synthetic oil

I just bought a 99 villager with about 80000 miles on it, don't know how often they changed oil, van is in good shape though, Is it ok to put synthetic oil in it now or not. I hope to drive it till the wheels fall off it, I had a 93 with 215,000 miles on it and never used synthetic oil, just changed oil every 3000. How often with synthetic do you change it and what kind is the best? Thanks

IMHO synthetic oils are a waste of money unless you own a race car. If synths were truly cost effective, i.e. making your engine last longer, all the fleet operators such as taxi fleets, UPS trucks, and others would be using it.

Hold on there Son, I disagree.

I just started using synthetic oil in my 2001 Tacoma. The engine runs allot cooler and I did notice some gain in my gas mileage. I use Royal Purple $6.00 a quart (its not for the squemash or cheap skates out there).

Generally Royal Purple recommends changing the oil every 12,000 mile, Yes, thats not a typo, thats 12000 miles. Of course you still change your filter every 3000 miles and just make up the difference with new oil.

As for starting using Synthetics on a car that has 88000 miles, I have heard that the older the engine, synthetics are usually not recommended. Since these types of engines have so much internal wear, it appears the oil is being lost. This maybe true, because synthetics are very thin and seap through everthing inside the engine. (2 cents)

I've got Synthetic oil in my 1996 Buick Park Avenue. I bought it about a week ago with 147,000 miles and one of the first things I did was change to 10-30 Valvoline synthetic. That's to hold me till payday and I get the Amsoil for it. I also have a 1993 Park Avenue Ultra that I got at 88,000 miles and put synthetic in it right away. Never uses a drop of oil from changes. Oil pressure is around 40-45 lbs and it has 120,000 miles on it.

My wife's car is a 1993 Chevy Lumina with that 3.1 L engine. We got it when it had around 128,000 miles on it. I put Synthetic oil in it as well and it now has 211,000 mile on it and runs great!! Makes about 34.6 MPG average on our last trip back to Nebraska. I put Valvoline regular 10-30 Oil in it one time and the gas mileage DOCUMENTED by me, was only around 31 MPG. So, switched back to synthetic. If regular "dino" oil was 25 cents/quart I'd still buy synthetic as it's cheaper!! Why? 3000 miles at 31 MPG would take 96.774 gallons of gas for the 3000 miles X $3.00/gal that's = $$290.32 for those 3000 mile. With Synthetic I get 34+ mpg.. so lets just say 34 mpg and figure the same 3000miles. at 3000 / 34mpg =88.235 gallons of gas for 3000 miles X $3.00/gal = $264.70 so the $290.32 -$264.70 = $25.62 divide that by 5 qts = $5.12 So if I got the oil free, it would cost me 5.12 / qt in lost savings on just 3000 miles. not including filter. However, I run mine around 12,000 miles and many run 25,000 miles between oil changes and there is where you have significant savings.

Now, top that off with reduced engine wear by a DOCUMENTED 34% on in depended lab tests, and cooler running engine, you really CAN'T afford to run cheap dino oil in a vehicle at these gas prices.

Do you know every military aircraft you see in the sky has synthetic oil? Most military vehicles run synthetic oil.. has higher heat range.. from pour point of -65 F to up around +425 range. Synthetic oil was around long before Amsoil started selling it for automobiles. It's designed to have consistent sized molecules with freedom from paraffin waxes. Regular oils cannot remove the paraffin waxes from the oil and as a result they "congeal" at very low temperatures and make it hard to pump oil to parts of the engine in a cold start. Dino oil has variety of different size molecules. Smaller ones get vaporized fairly quickly. That is called "volatility". Extra large ones sometimes become varnished onto parts of the engine. Some of the remaining chemicals left from refining cannot be refined out, and as such things like sulfuric acid actually corrode parts of the engine. Normal oils are not such a good thing.

I just switched to Penzoil Platinum full synthetic in my '01 Villager, with almost 90k. No problems so far, gas mileage seems a little better. With the price of dino oil now, synthetic is definitely the way to go. You don't have to change it as often, so it actually works out to be CHEAPER than dino oil.