Synthetic Motor oil has anyone used it an REALLY noticed an improvement?

[AKcharger]

I was considering switching to synthetic oil and was wondering if it was worth the extra cost? Has anyone noted improved fuel economy/power? Any testimonials welcome

Thanks

AK

[RD]

i dont know if you are talking about chargers or any cars, but I switched it over in the 98 neon.  Not so much for better fuel mileage as better protection and less wear on internal components.  Car is getting up there in mileage and I need running tip top as long as possible.  Mobil 1 Synthetic 5-30W is what I use.  Cost alot, but its the best on the market from what I hear.  I have not done a comparison against other oils.

[Silver R/T]

esp in winter, take a lil bit of synthetic and conventional and put both in freezer over night, conventional will freeze and synthetic wont.

[TruckDriver]

esp in winter, take a lil bit of synthetic and conventional and put both in freezer over night, conventional will freeze and synthetic wont.

[Charger_Fan]

I haven't noticed any mileage improvement...I didn't really start using it for mileage anyway. But I can attest that my little 91 Exploder is currently at 243,000 miles on it's original engine & has never been apart.

I have gone through 3 radiators though, it would be nice if they made synthetic antifreeze.

[zstalker]

Synthetic oil is primarily for better lubrication and proteciton of engine parts...you're not going to notice more power or better fuel economy right away.  It protects so well, in fact that it's recommended NOT to use it when you're breaking in a new motor, just use conventional so the parts can wear slightly to eachother.   The way you'll notice a difference is if, at 200,000 miles of synthetic useage, you tear down the motor, you'll notice much less wear and damage to the friction parts (bearings, cam lobes, pistons/bores) than if you had been using conventional oil the whole time.  For a "disposable" car (little beater get-around) don't worry about it...jus use conventional.  For something that's a real investment (anything over $60,000 or so, or old muscle) it's not a bad idea to protect it as well as you can from the get-go.
On another hand, for a car like RD's Neon, if it's been using conventional its whoile life, you're probably better off using a high-milage oil...they've got special additives that condition the seals and gaskets to help them stay in better shape longer.
~Erik~

[bull]

I just started using Valvoline Syn Power at my last oil change and I can't say I've noticed any major improvement. I guess I'm just taking everyone's word for it that synthetic oil is better than regular oil. I doubt they're lying to me.

[89MOPAR]

 I would definitely use it in Alaska. I lived in upstate NY and one winter the oil in my early Bronco had the consistency of a "slushie" . After that I switched to synthetic, Mobil One.   I have seen a slight reduction in running temps after switching to synthetic, but only on two cars out of many.  To me , it's worth the extra $$.

[Badbob]

1/10 of a second in the 1/4 mile in my Dodge. I use Amsoil in my aircooled Harley Road King.

[Chryco Psycho]

yeah my friigin truck starts at -40 with it & gets oil pressure within 15 minutes too

[tecmopar]

Heres what we did on a lazy Sunday when the shop was closed and I wanted to see for myself if there really is a difference. I strapped my Bullitt edition Mustang to the dyno and made 2 runs, we then changed the oil and put in Mobil-1 5W-20. It picked up almost 6 HP which made us both sceptical. Right away, I thought ahhh, must be air temp., humidity, something atmospheric. So we changed back to the conventional oil and it went back down to the original # so we changed back again to the Synthtic and it went right up again to the same 6 HP gain so I guess I proved it to myself the for about $17.00 its well worth the 5 or so HP gain AND it does protect the motor much better then conventional stuff. It does seem like a waste of time and dyno use but what the hell, I had nothing better to do that day and results really suprised us, good luck.

[8WHEELER]

So are we saying if you have only run conventional oil and you have over 100k on your
engine your best choice is to run the high mileage oil like Castrol like I have been doing
on a few of my tired gas engines.

Dan

[Silver R/T]

yes exactly, you might develop leak somewhere on high mileage car as synthetic is more thin

[8WHEELER]

Good I have been doing things right on my 100k plus cars and trucks. Everybody has been
telling me evan taday to run the new Synthetic in everything. But maybe I should run it in
my red 68 with the high comp and I would say about 50k on the rebiuld, but then again I
have only run 10w40 Castrol in it since I put it together umm a long long time ago.

