Synthetic Oil

I've just recently switched from regular oil to synthetic oil in my venture. Has anybody else switched from regular oil to synthetic and have you noticed a big difference in how it runs, mileage and overall performance of the engine? Is there any cons?

Mike

I have started switching to synthetic oil in my vehicles this year. I first started with my Uplander. So far I haven't noticed and major differences, there is only 22,600 miles on it. If your van has high mileage, you might start noticing small oil leaks due to the detergent effect of the synthetic cleaning up sludge in the engine. That sludge may have been acting as a "plug" and once it has been cleaned away oil may start leaking out of the seals. I like synthetic because of it's properties and longer change intervals. I leave my oil in for 10,000 to 12,000 miles and change just the filter roughly half way through the period, and "top off" the oil level to make up the oil from the filter change.

I switched over to synthetic within a couple of months after buying our van in 2005 (it had about 92k miles) and haven't seen any adverse effects. I kept the same viscosity (5w30). Gas mileage hasn't changed either.
I run synthetic oil in all my vehicles.

Although many claim to "notice" some difference when going to synthetics. There should be no difference to the operator. I'ved used synthetics for over 20 years and 30+ years for my predecessors.

I bought the venture with 30k and went right to Amsoil's 0w30 until about 100,000 when I am using the 5w30 Amsoil.