Synthetic oil

[rogerk]

A mechanic told me that once you have used synthetic motor oil in your engine that you cannot go back to using regular motor oil. I asked him why and he didnt have a reason why. Has anyone heard of this? I dont see any harm in going from fully synthetic to regular oil, but Im not a car mechanic.

[mattm]

You can switch back and forth as much as you want. It's a myth.

The thought was that synthetic oil made the seals expand and when you go back to regular oil they shrink back and cause leaks. It's a load of crapola.

[ct2]

Once you put synthetic oil in your engine you cannot ever go back because :

once you use synthetic oil , you will be used to paying $5.50 a quart,and your engine wont know how to act on that cheap $2.50 a quart oil

[doglips]

I've been useing the "high milage" synthetic blends...they are a mix of synthetic and regular oil....so dont see how switching from synthetic to plain oil would cause a problem with them not mixing....since they sell it in a mixed formula....Im too cheap to buy full synthetic

[rogerk]

Thanks guys. Its funny how the news likes to do shows on how HVAC companies rip off the public. Why not expose auto mechanics and the like. I cringe every time I have to take my truck to the shop. Last time I took it to the dealership was because the "come bend over" light, or more commonly know as the "check engine" light came on. They called me after 5 hours and said they found a small leak in one of my hoses, but that they inspected my truck and found a list of other major problems. The total to fix it all was $600.00. I told them not to do anything to my truck and I went and picked it up, and told them what a scam they had going. I dont thing they gave a darn becasue the place was packed with other customers willing to pay for whatever they recommended. I just recently went to firestone and I asked how much for a brake job. Guy rattled off a list of what was needed to do my brakes for $700.00. I then asked how much for just pads and adjust the rear brake drum. Oh, thats only $120.00. I wish I could find an honest mechanic. Is there such a thing?

[mcr]

Don't go to those "chain'" shops. They pay next to nothing per hr. but pay large commission's on selling. lot's of dealerships are like that with the commission thing.

[dec]

ya I know what your saying as far as finding a mechanic you can trust. It always cost an arm an a leg for things that used to only cost a few hundred bucks 6 years ago. I dont wonder why being we all know......its flat rate pricing. Who hasnt gone to flat rate , and why did they go to flat rate?????? Thats really not a question, if your flat rate you know why. A lot like charging flat rate it just sucks having to pay it. A lot say , heck at least I know what it is going to cost......ya right with the auto mechanic he makes you sign that form saying if there are any other costs come up fixing what he quoted , you have to pay that too. Thing is with those guys they dont give your truck back till you pay them.

Its just a differant world and anymore you dont really know who you can trust in my opinion.

[The Penguin]

Buddy of mine has a tranny shop
flat rate rebuild trans around 3K give or take.

They can have a ford tempo trans out in 15 min repaired or "rebuilt" in about 1hr and back in in about 1hr so 2.5 hrs work plus parts = 3K

Can't beat em join em I say - go flat rate

[mcr]

Originally posted by The Penguin
Buddy of mine has a tranny shop
flat rate rebuild trans around 3K give or take.

They can have a ford tempo trans out in 15 min repaired or "rebuilt" in about 1hr and back in in about 1hr so 2.5 hrs work plus parts = 3K

Can't beat em join em I say - go flat rate

The reason they can get that Tempo tranny out in 15 min. is because the thing will fall out from rust and rot when the car goes up on a lift! I couldn't resist James & Smokin

[spotts]

the best synthetic........ by leaps and bounds. Use the others, your askin for trouble.

[smokin68]

Originally posted by spotts
the best synthetic........ by leaps and bounds. Use the others, your askin for trouble.

Yep...that's what my Harley gets....can't beat it.Good one MCR...I wouldn't put a tempo on my favorite cars list.
At least you can work on it unlike a CHEVETTE.

[mcr]

Originally posted by smokin68

Originally posted by spotts
the best synthetic........ by leaps and bounds. Use the others, your askin for trouble.

Yep...that's what my Harley gets....can't beat it.Good one MCR...I wouldn't put a tempo on my favorite cars list.
At least you can work on it unlike a CHEVETTE.

I'm not saying that the Chevette was anything special, but I believe it or not I've seen a couple of them that had the crap beat out of them and they refused to die. I had 1 customer who had a 76 model. He was a road and pipeline engineer who used it for a work vehicle.I acted like it was a monster, truck drove it over and through anything in his way. I remember putting a couple of oil pans on it.(about the worst job you could get on on of those things too!

[ct2]

article posted: September 3, 2004
written by: Eric Allred, Guest Writer

article edited: September 4, 2004
by Aircooled.Net Staff



Synthetic Oil Explained

Whether it's evil stuff or good stuff depends on who you talk to. And a lot of what you hear from backyard mechanics is rumor and myth. Myth # 1 is the claim that you don't have to change Synthetic oil as often as regular motor oil. Remember when Mobil 1 said you could go 25,000 miles between oil changes with synthetic oil? Notice they haven't said that for a good number of years? Keep that thought on the back burner for now... Myth #2 is that synthetic oil causes oil leaks. In this article I'm going to try to dispell these myths for you with the cold hard facts about the differences and similarities between dino vs. synthetic oil.

