Making the switch from conventional to synthetic oil

You should experience no such problems.
I use Royal Purple 10W30 in my mustang and I couldn't
be happyier with it.Their are benefits useing synthetic
motor oil like longer change intervals,reduced friction
and wear,superior lubrication,and engine running temperatures can lower etc.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


I'm using Motorcraft 5/20W in my Mustang. I did switch my Mazda B4000 to Royal Purple about 4yrs ago. It had about 78000 on the odometer when i switched over. I had no problem at all. The truck now has 105000 on it. The motor is still very strong. The truck would out accelerate my Stang from 65 to 80 in 5th gear before I switched to 3.73's in the Stang. The truck has 3.55's. Off the line is a different story acourse. Don't be afriad to switch as long as you don't have any oil leaks. Pearl02.
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. I've taken everything into consideration, and I think I will go w/ synthetic on this oil change. Since replacing the PCV I have not had any blowby or oil loss, no drops on the ground etc, so I should be golden. :nice:
 
Dont play games with your motor....DONT do extended changes and DONT change your filter every 6 months. Thats just crazy, miles vary GREATLY between one person and another.

Change the oil and filter EVERY 3000 miles and use only synthetic (conventional oil SUCKS for anything but breaking a new motor in)...prefferably motorcraft or mobile 1.

In my 66 we ran regualr oil for quite a while...and my tappets have always been LOUD. Threw in some mobil 1...and WOW everything just quieted right up. Motor sounds much better now.

Dont be an el cheapo and just listen to something because it sounds good to your wallet...spend a little more and be SURE that your engine is safe. Iv got 50K on the GT...TONs of 6000-6200 shifts, and even some 4th gear 6400 runs...and hit the 6500 limiter on more than 1 occasion. My engine is in perfect shape...doesnt make any noises and has never even thrown a code. (no CEL) Oil has been changed every 3000 miles and ONLY motorcraft 5W 20. (maybe once 5W 30)

Your oil is the life of your engine man...its like your blood. IMO play it safe or you will be sorry way down the line.
 
hotmustang331 said:
Dont play games with your motor....DONT do extended changes and DONT change your filter every 6 months. Thats just crazy, miles vary GREATLY between one person and another.

Change the oil and filter EVERY 3000 miles and use only synthetic (conventional oil SUCKS for anything but breaking a new motor in)...prefferably motorcraft or mobile 1.

In my 66 we ran regualr oil for quite a while...and my tappets have always been LOUD. Threw in some mobil 1...and WOW everything just quieted right up. Motor sounds much better now.

Dont be an el cheapo and just listen to something because it sounds good to your wallet...spend a little more and be SURE that your engine is safe. Iv got 50K on the GT...TONs of 6000-6200 shifts, and even some 4th gear 6400 runs...and hit the 6500 limiter on more than 1 occasion. My engine is in perfect shape...doesnt make any noises and has never even thrown a code. (no CEL) Oil has been changed every 3000 miles and ONLY motorcraft 5W 20. (maybe once 5W 30)

Your oil is the life of your engine man...its like your blood. IMO play it safe or you will be sorry way down the line.

who said I was going to cheap out? I've been changing the oil @ 3000 since I bought the car, I don't plan on doing any different with synthetic even if it costs me more. My car calls for 5w30 btw, not 5w20...
 
Only bad thing I heard was that synthetic works too well, and the sludge seals from dino oil will break down and cause leaks.

Only heard about it, but don't have any experience with it.
 
Okay, I'm hopping in here. Many of the stuff being said is accurate, some needs clarification. I sell synthetic oil, so hopefully I'm relatively up to date on what's going on.

The stories about synthetics cleaning seals is true to a point. The PAO base stock and those with Ester do a good job cleaning. Most of the synthetics on the market now though are a Group III petroleum base and do not clean as well unless they have additional additives. Group II oil is your standard petroleum, Group III is what is more commonly known as a hydrocracked petroleum that the API says can be called synthetic, Group IV is a PAO "true synthetic," Group V is everything else which includes Ester based oils. Group I is more or less obsolete and shouldn't be used in today's cars anymore. If the engine has sludge in it one of the things a good synthetic is supposed to do is clean it and keep it clean. But if a seal is bad, it could clean away deposits that were preventing it from leaking. Good news is, the additives to keep seals pliable might restore it enough to seal back up. Also you might notice some oil loss during the initial conversion. This is because the cleaning additives of the synthetic are cleaning the rings as well and as chunks start to come off, you might have blow by. Keep adding oil and when the ring is clean it will reseat.

