thoughts? The mechanic at the oil change place recommended regular if I plan on keeping the car short-term and synthetic if I plan on keeping it more long-term.
Regular vs synthetic oil
- Thread starter BIGOSUFAN
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Not a mechanic.. but, that seems reasonable to me. I'm starting to think the biggest benefit to synthetic might be the longer change intervals, assuming you aren't racing the car or putting it under some other severe stress. The linked video below shows how a synthetic appears to maintain its cold weather properties at the end of its change interval, whereas the conventional oil had really thickened. Granted, they chilled those samples down to -35degF to make that video... If you're a car guy and have no problem getting motivated to change your oil on a 3k to 5k interval, then conventional might be the way to go, especially if you live in a reasonably warm climate. People have driven cars for hundreds of thousands of miles on conventional oil, so I think it's a hard sell sometimes for synthetic. I have a newer car that calls for 0W-20, which only comes in a synthetic, so the decision was simplified for me.
Synthetic is a much superior product.
Natural oil generally starts to break down at 195 degrees and loses it lubricating properties. That is why it is necessary to change it frequently.
Synthetic oil doesn't start to break down until around 500 degrees, which would burn your motor up if it got that hot. The only reason you would even need to change synthetic oil is because of the dirt and particulates that get into the oil. That is why you can run it much longer.
To me it's a no brainer, oil that doesn't lose it's lubricating properties to an oil that almost immediately starts losing its lubricating properties.
Natural oil generally starts to break down at 195 degrees and loses it lubricating properties. That is why it is necessary to change it frequently.
Synthetic oil doesn't start to break down until around 500 degrees, which would burn your motor up if it got that hot. The only reason you would even need to change synthetic oil is because of the dirt and particulates that get into the oil. That is why you can run it much longer.
To me it's a no brainer, oil that doesn't lose it's lubricating properties to an oil that almost immediately starts losing its lubricating properties.
I worked at a major tire store with reputable mechanics that I became friends with. One mechanic (50 something year old guy who was a lifelong mechanic) had 7 cars and used nothing but Mobil 1 full synthetic. Since then, I have done the same. I have a 9 year old supercharged Mustang GT with 46k on the clock. Still runs like a champ and blows the doors off some SS Camaros.
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