Need some advice from pro's

[blackthunder50]

I turned 90000 miles the other day and i know there have been many, many threads about synthetic oil and regular "dino" oil. I hear alot of great things about Mobil 1 Synthetic. Should I make the change or just stick with the regular? The two dollar difference in price doesnt bother me. Thanks

[Christopherrr]

Mobil1...period.

I have 164K on the clock and not one problem... I used Mobil1 on my beater 3.1 bird and it lasted 280K before I sold her. From what I hear, it's still running fine.

make the switch...

[Trash man]

i thought a couple ppl said that if u had run dino oil its whole life just stick with it cuz it could hurt the motor if u switched? or do i just got my stuff all whacked out.



90K would be a good time to switch to 10-30 now that everything is a lil looser

[MN6WS6]

You CANNOT do a single synthetic change. If the car has been run on dino oil it's entire life, you have to change over 1 quart at a time. First oil change would be 4 quarts dino, 1 quart synthetic. 2nd change would be 3 quarts dino, 2 quarts synthetic. So on and so forth until you're at full synthetic. The reason is that synthetic has a lot more detergents in it, and it breaks up buildup in a car that has run dino oil in it for a long time. So what can happen is that if you go to full synthetic from full dino, the synthetics can break up large chunks of buildup, plug the oil pickup tube for the oil pump, bye-bye motor. If you do it progressively, the detergents are diluted in the dino oil, so it breaks the buildup off into small, manageable pieces to be trapped by the oil filter.

This is why cars run on full synthetic their whole life are so clean when you open them up. Your engine acts like a dishwasher, and synthetic is the detergent. Your motor is always clean because you don't have a chance for buildup.

The real question is what brand and weight of oil have you been using for your cars entire life? With that kind of miles, if you've run non-brand or Quaker State (the king of engine buildup), then I cannot recommend you do the synthetic change. If you've run quality oil, like Havoline, Valvoline, Mobil, etc., then the synthetic change will not be so bad. Also, if you change your oil every 3000 miles you won't have as much buildup as a motor run for 5000 or greater lengths between oil changes.

[Z Ya Later]

You CANNOT do a single synthetic change. If the car has been run on dino oil it's entire life, you have to change over 1 quart at a time. First oil change would be 4 quarts dino, 1 quart synthetic. 2nd change would be 3 quarts dino, 2 quarts synthetic. So on and so forth until you're at full synthetic. The reason is that synthetic has a lot more detergents in it, and it breaks up buildup in a car that has run dino oil in it for a long time. So what can happen is that if you go to full synthetic from full dino, the synthetics can break up large chunks of buildup, plug the oil pickup tube for the oil pump, bye-bye motor. If you do it progressively, the detergents are diluted in the dino oil, so it breaks the buildup off into small, manageable pieces to be trapped by the oil filter.

This is why cars run on full synthetic their whole life are so clean when you open them up. Your engine acts like a dishwasher, and synthetic is the detergent. Your motor is always clean because you don't have a chance for buildup.

The real question is what brand and weight of oil have you been using for your cars entire life? With that kind of miles, if you've run non-brand or Quaker State (the king of engine buildup), then I cannot recommend you do the synthetic change. If you've run quality oil, like Havoline, Valvoline, Mobil, etc., then the synthetic change will not be so bad. Also, if you change your oil every 3000 miles you won't have as much buildup as a motor run for 5000 or greater lengths between oil changes.

Ummmm, I did a switch to Royal Purple cold-turkey and haven't had any problems. Not that I'm doubting you MN6WS6, but that's actually the first time I've heard that. Does make sense though.

[MN6WS6]

The question is the mileage. If you run Mobil 1 dino oil, or some other quality oil (like I said) for 30k or so, and you change your oil frequently (like I said), there probably won't be an issue with it. But if you have a 100k mile quaker state motor with 5g's between oil changes, you better be shopping on ebay for a replacement motor because you're gonna need one before your next oil change. It's all about the quality of oil you use, how often you change it, how hard you are on the car, a LOT of things affect the way you should do it. But the general rule that I've always heard is 4-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-4, then full synthetic. I only run full synthetic in my bike and my bird, and my van with 269,600 miles on dino oil is not even in the BALLPARK of considering a changeover to synthetic

(P.S. I bought that van with 269,401, so I don't wanna hear any lip about it )

[Jeanius]

The question is the mileage. If you run Mobil 1 dino oil, or some other quality oil (like I said) for 30k or so, and you change your oil frequently (like I said), there probably won't be an issue with it. But if you have a 100k mile quaker state motor with 5g's between oil changes, you better be shopping on ebay for a replacement motor because you're gonna need one before your next oil change. It's all about the quality of oil you use, how often you change it, how hard you are on the car, a LOT of things affect the way you should do it. But the general rule that I've always heard is 4-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-4, then full synthetic. I only run full synthetic in my bike and my bird, and my van with 269,600 miles on dino oil is not even in the BALLPARK of considering a changeover to synthetic

(P.S. I bought that van with 269,401, so I don't wanna hear any lip about it )

What makes Quaker State so bad?