Should you use a flush? Depends on the flush and how dirty you think your engine is. Some flushes act more like an acid and these can actually damage the engine. I sell Amsoil, and in their case it is a concetration of the cleaning additives in their oil that helps to loosen and remove deposits that won't damage the engine. The oil should clean anything that might be leftover. Should you use it? It's only roughly $4-5 and a clean oil filter to catch what gets loosened, so it isn't too much of an expense. I'd recommend it if you have been using dino oil for a while, but if you've changed that on a regular bases, you probably won't have too many deposits either. But it won't hurt.

I personally wouldn't recommend Redline for street use. Unless they have changed, they are a Group V oil that is Ester based. Excellent for performance and wear protection, but Ester have a tendency to want to attract and hold moisture and they need to use additives to compensate for that. Amsoil and Mobil switched their formulas back in the 70s because of this to a PAO base stock. Both companies still use PAO today. In Amsoil's mid-tier and Series 2000/3000 line they use Esters for additives giving the best of both worlds. Royal Purple, I'm unsure of their base stock now after an article in Muscle Mustangs last year where the RP rep was quoted as saying that all synthetic comes from crude. This is wrong, unless all their synthetic is now the Group III petroleum based oil. Up until then, their lower end oil, common in most stores carrying it, were a blend, and only their high end was a full PAO base. But when comparing specs to other oils, they don't rate as high as they try and make people believe.

Extended Drains: two words that Amsoil coined back in the early 70s that now is becoming more popular. Mobil 1 EP is hyping up their 15K oil, but Amsoil has had 25K oil since 1972. Of course, that is for standard driving. One post commented about the number of high revs, etc. they did. While the oil can be used longer intervals, if you are exposing the oil to these type of conditions, or racing conditions, then oil analysis would be your best choice to determine how well the oil is holding up for your application. One thing to note with Mobil 1 EP oil, they don't warranty the oil for that if your vehicle is still under warranty, only when it's out of warranty. This is their way of avoiding any legal issues with the auto manufacturer should something happen . Amsoil will warranty any vehicle that is in sound condition and follows their recommendations. Most all other synthetics recommend normal drains, so if you run the oil longer and something happens, you are on your own. If you are using one of the Group III synthetics (Valvoline, Castrol Syntec, etc.), you have to remember, these have the same performance drawbacks that any regular petroleum will have. These oils are a bit more stable because of their refining, but you can't change that the base molecule is still petroleum. These oils will last as long as the additives last to protect those molecules from breaking down. This is the reason Amsoil's XL line of oil (a Group III oil) is only rated for 6 months or 7500 miles (more if recommended by the manufacturer). They do, however, use the highest quality stock available for this group of oil, while many others buy the one just high enough to pull it up out of the Group II standard petroelum oils.

Filters: I don't know a lot about the K&N filters. The Mobil Filters are good and use a synthetic media. The older Amsoil filters used to be the same, but with a longer change intervals, thus the 6 months someone mentioned. Their new Ea Filters (Absolute Efficiency) use nanofiber technology developed for the M1 Tanks. These will filter out 97.8% of all particles down to 15 microns, and to a lesser percentage smaller particles. Many filters out their will says that they filter down to a certain micron, but check to see if they are showing an "absolute" rating or "nominal" rating. Nominal means that they will filter out only some particles down to that size and chances are any good filter can do the same or better. Because of this new nanofiber media, Amsoil now recommends when using these filters with their oil to change them once per year or 25K.

Die hards will say change every 3000 miles, but someone posted that in Europe cars run for 10K between oil changes. This is true, and now is also beginning to take place here in the U.S. GM uses a monitoring system that monitors the breakdown of the oil, not just the milage with a dummy light, and a GM rep in an article I read stated that if a manufacturer made a high quality oil, it could easily be used for 20-30K. Mobil backs this idea up with their Mobil 1 EP. All this only helps to solidify the "Extended Drain" idea that Amsoil has promoted since day one.

