What oil to use?

[Mighty Thor]

Re: What oil to use?

I used Royal Purple and K&N oil filter. The 2nd best I would recommend would be Mobil full synthetic and fram filter.

[LETZRIDE]

Re: What oil to use?

Ive heard bad things about fram...I've heard some good things about mobil though...that was what I was originally going to run, until I found out I could ams cheaper lol...but mobil is a good choice as well IMO

[landj]

Re: What oil to use?

I'm not quibbling about synthetic being better. But if this is for your average "I'm going to beat the Daewoo-with-a-fart-can at a stoplight Camaro, I would venture to say that sythetic advantages won't be utilized as much as they would be in a track car Camaro to make it worth it. Are you going to get an extra 100,000 miles out of the car? doubt it. 50,000? Doubt it. 10,000? More likely, but will it? How will you ever know, and more importantly, is it worth it when its more likely that every other component in the car will be in need of repair too?

Extended motor oil changes. I love that. BMW has been tooting thier horn for the past two decades about extended oil changes. Ask someone who really knows something about Bimmer's and they'll admit that they have a sludge problem that clogs up the oil passeges and does more harm than good. Hmmm... Maybe the Camaro's engine is better designed to mitigate sludge than the BMW. I'd like to think we have better engineer's than those germans. Is it worth wager? I think I'd rather just change the oil every 3-5000 miles. Even nonsynthetic oil can be changed every 5,000 miles (even 7,500 miles!) without damage if the car is't driven in stop and go traffic.

No, not all oil is the same. Some oil manufacturers put more unicorn giggles in the bottle than others. Will the unicorn giggles make your engine last longer? Do you have a test that proves statistical significance from an independent NON-PAID lab? (1- statistical significance proves that the improvement is LIKELY not due to random chance and 2 - independent tests are useless if there is any money exchanging hands between parties, just look at all the useless fuel saver adverts claiming 25% fuel savings will tell you that). The SAE certifications ensure that it should maintain its lubricity between regular changes to prevent unusual wear. Would I put a non SAE certified oil in my car? No. (the AMS-OIL folks will flame me for that comment, but I really don't care to debate why a superior product is so much superior when made in such small batches that it can't be enconomically feasible to have it tested for SAE certification.)

Longetivity. Diesel engines run for a million miles or more. Would running diesel in your car make it run longer? No. Diesels run differently and are designed differently with high milage in mind. There are liminting factor's in every product's life span. Many times it's a contious decision by the engineer to maximize value to the customer by cutting costs. I doubt the engineer was thinking "I'll design this engine so that if the customer decides on a whim to only use synthetic oil, every other component will be made strong enough that they won't fail until the extended miles they will obtain pass." I could be wrong.

I know its harsh to think that synthetic isn't worth it. Really, for some extreemly spirited drivers it probably is worth it. Of course if you are really pushing your car to the limits all the time, then you really should be thinking about all the stress cracks forming in the metal from the abuse too, oil itsn't going to prevent a rod from cracking in half from increased loads and RPM's. And what about the increased number of brake jobs or the new tires, or the shocks that will fail quicker if you hadn't taken all those bumpy curves so quickly.

Thermal breakdown. Will the synthetic resist thermal breakdown better? I don't doubt it. Is that the only type of breakdown that will occur? What about chemical breakdown? What about fuel dillution? What about acidification? Does regular oil thermally breakdown to the point where it is doing damage to your engine in a well maintained car with regular oil changes? Those running 200,000 miles would suggest to me that it doesn't.

My only point is that the extra expense of synthetic could be reserved to fix things that will likely fail long before any thermal oil breakdown will do damage to your engine. If the synthetic gets your panties wet, then by all means go for it. I just don't think your going to see an appreciatable difference in the longevity of the engine with synthetic than non-synthetic.

My point to my original post is that whatever you do, change it regularly every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. If you like that wet sloppy feeling that synthetic gives you, go for it.

synthetic has better additives, and is more resistant to thermal breakdown among many other benefits...the only reason I didnt run synthetic in my previous engine was because my rear main was leaking pretty bad, and until I could be sure that the motor was not leaking, it wasnt worth it to run synthetic as it would just p*ss out the back. Not all oils are the same...thats like saying all beer is made the same, or just because you have a set of ported and polished heads its the same as the next guys, it's not. And just because you run synthetic doesnt mean you have to change it at the extended intervals...I'll still only leave my synthetic in for 3000-3500 miles.

the only B.S part of synthetic oils is the claim people make about "feeling" more power...you wont feel any more power out of your car...but your parts will sure as hell be alot more protected...

[cam98aro]

Re: What oil to use?

synthetic has better additives, and is more resistant to thermal breakdown among many other benefits...the only reason I didnt run synthetic in my previous engine was because my rear main was leaking pretty bad, and until I could be sure that the motor was not leaking, it wasnt worth it to run synthetic as it would just p*ss out the back. Not all oils are the same...thats like saying all beer is made the same, or just because you have a set of ported and polished heads its the same as the next guys, it's not. And just because you run synthetic doesnt mean you have to change it at the extended intervals...I'll still only leave my synthetic in for 3000-3500 miles.

the only B.S part of synthetic oils is the claim people make about "feeling" more power...you wont feel any more power out of your car...but your parts will sure as hell be alot more protected...

synthetic oil may have better additives, yes, but for the average driver dino oil is more than enough. Synthetic oil is actually BAD for older engines with flat tappet cams, and will destroy them pretty quickly.

If you change your synthetic oil every 3,000 miles, you are simply wasting your money. Im in no way trying to be rude, but thats the way I see it, unless you are beating the crap out of your car.

bottom line...synthetic oil was basically made to get better fuel economy out of engines, it may help protect an engine for more miles between changes, but i dont think there will be any difference between engine wear with 3,000 mile intervals, if there is, it will be very minimal

[LETZRIDE]

Re: What oil to use?

fair enough...you got some good points there...I like to think my build is a little more radical, so I use it for piece of mind...I want all the protection I can get...and like I said, it costs me maybe 5$ more than running castrol GTX...I still change it 3000miles, despite it saying its good for 10,000miles

also, I should point out to you that most of AMS is SAE certified now...infact really the only motor oil (gasoline anyways) that isnt SAE certified is pretty much their racing oil.

[jnxV6]

Re: What oil to use?

synthetic oil may have better additives, yes, but for the average driver dino oil is more than enough. Synthetic oil is actually BAD for older engines with flat tappet cams, and will destroy them pretty quickly.

If you change your synthetic oil every 3,000 miles, you are simply wasting your money. Im in no way trying to be rude, but thats the way I see it, unless you are beating the crap out of your car.

bottom line...synthetic oil was basically made to get better fuel economy out of engines, it may help protect an engine for more miles between changes, but i dont think there will be any difference between engine wear with 3,000 mile intervals, if there is, it will be very minimal

Actually what is bad for older engines with flat tappet cams is any oil (dino or synthetic) with lower zinc and phosphorous levels. That is why some oil manufacturers have oil with higher zinc and phosphorous levels.

[MegaHertz]

Re: What oil to use?

Found a nice long read on oil the other day and found it rather informative. Though its from an import forum it didn't really seem that car specific to me. Perhaps its been posted here somewhere but I thought I'd share anyway.
http://www.club3g.com/forum/eclipse-...about-oil.html