Switching to Synthetic..bad?

[livinincalifornia]

My car is due for an oil change in 100 miles and since I have the day off I might as well do it today. I got some free oil from my friend who is a mechanic and it's Havoline 5w-30 Synthetic. Some of you might know but I have a JDM D15B that has somewhere around 30k? miles and 3,000 in my car. Is it safe to go to synthetic or would I risk burning oil which is the whole reason why I got the engine transplanted. The engine oil it has in it now is regular 10-30w. What do you guys think?

[clawhammer]

I think it should be fine. Higher mileage engine tend to delelop leaks, but 30k should be fine.

[joebowlr21]

If you start burning oil thats becuase the condition of the engine and how you run it, not based off what kind of oil is used in it.I'm running Royal Purple 10-30w which is a fully synthetic along with a mobil one synthetic oil filter.i also use lucas synthetic oil stabilizer.Now i'm running a dohc zc in my Crx and when i got it it would burn about a quarter of a quart of oil every 2 months.That was when i was using normal oil.Once i switched over along with the Lucas it has never burned since then.I've been using this oil combination since Jan. and have noticed my car does run an idle much smoother.The only problem i have now is that my valves need to be adjusted because they are getting a little noisy.

You will notice a slight increase in performance to when you switch over to synthetic oil after a few oil changes.

[livinincalifornia]

do you need a specialized "synthetic" oil filter, or do regular oil filters work fine?

[Kven]

regular ones work fine.

[EF You]

you shouldnt have any problems, and dont worry about that old wives tale that "if you go synthetic you cant go back". you could go back and forth each oil change if you wanted. synthetic oil is 100 percent compatible with conventional oil, thus the sale of "synthetic blend" which is basically 50/50 of the two.

as far as going with 5w30, you should be fine. ive noticed that my two VTEC cars actually run better with thinner oil, so i run 0w20 mobil (which is their performance oil for 5w20 cars, like ford and honda recommend) in both of them. higher mileage cars that are starting to leak wouldnt really do well with an oil that thin, mostly because it will leak out faster, same goes for ones that already burn oil.

you will have no problem running that oil, as they both have the same viscosity at operating temperature, the 5w is just a little thinner when its cold.

[livinincalifornia]

Originally Posted by incucivic

you shouldnt have any problems, and dont worry about that old wives tale that "if you go synthetic you cant go back". you could go back and forth each oil change if you wanted. synthetic oil is 100 percent compatible with conventional oil, thus the sale of "synthetic blend" which is basically 50/50 of the two.

as far as going with 5w30, you should be fine. ive noticed that my two VTEC cars actually run better with thinner oil, so i run 0w20 mobil (which is their performance oil for 5w20 cars, like ford and honda recommend) in both of them. higher mileage cars that are starting to leak wouldnt really do well with an oil that thin, mostly because it will leak out faster, same goes for ones that already burn oil.

you will have no problem running that oil, as they both have the same viscosity at operating temperature, the 5w is just a little thinner when its cold.

thanks, changed it today and wow the old oil was really dark even darker than my old transmission oil that who knows when it's been changed. I'll keep updated if something out of the ordinary happens.

[BLU CIVIC]

i was told that u'd need a special oil filter for synthetic oil...also...5w30 is ideal for Hondas...says so under the hood ...but most use 10w30...itz kinda like all season oil

[EF You]

an oil filter is an oil filter. theres really not a big difference in any brands of filters, except the build quality of a few that really suck. i wish i could find the site, but theres a guy with a 3rd gen prelude who tested like 30 different filters on his car, and then took filters apart to compare what they were made of internally. if im not mistaken, most of the fram filters were junk. and the filters made by purolator were some of the best

[91CRXTC]

i remember reading something about that but dont remember the out come.

joebowlr21 is the lucas oil stablizer and additive to the oil or would u use one less quart of oil and add the lucas to make 4 full quarts?

I use Mobile 10w40 regular oil in my ZC with the fram super guard filter which is suppossed to be good for 7000 miles. I burn about a quart of oil every month or so depending on driving conditions. Anyone got any better ideas how not to burn oil.

My mech. says that ZC's burn oil to keep the motor alittle cooler TorF?

[icE_x]

zc's burn oil to keep the motor cooler, what kind of bs is that? that's what COOLANT is for rofl - i'd get a different mechanic

most definitely a false

[Greenblurr93]

"burns oil to keep the motor cooler".... im amazed your mechanic is still in business.... next he'll be telling you the best way NOT to burn oil is not to use any....

[BLU CIVIC]

Originally Posted by Greenblurr93

next he'll be telling you the best way NOT to burn oil is not to use any....

well it does make sense

[91CRXTC]

OK so that does sound false and i would think that a motor that supossedly had maybe 40-50k on it when i got it wouldnt burn a quart of oil a month so i am sketchy about the age of the motor, besides how can a motor from 89-90 only have 40-50k on it. Does anyone have any idea what i can do to burn less oil besides drain the oil out. LOL

[turtlecrxsi]

Originally Posted by 91CRXTC

Does anyone have any idea what i can do to burn less oil besides drain the oil out. LOL

rebuild it...