Any recommendations? More and more synthetic being used out there. I've heard for years about the hp gain (5hp?) by using synthetic - less parasitic drag- but would like to hear from anyone who uses or has used it. Worth the money ? Brands?


giff

 

well, you will probably get a lot of replies that will all say the same thing.

go with Mobil 1, and you won't be disapointed. you will NOT be able to feel a seat of the pants difference..so don't expect it. but, the small gain is probably there. what the synthetic does add is reliability if you ever start to overheat your car. it works great when its hot compared to conventional oil. also, i have heard when you start the car, synthetic oil causes less wear to the engine.

no matter what you do, if you go with synthetic, USE A GOOD FILTER!! the mobil 1 filters are awesime. they work WAY better than the regular ones.

the only other brand that anyone i know uses is amsoil, which, from what i heard, is as good as if not a little better than mobil 1. but, its hard to get and more expensive.

hope this helps.

-brian

 

onyl use mobil 1 sythetic in my camaro... the only other one i might use would be redline. but mobil 1 is all ive used and i highly recommend it .

 

Most synthetic manufactures talk about "compared to xxx oil", or some non-discript way of showing how much better their synthetic is than pertroleum-based oil. AMSOIL will show you side-by-side test results comparing their products to Mobil 1.

"...hard to get"? Not really. Check your Yellow Pages, or you can order it direct from www.amsoil.com.

"...expensive"? Not compared to a $2000 engine.

I've been using AMSOIL since 1983, following their recommended oil and filter change intervals. Funny how people complain about the high per-quart cost of AMSOIL, but think they have to change it as often as you would a petroleum oil. That's like buying new tires every 10,000 miles because bias ply tires wouldn't last any longer than that.

At any rate, AMSOIL, Mobil 1, and Redline are certainly a bunch better than any petroleum-based oil. However, I wouldn't recommend the "other guy's" synthetics - Pennzoil, Valvoline, etc. - because they only have synthetics so they can say they have synthetics.

 

the 10 sec. Firebird 350 formula in hot rod recently had 1000 passes and 60 000 miles on a stock bottom end without a rebuild, the owner credited Mobil 1 for that, so i guess thats proof enough!

I use Castrol GTX Magnatec, but i don't know if you guys can get it. If you can, it comes highly recomended, the engine runs quiet as a mouse and uses about 1 U.S. quart every 3000 miles (105 000 without a rebuild)

I used to use Kendall GT1 in my Olds, but i think it is a little on the thick side (20 / 50 i think) for an emisions controlled car.

 

I'm using Mobil 1 and firm believer in it's performance. I just overhauled my engine with 207,000 miles and crosshatches were still in the cylinder bores, plus no wear on parts, no gunk or varnish either. Looks like day it was put together. I upgraded and tweaked new engine, and will continue to use Mobil 1. It is really good stuff. I use 15w-50 for summer and 10w-30 for winter/cooler weather. It sorta gets hot here in East Texas for summer run. So far no failures. The reason for overhaul was failed harmonic balancer rubber inertia ring came apart thus nose of crank broke. As good as it looked I could have just put a crank in with new bearings and kept on running it. But you know us piston heads, you get in that far Might as well tweak for all it is worth.

 

i only run mobil 1 in the rs, bought it off cousin (well maintained regular oil changes) I slightly modded the car, and the car runs better now with more miles and mobil 1 than it did before, going on 130,000 than the engine seems very strong yet

 

Sounds like the stuff is worth it.

How frequently are you guys doing oil changes ?

Also, I've heard that once you start using synthetic switching back to regular oil will cause problems???


giff

 

checking the yellow pages for oil? ordering it from the internet?? i consider that a LITTLE harder to get than running to ANY parts store around and picking up a quart of mobil 1. around here there arent many distributorsfor amsoil.
-brian

 

Well, i've bought my 5.5 liters of castrol GTX magnatec now, but next change will be Mobil 1! I change it every 6000 miles (in truth this often gets stretched to 7000 coz i'm lazy!)

With Mobil 1 i would say 8000 if the car is a daily driver. Increaced service intervalls on newer cars are partly to better manufacturing and partly due to better oil / filters.

Chevy recomend 6000 i think, but that was with the oil available in 1982!