Switching between synthetic and petroleum: no issues here, question would be why go back?

Oil Analysis: Blackstone is a good lab to send samples too. Cleveland Tech is another. Amsoil has one that goes under the name of Oil Analyzers, but last I heard these samples end up being shipped then to Cleveland Tech. It runs roughly $20-25 for a good test, less depending on what tests are performed.

Cost Effectiveness: Synthetic has always been said to be too expensive. Has anyone noticed the prices of petroleum oils these days? Some of these are running around $3 per quart. If you can just double the normal oil drain using a good synthetic, you are already breaking even. And if you run it longer, even just three times, you are saving. I just read in one of the e-newsletters I get, Oct. 1 MobilExxon will be raising the prices of their oils again. No word on the other manufacturers yet. Amsoil has also experienced price increases over the past few years, but percentage-wise much less than other oils, especially petroleum with some of them increasing over 100%. Amsoil's prices are roughly the same as Mobil 1, less if you have their Preferred Customer Membership (e-mail me for details). Walmart always seems to have the best pricing on Mobil 1. The other specialty synthetics like Royal Purple or Redline you'll have to get in stores that carry more specialty products.

Damn, I write too much...:lol:
 
^ wow, that is some excellent information, thank you very much! I'm gonna copy that and save it on my computer for future reference should I need it.

As an update, I did make the switch to synthetic... no issues so far, I've been checking the oil daily in the morning before work to make sure it's not dropping like crazy. Oh, and I bought the materials and brought them to Monroe Muffler Brake, they did the oil change for $5 labor :nice: great guys down there
 
stangGT97 said:
^ wow, that is some excellent information, thank you very much! I'm gonna copy that and save it on my computer for future reference should I need it.

As an update, I did make the switch to synthetic... no issues so far, I've been checking the oil daily in the morning before work to make sure it's not dropping like crazy. Oh, and I bought the materials and brought them to Monroe Muffler Brake, they did the oil change for $5 labor :nice: great guys down there
Do you know if the major chains (such as Jiffy Lube) will let you bring your own oil/filter for the change? I wanted to switch to synthetic on my next change, but don't know which brand they are using, and unfortunately, my stupid aftermarket warranty company requires that I have the oil change done somewhere that will give me a computerized printout as proof it was done, I can't change it myself :nonono:
 
they will use the given products if asked, or else they'll use their products. doesn't hurt to ask.

don't check your oil cold, you have to warm it up, then let it sit for a few mins to get an accurate reading. at least that's what it says in the manual.
 
bluextc said:
Do you know if the major chains (such as Jiffy Lube) will let you bring your own oil/filter for the change? I wanted to switch to synthetic on my next change, but don't know which brand they are using, and unfortunately, my stupid aftermarket warranty company requires that I have the oil change done somewhere that will give me a computerized printout as proof it was done, I can't change it myself :nonono:

Jiffy Lube's parent company is Pennzoil, so they will probably carry their brand. Even though most shops are independently owned. Locally here in Orlando many of the Jiffy Lubes carried Amsoil and sold a lot of it, until Pennzoil got wind of it and forced them to drop the line or they couldn't use the Jiffy Lube name anymore. Most Quick Lube places will change the oil for the cost of labor. $5 is an excellent price, it's usually somewhere betwen $15-20 if they agree to do it.
 
rs-turbo said:
Okay, I'm hopping in here. Many of the stuff being said is accurate, some needs clarification. I sell synthetic oil, so hopefully I'm relatively up to date on what's going on.

The stories about synthetics cleaning seals is true to a point. The PAO base stock and those with Ester do a good job cleaning. Most of the synthetics on the market now though are a Group III petroleum base and do not clean as well unless they have additional additives. Group II oil is your standard petroleum, Group III is what is more commonly known as a hydrocracked petroleum that the API says can be called synthetic, Group IV is a PAO "true synthetic," Group V is everything else which includes Ester based oils. Group I is more or less obsolete and shouldn't be used in today's cars anymore. If the engine has sludge in it one of the things a good synthetic is supposed to do is clean it and keep it clean. But if a seal is bad, it could clean away deposits that were preventing it from leaking. Good news is, the additives to keep seals pliable might restore it enough to seal back up. Also you might notice some oil loss during the initial conversion. This is because the cleaning additives of the synthetic are cleaning the rings as well and as chunks start to come off, you might have blow by. Keep adding oil and when the ring is clean it will reseat.

