longer change interval is nice too. plan to change the oil every 10,000 kms now instead of 5000kms.

i think this oil has justified its high price:)

They sure do. I've used nothing but synthetic in all of my vehicles for the past 6 years, and I've run nothing but synthetic in the Buick since I had a new engine put in it ~14 years ago.

-Jay

I only use synthetic because I can't find fossil oils light enough for what I like to run. A healthy fuel system on an engine that is used properly(not babied around ALL the time) and driven over 7 miles on most one-way trips should easily get 7.5K from a dino oil. The tracker's FSM even specifies a normal change interval of 7,500 and my 88 Cressida specified 10,000 miles.

What kind of synthetic oil have you switch to? I thinking about switching to Valvoline SynPower Full synthetic (supposted to be 4 x better then Mobil 1) after my Auto-Rx Engine Clean.

most stores here are very biased towards castrol so i got stuck with castrol 75W-80 synthetic (synmax i think) for the gearbox and castrol 5W-30 syntec for the engine. just used a regular filter.

not really a bad thing, nothing wrong with castrol IMHO but some choice would be nice.

I am considering to change the oil in my Matrix to synthetic oil. This option is available in the dealership where I go to. The main reason that I still have not done that is that against my belief, the dealership does not think that the 8,000 km/6 months oil change period can be prolonged after changing to synthetic oil, which is more expensive. That will render making the synthetic oil pay for itself more difficult.

Yup, been using nothing but synthetics for 30 years. Many benefits to be obtained besides some MPG gains.

When you really want to use some lube that is the ultimate, long lasting, friction reducing, don't have to change it for 150,000 miles or 15 years synthetic . . . try some Synlube.

I put it in at the first oil change at 3,700 miles and added a little to bring it up to full after the first year and currently I am at 22,925 miles, still full and running great. Next May or later next year I will do a filter change when I get to 39,700 miles.

lol wow. maybe one day with a beater i dont care about, but i dont have the balls for that right now

Iv used dino oils for ever. I changed always 3000-5000 miles, and have never had an oil related issue. I had a ford escort that was blowing smoke at 137,000 miles tho. I didn't put all the miles on it. so who knows what happened with the first 80,000 miles. I just bet tho if it has synthetic from day one it would have lasted longer. I am a new synthetic convert tho. My car calls for 5w20. Not many brands even make that, but Mobil one does, so that is what I am using.

Synlube has not had any oil related engine failures - has been around since 1969 and why would you EVER want to keep changing the oil in your car when you don't have to, can get better mileage with less wear, and end up paying less in the long run with Synlube.

A lube has to be pretty bad to have an oil related engine failure. I've known people that forget to change their oil or even their filter for 30k miles with dino oil and have yet to see an oil related engine failure with even that.

The worst I think I've heard was a Tundra that went into Jiffylube at 45k miles for its first oil change. It had a lifter that wouldn't pump up anymore but after a quick flush it ran great.

:thumbup: So many people are so religious about oil, but all you have to do is avoid being totally negligent and with modern engines/oils there's really nothing to worry about. Most cars go to the junkyard having never had a problem that can be blamed on oil, regardless of how bad the owner was about it.

Most of the people in the other messageboard that I go to use synthetic motor oil on their cars and change it every 3000 miles.

My car uses regular 5w-30 motor oil, mostly going with the Castrol brand, and have been changing the motor oil and the oil filter on a 4000 mile interval.

I am considering on switching to synthetic when the car's odometer goes over 40,000 miles.

===============================
I have read some of the stuff here about not changing oil for a long time, don't do that, the engine will suffer greatly.

Can you imagine how bad the MPG will be if the engine oil gets really old and dirty?

Doing a motor oil and filter change yourself cost close to nothing and it is so easy to do.

There is running and then there is running really well and efficiently. Most of the time you can't see a car burning oil these days because the Cat cleans it up.

What are the benefits from not changing the oil at regular intervals?

Name one and no do not say saved time, when the engine throws a fit you are gonna be wasting time and money for repair.

I ain't buying into that synlube crap.

================================================== =======

I don't know about you but I intend to keep my car running for a long time.

There is a wide area between not changing it enough and changing it too often though. The only way to really know is to have the oil tested. I plan on testing mine when I get the car back. The oil in it currently has 11k on it and by the looks of it I bet I can get another 9k out of it easily. The engine has 111k(10k synthetic oil changes starting at 70k) my cousin owned it before me and wasn't very good about changing the oil, or anything really, it had 62k old champion coppers in it when I got it. She changed the oil maybe once a year(non-synthetic) and the engine doesn't look damaged to me. No ridge, no scoring, looks great, the original hone pattern is even more pronounced than the up and down wear pattern from the rings and piston.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...d98debf298.jpg

This isn't the 60's where fuel blowing by the rings cause the oil to become diluted requiring changes as often. But, I don't believe that an oil can stay clean and not sludge up in 125k miles. Maybe on ethanol. But not gasoline.