One plus side of living in this Eurohell is that high grade oil like Mobil 1 is widely available, as so many Euro boxes (particularly things like the BMW M's and Honda Type - R's) require it

 

I change my oil filter-Fram H.P4 when oil starts getting dark or turning color and add a quart. I usually go about 2,500 miles on that, then do full drain and filter after 10,000 miles. The oil does not breakdown. But you have to get rid of contamints. If there was a way to keep the oil clean, I think it would go longer. Just my opinion though. I work at a power plant and the oil we have out there is mineral oil and we never change it. Just get analysis and centrifuge it for water dispersion and have some super filters (synthetic) that we change when the pressure diff. gets high. The oil stays clean and we run 24-7 at 3600rpm on the steam turbines. So why not for a car. Yes the Mobil 1 synthetic filters are probably the best but are hard to come by in my area. That is why I use the Fram High Performance 4's.

 

i use regular mobil 1 oil, change oil every 3,000 miles and use puralator filters..

 

Mobil 1 and AC 1218 filter in mine.

 

<--- changes oil every 3000 or 3 months and uses Castrol gtx.
either acdelco pf35 or 1218, whchever is on sale. I would go with the pf35l but I haven't seen them on any shelf.

 

there have been stories and tales about whether or not you can switch back and forth between synthetic and non-synthetic.

the answer is, yes you can switch anytime you want, no harm will come of it, it will not do anything to your engine. there was an add campaign about that that kendall ran about a year ago i think. ive used mobil 1 before, but in my 383 it gets 20/50 kendal gt1. one of the reasons you arent supposed to use synthetic on a freshly built motor is because it bonds to certain metal surfaces, and in some cases it can interfere with ring seat

 

kind of on that same subject...you're not supposed to break in a new engine with synthetic oil, you should use conventional. so, my first 15 minutes, and then first 500 miles, both of those oil changes were both regular old oil. then i went with the Mobil 1.

-brian

 

I personally use mobil 1 and recommend it to alot of my friends. Now that being said you still have to follow some rules.
I talked to mobil and they told me if your vehicle has to many miles on it you can't use synthetic. The reason is your vehicle has been running so long on conventional oil and when switch to a synthetic will cause the piston rings to shrink. Your engine will start eating oil. but if you switch to synthetic early on it will be fine and you will be able to use it for they life of the engine.
Alot of people will also tell you, you can't break in an engine on synthetic. Thats not true. But you have to change the oil alot more for the break in periods. Now personnaly I wouldn't recommend breaking in any engine with synthetic oil. You still want full confidince that everything is going to work. Sythetic is just to slippery so it won't create a memory like normal oil. Just use a normal oil then when everything is fine and dandy switch to synthetic.
Now don't even get me started on break in oil.
Also just to add this in. I was in Toronto over the summer for the Cart races.
While I was walking through the pits I saw one of the team using Mobil 1 5-30. Now I knew it was good.

 

wtf?! wow man, dont believe everything you hear.....

piston rings are made of metal....they do not shrink especially due to a different kind of oil.....if you switch to a regular synthetic in a car that has alot of miles on it will use oil...because synthetic of the same grade and weight tends to run thinner than non synth oil does. PISTON RINGS DO NOT, AND CANNOT SHRINK BECAUSE OF OIL. its a physical impossibility.

the only other thing i can think of is because synth is really slick, there isnt as much heat build up so the rings wouldnt expand as much due to heat transfer.

you shouldnt break in a motor on synth (like i said before) because it can interfere with the rings seating in the bores because it bonds to metal surfaces and its so slick

 

I have used Havoline in my car ever since i got it and it has 126,000 miles on it and runs like a new one.

 

I talked to mobil like last year so I might have forgot what they said exactly.
That might have been what they were trying to say with heating and shrinking as a heat factor.

you shouldnt break in a motor on synth (like i said before) because it can interfere with the rings seating in the bores because it bonds to metal surfaces and its so slick

They say on their web site that you can break in your motor with it but it will require more oil changes.
Now like I said I wouldn't even try and break in any engine with synthetic. The oils to slippery.
K dude

The reason the said you shouldn't use it with an older milage car might be in some cases the engine needs rebuilding anyways. Some people might expect a synthetic to solve problems that already exist within the engine such as worn out rings, etc.
So they don't want them putting in their oil that might hurt the rings do to the fact the rings are going anyways and the expansion difference might just let them go sooner.
I do realize that you shouldn't believe everything you read. They could just be telling the truth, but not the whole story.
Remember I work at a gas station I know how they work.

 

you know how what works?

 

i only use mobil ! in my 89 formula, always runs good wouldnt use anything else.

 

I know how they work. The company that is.

 

oh ok....

a guy i know is a mobil sales rep and he says that in all reality under normal driving conditions you could leave mobil 1 in your motor for 10K miles with no problems. they just like to sell oil

im pretty sure swepco.....the oil that is advertised to run that long costs like 78 bucks a case lol

 

Cool. I know the new mercedes suv's have some kind of special oil that gets changed like every 30,000 Km's.
I like to know what they're using.