Synthetic vs Conventional oil

[magna19]

I worked at FAA for FKW at the time which was a contractor out there and lived in Spencer.
5 years of that drive and I would take the pager on weekends for fix it calls and many times i would work 2 and 3 shifts.
Feed me and I can stay awake and work for ever back then.

Wife went to the Spencer public schools and talked with the teachers and staff to see what kind of place it would be for our 5 year old.
No ac in many rooms and the teachers did not even want to talk with her just cold shouldered her.

F them.
So she used her dads address and drove them to Yukon.
We ended up buying a house in the same neighborhood as her dad just 1 street over.

Of course some weekends when I did not have the pager I would hit the lock 16 in Gore and drift the river for catfish.

She had driven 67,000 miles in 11 months and I quit counting as I knew she had me beat on miles driven.
I drove a 78 Nova mostly and she had a Ford escort.
Sometimes she drove the Nova to crest just looking to get into a race with someone.
Other cars we drove but not as much maybe 12-15K a year
1977 Indy pace. Look that one up. Not stock.
1981 280ZX with Not stock 240Z engine.
1978 Skylark 2 door. stock.
1980 Pinto. Not stock.
1982 Mustang not stock.

78 ford 3/4 ton Not stock.
1987 V45 Honda super Magna. Stock
1985 V65 Honda Magna Not stock.
The V65 ran 11.51 in the 1/4 with my 200lb butt on it.
My Nova would out run it. Fun times.

Looks like I tweaked most of my vehicles.

I am glad I thinned the herd a little bit . All that auto insurance is a killer.

Dang 70k miles in a 78 nova that would out run a V65 that ran 11.51. What year was that?
Spencer to Yukon.. That only accounts for 10k miles.
What about the other 60k?
.

 

[swampratt]

On call 24 hours with pager in hand.
And chasing parts.
Every 2 weeks I was changing oil in both cars.
Right at 3000 miles or more at 2 weeks.
Nuts for sure.
Wife spent 2 years driving and looking for a house to live in. I was very picky.
I needed back yard access.
No neighborhood association either.
And i was not going to pay on it for more than 2 years to have it paid off so I told her save her pennies.

She did good and I made 25 payments on the house she found.
Still living in it.

 

[magna19]

On call 24 hours with pager in hand.
And chasing parts.
Every 2 weeks I was changing oil in both cars.
Right at 3000 miles or more at 2 weeks.
Nuts for sure.
Wife spent 2 years driving and looking for a house to live in. I was very picky.
I needed back yard access.
No neighborhood association either.
And i was not going to pay on it for more than 2 years to have it paid off so I told her save her pennies.

She did good and I made 25 payments on the house she found.
Still living in it.

I guess you cant help it!!!!!

 

[swampratt]

I kind of wish I did not work so much back then because I missed my first son growing up.
I was younger and with the mind set that if they want to give me money I will work.
Just do not know where all the time went.

I did take home more money than the big guys just from all the overtime.

 

[Raido Free America]

I will start this argument I mean thread.

Years ago when synthetics were becoming popular I switched to Mobil 1 synthetic.
I noticed my MPG came up.
Win for sure as I was driving more than 70,000 miles a year and the wife was also.
That is just recorded miles on 2 of the 6 vehicles we drove.

I had a lot of miles to test things like tire pressure and oils and greases and transmission fluids.
One thing that was stated way back then was you could not mix synthetic with conventional oil.

Well I mixed it and nothing bad happened.
I heard you can't mix transmission fluid types.

Well let me test that so every 20,000 miles I mixed Type A type F and dextron and changed the fluid in my C5 Ford transmission.
That engine and trans outlasted the vehicle, 376,000 miles no issues.

Now lets move on to break in.
I heard use break in oil or your rings will not seat.
Not true for me at all if the rings are Moly faced and the surface was a 620 plateau hone.

I did the break in in a 302 ford .030 over bore.
200 open pressure on the valve springs.
I ran Mobil 1 10-30 synthetic right off the bat and drove it on that oil to Peoria AZ from Yukon Ok and it used 1 quart of oil.

I changed it there and went on to Oregon then took the north east path home and the rest of the trip the 302 did not use any oil.
5500 miles round trip.
Yes that engine was honed with torque plates installed.

I built another 302 years later and No TQ plates and it used a quart at 3000 miles.
Thin early 80's 302 engines.

I use Synthetics in my cars now except for the V8 chevy with flat tappet cam i use Valvoline VR1 racing.
And I use a dedicated break-in oil Gibbs brand.
But valve spring pressures and cam profile is not stock.

No issues.

I no longer use Mobil 1 as of 2007 the formula reduced ZDDP and a different anti wear package was brought in.
My MPG took a hit and engines became tickity.
I even recently tried 2 different Mobil 1 synthetics the European and the High mileage which I think just has more Molly.

Both were tickity fails.
Initial start up and idle were tickity in the 1.8 Toyota engines.

