[lkurek]

First, suggesting thicker oil than recommended in the manual is a crutch. Granted, the piston slap noise that these engines have cold doesn't hurt anything, although it is a NVH issue....that I think GM fixed in later models. It won't hurt anything, so don't sweat it....assuming it *is* piston slap.

On another note, synthetic oil is WELL worth the extra money. If you are planning on keeping your vehicle for any length of time, switch ASAP. You can always go back to regular oil whenever, but you won't want to.

I use synthetic in all my cars and swear by it. When I work on anybodies car, I can tell right away if they use conventional or synthetic. The sludge buildup and wear in a synthetic motor is next to nothing. As a point of reference, I have a 1995 Lumina with a 3100 engine. I have used synthetic in it since I bought it around 80K miles. It just flipped over to 200K, and it is still running perfect, knocking down 26+ mpg, and just passed the emissions test with a fast pass last weekend. Motor still looks brand new internally....

YMMV.....