I just do every 5,000 miles, and change with synthetic. Its easy to keep track that way. When my odometer reading is divisible by 5,000 then its time to get it changed. For example, I just hit 155,000 miles 2 weeks ago, so I took it in for an oil change (Mobil1 0W30). My next change will be @ 160,000.

Only oil related failure I can be sure of is on a '65 Plymouth (the story of which I posted a few months back)...don't know what its oil change history was, I figure it might have had one somewhere along the line...had just TONS of sludge and very worn rings at 140k miles. Compared it to a friend's Honda, rebuilt at 120k (and didn't really need it!)...clean as a whistle inside, oil was changed every 3k miles.

As for synthetic oil, I haven't really noticed much gain in MPG using it, but I did notice a drop in oil consumption...from around 1 qt/1000 miles to about 1 qt/2000 miles.

Benefits:

1. A really good excuse to buy a new car.

2. Your mechanic (or the machine shop guy) will really like you (and the big checks you write!)

3. Another excuse to take some time off from work.

4. The chance to rent a bunch of different cars while yours is in the shop (or you are rebuilding it yourself).

5. You can play James Bond with the smoke screen coming out your tail-pipe.

6. You can flirt with the Highway Patrol lady while she is writing you a fix-it ticket.

7. If you have never rebuilt an engine before, it's a great opportunity to learn how!

8. You can re-discover the fun of walking.

9. YOU SAVE GAS! If the car's not running, you don't use any gas in it!

10. And best of all, YOU GET TO SPEND TIME AWAY FROM YOUR WIFE! while you are taking care of the car. Heck, she's probably yelling at you anyway for not changing the oil! (Thanks to my wife for that answer!)

There you have it, TEN (count 'em) benefits for not changing your oil!

The owners manual in my 98 Benz recommends every 12 k miles under normal conditions, and does not specify synthetic oil.

I have always stuck to the 3 in 10 principle, maybe its time for 2 in 10.

I did put synthetic in the Benz, the Honda has almost 3 k miles on it's last change and the level is exactly where it was when it was changed.

The Benz has a tint on the aluminum surfaces that are visible under the oil filler cap, while the Honda looks perfect.

I have seen perfectly clean, perfectly running Nissan engines with 500k miles on them. That would be 166 oil changes at $20 each at Wally World or about $3320 for oil changes. Done every 5k would save you 66 changes or $1320.

regards
gary

Synthetic is not much more in price than dino. I just bought a 5 qt jug of Valvoline Syn in wally world for $20. A 5 qt jug of Valvoline dino was $13 I think. If you buy syn by the quart it is more expensive so buy the 5 qt jugs. It has better lube qualities and you can use a little longer change interval. I didn't notice any real measureable difference in fuel economy when I switched to syn as I thought I might. But I still use it for the reasons I stated.

Just my experience with it.

my 2 cents...

anyone remember the toyota engine sludge issues? not going in to detail on that but i will give my experience:

having lived only in florida, i have seen first hand the sludge issues with a variety of vehicles, and more importantly the lack of sludge using TRUE synthetics.

you guys in cold climates may not see this(hot weather related sludge), but PAO based synthetics have been found to have THE lowest pour point to cover the other end of the perspective.

there are too many variables(type of oil, length of change intervals, driving conditions and style, climate, etc) to calculate accurately the cost difference. if you calculate extended intervals it would be at the very least close, with the extra being "labelled" as insurance, if you will.

i have a saying that goes "i'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

wow look at what i've started lol.

so far i'm quite happy, getting roughly the same mileage out of my second tank on synthetics. i'm just going to keep an eye on it and see how the oil dirties up and see if i feel comfortable with an extended drain period.

a little tip for you guys - if you want a really good oil filter grab some old strong magnets and stick them on the sides of the filter. a dead hard drive is ideal for this. its not to improve fuel economy or anything like that. the idea is that small ferrous particles that get into your oil that your filter might have trouble with get stuck on the walls thanks to the magnets. either way, can't hurt.

Hard drive magnets are extremely strong and you don't have to worry that they'll fly off and land on something sensitive, but their field doesn't reach very far. This means they'll only catch particles that pass within maybe 1/4" of the magnet. That might be good enough, since any given particle is bound to pass through the filter repeatedly, but it's food for thought.

I've been buying magnetic oil drain plugs for years. They only cost a couple of bucks, and its easy to clean it when you change the oil. With each progressive oil change with synthetic you should go farther & farther before the oil starts looking "dirty". The synthetic should be slowly cleaning out the engine. I replaced the engine in my Buick ~ 12 - 14 years ago and have run nothing but synthetic in it from day one on the new engine. From what I can see looking through the oil fill hole it looks exceptionally clean in there.

