Wayyy off topic, but dude, shrink your sig!

Synthetics can last longer and have higher temperature tolerances, but it really comes down to personal preference. As long as you're not buying Bobs Brand oil you'll get good lube.

Peronally I shy away from Royal Purple after seeing the wear I had in the block of my second integra. 2 cars driven for similar miles, one Mobile 1, one Royal Purple. Had awefull compression and hardly any crosshatch left on the one with Royal Purple after 120K miles. Mobile 1 on the other hand had good compression and lots of crosshatch left after about 110K...

I know some people swear by RP so I'm not trying to say it sucks, just my personal experience. I'm sure others have had horrors with Mobile 1, Castrol, etc as well.

Good place to get some oil info: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

 

CrookeAitch!! U R Hi-Speed!!

Can't believe you got all that typed in just while I was adjusting my sig size!! You're awesome! Thanx for the feed-back..

 

there are definitely advantages with synthetic, but you need to research for the best brand while making sure its full synthetic.

its my opinion that its advantages with unmodified cars dont live up to its price. if you were incredibly religious with your oil changes, every ~4500 miles, and bought decent conventional oil, your engine should stay clean. but then theres bad driving habits, people who sit in hot highway traffic every day, and people who dont turn off their car without turning off their a/c first or never do. these people will need more frequent oil changes.

 

there are definitely advantages with synthetic, but you need to research for the best brand while making sure its full synthetic.

its my opinion that its advantages with unmodified cars dont live up to its price. if you were incredibly religious with your oil changes, every ~4500 miles, and bought decent conventional oil, your engine should stay clean. but then theres bad driving habits, people who sit in hot highway traffic every day, and people who dont turn off there car without turning off their a/c or never do. these people will need more frequent oil changes.

Wow, someone else who shuts ac off before starting or turning off? I thought I was the only one.

 

its my opinion that its advantages with unmodified cars dont live up to its price. if you were incredibly religious with your oil changes, every ~4500 miles, and bought decent conventional oil, your engine should stay clean. but then theres bad driving habits, people who sit in hot highway traffic every day, and people who dont turn off their car without turning off their a/c first or never do. these people will need more frequent oil changes.

Thanx DVOM!!
Never knew to turn off the A/C.:dunno: Before you shut down??
How does that make a difference??

 

well im not an expert on the reasons but i am ase certified in other areas so ill give it a shot.
it may stress the cars battery with the extra load, if everyday it will add up quick.
at low rpm your a/c is taking a good percentage of power which stresses the engine along with the steering wheel at full lock in one direction, which is what people do when they park coming and going from a space at home. both of these combined put a large amount of unnecessary load on the engine.
if your cars interior is ice cold when you park the a/c system will produce condensation under the dash from the cold metal lines, which wont pose problems for a long time but will eventually show. if you leave time with your a/c off before u park u can minimize this.
quick heat changes from almost freezing to 130f interior temps inst good for the ac line fittings and gaskets as well, slowly warming them back up by turning off the a/c should help also.

sorry for going off topic by the way

 

*+1
Never heard that before, though I pretty much avoid the AC button altogether.

 

back on the gixxer forums, AMSoil posted a huge test result for shearing, foaming, etc etc etc.

and if i recall AMS oil ws the best and mobil 1 was second. both incredible oils....

again personal preference comes into play as well as personal experience. but theres so much more info to be found on this you really just need to search elsewhere, even wiki will shed alot of light on this.

 

Synthetics are the way to go.

AMS oil, Royal Purple and Mobil 1 are all good brands. But the availability of Mobil 1 is greater than the other two. You can find Mobil 1 just about anywhere.

EDIT: Just as I was typing this, there is a Royal Purple ad on the top of the page. lol

 

My last car was a MBZ C230 Kompressor. I gave it to my son at 160k miles - running like a champ, and I drove it hard... I almost always used synthetic (Mobil 1), but on the occasion I would forget to tell the shop I wanted synthetic I noticed a >10% drop in gas mileage. Factory recommends changes every 10k miles and I followed that recommendation. As soon as I went back to synthetic the mileage went back up. First time I forgot to ask for synthetic, I actually asked the mechanic what he did to the car to decrease the HP/MPG... Gave up trying to figure out why until the next oil change when it went back up, light bulb went on and I tried REALLY hard not to forget for future oil changes!

 

Holy thread from the dead batman! I had hoped this debate was gonna stay in 2k9 where it belonged. What have you done you monster?! there's tons of new members that are gonna get this debate rocking again, dammit.

 

Agreed. Now I'll chime in on this one. I'll be unbiased on this one...

Okay so it all comes down in personal preference. Nowadays today's conventional oils are designed to last as long as 8,000km (5,000 miles); perhaps even more. As long as the oil is changed regularly at intervals from 5,000km to 8,000km, you're good to go although I personally would change every 5,000km because of my driving habits.

Synthetic oil generally are able to last longer, provides more protection, has a wider temperature range from very cold to very hot, and cleans more than the conventional oil. The downside of this is that they are expensive because synthetic oil are synthesized, which means it is artificially made; and also not all cars can use synthetic (such as the Mazda RX-8). Conventional on the other hand is a lot more affordable and does the job for your daily driving needs.

I personally use synthetic oil and use AMSoil. From my personal experience, AMSoil is one of THE BEST synthetic oils out there and I eventually became an authorized independent AMSoil dealer because I am fully sold on their products and would like to spread the word. The downside of AMSoil is that they are more expensive than other brands such as Mobil 1 and Pennzoil.

So far, I have clocked about 18,500km on my AMSoil (I'm using the extended interval) and have no problems. I drive the car as if I stole it and it runs like a champ. The oil is guaranteed for 24,000km under severe conditions and plan on changing it when I reach that mark. From what I can say, although each oil change is more expensive, I save money due to the less oil changes.