Should you use a flush? Depends on the flush and how dirty you think your engine is. Some flushes act more like an acid and these can actually damage the engine. I sell Amsoil, and in their case it is a concetration of the cleaning additives in their oil that helps to loosen and remove deposits that won't damage the engine. The oil should clean anything that might be leftover. Should you use it? It's only roughly $4-5 and a clean oil filter to catch what gets loosened, so it isn't too much of an expense. I'd recommend it if you have been using dino oil for a while, but if you've changed that on a regular bases, you probably won't have too many deposits either. But it won't hurt.

I personally wouldn't recommend Redline for street use. Unless they have changed, they are a Group V oil that is Ester based. Excellent for performance and wear protection, but Ester have a tendency to want to attract and hold moisture and they need to use additives to compensate for that. Amsoil and Mobil switched their formulas back in the 70s because of this to a PAO base stock. Both companies still use PAO today. In Amsoil's mid-tier and Series 2000/3000 line they use Esters for additives giving the best of both worlds. Royal Purple, I'm unsure of their base stock now after an article in Muscle Mustangs last year where the RP rep was quoted as saying that all synthetic comes from crude. This is wrong, unless all their synthetic is now the Group III petroleum based oil. Up until then, their lower end oil, common in most stores carrying it, were a blend, and only their high end was a full PAO base. But when comparing specs to other oils, they don't rate as high as they try and make people believe.

Extended Drains: two words that Amsoil coined back in the early 70s that now is becoming more popular. Mobil 1 EP is hyping up their 15K oil, but Amsoil has had 25K oil since 1972. Of course, that is for standard driving. One post commented about the number of high revs, etc. they did. While the oil can be used longer intervals, if you are exposing the oil to these type of conditions, or racing conditions, then oil analysis would be your best choice to determine how well the oil is holding up for your application. One thing to note with Mobil 1 EP oil, they don't warranty the oil for that if your vehicle is still under warranty, only when it's out of warranty. This is their way of avoiding any legal issues with the auto manufacturer should something happen . Amsoil will warranty any vehicle that is in sound condition and follows their recommendations. Most all other synthetics recommend normal drains, so if you run the oil longer and something happens, you are on your own. If you are using one of the Group III synthetics (Valvoline, Castrol Syntec, etc.), you have to remember, these have the same performance drawbacks that any regular petroleum will have. These oils are a bit more stable because of their refining, but you can't change that the base molecule is still petroleum. These oils will last as long as the additives last to protect those molecules from breaking down. This is the reason Amsoil's XL line of oil (a Group III oil) is only rated for 6 months or 7500 miles (more if recommended by the manufacturer). They do, however, use the highest quality stock available for this group of oil, while many others buy the one just high enough to pull it up out of the Group II standard petroelum oils.

Filters: I don't know a lot about the K&N filters. The Mobil Filters are good and use a synthetic media. The older Amsoil filters used to be the same, but with a longer change intervals, thus the 6 months someone mentioned. Their new Ea Filters (Absolute Efficiency) use nanofiber technology developed for the M1 Tanks. These will filter out 97.8% of all particles down to 15 microns, and to a lesser percentage smaller particles. Many filters out their will says that they filter down to a certain micron, but check to see if they are showing an "absolute" rating or "nominal" rating. Nominal means that they will filter out only some particles down to that size and chances are any good filter can do the same or better. Because of this new nanofiber media, Amsoil now recommends when using these filters with their oil to change them once per year or 25K.

Die hards will say change every 3000 miles, but someone posted that in Europe cars run for 10K between oil changes. This is true, and now is also beginning to take place here in the U.S. GM uses a monitoring system that monitors the breakdown of the oil, not just the milage with a dummy light, and a GM rep in an article I read stated that if a manufacturer made a high quality oil, it could easily be used for 20-30K. Mobil backs this idea up with their Mobil 1 EP. All this only helps to solidify the "Extended Drain" idea that Amsoil has promoted since day one.

Switching between synthetic and petroleum: no issues here, question would be why go back?