When I replaced Rusty's timing chain this past spring the inside of that engine looked really clean too. Looking up at the crankshaft from underneath it was so clean it almost looked like new, and the engine had 190,000 miles on it. Rusty has been on a diet of synthetic for the past 40,000 miles (8 oil changes)

The oil never turns black in any of my vehicles. Most often it will come out after 5,000 miles looking like a dark honey color, sometimes maybe the color of pancake syurp, but its always still translucent.

-Jay

Hey dkjones96 that cylinder looks pretty bad - after you hone it out near the top I would be interested in knowing how much wear is there at the ring steps.

The point of the Synlube is that it doesn't turn to sludge like the oils you all are using. Granted the engines today are built better than 20 years ago - keep in mind that I keep a cars for 12 years or more at a time. My xB has been on Synlube for 19235 miles and I only added about 1 cup of Synlube after about 1 year to bring it up to full from the initial filling which wasn't quite full (1/8" from full) and now it is still full after almost 20k miles. Nothing wrong with taking some business away from the oil companies is there?

So "somedude", it seems to be working for me is all I am saying and it sure is nice not having to deal with changing oil and figuring out where to recycle it myself. Funny thing is I stopped by the Toyota dealership to get my Touchup paint and asked why they had so many stalls in their massive garage and the guy replied . . . for oil changes. I just walked away chuckling.

JanGeo, how does the cylinder look bad? We cleaned off the buildup at the upper part of the cylinder and it felt smooth all the way down. What you see at the top was just carbon buildup where the rings don't scrape. We aren't doing a hone on it because the bottom end isn't getting torn down. It seriously doesn't need it. It's within 5psi of factory specs for compression.

If I was going to rebuild that bottom end I could just re-hone that cylinder and use OEM spec rings in it. There is THAT little worn away.

It is also a better idea to change the engine oil yourself, some of the mechanics at the dealerships tend to do a half-*** job on it and charge an arm and leg.

JanGeo, whatever you want to do with your car is fine with me, I could care less.

yep, heard of shops charging for synthetics, and filling with dino!

You need to dial indicate the bore diameter so really see if there is wear. Even a couple of thousands of an inch will cause ring movement in the piston grooves resulting in some loss of compression and additional wear. Not sure if you should still be seeing the cross hatches from the original honing or not but I would think they should have polished out if the engine was broken in properly and you should see a very slick and shiny bore.

One thing that Synlube does is to fill in the bore pores in the metal with solid lubricant particles reducing the friction and improving the ring seal for less blowby and better compression.

I'm guessing that if I wanted to buy Synlube that you are a dealer for it?

Well here are at least the main reasons for using synthetic oils:

1) Reduced viscosity variance. It lubricates like oil that is up to temperature when cold without overly thinning at operating temperature.

2) It does not break down when exposed to carbon or fuel compounds like conventional oil.

3) It does not break down from excessive heat.

Those three things work to significantly extend the life of the oil and the motor. Wear is reduced, the oil lubricates better longer, and regular filter changes are sufficient to remove most particlated contaminants.

The bottom line is that it lasts at least twice as long as dino oil, and in a particularly clean running motor, can go even longer before breaking down enough to warrant a change. I personally draw the line at about 15,000 miles, but I can't say it should not be used longer.

nope - you have to buy it driect from the manufacturer in fact they will not even sell it to you until you talk to Miro the President of the company to make sure you are getting the correct products. But they do pay a referral fee to anyone that recommends a customer including yourself and if you purchase a complete lube package which in my case was engine filter, magnets, engine, tranny, and PS Fluid you get an instant discount. It works great and when I take the filler cap off there is nothing under it by a little Synlube, no foam or water to speak of.

Do they have a website?

I am still skeptical about this, EVEN IF the oil doesn' need to be changed, what about the oil filter? Never seen an oil filter that lasts 100k myself. :confused:

Seeing the factory cross hatching at 100K miles is a very good thing. The hatch marks are actually tiny scratches in the bore that are meant to hold oil. Seeing them lets you know that the cylinder walls have not yet worn down to the depth of those scratches. The hone marks and your good compression readings make me think that your engine is in good shape.

http:\\www.Synlube.com what else would it be? heh heh

Ring wear would be a better indicator . . . I will check with my engine expert brother on the cross hatch marks still being there though.

Well typically, excessive ring wear goes hand in hand with piston skirt and bore wear - but it is possible to have rings that look good when the bore is fairly torn up.

What about semi-synthetics? I assume they are sort of in the middle between conventional oil and full synthetics as far as benefits to the engine as well as length between changes are concerned?