 

Ok i would have to agree 100% AMS is the way to go, and if u cant get AMS go with mobil 1. I will however say... DO NOT use royal purple, unless you plan to rebuild your engine often. While yes royal purple is the best lubricating oil on the market, it is also pretty much the worst for your engine. That stuff was made for race cars, and if you think about it, all those engines are rebuilt after every other race if not after every race. They have the money to do that, u however i am assuming do not. So just a word of warning, royal purple may kick ass, but it does it to your engine also.

 

^

Cheez, I personally think it's better to just stick to one. Makes no sense to go back and forth.

I have biased opinions on synthetic.

People have said don't bother switching if it's your DD
But some people swear by it...

There are too many angles to cover, scenarios, blah blah blah..

IMO it comes down to:

If you feel better about the car having synthetic in it, shut up and use synthetic

 

Valid Response...on all accounts.

 

5/20 in our cars? I dont think so!

10/30 all the way! even the dealers down here put that in

 

depends on the ambient temps in ur area.

 

Built a few engines that had used non synthetic. The oil passages had a slight build up and the heads on both were tainted brown with oil caked in it. There was also minor scoring on the camshaft journals. Nothing like the castrol commercials, but not good. I will never use anything but synthetic on my project cars, particularly turbo cars. When I took the head off of the built engine that I had run synthetic in for 15k it was pretty.

 

I don't trust the manual at all. For starters, the amount of oil it says to put in is way off.

 

I always thought that its ok to go from coventinal to synthetic, since conv oil is thinner and all the lines are sealed for that its fine, because switching to the "thicker" synthetic wont allow the lines to leak. However going from the thinker synthetic to the thinner conventinal will cause leaking because the thinner oil can seep out of the lines that are use to the thicker.

This only makes sense considering almost all vehicles come from the factory with conventinal oil and when "upgrading" to synthetic was ok. otherwise everyone who runs synth would be leaking oil everywhere cause you always start with conventinal.

 

It's fine initially. You just don't want to go back and forth I don't think.

 

quaker oil has a sale for 12 quarts =13$ full synthetic 5w/30

should i buy this for my 2.0?

 

pro's of synthetic listed above.
cons.... there isn't any. The only time anyone should use a converntial oil is if you a breaking in your engine, or you have a car older than 2000. Thats it

Synthetic isn't more expensive.... maybe up front it seems that way, but the ways it saves your engine and extends its life it more than pays for itself.

If you have a car built after 2000 and want o put conventional in it, you might as well pull out your ethernet connection and put a 28k modem in....

If you are talking fully synthetic vs. synthetic blend, that is a whole nother thread, but at least use a blend if you must. Don't put conventional oil in your car.

 

cons.... there isn't any. The only time anyone should use a converntial oil is if you a breaking in your engine, or you have a car older than 2000. Thats it

Synthetic isn't more expensive.... maybe up front it seems that way, but the ways it saves your engine and extends its life it more than pays for itself.

Except for Canada. There is quite a jump of price from conventional to synthetic. A 5L jug conventional can cost around $12 if it's on sale but $18 regular. Synthetic here costs between $37 - $45.

 

I recommend Mobile1 fully synthetic 5w30 & is what I've used for years beating the hell out of my vehicles with no sludging while changing the oil about every 4k miles, although this is my 1st turbo car & I change the oil on her every 3k miles for safety margin.

Pros:
Will protect & lube better
Can go further up to 7k miles on N/A & 4k miles on FI

Cons:
Cost more to do each oil change, but only have to 1/2 as often

 

The only cons I see with synthetics is how the majority of them are labeled and heavily marketed as such. Mobil 1 is often considered a "full synthetic" but that's mostly not true. It comes from the same group III base stock as regular petroleum oil but it's highly refined petro oil with synthetic additives. You want true synthetic oil, Amsoil is where it's at, and their Signature Series line up is the best on the market. It's expensive as hell but worth it to me when it keeps engine internals in tip top shape for many years of use.

I've used Amsoil 0w30 Signature Series in my 04 Dakota since I bought it when it had 45k miles 3 years ago, now at 120k miles still runs like new. Oil changes are done every 6 or 7,000 miles, it is rated to go up to 3 times as many miles as my oil change intervals but I'm not that confident in the oil to run it that high, yet. I reckon I should start sending oil samples to Blackstone to test how well it holds up.

 

the new mobil 1 guarantees 15,000 miles....that's like 1 year......i still change it every 4.5k....

 

I have used the synthetic blends since the early 90's starting with my Stealth. Part of that reason was to stick with a oil / filter change interval of 3k or so without going broke. Dirt and combustion by-product still accumulate no matter what is in the pan. When I traded my Stealth at over 170k miles it still did not use any perceptible oil and had solid compression all around. I have found differences in the "feel" between synthetic blends. I think the blend is probably the best value for everyday driving. For going on the track I would only want full synthetic. I run full synthetic in my tractor at home and it works great. If you can afford it go full synthetic, otherwise find a blend that works well for your engine. I too would stay away from full conventional oils with the newer engines as stated earlier.

 

My favorite oil?? Shell Rotella 5W40 Synthetic. Less than $30 at Walmart for 5L/5Quarts... I use it in my SV1000, and I have one in the garage for my Gene, on her first oil change... If its good enough for a HD diesel, its good enough for me. And all the oil analysis that has come back on this stuff puts it way ahead of RP, and many other 'premium' oils...

 

anyone use eneos oil?

 

M1 doesn't do good at all in the Tau. Anyone using conventional in this car is just silly silly... It's hard on oil.