Synthetic oil...

[kaspar139]

I have been considering switching to a synthetic oil, and wanted to know what everyone thought about it?  I have heard it enhances you gas mileage (Mobil 1), and the place where I get my truck serviced is always pushing this Royal Purple.

Let me know what ya'll think.

[BIG BLUE]

kasper139,

I use Mobil1 synthetic in all my trucks.  I have not used the Royal Purple or Amsoil but many I've talked to have good luck using it.  I have not noticed any significant change in MPG.  There are many, many testimonials for using synthetic and for about ? more a quart I think it's worth it.

I have 92 K1500/350 plow truck that just turned 290,000 miles and have been using Mobil 1 since about 50k miles.  I was AMAZED at how clean the heads were when I uncovered them last fall.  No sludge build-up and very clean.  I figure with the price of trucks these days the extra ?-20 per oil change is good peace of mind and pennies compared to the cost of the vehicle.  

I also use synthetic in the front/rear diffy's and transfer case too.

DO IT!

BIG BLUE

[RyanbabZ71]

Ive been running mobil 1 for the past 6000 miles.   (15K on the truck)

No mpg differences.  Only thing i notice is after each oil change the engine quiets down a bit.  Gets a little noisier when its closer to 3K

Maybe i am hearing things?

 

[LT]

I use Mobil 1 in every engine I own. I think it really adds to your engine wear and tear. Several years ago. engineers studied friction wear in N.Y. taxi cabs and found that those that used synthetic oil at 200,000 miles showed the least amount of wear. I also think that it adds to your mileage. I am a firm believer.

LT

[billybeer]

I used it in 4 cars, 88 maxima ( I kept it for 8 years and 150,000 miles with no oil leaks or engine problems), 95 impala(58,000 miles) , 96 impala (16,000 miles),  and my 2001 silverado. It works great. I have never had any engine problems. People say to use traditional dino oil to break an engine in but I think thats just old engine shop b/s. I had a 396 lt4 built for my 96 impala that I broke in with the mobile one. The builder was mad at me saying I was going to destroy it but I said The new corvette, vipers, and turbo porsches are shipped with mobile one in from the factory. The rings in those seat fine.

I have used red line and Royal purple but never saw the extra mpg or hp. So I shifted back to mobile around here the red line and Royal purple is an extra buck a quart than the mobile one.

[gmdieseltech]

Mobil 1 all the way :)The Corvette engineers went to Mobil 1, so they could remove the oil coolers. That is how good it is.  I have run many engines it since new and when opened up at 100k or more still have a nice honey color inside (except the diesels that have soot, but those are still MUCH cleaner). On new and recently rebuilt engines wait until 5,000 miles before switching to synthetics, they lubricate so well if you run from new it can take longer to break the engine in.

Happy Motoring, David

[email protected]

(Edited by gmdieseltech at 10:37 am on June 9, 2001)

[Shaners]

If you are planning on keeping your vehicle for many years and are subject to hard driving then Mobil 1 is a great idea.  I myself don't keep anything more than a few years, so I have all the oil changes done at the dealer and they just put in conventional oil.  My oil changes are ?.95 and I stay clean, and if there are ever any problems then the dealer is at fault!!!

[NewbieZ71]

Has anyone seen a side by side comparison of the major synthetics or are they all about the same?  My dealer uses Quaker State and I would like to find out if its in the same quality range as the others.  If it isnt I would switch to Mobil1..

[Stepside Z]

I am planning to change to Mobile 1 when I get to the 5 thousand miles on the truck.

[chane]

Hey, what transmission and rear differential fluids do you guys use?  How often to you change them?

[76BBSub]

I use Redline Synthetic gear oil in my Corvette 4-speed and rear differential.  In the Suburban I am running dino-oil except for the rear diff which is Valvoline synthetic, mainly because it was what I could find that day.

I don't know of a synthetic automatic transmission fluid, but I am sure that there are at least a couple brands available.

With gear oils and transmission fluid I would recommend following the manufacturer's service recommendation...it is so in-frequent that the cost is minimal, and you can't have too much protection.

For engine oil, I am thinking of switching the Suburban to synthetic (96K miles).  I will extend the change interval to 6months/6K miles from the 3 month/3K mile interval I use now.

Jeff

[NewbieZ71]

I thought it wasnt a great idea to change higher mileage vehicles from dino to synthetics.  Something about seals and leakage from the build up over the years??

[Shaners]

I've heard the same thing about changing to synthetic in higher milage vehicles can lead to leaks around the seals because synthetics don't swell the gaskets as much as conventional oil.

[76BBSub]

There's a guy here at work who used to work at the Texaco Lubricants lab here in Houston.  He was telling me alot about Synthetics yesterday...interesting stuff.  To sum it up, though, he said all their research showed that synthetic motor oil was most useful on vehicles used in very cold climates, and cycled heavily, such as taxi cabs, cop cars, etc.  Their research showed that it wasn't significantly useful in light duty passenger cars.  A really interesting point was that although synthetics don't begin to break down as quickly as dino oil, when they break down the do it very quickly because all the molecular chains are nearly identical.  They also had a hard time predicting exactly when that would take place for a given set of conditions (engine design, duty cycle, etc).

As for the leaking gaskets, I've heard alot of different stories about that.  I'll try to ask him what they found at Texaco about that, if they even studied it.

A final note, he said that synthetics are excellent for gears and gear boxes, so for the manual trannies and differentials it's definitely a good idea.

Jeff