Oil Analysis: Blackstone is a good lab to send samples too. Cleveland Tech is another. Amsoil has one that goes under the name of Oil Analyzers, but last I heard these samples end up being shipped then to Cleveland Tech. It runs roughly $20-25 for a good test, less depending on what tests are performed.

Cost Effectiveness: Synthetic has always been said to be too expensive. Has anyone noticed the prices of petroleum oils these days? Some of these are running around $3 per quart. If you can just double the normal oil drain using a good synthetic, you are already breaking even. And if you run it longer, even just three times, you are saving. I just read in one of the e-newsletters I get, Oct. 1 MobilExxon will be raising the prices of their oils again. No word on the other manufacturers yet. Amsoil has also experienced price increases over the past few years, but percentage-wise much less than other oils, especially petroleum with some of them increasing over 100%. Amsoil's prices are roughly the same as Mobil 1, less if you have their Preferred Customer Membership (e-mail me for details). Walmart always seems to have the best pricing on Mobil 1. The other specialty synthetics like Royal Purple or Redline you'll have to get in stores that carry more specialty products.

Damn, I write too much...:lol:

Great post, lots of information.:nice:

So, between Mobil 1 and Amsoil which one would you recommend and what makes them different from each other?
 
[Twitch] said:
Great post, lots of information.:nice:

So, between Mobil 1 and Amsoil which one would you recommend and what makes them different from each other?

This is a hard one to answer without sounding like a sales pitch for Amsoil, since I'm a Dealer. But if Amsoil didn't exist, I'd probably be using Mobil 1, knowing what I know now. Both are good oils. Amsoil came out first, Mobil followed up a few years later. Amsoil has always promoted extended drains, Mobil did originally, then went to regular intervals by using less additives to lower their costs and compete in the same pricing as many of the other synthetics at the time. Now they are promoting 15K again with a newer formula that they have said uses more additives. Amsoil has upgraded their formulas over the years, added new oils, introduced many new synthetics being the first to market them (2-Cycle Oils, ATF, Gear Oils, most recently the first synthetic media cartridge style oil filter) and hasn't dummied down their oil to compete but working with the thought that a better quality oil will sell better than a lower priced one, especially once extended drains are factored in for long term cost. They also have over 30 years of oil analysis from real world driving showing these drain are possible as well as a warranty.

Here are some links of comparisons of Amsoil's 10W-30 oil. Yes, these are from Amsoil brochures, but the results come from Southwest Research Institute. Amsoil, along with many other lube companies, the military, etc. use them to test their products and get approval for the ratings they are trying to meet.

This is the results done in 2003
This is a 2005 comparison which includes Mobil 1 EP
I made this one when Mobil 1 EP first came out. NOTE: the prices for both oils have gone up since. I just noticed this needs updating when I was getting the link from my site.

Both oils use a Group IV PAO base stock, with the exception of the Amsoil XL line, as mentioned previously. Although when comparing spec numbers, we often compare the XL oil to regular Mobil 1. Amsoil uses esters and other additives to beef up their formula. Last I heard, Mobil uses some products from their industrial line for additives. When you compare the graphs in the 2005 testing, Mobil 1 EP did very well, but not as well as Amsoil. You'll also see in one of the tests, Amsoil didn't come in first. This is to show that Amsoil might not be the top in every test, but overall, they perform better than the other oils which might do well in just one or two tests. If you want to see more in depth test results, below is a link to some very intense testing Amsoil had done on their motorycle oils to other motorcycle oils last year. Again, they didn't come in first all the time, but overall they performed the best:

Amsoil Motorcycle White Papers

Amsoil has always wanted to show how they rate to other oils. Other oils haven't been so responsive to do the same. Amsoil actually likes the competition with Mobil. It seems whenever Mobil makes a move that only re-emphasizes what Amsoil has been claiming all along, sales go up. It happened when Mobil 1 first came out showing that there was a market for a synthetic. It's now happening with their new EP oil proving that an oil can last longer if formulated correctly (and that the market is starting to change over to the extended drain concept). And if these test results were just hyped propoganda, we would have heard of more lawsuits over the years. The FTC is always slamming all those oil additive companies with their false claims, I'm sure they probably would have been involved for false advertising as well. Hope this helps a bit, without sounding like a sales pitch.