ozzykicks2002

My 2001 LS1 have about 30,000 miles on it. its it ok for me to switch to synthetic? and if so what kind of oil do you guys recommend?

GuitsBoy

iTrader: (4)

Its never a bad time to switch to synth. Most highly suggested is german castrol (gc) 0w30. Make sure it says made in germany on the bottle, otherwise the american made stuff may not be as good. That being said, I am currently trying the new Mobil1 Extended performance 5w30. It looks like it should be a good performing oil for those who dont want to run oil as thick as gc (which is almost a 40 weight).

blkZ28spt

SEARCH. There are people asking for oil/filter recommendations and about switching to syn ALL THE TIME.

Tranzor

Definitely not too late to switch to a good synthetic... my recommendation would be Amsoil, but I'm probably a little biased.

MeanWS6

Synthetic is the way to go, its fine to switch. I use Mobil 1 with K&N filter. Never tried Amsoil, but hear good things - except for the price

Tiger2o69

iTrader: (16)

German Castrol w/ K&N filter here.. Lots of info on this stuff but hard to find sometimes depending on location..

Tranzor

It is a little more expensive than other oils, depending on the kind you get... the Amsoil XL 5w30 and 10w30 is actually quite affordable, just a little bit more than Mobil 1 at retail (Mobil 1 generally being about $5 a quart, Amsoil 5w30/10w30 is around $5.20 or so a quart retail). I personally use the 10w30 blend during racing season, and 5w30 during the winter.

Now, the 5w40 Euro blend is a little more than that, as is the Series 2000 0w30. Euro blend runs $6.65 or so retail, and the Series 2000 oils run $8.70.

Of course, being a dealer, I can do special pricing.

zdawg28

iTrader: (2)

As long as you change your oil no later than 3K miles between services, then I don't can't really see, a motor wearing any faster than the synthetic user who makes that extra pass down the 1320 every time at the track. This is only what i've heard many of the top ranked performance shops say.

chris napier

I have 99 t\a and I use castrol syntec 5w30,but I think the car call's for 5w30 moble 1

samgm2

I would never use a 5w-30. The viscosity ratio between hot and cold is 6 to 1. The base oil is only a 5 weight oil. This means there are a LOT of viscosity enhancers in the oil. These are long polymer chains that degraded quickly in spirited driving.

It is much better to use a 10W-30. The viscosity ratio is down to 3 to 1 with this simple change. The base oil in this case is a 10 weight oil.

If I use a "synthetic" (a group III oil that is no longer an engineered oil), I use a Mobile 1 10W-30. If I use a standard oil (group II), I use Rotella 15W-40.

If you MUST use a 5 weight oil, then use a 5W-40. The oil will break down to a 5W-30 within a few hundred miles of spirited driving. I like Rotella 5W-40 synthetic when a lighter oil is needed for the winter.

By THE WAY. ALMOST ALL synthetic oils are simply mined oils that are further refined. The days of synthetic oils being PAO oils are gone. You can thank Castrol Syntec for that.

AMSOIL does make an Engineered oil and is one such example. Just because an oil says "FULLY SYNTHETIC" on the bottle, does not mean "PAO (Poly alpha Olifin)".

Always get a commercially rated oil (AT LEAST "CI", diesel engine grade) because of the far superior additive package.

Sam.

Patman

This is not true. Oils can be created many different ways to acheive the desired viscosity, and many full synthetics can get their viscosity spread with no viscosity improvers at all. German Castrol 0w30 is one of them, it uses none at all! It simply uses an extremely exotic base oil which allows it to not only be a thicker 30wt oil (almost a 40wt) but it also allows it to pass the cold cranking specs at -35C in order to acheive it's 0w status. FWIW, the first number in the oil is NOT exactly a viscosity. Just because an oil is labelled 10w30 doesn't mean it starts out as 10 weight oil. It simply means it passes the cold cranking specs to get the 10w rating. The 5w rating is harder to get, and the 0w is harder still. So an oil with a lower first number will always flow better in extreme cold.

I personally do not see the need for 10w30 anymore, not if you're running synthetics. If you're running conventional, then yes, the 10w30 is more stable, and won't thin out as easily as 5w30 conventional oil will. But when running synthetics, a 5w30 can do everything the 10w30 can, plus it'll flow better when cold. Same with a good 0w30 in fact (although there are some bad 0w30s too, like Mobil 1 0w30, so you've got to choose wisely) So in my opinion, 10w30 synthetics are obsolete.