My Diesel Rotella T6 oils does not do that neither does the Castrol Edge.
Buddies Honda was ran forever on Mobil 1 synthetic and I swear he had a rod knock.
Got louder the more he revved it up.
He stated the last 2 years it sounded like that.

He sent off an oil sample to Blackstone labs and they gave his engine a good bill of health basically.
So i convinced him to change from his favorite and stick in some T6.

That knock went away.
His 6.0LS was running Mobil synthetic also and he changed it to T6.
At 1/2 a tank of fuel use his odometer would show 200 miles driven every time but now with the T6
it shows 240 miles driven.

Something happened with Mobil oil and it saddens me as I want to like it but it does not like me.

Good day.
About time to make a fire in the wood insert.

I retired 20 years ago from Sun Oil Refinery in Tulsa. The Synthetic Oil thing was just in it's infancy then, so I don't know much about it! I know all auto manufacturers clame it last twice as long and natural moter oil, and I have no reason to doubt that. What I do know is, when I was working, I didn't work directly in this area, but picked up a lot of info. about all areas! We had TWO BASE GRADES OF MOTOR OIL, we canned at one time 116 different brands of motor oil, from Texaco, Phillips, Ford, GM, John Deere, Caterpillar, Pinzoil, and over 100 others. All this oil came from one of these two finished oil tanks, per the brands spec. the ONLY difference was the additives! Each brand had their own additives, we added to their oil! When someone swars one brand of motor oil is better than the other, there is at last some placebo effect happening here! Gasoline and diesel Fuel, are abouit the same thing, all have to meet the state, and federal specs, and transpot trucks load at the closest loading terminal, for all brands, and simply add each brands additives!

 

[Forgalspop]

Interesting article about Zinc & motor oil. Several articles state that high zinc in modern engines with catalytic converters can result in premature failure of the catalytic converter. That is why most synthetic oils and most regular oils have low amounts of zinc or none.

A product like this might be beneficial for preventing premature wear on cam shafts.

Thoughts?

https://rislone.com/blog/engine-oil/do-i-need-zinc-in-my-cars-oil/

 

[swampratt]

I looked at oil specs and the additive packages and really looked at the Zinc and Phosphorous levels.
The old Havoline from the 70's Zinc was in the 1200 ppm range on one article I read.

It was my favorite for a long time and was my Uncles favorite.
He raced NASCAR for many years and began when it was on dirt tracks.
He told me of all the engines he tore apart in his shop the ones that used Havoline were the cleanest.

Additive packages can make or break an oil as we know.

My dad told me the "oil" does not break down it is the additives that give up and the contaminants in the oil that kill it.
I do not know how true that is.

But in my mind I always thought conventional vs synthetic it does not make any difference as the same contaminants are there and the stuff needs changed at the same time.

A lot of oils do not have good cling and when you let an engine sit for long periods the parts become "dry" and that is a killer.

I have done some lubricant tests and had Mobil synthetic oil in the test.
My test was more of a rust inhibitor test though.

Flat piece of mild steel I sanded smooth and shiny. 24" long 2" wide 3/16 thick I sectioned off 2" spaces with masking tape and applied a different lube in each section and set it out in the weather to rust away.

Mobil 1 synthetic 5-30 was the first to turn to rust and it did not take long to do it.
Mobil synthetic transmission fluid was also used and it rusted just as quickly.
A mix of the 2 rusted quickly also.

Now that information makes my brain think what happens on a cylinder wall inside of an engine
that has sat for long periods????

Yea I have had some engines just sit and rust away and not rained on just the additives in the oil react with the humidity in the air and bad things start happening.
Now the winner of the test i performed was Quick silver 2 stroke outboard engine oil.

No rust.
Joe Gibbs now Driven has an oil that was developed to combat this rust issue in a stored engine.

Read about that oil here.


https://butlerperformance.com/i-244...entional-motor-oil-15w50-quart-jgd-02106.html

..

 

[rockchalk06]

I've been a Valvoline fan boy for many years. Never had an engine failure. The Tacoma made 365K miles with zero issues. It's still on the road today with its new owner with well over 400,000 miles.
My Tacoma after that ran Valvoline synthetic but it got sold early as we upgraded our RV to a heavier unit and needed an F-250. After the factory break in oil was done, it's going to spend the rest of it's life with the Valvoline.
All of my small engines run the same brand in different weights.

Same here. I ran full synthetic in my Ranger for 265K before the tranny died. Same in the Ram and I'm at 134K on it.

 

[Raido Free America]

I'm old enough to remember when, if a engine made it to 100,000 miles, it made the local news paper! Now engines rourtinely keep running up to 250,000./ 300,000 miles, and more! Something is different, to cause this.

 

[Mr.Glock]

I'm old enough to remember when, if a engine made it to 100,000 miles, it made the local news paper! Now engines rourtinely keep running up to 250,000./ 300,000 miles, and more! Something is different, to cause this.

Fuel Injection.