Oil, Ignorance, and Common Sense, and Experience

[TheSearcherMan]

Well, I am now more convinced than ever, there are more that 2 things, Politics and Religion, that friends should not discuss. Now, its Politics, Religion, and Oil. I am also convinced that an education, is one of the most important things a person can have, however, theses days I am not sure where one could get an education, versus an expensive,4 year party. I will also tell you a secret, no matter who wins the election in November, we will still have the same leaders, Ignorance and evil. That said, I will mention this, a friend of mine, who was in sales on the East Coast, changed his oil every 18k miles, used synthetic. He never had an engine problem of any kind, and, he ran several vehicles up to and over 400k miles, transmissions were another story. I would suggest that the oil companies were once told the same thing by a Preacher that I was, "Fear fills the collection plates". Also, realizing that I myself am ignorant, also realize that not one thing I say will change anyones opinion of anything.

 

[DougF]

I was once told by a preacher, "Doug, I don't care if you attend, as long as you tithe". Last time I saw him in the pulpit.
I call on a good number mechanics. I have yet to talk to one who recommends synthetics. Maybe they're all old school.

 

[poolboy]

This Forum has it all. Politics, Conspiracy Theory, Religion, Money AND motor oil. THANKS Basil!

 

[shining_armor]

Scientific testing has shown that synthetics decrease friction and increase horsepower. People in the oil industry know the dirty little secret, that the old oil change cycles of 2,000-3,000 miles are unnecessary especially with synthetics. But its an individual choice for the owner who invested in the car. Do your own research.

 

[KVH]

Since Porsche mandates it for their engines, isn't that pretty good evidence that synthetic is fine? Isn't Mobil 1 a synthetic?

 

[RonMacPherson]

One former mechanic whose credibility I give great credence to did a test on synthetics versus petroleum based oils.
He recommended synthetics. Course this was better than 10 years ago.

This former mechanic had a garage down south, came up with a few engineering ideas that went into production.


Smokey Yunick.

 

[TR3driver]

I saw an article in one of the mags, Hot Rod maybe, where they did some dyno pulls with "dinosaur juice" then changed oil, tranny & rear axle to synthetic and repeated the pulls with no other changes. Picked up another 7% power at the rear wheels, just by changing oils. Don't recall the car offhand, but it was a fairly typical "warmed over" American muscle car.

Of course, some of that was probably due to the lower viscosity, but still ...

 

[TR3driver]

Since Porsche mandates it for their engines, isn't that pretty good evidence that synthetic is fine?

Fine for a Porsche engine designed for it, anyway.<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] Isn't Mobil 1 a synthetic? [/QUOTE]Sure, but not all "synthetics" are created equal. Mobil actually sued Castrol at one point, because Castrol was selling refined crude oil as "synthetic". Castrol won, with a court ruling that basically said anything that comes out of a modern refinery can be considered "synthetic" for marketing purposes. They even got the SAE and API to change their definitions to match.

A separate court ruling also said basically that any amount of synthetic would qualify an oil as "semi-synthetic", even only 1%.

AFAIK, Mobil, Valvoline, Redline, etc. are still selling Poly-Alpha-Olefin based oils; while Castrol, Pennzoil, Quaker State, etc. are now hydro-cracked mineral oils.

No, there's very little common sense in all this !

 

[Tomster]

So would any of you switch from good old Castrol 20W-50 without having done any engine work.
Would you consider "Changing for the sake of change?", I guess
Why would you change and @ what risks?

 

[Tomster]

-OR-
maybe I should just look at the ZDDP thread....

 

[TheSearcherMan]

Mobil 1 does very well in all tests, always has. It is relatively cheap at the Wal-Mart, like 22 bucks for 5 quarts. I made alot of phone call about 1-2 yrs. ago when this whole zinc thing came up, Castrols reply was the only one that was, well, silly, and they said they would call back, I'm still waiting..... The thing about syn. is, it leaks, but I'll manage that.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Re: Oil, Ignorance, and Common Sense, and Experien

So would any of you switch from good old Castrol 20W-50 without having done any engine work.
Would you consider "Changing for the sake of change?", I guess
Why would you change and @ what risks?

The dreaded ZDDP issue notwithstanding, I would consider it on pretty much any engine that did not leak or burn significant quantities of oil. And that's based as much on cost concerns as anything else; if your engine -- one way or the other -- uses oil at any significant rate, it gets kinda expensive to add $5.00 quarts as opposed to $2.50 quarts. But even that's not really the issue it used to be (especially given today's gas prices, etc.).

I'm seriously considering doing this with the Herald this spring. Heck, if I got any improvement in power and/or mileage, that would be cool...and likely balance out the extra $$$ spent on the oil!

 

[TR3driver]

So would any of you switch from good old Castrol 20W-50 without having done any engine work.

My experiences with Castrol appear to be unique; it's caused me grief several times now so I avoid it.

1) Many years ago, I used Castrol (thinking it was good oil) in a freshly rebuilt Chevy. Within a month, the oil pressure bypass valve stuck open. Scared me silly, since I assumed I'd done something wrong! When I got it apart again (which involved pulling the engine to pull the pan), I found a thin, clear, but sticky coating on the valve. When I asked around the local "experts", one of them said "Yeah, that happens sometimes with Castrol, try a different oil." I did, and never saw the problem again.

2) Decades later, when Valvoline Racing became hard to find for some reason, I gave the Castrol a try again, in a different Chevy. Within two oil changes, consumption had gone from about 1 qt/5000 miles to 1qt/1000 miles! Not exactly the result I was hoping for. Now some will say that the VR wasn't keeping the rings clean and the Castrol cleaned them up, which might be true ... but switching to Valvoline full synthetic reduced the consumption back to about 1/4000.

3) Several times now, I've helped friends who use Castrol religiously in their TRs, and found their rocker shafts to be clogged with sludge. My own rocker shafts always look clean.

YMMV and all that. If it was my engine, I'd put Synpower in it. 20W50 if you live where it gets hot (I live near the Mojave desert) or 10W30 in cooler climates, etc.

 

[vettedog72]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]3) Several times now, I've helped friends who use Castrol religiously in their TRs, and found their rocker shafts to be clogged with sludge.[/QUOTE]

Oil changed regularly in the TR6 at 2k mile intervals with Castrol 20-50 and I had a lot of crud buildup on the rockers, inside the valve cover, head, pushrods and plenty in the oil pan. There were a number of short trips 5-8 miles when it was driven to work. I thought the 2k mile changes would have taken care of that but it did not. I had even more problems with a 240 Volvo....cam sezed. The only silver lining was the valves did not hit the pistons when the rubber timing belt sheered.