Dan

[ChargerSG]

If you run on regular 10/40 for 35 years and then swap to synthetic you can get some problem(if its not racing oil), dont know if synthetic here is diffrent from what you have but if you change you can get leaks and its start sometimes to hear noice in the motor, soo here you have to switsh to Mineraloil instead. I recken there is as much opitions in oil as there are cars, and there is gonna be some people who is gonna start going on this

[AKcharger]

Good feedback and interesting dyno info there tec. Next question, with synthetic is the recommended oil change time still 3000 miles or does it go up?

[Badbob]

The oil change interval goes up to 5k minimum, some say 10k. It's best benefit is it's ability to protect during temperature extremes. You can buy Amsoil for $5.25 a quart as a preferred customer. Purolator Pure One oil filters are the best.

[Badbob]

An article on filter performance.

http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Filters.html

[cudaken]

 When got 69 Charger the old big block had 125,000 miles on it, vales where burnt and had the death rattles. Not bearing sound's but just knew it was tired. Did a fresh set of heads, some slick 50 and Mobile 1. Rattels went away and still ran great when I yanked it with 206,000 miles on it.

I was also burning oil to the toon of a quart every 450 to 500 miles. Used Restore in the engine, oil use's went down quart every 1600 miles.

My Dad taught me "You cannot pours ring's from a can". Well that was not ture in this case.

OH, about the leak's meth. Mine still not leak when we pulled her. In fact it is the only Mopar I ever owned that did not leak.


                                          Cuda Ken

[KMPX2]

I just bought some for the race car I will post what happens. I will make a few passes with new oil then switch over to see what happens.

[Charger Aficionado]

  Re: Prolong   I bought a crippled 440 Ramcharger like 5yrs ago, and it needed to have the engine re-built.  It was drivable so I drove it home, and on the way it started smoking bad, and when I looked the exhaust manifolds were "cherry red".  I poured in some Prolong and it immedietley COOLED down, stopped smoking etc.  I had the large jug of RV formula, but only used half.  It was so expensive I didn't use it at first, but after WATCHING the results first hand I was AMAZED.

[Telvis]

How many miles should you put on a new car before going to synthetic?

[Badbob]

o miles, go to synthetic, won't affect breakin that's an old wives tale. Many high end cars and motorcycles are delivered from the factory with synthetic oil. Resists thermal breakdown far better than dino crude.

[Slowpoke]

I switched to Royal Purple in my daily driver Wrangler. It took a while to show up but after about 6 mounths i went from 17 mpg to
20 mpg. The oil is expensive but the milage increase is worth it to me.
I also run Mobile 1 in the charger but since the brakes are still bad cant tell if it has made a diffrence. 

[yellowcuda]

yeah my friigin truck starts at -40 with it & gets oil pressure within 15 minutes too

Oh my God.... -40 !!!!   You need to move!

[Charger_Fan]

o miles, go to synthetic, won't affect breakin that's an old wives tale. Many high end cars and motorcycles are delivered from the factory with synthetic oil. Resists thermal breakdown far better than dino crude.

For example, the Shelby GLHS cars we were talking about in the other thread have a sticker under the hood recommending to use "only Mobil-1 oil".

As far as using it in an engine with lots of mles...I bought out Explorer with just under 100,000 miles on the clock. I put Mobil-1 in the first time I changed the oil & have used it since. It did start leaking from the valve covers & a bit from th erear main seal at around 175,000 miles...but how many engines DON'T leak after that many miles?
I replaced the V.C. gaskets (that sucked) & left the rear main alone. I figured I'd replace the rear main when the tranny went...it hasn't died yet & the rear main hasn't gotten much worse, either.
I usually have to add 2 quarts between oil changes, I change oil at 6,000 miles.

It currently has 243,000 miles on the clock.

[Silver R/T]

dont ever use slick 50 and most any other crap, its all gimmick. the only good additives that Ive found were Restore (works well on tired engines, had 84 blazder with 2.8 that engine ran perfect with it, no smoking/leaking) Also theres Lucas oil that works too as long as you follow directions

[tecmopar]

On a high performance older car with a carb you can go to between 6-8000 miles UNLESS you do a lot of short trips, let it idle a lot and things like that. Carbed motors do run richer than todays cars and any oil will get contaminated with that kind of driving, good luck.

