Synthetic Vs Normal Oil

[rainsey]

Howdy,

Anyone got any particular advice on the use of regular mineral based oils for a Turbo Diesel engine and transmission vs the use of Synthetic. Am interested if Syntetic is going to give any advantage or better protection??

Any views welcome!!

Cheers

Rainsey

[BASSYK]

i changed to fully synthetic oil in my old RB30 skyline and found it did give me more power because it was thinner but it also leaked out a lot quicker
at $50+ per bottle its not good to have it leaking out

so id say it would be good if you know all of your seals are in good condition

[MQ080]

For petrol engines with DOHC, etc. regardless of the number of km’s I would be using at least a semi synthetic based oil for the simple fact that it can get around alot quicker at start up. This is where plenty of the damage is done. Oils designed for diesel engines usually employ a high number of detergents and up until the last couple of years haven’t needed to be state of the art. This is evident by the fact that the 1HZ and TD42 are still on the market without too much in the way of changes for over a decade. However with the increasing popularity of European engines into Aus oil burners such as VW’s V10 and Land Rover’s TD6 require different properties in their lubricants all together. That’s why you’ll find more and more oils available on the shelves in repco, etc. as these engines become more wide spread.

Each3-6 months at the moment there appears to be an “advancementâ€

[cuz]

I can't see that synthetic oil would be an advantage in a diesel,as they have a larger sump ,and the cost of changing it would buy alot of normal oil.
I have my 60 series 2H on RX super and it's done 909000 kms so far on an untouched bottom end.
When I was in Antarctica we used Mobil synthetic in all the outside vehicles purely because of its abilty to stand cold weather operation.

I don't really think it matters what brand/grade of oil you use ,as long as you don;t keep swaping brands(different additives) and change it regularly as diesel hate poor servicing.

[outlandy]

I have been lead to believe that new engines are designed to run on specific oils. e.g in theory if you run the oil in a holden commodore that holden specify, your engine should have minimum wear ( cant say wont wear) and disounting mechanical failure should last the life of the vehical. This is because they design bearings and stuff to match the oil and visa versa

[Fatpaj]

The main reason to change to a full synthetic oil is to increase the time between oil changes, if you change your oil every 5-7000km don't use synthetic it is ony a waste of money but if you want to increase changes to 15000km then use synthetic, I personly would prefer to change it every 5-7000km

Regards
Marty

[rainsey]

I don't really think it matters what brand/grade of oil you use ,as long as you don;t keep swaping brands(different additives) and change it regularly as diesel hate poor servicing

O/K then... this brings up a another point then. Re frequency of changing engine oil, i do it every 5000K. Re Engine oil, to date I have been doing most of my own due to cost and have been using Valvoline Super Diesel being a 15W/40 oil ( and at only 50 bucks for 20 litres it was cheap).

Prior to this I have had my truck at the shonky (they that will not be mentioned run of the mill franchise) that, because of their practices made me started to do my own services. Who knows what was used !

Does different brands actually matter if they are rated at the same API GL rating. What started this tread was that I am about to change my LSD dif oil and the Shell site suggested a synthetic oil with the requisite vendor additive.

Sooooo.... Is there one brand better than another i.e do you get what you pay for with oil (oils ain't oils Sol )..

If John Laws says that Valvoline is good it must be

Cheers

Rainsey

[Jeeps]

I use Mobile 1, it costs me over $100 every oil change but i only do an oil change every 15,000klm. I switched to Penzoil about 50k back for a bit but it ran like shit so i'm back to the good stuff.

[cuz]

The main reason to avoid changing brands is that some are low detergent,as if you run them,then swap to a high detergent brand it may clog things up.Used to be a big problem with using Castrol GTX as it would let sludge build up inside the engine.I've seen it alot. you put the rocker cover and end up having to scrap gundge off just to adjust the valves.
The other thing to do is change the oil filter with every change otherwise you're putting clean oil through a dirty filter,there not that expensive and that way you remove any built up crud thats trappedin the filter.

[rainsey]

Howdy all,

Found this.. the Engine Oil Bible... an interesting read

http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbible ... bible.html

Cheers

Rainsey

[MQ080]

That site wasn't too bad, what he also had to say on tyres was pretty good too!

[MereMale]

I didn't mind it either.
Opened my eyes on oils a bit, now just have to re read thru it all and learn some more about it all

Mere