synthetic oil

Oil change light came on yesterday. I wanna run synthetic oil this time round. But i have a few questions about that. Can i go straight from regular oil to synthetic? I use Castrol GTX 5W-30 right now...would it be bad if i just switch all of the sudden? Also i was told that once you use synthetic you cant use anything but synthetic ever again. Is that true? Any answers, help, advice, or personal experiences anyone can provide is appreciated.

Gooman

How many miles? The main issue is that with regular the engine has "worked" the regular into grooves / scuffs, ect. and if you switch to something with a higher viscoscity, it could wash out those fillings / cause problems with compression, ect. These problems are varied, and there's no real rules about how many miles / what types, ect. It's just generally a bad idea to switch from regular oil to fully synthetic on any vehicle with significant miles. I would go to synthetic blend, honestly. It's not so harsh a change, but still gives you most the advantages of fully syth. I ran regular in my GA forever, and at about 37,000 miles I switched over to QS synth-blend "high rpm" oil, and have using that for the last 11,000 miles. No problems at all, and I swear it's helped a tiny bit with power. Just a tiny bit. The stuff's like water after it gets heated up.

Alright my man. It always boils down to you answering my questions. i have less than 20k on the engine. I thought about using a synthetic blend. Quaker State makes a good Synth blend? The little bit of extra power would be nice i suppose. I just have the mentality that im gonna run high quality motor oil in my car since its new and worth taking care of. My old car leaked oil like a SOB and i just didnt care because it was in its dying days.

So go with a synth blend you think? About how much am i looking at spending for 5 quarts? And what type of power gains? Will they even be noticeable? Thanks brother.

LoL no problem. I think I've just gotten lucky. There's always tons of great guys ready to answer your questions; I just happened to beat them to you :)

Yeh, QS and Mobile 1 both make good synth blend. 5 quarts should run you 25-ish $$$. As far as gains, I would say 1 to 2 hp "freed". It's not noticeable until the engine heats up. Once your engine reaches its operating temp, the viscoscity of the oil increases pretty significantly, and works great. You'll also get minUtely better mileage.

I run full synthetic, castrol 5w30 in the winter and 20w50 in the summer, have not had any problems, and when I replaced the timing chain and guides and all that other fun stuff associated with a head gasket, the guides were showing little to no signs of wear. And I started running it when I had around 50k, just jumped right to full synthetic, no problems whatsoever.

Alright thanks guys. I think i go with Quaker State Synthetic Blend 5w30. Appreciate the help.

I run mobil 1. I is by far the best off the shelf synthetic you can buy (excluding such harder to find brands as royale purple, amisol and redline)

It is not a bad idea to switch to full synthetic, you might want to go with half and half the first change then to full the next. its up to you.

Now for the VAST majority of synthetics on the market (such as Castrol Syntec, Valvoline Max Life etc) are all now Group III oils, which are essentially "cracked" group II fossil oils. Where as mobil 1 is a PAO Group IV FULL synthetic like full on race oils (such as Amsoil, Royal Purple and Redline).

Now, if you are cheap and/or a more "normal" driver and don't want to pay for a full synthetic, Most name brand Fossil oils are almost the same. Castrol GTX seems to have a slight advantage over other conventionals in performance oriented applications since it reportedly has a high flash point and better high temperature performance, but still not even on the level of a Group III synthetic (let alone a Group IV).
And do NOT bother with synthetic blends...........they cost almost as much as some full synthetics, but offer only about 5% more protection than a good conventional oil.

On to oil filters:

Oil filters are not as important as actual oil choice, but even there, not all filters are created equally.

Do NOT use Frams. They are shit...........

At the LEAST, use a decent conventional filter like an AC Delco, Wix, Or Purolator Pure 1.

And for the best protection, K&N and Mobil 1 filters (both made by Champion Labs) are the BEST (but you WILL pay for it). K&N is more flow biased, the M1 more towards filtration...........both are good choices for anyone though (if you want to pay ~$10 per filter).

Here are a couple of links comparing oil FILTERS:

http://www.minimopar.net/oilfilterstudy.html

http://www.shoclub.com/lubrication-...on-oilpart5.htm