[Spike]

Here's some good reading on breaking in an engine before switching over to synthetic oil.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

As for oil filters, there are many good oil filters to chose from.
http://www.oilfilterstudy.com/index.htm

Synthetic oil will not cause a  leak in an older engine. http://www.superiorlubrication.com/faq.php#13
A 10W-40 conventional oil is the same as a 10W-40 synthetic oil, it is not thinner. The SAE established a classification for engine oil viscosity. Oils are rated how they flow(viscosity) at high and low temperature test.
Synthetic oils flow better because the molecules that they are composed of are all uniform. This helps resist thinning in heat and thickening in cold, which protect better over a systems operating temperature range.
Conventional oil molecules are refined from crude oil. Crude oil contains millions of different kinds of molecules. Some of these molecules such as paraffin cause refined oil to thicken and flow poorly in colder temperatures. Other molecules found in dino oil provide no benefits to the lubrication process.

[cudaken]

 I think it was around 5 year's ago Mopar Muscle did a article about Red Line oil. They had a 68 Hemi Charger 4-speed that was runing like a 13.1 or 13.2. They could not get it into the 12's with it. They used the Red Line in the Hemi, 4-speed and the rear wnd and they ran like 12.901 with doing nothing else.

On the slick 50 being junk, I am a believer in it. Used it in my daughter's car's, God know they need all the help they can get. She's not big into oil changes. Her first car was a low milage Buick with the 3.8 liter V-6. She drove it one day till it got so hot it stopped running. I figured it was toast when I got there. Let it cool down and filled the radiator and it lived! I was stunned.

Then there was her Daytona, honest to God she let it go a year at a time with out a oil change! It final died with 165,000 miles on it and it was the head that did it in not the bearings.

                          Cuda Ken

[Silver R/T]

Ive just durablend, cheaper than synthetic and Ive noticed engine would run smoother and rev up faster than with mineral

[KMPX2]

As far as the statement that Slick 50 is junk I will say that I have gotten great results from it!

[KMPX2]

Well I am sorry to say that I could not do the oil test I said I would. I had trailer problems & got to the track late. But here is what I got to say. The last ime I was at the track with this car my best time minuse my Reaction time was 17.163 @ 78.93 mph. This time around I had removed just over 113 lbs from the body. Put on bald lowprofile front tires (yes this car is FWD) that were about 5 inches shorter overall (no burn out to heat them up). Removed A/c belt & outside mirriors (taped over the holes). Added Royal Purple oil. This gave me a time minuse reaction time of 16.441@83.49. Thats over 7/10's of a sec gain. They say 100lbs is worth 1/10. so that leaves 6/10 for the rest of the mods.

About the car it is a 2004 Chyrsler Sebring 4 door with a 2.4l 4 cyl auto trans. It has had most of the interior removed & things like the wiper motor removed (only been working on it for 2 weeks now). But She is getting looks at the track like you would not believe. Guy are telling me that when they saw the cars time last week they were like not bad. But this week they were coming over to take a look at the car and see what is done to it. When I tell them the only eng mods are the A/C belt removed & the air filter box removed with the stock filter hanging free. They can't believe it. I tell them I have a better intake manifold & exhaust header for it & they can't wait to see how fast it will become. I guess guys like the fact that it is a oddball/underdog type car. The car has not been in a real race yet just test/tune days. On these days both cars get the green at the same time & with 13 runs on the car. She as been the 1st one off the line 10 out of the 13 runs.

[G Force]

Can you add Slick 50 in with synthetic oil? If so is there still an avantage?

[1969chargerrtse]

Can you add Slick 50 in with synthetic oil? If so is there still an advantage?

I would think so.  I did a nice thread about Slick a while back.  Bottom line is it has Teflon floating around in it, and with that in your oil, it's all good.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,51248.msg559566.html#msg559566

[Aero426]

Keep in mind that oil quality right now is a moving target.    The new SM grade oils have greatly reduced levels of Zinc and Phospate which is an anti-wear agent.   This includes many synthetics including Mobil 1 in the silver bottle.    So for use in a modern high performance engine, or an older muscle engine, the new oils are questionable to use.    The change is largely due to 10 year federal emission component warranties.

Diesel oils like Rotella and Delo 400LE have also been reformulated with reduced Zn & P in their new CI grades. 

