bigcooldd

Does anyone know if going from synthetic oil to regular oil hurts anything? and is there a way to tell if its synthetic oil or regular oil?

Went on road trip last week and had the local dealer change my oil before hand. ( i asked for synthetic mobil 1) And no less than 150 miles later the change oil light came on, and it does not seem to be running as smooth, especially takin off at low RPMs. needless to say i will be changing my oil from now on.

needadvice

Synthetic is a waste of money and just hype.

Regular oil is all you need to use if you keep it clean. And NO, nothing at all will happen if you go back to regular oil after using sythetic.

SladeX

Actually synthetics aren't a waste of money. It really comes down to the condition of your engine to determine that.

Before someone spouts off that regular dino is the devil, I'm not saying that either. It's best to get a Used Oil Analysis done to your oil to see if the oil you choose for yourself is adequate for your engine and driving needs.

It's been proven in testing in labs by regular people that certain oils protect well and others are junk, an example would be German Castrol 0w30 which has been proven to retain 30 weight characteristics at engine temperature and protect quite well long into it's life. Some have been able to test at 8k miles and still show little to no significant wear through testing.

I found with Mobil 1 5w30 I was going through oil 1 quart per 1000 miles in which I would have the low oil light come on within that 2k range. Not right. I found out later that testing has shown it to thin to a 20 weight. This is inadequate for our engines and will not lubricate well.

I suggest a visit to www.bobistheoilguy.com to learn more about oils and additives.

Joshiedoom

iTrader: (4)

Dear God. Go to ls1 dot com and read. 10w30 Pennzoil Platinum. Best off the shelf oil you can buy.

Luder[PAK9]

The change oil light needs to be manually resetted. If the dealer didn't do that, that's why the light came on. It doesn't analyze the oil, so it can't tell what you're running. Do a search to learn how to reset it yourself.

neutron82

iTrader: (26)

i have also heard that with prolonged use of synthetic oil it will create a thin coating on the walls of the engine and if you switch back to conventional oil it can stick to the wall that the synthetic oil created and cause buildup... it makes sense in theory but i have never seen any actual proof of it... most of the problems ive seen are just due to negligence and plain old stupidity

bigcooldd

ok guys thanks for your suggestions and opinions, and ill look into some of the mentioned items

needadvice

Synthetics are a waste of money for a stock engine for sure. My 427ci stroker is closing in on 50,000 miles, regular oil only, its like brand new still. I've also had built engines go past 70,000 miles on regular oil, where many friends used synthetic oil and didn't get but 30,000-40,000 out of there's.

Its 100% all about keeping the oil clean and doing oil changes every 2,500-3,000 miles, thats it. And now-a-days people are crazy for letting synthetics go for 5,000-10,000 miles like companies say you can.

SladeX

We can brag about how long an engine can last, but we know that the owner determines that more than anything. A used oil analysis has no allegiance to big companies. It's simply for yourself to know about your engine and your habits. I've been told I can keep mine in for 8k miles with no issues, 10k is possible, but I've noticed that I've lost about half a quart by then.

My current car already has 150k on it, on a previous camaro I pushed 500k. Same concept, UOA testing and good maintenance on my part. I put in about 25k miles in a year on average. City, drag, spirited driving.

Slo-Mo-Shun

iTrader: (2)

Some manufacturers are going 10,000 - 13,000 miles in between oil changes on their maintenances using synthetic oils. If this was a bad thing and the engine locked or sludged up wouldn't they be buying a lot of their own engines under warranty? This would be an expensive scenario that wouldn't last long before a change in maintenance schedules. In the case of Mercedes-Benz their AMG motors run excess of $50,000 each.

If manufacturers didn't think synthetic oils would last and protect for that long, they wouldn't have that kind of maintenance schedule.

Tommy69z

iTrader: (4)

agree

MiniTransAm

iTrader: (3)

I actually was thinking of running Penzoil Platinum in my transam since it's been getting such good reviews. I emailed Penzoil regarding my concern that the car has over 75K miles and was wondering if the platinum had the high mileage seal conditioners. They actually told me they wouldn't recomend the platinum since I have over 75k miles and to use a high mileage oil. So just something for you all to think about if you have a high mileage LS1. I'm going to try Valvolines full synthetic high mileage and see how that works for me. No more mobil1 in my vehicles.

Joshiedoom

iTrader: (4)

PP 10w30. 150xxx and going. 25mpg. Havent had the valve covers off.

ae13291

iTrader: (8)

if u think synthetics are a waste of money then do a test cuz i hav done it and can feel the differance, get some regular oil on ur hands then try synthetic oil on ur hands, u can feel how much more slippery the synthetic is then regular, and why do u think new car manufacturer's dont recommend synthetic for break in???

samson_420

iTrader: (1)

Synthetic is better in certain ways. It has a lot more lubricity compared to conventional. Try it on your fingers, you can feel a huge difference(yeah, I know).

But conventional oil does just fine if changed regularly. I use conventional only, but I never had a brand new car. I will never switch a car from conventional to synthetic at almost 100k. It will be prone to many more new leaks. If you don't believe it try it out.

bjamick

iTrader: (31)

Blah blah blah just run some Rotella synthetic in there.

2002Z28Camaro

iTrader: (2)

aways m1

TXZ28LS1

iTrader: (5)

ive never had any problems running regular oil. on my old 2000 Z28 i ran castrol GTX 10W-30 and never had any problems at all. i changed it every 3k miles and no oil consumption, or pingin' or anything like most people were having with mobil 1 synthetic.


but i currently use castrol syntec 5w-40 and its some good stuff. no issues at all. i guess castrol is just a good oil.


sometimes, i wonder if its really worth the money to run synthetic when u change the oil out every 3k anyways. who knows, maybe thats why some of our guys have oil problems with synthetic cuz the manufactures put all sorts of stuff in it that might actually do more harm than good..