Let's talk first about what "dino" oil is (Dino is short for Dinosaur, which is when it started forming). Dino oil is created from something called "Base Stock". Base stock what the oil companies get after they have processed the crude oil that comes from the ground. From there, additives are combined with the Base Stock, to create our motor oil. There are 7 main additives which include anti-foaming agents, anti-corrosion, etc, etc. At the molecular level, dino oil contains molecules of varying sizes. Imagine the floor of a gymnasium covered with basketballs, baseballs, volleyballs, and beach balls. Now imagine that all those different size "balls" are moving around, flowing past the floor. Every time a ball surface contacts the floor surface, the ball absorbs heat from the floor. That is how oil removes heat from your engine components, from surface to surface contact.

Now imagine the same gymnasium floor covered in uniformly sized golf balls. Smaller, more uniform molecules can absorb more heat from a surface, because there are more of them AND they have a larger surface to volume ratio which means they have more surface area contact. That's what synthetic oil is. A man-made "Base Stock", where all the molecules are the same size, and smaller than those in dino oil. Better heat transfer, better lubricating properties, and a lot wider temperature range without breakdown, are now obtained.

Myth #1 debunked

Oil does not break down under normal use. This is true of both dino and synth oil and is also the reason why you take oil to the Recycling Center and not the trash dump. So if oil itself doesn't ever degrade, why do we have to change it? The answer is twofold: additives and contamination. It will probably surprise you to learn that synthetic oil has all the same additives that dino oil has! The additives in oil DO break down, which is part of what necessitates oil changes. The other reason for regular oil changes is that with use, motor oil becomes contaminated (dirt, water, acids, etc). Using synthetic oil does not protect against either of these problems, which is why you CANNOT go further between oil changes when running a synthetic. You should still change your synthetic oil at the same intervals as you do with dino oil. Anyone want to guess how many claims Mobil 1 had to pay to people that were going 25,000 miles between changes?

Myth #2 debunked

Synthetic oil causing oil leaks is another commonly spread myth. The truth of the matter is that if all your engine seals and gaskets are in good condition, synthetic oil will NOT leak in your engine. The myth started because on occasion, an engine will leak with synthetic oil, but not dino oil. The reason for this is that the smaller molecules of the synthetic are able to get past very small crevices, where the larger molecules of dino oil cannot. But this does not mean that the synthetic oil has caused the leak, it simply has "discovered" an infant leak, and regardless of what oil you are running, this infant leak will eventually grow to a size that will allow dino oil to occupy and pass also. Synthetic oil has not been shown to deteriorate engine seals or gaskets. It is not some evil solvent that will break down sealant, or anything like that. Like was said earlier, it is just a man-made base stock, that is uniform and smaller in molecule size than dino oil. Nothing more, nothing less.

ADVANTAGES OF RUNNING SYNTHETIC OIL in AIRCOOLED ENGINES
So if you are asking yourself "What's the point of running synthetic oil, if you can't change it less often?" Here's your answer in a nutshell.

Since synthetic oil has better heat transfer qualities than dino oil, your internal engine temperatures will be lower. Things like bearings, especially, will not operate at as high of a temperature as a result. The wider range of temperatures that synthetic oil can withstand is well suited for the air-cooled VW engine. With head temperatures normally between 300-350 degrees, synthetic will not breakdown while lubricating the valvetrain components at the heads. The better lubricating properties of synthetic in general will lead to a longer engine life as well. On average, when synthetic oil is run in an air-cooled VW engine, head temperatures stay the same, but engine oil temps reduce by anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees. This is in engines that have all the correct cooling tin in place, and are not suffering from overheating to begin with. Important note: Do not run synthetic to fix a hot running engine. Find the real reason it's running hot, and fix it!

Another benefit is that since synthetic oil is man-made, it can be tailored to suit a wider range of needs. Synthetic oil is now being made is such weights as 5w50, and 0w30, weights that are not possible to achieve with dino oils.

At Aircooled.Net we recommend that you run synthetic oils in all cases, with one exception: you should continue to run dino oil (and change it every 1k miles) if your car still has the stock oiling system.

In transmissions we can not praise synthetics enough; RUN IT, especially if you live somewhere that gets cold (under 30F/0C).

There is one thing I need to clarify though -- if you are not running an oil filter, there really is no point to using synthetic since your oil is going to become contaminated very quickly. Your engine will still benefit somewhat from it, but due to the higher cost of synthetic oil, the gain of running it before it becomes contaminated is negligible. Oil change intervals range from 1000-3000 miles in the VW engine with a strainer (not a filter). VWoM (Mexico) recommends 1k mile intervals on non-filtered engines; keep this in mind for your pride and joy! But on the flip side, the stock VW engine only takes 2.5 qts anyways, it's not going to break you if you do want to run synthetic!



Eric Allred, Aircooled.Net Guest Writer






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