[wolfdogs]

What makes Quaker State so bad?

its parafin based (sp) wax...... gums up your motor in heat

get to where you are using pure mobil 1.

corvette comes from the factory with it..in fact, if you dont use it..it voids your warranty. my got comes factory with it too.....it even has the mobil one oil cap on it......

best oil there is.

[MN6WS6]

I didn't know what Quaker State was made up that causes it's problems, so my anti-Quaker State stance is because I have seen firsthand what kind of damage it can cause. <80,000 mile Ford 302 that had valvetrain so caked in crud that there were molds of the rocker arms in the sludge stuck on the valve covers. Also, so much oil was caked in there that it blocked passages, causing the front of the crankshaft just aft of cylinders one and two to BREAK IN HALF and took out the ENTIRE FRONT MAIN with it, because it was causing the oil to back out of the fill tube and the sump to become dry leaving the crank exposed with no oil.

[BadWS6]

Pennzoil is nasty also

[blackthunder50]

The question is the mileage. If you run Mobil 1 dino oil, or some other quality oil (like I said) for 30k or so, and you change your oil frequently (like I said), there probably won't be an issue with it. But if you have a 100k mile quaker state motor with 5g's between oil changes, you better be shopping on ebay for a replacement motor because you're gonna need one before your next oil change. It's all about the quality of oil you use, how often you change it, how hard you are on the car, a LOT of things affect the way you should do it. But the general rule that I've always heard is 4-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-4, then full synthetic. I only run full synthetic in my bike and my bird, and my van with 269,600 miles on dino oil is not even in the BALLPARK of considering a changeover to synthetic

(P.S. I bought that van with 269,401, so I don't wanna hear any lip about it )

Well, I havent changed the oil yet and I feel uncomfortable knowing Ive ran Quaker State in my car. What do you suggest I do for the next oil change, as I want to get the maximum life and performance out of the current motor? Thanks

[MN6WS6]

Man, that's hard to say. Some have said that Quaker State has changed their oil lately, but after Ken's comment (and he should know, he works for the "can't tell you or I'd have to kill you" department ), I'd be quickly figuring out what to do. I'd hate to tell you to pull the valve covers, but without knowing what's hidden in there that could come loose, it's hard to tell you to do one thing or the other. The valve covers were the telling story in the motor I pulled apart, because what shows up in there is gonna show up in the rest of the motor too. I can't safely tell you what to do. Maybe changing to Mobil 1 dino oil for a while would be a good option, but I really cannot tell you that it would be ok to do the synthetic change at this point. Maybe somebody else can tell you the safest way to do it without risking damage.

[blackthunder50]

Well, I know that the quaker state was only used for 7000 miles which was changed three times in that period since we got the car with 83000 on it. The previous owner used a different brand (well-known) and the only reason we I went quaker state is because my family has had good luck with it. But I want to protect this engine and want to give it the best. Steve said he went straight to royal purple, and it worked fine. However I will go with the 4-1, 3-2, etc... method.

[MN6WS6]

I don't know how many miles Steve had on his car when he changed either. Royal Purple is supposedly good stuff, but I don't run it because it costs too much money, and a couple of LS1 friends of mine had a bad blow-by problem with Royal Purple oil that disappeared when they changed to another brand (something about the rings or some mess, don't remember). Might want to look into that for the LT1 cars and see if the same problem exists.

[Jeanius]

its parafin based (sp) wax...... gums up your motor in heat

get to where you are using pure mobil 1.

corvette comes from the factory with it..in fact, if you dont use it..it voids your warranty. my got comes factory with it too.....it even has the mobil one oil cap on it......

best oil there is.

Even their new Q formulas? Ive only had this T/A for 3-4 months, I recently changed the oil for the first time (maybe 8-900 miles ago) to Quaker State Q High RPM and the car seems to run better than it did with whatever was in it be4, would you reccomend i change it asap? I also put the best filter they had at kragen which was a K&N in, would that make any difference? Thanks for the help!