If you want to run Mobil 1,  the MX 10W-40 motorcycle engine (black bottle) is the "old" Mobil 1 formula.   
Valvoline VR-1 conventional 20W-50 has a good additive package and is available on the shelf at the parts store.
Brad Penn conventional (tougher to find) is the old Kendall green oil and very good.

More here.

   Read the FAQ.

[oldcarnut]

Found this article about Slick 50 just for the info. about it's advertising claims. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/07/slick.shtm
I changed my 440 to synthetic a few weeks back.  Went to Castrol Syntec and noticed right from the start that the oil pressure light stayed on a few secs and the gauge low when first cranked up--even after turning over a few times first.   I also had used a k&n race filter that came with the oil as a package deal.  Maybe the filter drains back the oil.  Never had that with the regular 10/40 Castrol and regular filter.  Thinking about changing out the filter first and if no change then going back to regular oil.  Anybody else had this experience with either the oil or that type filter?   

[Todd Wilson]

Found this article about Slick 50 just for the info. about it's advertising claims. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/07/slick.shtm
I changed my 440 to synthetic a few weeks back.  Went to Castrol Syntec and noticed right from the start that the oil pressure light stayed on a few secs and the gauge low when first cranked up--even after turning over a few times first.   I also had used a k&n race filter that came with the oil as a package deal.  Maybe the filter drains back the oil.  Never had that with the regular 10/40 Castrol and regular filter.  Thinking about changing out the filter first and if no change then going back to regular oil.  Anybody else had this experience with either the oil or that type filter?   

My friends dad had a Chevy pickup with  6 cyl.  He changed over to synthetic and had no oil pressure.  The truck didnt like it a bit Drained it and oput dino back in and all was well and the truck still runs today just fine.

I did a lot of reading years ago on synthetic oils as I was commuting 100 miles a day to work. I ended up going to synthetic on my 95 Ram 360 engine and the 86 Honda Prelude. Both took to the oil well. I would not go synthetic on a high mileage vehicle or any of my old Mopars.   I had to turn my Honda's idle down after changing over as it idled higher with the Mobil 1.


Todd

[superduperbee]

Our last Dodge van with 318 got only Mobil 1 since new. It had 350,000 miles, was never apart except for 2 timing chains [they stretch]. Oil was changed every 5-6000 miles.

[quentin]

Have taken 2 cars (purchased new) well above 200,000 miles (277k on first, 238k on second) with traditional oil.  I changed every 3000 miles, and did mostly open road driving - I live in Oklahoma, and we rarely see temperatures below 10 degrees, and when we do it's usually short lived.  For my area, I'm comfortable with traditional oil so long as a proper change schedule is followed.

That said, when I got my 400 4 barrell charger with unknown miles, It had leaks and ran a bit rough.  I hit it with restore and synthetic as I chased leaks.  Over the course of about 700 miles driving since, it has run better and better.  I've had to add 2.5 quarts in that timeframe, due nearly entirely to leaks - so I figure that means half of my Restore is now out of the system.  Going forward, I plan to change the oil and filter again once I hit about 1500 miles, just to get any stirred up crap outta there - then hit it again with restore and synthetic.  On the third change (probably after 3000 miles) I plan to lay off restore, and switch to Mobil 1 "high mileage" synthetic.  This is my plan, and I'll try to report here how I feel it has worked out.

[Mike DC]

 
Synthetic does seem to help the motors last longer. 


But is it worth it?  I don't know. 

Conventional oil that's being changed at 2-3000 miles is probably better than synthetic oil at 6-7000 miles. 

And the "hard" parts of modern motors are usually outlasting the body electricals & other mechanical stuff anyway.  Most of the cars & trucks I've sold/scrapped had reciprocating motor assemblies that were still spinning pretty smoothly.


-------------------------------------------------


These parts get half their wear from the crap & metal dust accumulating in the oil that the filter doesn't catch.  The only way to fight that process is to always keep changing the oil in short intervals.  That, and spend money on the better oil filters every time.   

   

[71charger_fan]

I had a Turbo II Shelby Lancer engine survive my son driving it an entire evening with no coolant in it with Mobil 1 in the crankcase.

[Silver R/T]

I ran Castrol Syntec on my d/d and it seemed to run smoother