Engine synthetic vs reg oil?

that's a good question. how often are you supposed to change synthetic oil?

synthetic vs reg oil?

has anyone here tried the synthetic oils? do they really make a huge diff??

They sure do. Only Amsoil synthetics go in my engine, tranny and power steering. I get better performance and gas mileage, shifting and steering is much easier. Operating temps go down, as do wear. I'd never use mere dino oil in my Toyota or Yamaha bike...That would be pure blasphemy.

dominator, how often do you change the oil with Amsoil? Do you go by their suggestion and run the full 25,000 miles?

I've always changed the Mobil 1 synth every 5000 miles on mine. Truthfully, I know it's a bit overkill, however, I'm sure there's no other crankcase with 60000 miles that's as clean as mine.

Trav

Amsoil is also highly stable and resistant to dilution, but it does absorb a lot to keep the engine clean. I now have 0.3 quart extra capacity with my oversized SS filter, so I change it every 9000 Kms (5590 miles).

their is no such thing as true synthetic oil. Synthetic oil is actually a purifeid dino oil with plastic polymers that coat over objects when heated past 200f depending on the oil manufacture. Also oils like royal purple are truly race only, thats why you can dino more hp on that type of oil. It does not have the regular detergents and cleaning agents. It should not be put into a daily driver. Other synthetic oils such as AMSOIL and RedLine are much much mucho geared toward high performance daily driven cars. Another one that people think is crap or over hyped is Lucal oil. This oil has additives that cause a very very high surface tension on a lower weight oil. Thats why if you see a lucal oil display with the gears and you can see the oil stick like all crazy to each gear.

My recomendation from experience Lucas oil for the differential and powersteering system seems to be insanely smooth. For the motor oil i would say go with redline if you goto drags, race or have heavy city driving. And AMSOIL all the way if you drive alot of miles on the freeway or just alot of milage in general. From my experiences in my 02 rolla with amsoil i ran it for around 10-11k miles on the same oil with 1 filter change at 5k. I also flushed the engine before i put the amsoil. The oil came out pretty clean.

Im defintely going to put lucas in my diff after i flush it out with cheap oil twice over 2 weeks. Then amsoil is going into the motor and i'll be running it for 15k mile intervals.

Realistic aspects of oil and oil changes are in the polymers, heat range, flashpoint and oil weight. You want to run an oil with a high flashpoint, and probably always 5w-30 for southern california weather. Making it a point to check your oil color at every tank fill up will also give you a better indication of your oils condition. What i do to do the eyeball check on oil condition is take a small peice of cardboard pull the dipstick, clean it, put it back in and pull it again then i touch the end of the dipstick to the cardboad. Check the color, check for any grime or burnt looking bits.

The color from best to worst generally will go, yellow/brown tan/brown light brown medium brown(like a crayon) darn brown, and black. If you run an oil like mobile one 15k, or amsoil or redline your oil will stay pretty much like new for about 5-8k miles, check for the burnt bits of oil gum, this will probably come out since the nice and expensive detergents are in these types of oils. Its not the oil that is getting burnt but actually the gum in youre motor being loosened. If you get these bits and your oil is good just change your filter.

Changing your filter should be done after the car is sitting for a long time IE over night. This will help the fluid drain down to the pan and you will lose minimum fluid from the filter. Make sure you always havea few extra quarts of oil in the trunk to top off. I suggest over buying if you order online, pick up a case, or pick up 5-6 quarts for your 4 quart oil supply.

Troubleshooting

If you oil is amsoil redline lucas royal purple mobile1 extended and you run it for 3k check it, and its close to black, which has happened to me a few times in different cars. Most likely this is due to old oil from the previous change that didnt make it to the pan when you last flushed it. My suggestion would be to change the filter and run it for a few days like normal, check the color. If you dont have any bits if burnt gum in their and its still a dark color the oil will be good for the duration it is supposed to be ie 10k 15k 25k whatever. If its still dirty and chunky you need to remove the oil, get some engine flush and clean the motor out.

For those who dont believe oils can last that long, some big rigs that run synthetic oil will run 100k+ between oil changes, tey do have 4 gallon reservoirs but the point is their oil is made to last. It is designed that way. Oils like amsoil are also designed that way. The liquid is near indistructable you can burn it, you cant compress it, it resist and repels outside particals and has a high surface tension.

Any more info just post the question

and yes synthetic compared to dino oils will dyno higher horsepower usually by 1-2%. nothing noticable to people driving but you do put out more power, it will run cooler and last longer.

and like i said, I will be putting amsoil into my ls4 and running it at least 15-20k miles on that oil. I will be flushing the engine 2 times prior to this and possible installing an extra oil cooler for the motor. The diff fluid i will change over to lucas and also flush out with a cheapo brand gear oil. Im sure my diff fluid is cooked and neglected by the previous owner.

Yeah, not all synthetic oils are true 'Group IV'. The so-called synthetics of the Group III conventional oils are cracked and refined hydrocarbon mixtures. Like Castrol’s switch from polyalphaolephins (PAOs) to hydroisomerized waxes in their synthetic formulations. A year after the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ ruling in April 1999, upholding Castrol’s position that wax isomerates could be called synthetic, Petro-Canada (Toronto) advertised it would be referring to its very high viscosity index (VHVI) basestocks as a synthetic in the North American market. These products fall into the same API group (Group III) as wax isomerates, but could vary significantly in quality from wax isomerates. This market roar by Petro-Canada has carried a quiet undertone of moves from PAO to VHVI technology by several engine oil marketers...

I also like using Lucas Fuel Treatment & Upper Cylinder Lubricant in all my tankfulls for the added protection and efficiency.
http://www.lucasoil.com/products/di...atid=2&loc=show

I'm not very consistant w/ brand of synthetic oils (always switching around between Amsoil, Royal Purple, and Redline), but I tend to change the oil every 5000 to 6000 miles.

I use Mobil 1 synth and 1 32oz of lucas synthetic oil stabilizer. I change my oil every 3500 to 4000 miles.

Use redline oil and K&N gold filter and prolong lube

Use redline oil and K&N gold filter and prolong lube and a filter mag magnet made a very big difference and prolong tranny lube . you might notice the difference in a week .Also prolong is sold in stores
It is a big difference than crappy regular oil like Castro it's expensive. you can buy the stuff at http://store.summitracing.com/

I no longer recomend putting lucal oil into the motor.After seeing and reading a fully independent test of lucas oil added to regular and synthetic it increases the oxidation by a huge amount. The froths the oil up and thickens the surface tension. It is possible that lucal oil by itself completely is good but i have not seen an oxidation test for that. Needless to say when lucas was added to 5w-30 reg and synth it severly lowered the cleaning and lubication ability of the oil. Oils come with anti ixidation additives in them, but not enough to make up for the volume of lucas oil.