How do you guys feel about synthetic oil. I just switched from mobile one to royal purple is one better than the other or are they all the same? What do you use ? do you think non synthetic is the way to go? thanks for your help.........

 

I use Mobil 1 in my Formula. I think Chevy High Performance did a test between royal purple, Quaker State synthetic and regular 5w-30 and found a few ponies in using synthetic. Guess it's personal preference.

Derek

 

Hehe, motor oil is something that creates great debates! I spend A LOT OF TIME researching oils on the internet, and doing my own testing (via oil analysis on my cars and my family's cars) and it is pretty hard to seperate the difference between all the big players like Royal Purple, Amsoil, Redline and Mobil 1. These oils are better, but most people drain them out at 3000 miles and don't quite see as much benefit out of them this way. One of their main benefits is that they remain stable much longer, they don't oxidize as fast and they hold their TBN (acid neutralizing capability) better than conventional oils. But a large part of this is due to the fact that most synthetics have a much better additive package in them too. That really is the key to a good oil. The lower cost oils just don't have the additive package to do extended intervals of 5000 miles or more.

With all that said, the newest SL formula oils are better than ever, and if you're changing your oil every 3k, you can get long engine life even out of a conventional oil like Castrol GTX in most passenger cars out there (such as your daily driver that may not see hard use).

Synthetics also shine in their cold weather capabilities too, so if you need to start your car in sub zero temps, you definitely want synthetic in there.

It does provide a bit extra margin of safety though, and for extremely hard driving like most of us do, it will ensure that the oil doesn't thin out over the interval.

I strongly urge those of you interested in choosing the right oil and the right interval for your car, to start doing what I have been doing, and that's oil analysis. There are many good labs out there that will analyze your sample, and if you start seeing the condition of your oil when you drain it out, it may just convince you to leave it in a little bit longer. I'd like to see more people consider at least leaving their synthetic oil in there for 5k instead of 3k. You'll save yourselves a lot of money, a lot of time, and you're not harming a thing. I recently got back two oil analysis reports on Mobil 1 at 5000 miles, one in my wife's Honda and one in my mom's Probe GT. Both of them came back with the lab saying the oil was suitable for continued use, and there were very low amounts of contaminents in there.

 

Thanks for the input so far . Ihave one question why does royal purple race series cost more than any of the other synthetics about twice as much as mobile one is it worth it? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

 

I'm really not sure why Royal Purple's race oils cost so much, as they aren't a huge amount different than their lower cost street oils. Just stick with their street oils or Mobil 1 and you'll be fine.

By the way, I never answered one of your initial questions. The oil I run in my Firebird is Schaeffer Supreme 7000 10w30 blend (it's a 25-30% synthetic) and I run Royal Purple 5w30 in my wife's Honda. Both cars run a K&N Performance Gold oil filter.

 

Patman,
I leave my Mobil 1 in the formula until the change oil light comes on (usually 6000-6500 miles and 3 months). Should I look into changing it a bit earlier?

Derek

 

Mobil 1 is #1 period.

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Villain281H:
<strong> Patman,
I leave my Mobil 1 in the formula until the change oil light comes on (usually 6000-6500 miles and 3 months). Should I look into changing it a bit earlier?

Derek </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nope, your method is just fine. If you're putting on miles that fast, you obviously do mostly highway which is very easy on the oil. With an oil analysis to back you up, you could probably safely extend those intervals to 10k even.

 

cool, thanks for the info! <img border="0" alt="[gruffy cottonball]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_gruffy.gif" />