synthetic vs. reg. oil?

I always wondered which is better to use either synthetic oil or regular. If anyone could help me out with this decision plez feel free to let me know and reply :wtf:

Okay, this is DEFINATELY in the wrong forum…

Hehe, neither, you shouldn’t put any type of oil on the outside of your car. Only on the inside! :wrong:

other than being in the wrong forum…

to answer your question, in my opinion synthetic is definitely the way to go. I used to work at a racing school where they used to use natural oil in the motors, they would only last about a year and a half. with the synthetic, they now last over three years. Enough proof? Sold me. Thats three years (6 months a year, it is canada after all) but six months of constant redline shifts, and over revs. The synthetic also saved at least two motors that threw their oil pump belts. They finished the lap with NO oil circulation and survived to race again, no doubt their lifespan was shortened, but with natural oil, they used to grenade a half lap after losing the belt.

Don

Synthetic is also a big advantage in extremely cold temps. Saves a lot of wear on the engine if the oil can get moving faster.

To change over from natural to synthetic do you have to do anything special or is it just like an oil change. And also, while on the subject, what oil filter do you guys recommend?

It’s a plain old oil change. And OEM Honda filters are pretty close to the best you can get. I used FRAM for a long time, but after having a closer look, they’re crap.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com

Read and learn.

Why is that ?

did Honda switch away from the Fram filters? I know at least last year their filters were made by Fram, except the S2k filter I think.

i think they still use fram, wish they still used filtec like the older filters

i run castrol 10-30 full synthetic in my 92 gsr

I hope you understand that you’re paying extra for a Group III oil marketed as a Synthetic.

I run Redline 10-30 in my 92 Prelude w/ 165,000 miles on it, and Mobil1 10-30 in my 92 teg w/ 170,000 miles on it. One thing I would highly recommend before switching to synthetic on a higher mileage car is to go down to your local parts store & get a product made by Valvoline called Engine Flush. It’s basically a degreaser you add in w/ your old oil & let your car idle for about 5 minutes, then drain immediately. This gets rid of all the nasty deposits that your old oil left behind. As far as which oil filter is the best, I used to use K&N, but I can’t buy them locally, so I put Carquest filters on both my cars, which are made by Wix, and they are supposed to be pretty good filters. Also, I work @ a dealership that uses AC Delco parts, does anyone know if their filters are any good? If they are, that’d be awesome because I can get them for virtually free.

There’s a section on oil filters.

WIX filteres are excellent in construction, components, design, and price.

I actually just attended a Castrol seminar. Very interesting. Some tips:

  1. The “W” ie. 10W 30 does not mean ‘weight’. It actually means the winter rating. Only synthetic oil can come in a 0W50 rating which is used high up north.

  2. So if the first number is the winter rating what does the second mean?? Viscosity rating. I run a 5W-50synthetic in my car. Cold winters here in canada but i rev the crap out of motor so i need a better viscosity oil.

  3. Synthetic AND conventional oil both have a base oil derived from crude oil. So despite what people say, you can mix them as they both have the same base, but why would you waste your money.

Not really so much “better” viscosity, but higher. Viscosity is the thickness of the oil.

So a transmission oil with a viscosity of 80 would protect it’s components better than a transmission oil with a viscosity of 30 because the 30 would be more likely to get thrown around by bumps and losing contact with the parts it’s trying to protect.

I use the same oil. Although it’s a Group III it still has most of the additives a synthetic would use, besides I get discounts on that oil so for me it’s worth it.

I wish that Castrol would pass on the savings by using less expensive Group III base stock to the consumer. Right now it retails for almost as much as Mobil 1 (Group IV/V based).

I have considered trying the 0W-30 German made Castrol Syntec though which is Group IV/V based.

I bought my Teg a few months ago with 160k on it. It ran rough at best. The first thing that I did was flush the engine with Valvoline’s oil flush. Then when I changed the oil, I used 3quarts of Mobile1 10w30 and a quart of Lucas. I used a Napa Gold filter (made by WIX), and it’s running great. I just did my second oil change a few weeks ago (same stuff minus the flush), and it’s running great. Can’t believe how good it’s running compared to how it was, and for how many miles it has. This poor car was abused, and I’m trying to get er back in good condition.