Oil change

NIN · Apr 3, 2005

I'm going to do an oil change soon and I was wondering what I should use. Right now I have mobil 1 15w 50 in there. unfortunately I can't find that kind at my local walmart. just the extend milage formula. Should I be using 10w 30 or is it alright to stick with 15w 50? What brands do you guys use. i've been paying 20 bucks for 5 quarts at walmart. I don't think i've seen synthetic any cheaper then that.

DFG 5OH · Apr 3, 2005

I use 20w50. Cheap stuff...it thicker and burns slower, and can help slow leaks.

HISSIN50 · Apr 3, 2005

one really wants to run the thinnest oil that holds pressure at ALL times. or if one has another issue like excessive consumption, a thicker oil can help.

the M1 15W-50 is a thin 15 wt, so it would probably be alright, if your temps are not real cold (i bet it would do fine in cold weather, but why even use a thicker oil in cold).

good luck.

SeventyMach1 · Apr 3, 2005

15W-50.....

W = "Winter".......... not weight

95riosnake · Apr 3, 2005

I don't use anything fancy like Mobil, just (non-synthetic) Valvoline 10W-30 and a bottle of STP Oil Treatment.

DFG 5OH · Apr 4, 2005

95riosnake said:
and a bottle of STP Oil Treatment.

whats that do?

and my engine burns around 1 qt. between each change (3000 miles) so a thicker oil is the cool for me.

JJ95GTID · Apr 4, 2005

I have been using Castrol Syntech 5w30 for about 3yrs. My car loses a little less than a quart between changes. I just installed heads and inspected my cylinder walls...all still have cross hatches.

NIN · Apr 4, 2005

Am I wasting my money on synthetic oil? I heard it does a better job of lubrication. Does that oil treatment really help.

HISSIN50 · Apr 4, 2005

SeventyMach1 said:
15W-50.....

W = "Winter".......... not weight

is this directed at me? this is true, but would not be appropriate for what i posted above (when i referred to 15 in 15W-50 being a thin 15 weight). what i said was correct. based upon flow characteristics (pour points, etc), the 15 weight (the multi-weight oil's cold SAE flow characteristic) is like a ten weight.

the W or winter nomenclature came about when multi-weights came around (as opposed to the straight SAE 20, SAE 30, etc weights that used to be so very common). W is commonly accepted as meaning winter, but when referring to the base-weight, it is still a weight, not winter.

(and I still have no idea if you were posting that comment in regard to my reference, so if not, my apologies. ).

HISSIN50 · Apr 4, 2005

NIN said:
Am I wasting my money on synthetic oil? I heard it does a better job of lubrication. Does that oil treatment really help.

it is a personal choice. my thoughts: the EFI 302's can really heat the oil up (oil temps can get up to 40-75*+ higher than coolant temps on a hot day in traffic!). i personally dont like to let dino (conventional) oils see sustained 250*F temps. So a synthetic is nice for that. and i prefer a PAO or even PAE basestock over Gp III basestock.

some folks like to recoupe some cost of synthetic with extended OCI's.

most dino oils are so much better these days than they were even 10 years ago, it probably really does not matter. if one changes dino oil every 3-4K and 3-4 months, it is probably fine. it really comes down to a peace of mind thing.

my two cents.

95riosnake · Apr 4, 2005

matthiasj said:
whats that do?

and my engine burns around 1 qt. between each change (3000 miles) so a thicker oil is the cool for me.

The STP oil treatment basically helps your oil. It makes a coating over all the moving parts more so than just the oil does. To give you a little idea how well it works (and why I swear by it), I used to have a Chevy Blazer with a 4.3L V6, I was changing the oil one day, got all done, was pouring in the STP with the engine running (you put in 1 less quart of oil, add the STP while running, then top it off with oil), then remembered I forgot to put the drain plug back in, 5 quarts of oil on the floor! Basically for about 30 seconds, my engine was running on a half quart of the STP oil treatment. Me and a buddy of mine who was a chevy technician went through the motor the next day expecting to find lots of damage, but the engine was completely fine, no damage at all. Basically, if my blazer ran on only STP for 30 seconds and was fine, adding it to my regular oil is insurance that is too cheap to pass up.

NIN · Apr 4, 2005

do you guys believe in extended oil change inervals. I alway thought that dirt was the enemy. Can someone back this up or can extended intervals for an advertised 15,000 mile oil damage your engine. If you change the filter every 5,000.

