Results of the synthetic switch.

[Boz Mon]

Well, its been almost 3000 miles since I switched and I wanted to report on my results. A couple things, 1) Oil usage was a little above average as to be expected but nothing extreme. Its been about 2700 miles and I added 1/2 of a quart, pretty good for as many times as I VTEC. Also, as far as power and fuel economy go, I didnt have any noticeable gains in either one. I did, however feel good since right after I changed from dino oil, the temperatures got REALLY REALLY cold, like sub zero. Thats my findings. I was thinking that maybe when the weather warms up, I will see the real fuel economy results but only time will tell on that one. And was it worth the extra money? If it didnt get really cold I would probably say no. But with the cold, I just felt better after I switched.

 

[skip0110]

Some people say they can feel the difference when they change their oil. I think it's all in their head, as your experience proved.

 

[Boz Mon]

I know it's been proven on dynos but I really didnt feel anything. I am still wondering how much of a role the cold played?

 

[blargonator]

you're not really going to feel 1 or 2 horsepower in the butt dyno.

 

[wfooshee]

I recently replaced the cam cover gaskets on my Probe. I've used synthetic since day 1; I changed the oil the day I brought it home brand new.

Here's a pic of the cam bays. You tell me if that looks like a 150,000 mile engine. Where's the sludge, the caked-up, baked-on, black glop you always see in an old motor? That's the benifit of synthetic, not any power or mileage gains. It's about wear!

 

[Boz Mon]

Is that a 3 cylinder motor But yea, it does look really clean. 👍

 

[wfooshee]

Front bank of a V-6. See the other bank in the background?

The intake ports you see are the rear bank; the front bank's intakes are nearly hidden in this view.

 

[Jay]

Where's the sludge, the caked-up, baked-on, black glop you always see in an old motor? That's the benifit of synthetic, not any power or mileage gains. It's about wear!

No engine with regular scheduled services should have sludged up oil, mineral or synthetic.

Synthetic oils also usually have extra cleaning agents in them (as do some mineral) which makes you proud when pulling the cam/rocker covers off an engine.


Also you should be careful about leaving the intake ports open and exposed like that if anything dropped in them it could go straight into the cylinder (if that valve is open) or even against the valve and often (not always) you can't retrieve it especially non-magnetic debris. And sometimes you don't even know when something has gone down there. I put large tape over them immediately.

I was changing Carbs on a Chev 350 small block one day, tried out a few different carbs and unluckily without noticing something fell out of the carby down the intake into a cylinder, engine then developed a strange knock/clink sound immediately I realised what happened. I pulled off the head on that side and a piece of metal was found dug into one of the pistons (steel piece into the aluminum piston) hitting the combustion chamber surface on the head, in the end it was just time consuming and I wasn't happy I had to strip a engine I just rebuilt a few hundred kilometres before that.

 

[misnblu]

I've used 100% synthetic in all of my cars, period.
It's been 25 years since I've used mineral or dino oil in a car.
I've also been able to get over 200,000 miles on each and every car using synthetic and my latest car is at 194,000 miles and still going strong using synthetic since I got it with 67,000 miles on it..

I even bought a second car for my daily driving that I'm going to switch to synthetic. I hate dino or mineral oil. When I used it in my 1966 Buick 30 years ago, it sludged up the engine bigtime. Of course, oil has changed tremendously since the 1970's.
If anything, I won't have to worry about having a clean engine. 👍

 

[Keef]

Some people say they can feel the difference when they change their oil. I think it's all in their head, as your experience proved.

In my Sol I can feel a very obvious difference in VTEC engagement between 3000 mile oil and a fresh 4 quarts. The VTEC's effect is noticably stronger with fresh oil, and it will engage at lower engine/oil temperatures.