Synthetic oil is the best you can put in an engine. Blends are still an
improvement over straight mineral oil.
The only disadvantage to synthetic oils is the cost. Someone told me (and I
believe it) is if you want 100K out of your engine use regular oil and change
it every three thousand, if you want 500K do the same with synthetic.
I have a 86 Jag XJ6 with 175K. I use Castrol Synetec, but I know that the car
has had synthetic since new. Compression and oil pressure is still good, and
when I change the oil at 3000 it's still clean.
If you were to put synthetic in an older engine, you could have a problem.
The detergents in synthetic could remove deposits (false seals) and cause
leaks. Also , if there is a leak, because synthetic has lower surface tension
than mineral oil, the puddle on the ground looks bigger than that of mineral
oil.
All in all, synthetic gives better lubrication at all times. There is better
surface retention so there is less wear on a cold start, and less breakdown
and deposits.
Just don't follow the early ads and change every 25K.
Maynard Hirsch
78b
67B
86 XJ6
///
/// mgs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// (If they are dupes, this trailer may also catch them.)
|