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Switching from MOBIL 1 SYNTHETIC...OK?


gmrulz4u

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I've been using Mobil 1 Synthetic in my 89 Supreme 2.8L for almost a year now...but I'm getting pretty sick and tired of the high cost...and was considering switching to one of the Higher Mileage vehicle oils, such as Valvoline, Castrol, or Pennzoil.

 

My engine has 213,000 KMs(133,000 Miles) on it. One reason I switched to Mobil 1 Synthetic was because of the super cold winter mornings...it always made me feel better knowing that my oil would flow at sub zero temperatures...especially since I live in apartment and never would have a chance to really warm the engine up before driving to work in the winter mornings...

 

But now since I have a remote starter, I will definately be letting my engine run for at least 5 minutes on the super cold mornings in the winter...

 

Right now, the oil alone after taxes is costing me almost $50 CDN. Unless I am able to snap some up at Wal-Mart(always sold out), in which case it would only be about $40 CDN. Because here in Ontario, Wal-Mart sells Mobil 1 in 5 Litre jugs while everywhere else only sells 4 Litre jugs for the SAME price! And since I need about 4.5 Litres, I'm always having to purchase an extra 1 Litre container...

 

The High Mileage oils, which apparently are semi-synthetic anyways, are less than half the cost of Mobil 1.

 

So is it OK to switch? I pretty much know it's OK...but I'm just looking for advice...

 

PS When ever my engine has been running a lot, and is hot, sometimes right after I re-start it, it will have the annoyingly loud KNOCK and won't go away until after driving for a couple of minutes...it never KNOCKS when cold at all? What is this again??

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The high mileage oils should work good in your car. My 2.8 has more mileage than yours and I use the semi-cheapest oil I can find (I just change it more often).

 

I also ran synthetic (castrol syntec) once and then changed back to regular oil cause of the price and it didn't do anything bad to the engine.

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I forgot one other thing, the Mobil 1 Synthetic was 10w30...should I go to 5w30 for the High Mileage Oils? Especially since I live in Canada?

 

I just saw that Wal-Mart has the Pennzoil High Mileage oil on Sale for $11.97 CDN for 4.73 Litres... :D

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I don't want to get into one of those useless oil debates...

 

I've read too many things online about how GOOD Pennzoil is or how BAD Castrol is or how GOOD Valvoline is or had BAD Mobil is etc...etc...

 

One person will say how Castrol made their engine loud and the next reply will be how Castrol made their engine perform better and it just keeps going on and on like that...

 

Pennzoil and Quaker State are the same company you know...so are you saying stay away from Quaker State as well??

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$4.99 Canadian tire brand oil can withstand my high RPM daily beatings.. what matters more is that you change it when you should and what kind of oil filter you use...

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yeah the oil debate is very annoying. I used Pennzoil which burned more, so now I use Castrol and have had better luck with it.

 

The difference in 5w-30 and 10w-30 is very very minimal. Primarily I know it has to do with the temperature range. I was told by a mechanic that you should always use 5w-30 when the car is new and recommends it, but switch to 10w-30 after the motor is broken in(usually after 30-40K). I now use the Castrol High Mileage since the Cutlass has 82K on her. They had a sale last week at Autozone that included 5 quarts of high mileage Castrol with a Bosch premium oil filter for $13.99. I've been using A/C delco filters, but I gave Bosch a chance...hopefully not a bad decision!

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Just to demonstrate what I mean than, here's a few quotes copied and pasted from various automotive Forums:

 

"PPPS - Yes, Pennzoil High Mileage Vehicle IS available in 5W30. It's

base oil is better than Val Max-Life and it's additive package is more

effective as well."

 

"The Pennzoil High Mileage Vehicle formulas are fairly impressive. They

are thicker than most oils in a given weight. Add to that the ester

and a decent dose of molybdenum and you have a really good oil. You'll

probably notice a reduction in engine noise when you switch over to

this stuff, depending on what you are currently using."

 

"And yes, the high-mileage oils are essentially synthetic blends, even

though they are not marketed as such. I like the Pennzoil High Mileage

10W30 oil for most applications. A great motor oil for ~$2 per quart."

 

"Pennzoil High-Mileage Formula has all of the above and their 10W30 may

be just about ideal for your vintage Accord. I know Valvoline Max-Life

used to be an impressive oil ... but they pulled the molybdenum out of

it over a year ago"

 

"For that 70K mile Civic, I'd go with Pennzoil High-Mileage Vehicle. A

good group II+ (Pure Base) base oil with a higher viscosity than most

brands for a given weight, 80PPM molybdenum and a ~10% ester content

to act as a detergent and a seal conditioning agent. It's actually a

synthetic blend. Really good stuff for about $2 per quart."

 

 

I could go on and on and post a few dozen more but what's the point? I'm just demonstrating that for every product one person HATES, another one LOVES!

 

You like Castrol...I can copy and paste a whole crap-load of people stating how much they hate it and that it makes their engine idle rough or run loud at high RPMs etc...etc...

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why high milage oil?

 

 

is it really worth twice the price over a nomal oil?

 

 

 

didn't think so.

