Fossil vs Technolgy Poll

[jnj]

Hello all,
For years, I have only used Quaker State 5w-30 or 10w-40 in all my toys. Now, even my head wrench says I should consider a synthetic oil. My '91 L98 auto has 95000 and its time for the 3k change. I live in Southern California where temps range from 60's in morning to 90's+ in afternoon rush hour traffic. What type and weight oil would be the best for these conditions. I will tally the responses and (probably) go with the majority.

 

[Erik S. Klein]

I'm considering the same thing for my 107K engine.

If I do it I'm leaning towards a straight-weight (30, probably) synthetic. I just don't know how to effectively remove all of the dead dinos from my current engine or if that's even necessary.

I know there are experts here who will help us both!

 

[grapeknutz]

O.K. all "dino" oil is semi synthetic due to the additive package the refiners add to it, so the transition to "pure" synthetic is very easy.
On my 92 vette I have 118000 miles on it and still use Mobil 1 5-30w with no problems. So try the 5-30w and monitor the oil level.

 

[jmccloud]

Synthetic

At 165,000 miles my GMC Jimmy was consuming a quart of 'normal' 10-30 oil in about 800 miles. It also smoked upon cold start. So, I had worn rings and bad valve seals.
Switched to Mobil 1 and voila! Very little smoke at startup and the one quart consumption went up to 3,000 miles.
Worth $4.50 a quart? You bet!
Keep the weight rating range as narrow as you can find (like 10-30 or single weight). The stuff they put in to stretch it (like to 5-50) doesn't lubricate well. My Dad worked in the oil business and gave me that advice.

 

[G Winter]

Look in your owners manual, it has a temp. oil weight chart. Anything with 100k plus miles on it I use the Mobil1 10 -30. I have been running Mobil 1 for yrs and run my cars well past 200k no internal engine problems in over 20 yrs.
The rest of the car goes before the engine. I also run 6000 to 9000 on an oil change, depending on conditions, but I do run all hardsurface roads and seldom less than 15 miles. Seems like a long time on an oil change but have had good luck running that far.

 

[G Winter]

BTW been buying mobil 1 at wallmart in a 5 qt jug for just under $20.

 

[vetteboy86]

Ok I switched to synthetic about a year ago. I had some smoke on start up, and it burned an eighth of a quart every 3k miles. I was very impressed with castrol GTX. With this in mind i switched to Castorl synthetic. I have been told that castrol GTX is a better conventional oil, then syntec is a synthetic. Everyone swears by mobil 1. Can I switch to mobil 1 at this point?


Craig

 

[Edmond]

Craig,

Yes, you can switch to Mobil 1 and make sure to use a good filter such as K&N or Delco or Purolator Pure One. Like scav said, you can get the 5 quart containers of Mobil 1 synthetic at Wal Mart for $20.00; it beats paying $4.50-5.00 a quart at the auto stores. K&N oil filter is nice because it has the 1" hex on the bottom, no more oil filter wrench!

 

[GeorgeT]

Synthetics can start "cleaning up" high mileage motor by dislodging built-up carbon deposits left by petroleum based oils. This can lead to numerous oil leaks as the carbon sealing around old gaskets is removed. If you go this route, you may want to have an "early" oil and filter change since the filter can become saturated with these dislodged cabon deposits.

 

[jnj]

So Far Mobil 1 is the leader. That a really interesting point regarding synths loosening up deposits from "real" oils. Has anyone ever experienced this? Right now my 91 doesn't leak or burn any oil, does the possibility exist of causing a leak by switching to synths??

 

[1995 RedVette]

A friend of mine runs a Chevy II with a 383 into the 9's with nitrous and had used conventional oil for years. Another friend of ours convinced him to run Royal Purple, with less than great results. After the first pass the engine began to leak from where?? Oil was blown over most everything in the engine compartment. After a careful clean up and a switch back to conventional oil, he never had another problem. The engine has been together for about 5 years since refreshing, however, it is race only with no street time. I'm not sure how that compares with a street driven engine, however, this is the only experience I have with switching to synthetic oils midstream.

Brett

 

[G Winter]

most of my daily drivers are purchased with 80 to 100k miles on them . I changed every one over to mobil 1 and never had a leak problem with any of them. As to the cleaning of the engine, this can be true with changing brands of regular oil. Some oils have diff detergents than others and may do a better job. Penzoil is BAD. I used to do a lot of engine rebuilds for friends , the penzoil engines were almost unbelievably dirty . As long as you have used a good oil, major brand such as tropartic , havoline etc. shouldn't be much of a problem.The suggestion to change filter early is a very good idea the first oil change. With yrs of experience with synthetic oil, I can't find anything bad to say about it.

 

[SG4206]

What a topic of controversey. My '95 has 118,000 mi. Oil pressure at idle and at operating temp. is 15-20 lbs. and will leak terribly with Mobil 1. I know 15-20 psi. is supposed to be OK ; but I'm from the old school and need to see more idle pressure ; so in goes the 50 wt. Penzoil at 80,000 mi. The leaks stop and I sleep better at night when the idle is at 30 lbs. of pressure and the water temp is 210 degrees . I have noticed less condensation in the valve covers with Penzoil ,than the other brands.This is an isolated case, and I choose to change my oil in this car every 2500 miles.. What can I say?

 

[NT Vettman]

Mobil 1

I just bought a 90 vette ( L98 ) in May with 83K. Before I purchased it I had it on a lift and found it to be weeping a little bit of oil from the top rear some where. The owner had the oil change at the dealer. 1st thing I did was change to Mobil 1 10W30 regardless of how recent the oil change he did. Don't have the leak any more, put over 2k on it and hasen't used any oil. Put Mobill 1 in my other 2 vehicles. Change oil every 6k. All run great. Started using Moble 1 in my Turaus at 20k it now has 115k. Recomend Moble 1 in a heart beat.

 

[Hib Halverson]

Hello all,
For years, I have only used Quaker State 5w-30 or 10w-40 in all my toys. Now, even my head wrench says I should consider a synthetic oil. My '91 L98 auto has 95000 and its time for the 3k change. I live in Southern California where temps range from 60's in morning to 90's+ in afternoon rush hour traffic. What type and weight oil would be the best for these conditions. I will tally the responses and (probably) go with the majority.

If you're value-minded, use Mobil 1 10W30. Costco has it, I think. I'd run it 10,000 miles then change it but do the filter every 3000-4000 miles.

If you want the best synthetic you can get, Red Line 10W30 is the way to go. You can easily afford a premium synthetic if you give up the wasteful 3000 mile oil changes. Because my Vettes see less than 10,000 miles annually, I change them every 10,000 miles or two years with a filter every 3000-4000 miles.

The other cars which see more annual mileage, I use RL 10W30 and go 18,000 miles between changes with filters every 3000-4000. I've been doing this for about a decade and have plenty of good spectrographic oil analysis to confirm that it works well. The last car I sold, went 140,000 miles with Red Line and with that drain interval. The engine ran well, had good oil pressure and used the same amount of oil per distance (about a qt. every 3000 miles) from the end of break-in when it was new in '88 until I sold it in 2001 to a friend. Of course, his son promptly totaled it, wouldn't ya know.