DarkMesa8 · Apr 4, 2005

Back when I used synthetic in my last 5.0L, I just doubled the change intervals using Mobil 1. I now run dinosaur oil because this motor's gaskets leaked with synthetic.

Synthetic oils do last considerably longer as far as durability and breakdown is concerned, BUT contaminants are still entered into the system regardless and your filter will not catch all of them. The oil must be changed in order to remove them unless you have some sort of super filter made out of gold that will catch 100% of everything bad.

Synthetic does lubricate better and adds like 1 horsepower (dyno tested). But the statement on modern dinosaur oils is correct that they are much better than a decade ago.

HISSIN50 · Apr 4, 2005

NIN said:
do you guys believe in extended oil change inervals. I alway thought that dirt was the enemy. Can someone back this up or can extended intervals for an advertised 15,000 mile oil damage your engine. If you change the filter every 5,000.

the only way to know (and feel comfy) is to do a UOA. otherwise, like DM wisely suggested, you are guessing.

SeventyMach1 · Apr 4, 2005

HISSIN50 said:
is this directed at me? this is true, but would not be appropriate for what i posted above (when i referred to 15 in 15W-50 being a thin 15 weight). what i said was correct. based upon flow characteristics (pour points, etc), the 15 weight (the multi-weight oil's cold SAE flow characteristic) is like a ten weight.

the W or winter nomenclature came about when multi-weights came around (as opposed to the straight SAE 20, SAE 30, etc weights that used to be so very common). W is commonly accepted as meaning winter, but when referring to the base-weight, it is still a weight, not winter.

(and I still have no idea if you were posting that comment in regard to my reference, so if not, my apologies. ).

Sorry man, I wasn't directing this comment towards anyone..... but the last 5 times something has been posted concerning motor oil, this has been an argument, so I thought I'd jump in first before it got started.

Take for example the 10W-30 motor oil. The "W" means it was tested and suitable for "Winter" use. 10W is tested at -20 degrees celcius.... so from here I guess it is referred to as 10 weight oil.... meaning it would not thin more than a 30 weight would when hot. This is way OT in this thread....sorry.

Other than that, I can say that alot of oils are not suitable. For example, 10W-30 has a 20 point spread.... 15W-30 has a 15 point spread....and so on. Anything more than a 25 point spread, IMO, is no good. They have high polymer content and can cause thermal breakdown. The fewer the additives, the better....

HISSIN50 · Apr 5, 2005

SeventyMach1 said:
Sorry man, I wasn't directing this comment towards anyone..... but the last 5 times something has been posted concerning motor oil, this has been an argument, so I thought I'd jump in first before it got started.

Take for example the 10W-30 motor oil. The "W" means it was tested and suitable for "Winter" use. 10W is tested at -20 degrees celcius.... so from here I guess it is referred to as 10 weight oil.... meaning it would not thin more than a 30 weight would when hot. This is way OT in this thread....sorry.

Other than that, I can say that alot of oils are not suitable. For example, 10W-30 has a 20 point spread.... 15W-30 has a 15 point spread....and so on. Anything more than a 25 point spread, IMO, is no good. They have high polymer content and can cause thermal breakdown. The fewer the additives, the better....

ok, cool about the weight vs winter stuff. it seemed a little tangent, so i incorrectly figured it must have been directed at me.

here we go again (though we dont differ too much):
i do feel a little differently about the last thing you said though. the larger the spread in numbers of a given multi weight dino oil, the greater the liklihood of issues with shear down. in the old days, 10W-40 was the bad boy (did not stop zillions from using it though). but the 10-40 these days (esp the G-II, G-III stuff) is quite a bit better. and synthetics with a wide spread should not be lumped into that line of thinking at all, IMHO. i think we will see a trend of extremes in mainstream cars in the not so distant future - stuff like 10W-60 that is for luxo-mobiles right now, will be common.

but i do agree with your basic line of thinking with spreads, when speaking of lower-end conventional oils. again, really nit picking fine points, but that is what is so great about these boards.

SeventyMach1 · Apr 5, 2005

Exactly. My bad for not pointing that out..... synthetics are not to be included in the spread issue. It was supposed to be directed toward the lower-end conventional oils with high polymer content.

TheDamned · Apr 5, 2005

Been using Quaker State Peak Performance 10W-30 since I have mine, had no problem at all.

Oil change

NIN

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DFG 5OH

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HISSIN50

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SeventyMach1

Keep it lubed .... keep it straight .... and keep

95riosnake

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Keep it lubed .... keep it straight .... and keep

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