 

used maxlife, didn't cure my oil leak like the bottle claimed it would do....

 

 

98 cent oil for me!

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why high milage oil?

 

 

is it really worth twice the price over a nomal oil?

 

 

 

didn't think so.

 

used maxlife, didn't cure my oil leak like the bottle claimed it would do....

 

 

98 cent oil for me!

 

:werd:

 

My car doesn't burn a drop and I use whatever $10 oil I can get... often times I use GTX but I have no reason to switch to high mileage or any other fancy stuff. 100k miles is nothing.

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all you guys are using name brand oil but have any of you evet tried kendall oil

its the best thing ive found for my gp i used mobile1 for like a week and my motor started leaking that crap so i swapped the oil and filter for a k&n filter and tried kendall and i love it :D its the best regular oil ive ever used

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If you rmotor leaks oil, it's the oil's fault...

 

wtf are you smoking? I bet since my motr leaked it all out, the motor doesn't like it, it was trying to tell me. :lol:

 

How do you know kendell is good oil, cuz it doesn't leak?

 

:shock:

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Okay lets settle this once and for all.

 

SYNTHETIC OIL DOES NOT CAUSE ENGINES TO LEAK!!! At least not for any sort of mechanical reason. The main reason any engine will leak after switching to synthetics is because the synthetic cleans the engine out which effectively gets rid of the built up junk from your old oil that was clogging the holes that already existed.

 

I would imagine that the same would hold true for regular oils with a good adative package, the new oil cleans out the old crap thus starting engine leaks. Then you switch back the hole becomes plugged with crap again and you attribute it to the "crappy oil" that you switched to.

 

Man...

 

Oh, and Pennzoil, Quaker State, Shell Oil, STP, and Turtle Wax are all the same companies. ALL of their products are made at the set of refinaries. So if your inclined to hate one you may as well hate them all.

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If you go to a synthetic That cleans out all the "built up junk" that "junk" is going to go right into your oil pump pick-up screen and you will have a real problem. I would say stay away from cleaning oil's.

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i beg to differ on the Valvoline Max Life oil it doesn't seal the leaks after just 3 monthes. i've run it in my cutlass for 1.5 years now. the oil leaks Are sealed still burns a tiny bit of oil but ALL motors burn oil. I swear by the Valvoline Max life oil if your car has over 75000 miles.

trust me my cutlass was leaking like Hell. if your changing oils go with the Valvoline Max Life oil.

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okay, I'm reading this, and almost ashamed any of you change your own oils, with a little about the stuff as you know.

 

For starters, you CAN switch from a Synthetic to a non-synth. oil with not perminate adverse effects, and it goes the other way 'round as well.

 

If you have been running a fully synthetic oil and you switch to a standard oil, you will find that you will lose a good ammount of power because of the larger molecules of the oil. They will not fit into the smaller cracks of the moving parts that the synthetic oils will. After time your power will return to normal as the oil is forced into these cracks.

 

If you were to switch to synthetic oils, they will fill these larger cracks that the conventional oil will allow to be made due to friction, causing a bit of an oil consumption issue, but that's only temporary untill the synthetic oil can penetrate into the metal itself, filling these cracks.

 

also the smaller molecules of the synthetic oils will be able to seep through the existing cracks leading to external areas in the engine, changing to a thicker, conventional oil will only mask an already existing problem which in turn could cause major leaks down the road.

 

Also, fully synthetic oils are safer on rubber seals, and o-rings, as you all know, oil and other fossel based fuels and lubricants are bad for rubber, and most synthetic oils are not fossel based for the most part.

 

Semi-synthetic oils and "high milage" oils are made from 75% or higher content of recycled and re-refined used oils, so remember, it's probably already been in someone elses engine.

 

I noticed someone else said something to the effect of: if you find one person who likes one oil, you can find someone else who hates it. That's true of everything, I noticed that one of his quotes mentioned a Civic, I'm sure most of the Civic croud wouldn't touch a W-body if their lives depended on it, and I'm sure it's the same the other way 'round too.

 

Personally (my opinion now) I've only run, and will only run Mobil 1 full synthetic oil in every one of my cars, 10-40 in the summer, and 0-30 in the winter, living in MN we see some of the same sub zero tempatures that you can see in Ontairo.

 

I would suggest that continue to use whatever oil you are using, if you are using synthetic, and want to switch, then just switch, find something YOU like, and make sure that it is NOT a non-detergent oil.

 

remember, finally folks, ALL oil has detergent in it, unless it's designated as a "non detergent" oil, with is used mostly in lawnmowers, and other household 4-stroke eingines.

 

If you get a non-detergent oil, expect that your engine will die a very premature death due to the fact that ALL engines have blowby, especially at higher RPM's. This blowby of combustion gasses, and even some of the raw gasoline getting by the rings is what can turn your oil into an acid and the detergents will help to trap this acid. When that happens, the detergents start to turn black.

 

With non-synthetic oils, I'd change the oil way more often, say every 3000 km rather then every 5000km.

 

but that's just my $.02 plus $.02, plus $.02 ...

 

--DaveFromColorado.

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