Posted by Todd Wilson on Friday, April 02, 2004 at 12:42PM :
In Reply to: Re: Amsoil. Is it worth it? posted by Bob in NY on Thursday, April 01, 2004 at 11:18PM :
Sounds like a sale pitch to me. Did you read all this straight out of your Amsoil Manual?
First off I'll say Synthetic oils are great.
A few things that I have discovered with the use of sythentic oils in various vehicles are older vehicles and higher mileage vehicles do not take to synthetic oils very good and sometimes do not at all.
If your engine is an older engine with older gaskets and you put sythetic in it you will notice leaks. The older gasket material isnt as good as the new material and the synthetic will work its way out. Synthetic oil "weeps" which means it crawls along metal surfaces. You put synthetic on an oil can and put it on a shelf the oil can will be dry in 6 months. It will weep out of older style gaskets.
Synthetic oil in high mileage engines is not a good thing either. The oil is very thing on startup and extra slick compared to dino oil. You probably wont have much if any oil pressure. I have seen this 2 times on older vehicles. Decided to change to syntehtic becuase its such a good oil and one engine didnt make it and the other got fresh oil drained and dino put back into it and is running to this day just fine.
As for dino oils being down there with asphalt last I knew heavy/gas oil was below the lub oils on the catlyst chain with coke being at the bottom. The heavy gas/oil would be used to make other things like wax and asphalt. And they dont take this lube oil from the refinery and put it in bottles and stick on the walmart shelf. Each oil company refines the oil even more.
Parafin is a class that contains many different chemicals.
As for wax or "parafin wax" was in dino oils there hasnt been a problem with that for 25 or more years. Pennzoil was famous for that. Engines tore down years ago would have wax/crust all caked around rocker arms and in the lifter valley.
I've run Valvoline in many of my vehicles with no troubles. Changed intakes on one after 10 years of use and it was as clean as the day it came back from the machine shop.
I do run synthetic in my Honda Prelude used for commuting. Was less hassle for me to go double the miles. I run synthetic in my 95 Ram with no troubles. Also run it in the old ladys 2 new cars she has had.
Synthetics are great oils. If introduced in an engine early I think its the way to go. It will give you better protection in a situation where the engine overheats.
I wouldnt put it in a diesel or a high mileage vehicle.
As for going longer intervals without changing the oil I think this probably would be ok in a new fuel injected engine. Where you have better control over fuel mixtures.
On a carbed engine maybe a little longer then dino.
Todd