Your preferred Oil and Oil filter?

[Metallman56]

not to p*ss on the lively exchange but it might be worth a little time searching the forum for some of Mike Jungs posts. he has probably forgotten more about oil then all of us combined know.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

I understand what you are getting at. But thats just how I do it. Im sure others here do 3000 miles as well.

That's like saying it takes 45 minutes to bake a cake and you saying "well I only put it in for 30 minutes, because that's just how I do it". It still doesn't make any focking sense.

[sleepyalero]

Hahaha oh well.

[99ga]

I get mobile1 fully synthetic and mobile filter as well, change it every 5k miles, wich is about every 7 months

[stewartfn18]

You've been warned about this before. Keep your drama to yourself. Further provocation will result in further warnings.

[rjs_boy]

Isn't that pretty close to a strawman argument there Stewart? Were either of his blown engines due to a failure of his particular flavor of oil?

I change my oil once a year or every 25k miles... Whichever comes first. I tore the heads off the engine about a year ago while I was doing the lim gaskets... And the only failure so far has been directly related to the lim and coolant. Aside from some pitting on the coolant surfaces which I had repaired the heads and valves were within spec. There is still cross hatching visible on the cylinder walls. At 200k miles on the stock block and 150k miles using extended drain intervals....the engine is still going strong.

When you almost double the output of an engine over stock... You are probably going to find a few weak areas that need to be strengthened... It's pretty hard to fock up oil unless you are a total moron and do something terribly stupid... Like forget to put some in or something.

[rocketfast123]

I check the local flyer from the auto-parts store. They always have a good oil and filter at one of them. Today advance had gtx semi synthetic, and a purolator oil filter for about $25. I upped to the purolator gold for $2. I bounce between dyno, semi, and full synthetic.

My 2.4 also runs an over filter, it one that fit a Cadillac northstar. PF67 i believe.

[blckgagt]

Originally Posted by rocketfast123

I check the local flyer from the auto-parts store. They always have a good oil and filter at one of them. Today advance had gtx semi synthetic, and a purolator oil filter for about $25. I upped to the purolator gold for $2. I bounce between dyno, semi, and full synthetic.

My 2.4 also runs an over filter, it one that fit a Cadillac northstar. PF67 i believe.

Maybe I have been mislead, but I have heard it was bad switching back and forth between conventional oil and full synthetic. I thought it was pretty much a one and done deal. I'm guessing semi-synthetic kind of blurs the lines there.

[H.O. Driver]

Originally Posted by rocketfast123

I check the local flyer from the auto-parts store. They always have a good oil and filter at one of them. Today advance had gtx semi synthetic, and a purolator oil filter for about $25. I upped to the purolator gold for $2. I bounce between dyno, semi, and full synthetic.

My 2.4 also runs an over filter, it one that fit a Cadillac northstar. PF67 i believe.

The PF61, they are hefty filters. I miss my caddilacs but I don't miss the 15qt oil changes when they both came due at the sametime

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by blckgagt

Maybe I have been mislead, but I have heard it was bad switching back and forth between conventional oil and full synthetic. I thought it was pretty much a one and done deal. I'm guessing semi-synthetic kind of blurs the lines there.

I've heard similar things too. Haven't heard any specifics about what it actually does or what the negative is if you switch. Just always heard you should stick with the same type. I always ran castrol gtx in my grand prix which is a synthetic blend, and the lab test said I could run it up to 6k miles so I'd usually change it sometime after 5k. Always used straight synthetic in the grand am.

[blckgagt]

Long Story so be patient.....

I remember the first time i decided to switch to Mobil One Synthetic. It was probably 10 years ago and though the cool thing was to have synthetic oil in my car. So i pull of to one of those Jiffy-Lube type places to have the oil changed I pay the extra cash that goes along with it and off i went. Right off the bat I kept thinking to myself...hell yeah its like i have a sports car (only because i had synthetic oil). After a few miles down the road, I felt a difference in the way the motor sounded (and still, I was like wow it sorta sounds like a sports car too).

Another couple more miles down the road, the car starts slowing down. I decided to give it more gas (useless). To no avail, the car ran slower and slower until it just cut itself off. I go to call my parents to come pick me up, while in the meantime I popped the hood to investigate what happened. I took out the dipstick, cleaned it off with some towels I had laying around, and went to check the oil again. Nothing......thats what the dipstick said. Not only that, but i shiny/glittery pieces of something which I though was weird.

So obviously it was metal shavings. By this time, my dad got there, and i showed him the dipstick. I remember him saying..."Well, that ain't good!" We ended up calling the shop up explain what happened. Turns out, one of the employees noticed a rather large amount of oil all over the road right outside of the shop and apparently they tried to contact me at the same time I was calling them. They attempted to blame the oil plug design on GM (they said the plug came loose due to some "weird" design), refused to replace the worthless piece of metal inside my engine bay. By this time my dad got furious and starting yelling and cussing to the point that they "decided to take care of everything out of the goodness of their hearts." They even let me use a rental card under the managers name (I was still too young to have a rental and my dad refused to have it under his name (mainly so they didn't try to shaft him with the bill).

Few days later, I got myself a used engine since the shop refused to give me a new engine. They would only provide me one with comparable mileage. The good part of the story is that the man who swapped the "new to me" engine in also installed my set of TOG headers for free.

[sleepyalero]

Thats why I do my own oil.

[WireGeek]

I use Castrol Syntec - Mobile1 a few times when they had no Castrol, Wix oil filters.

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

You'd be far better off spending that money on the things that most people don't do... like flushing brake fluid every 3 years or sooner, changing fuel filters, flushing power steering fluid, changing trans fluid at 50k, etc.

Changing oil more often than 5K might help the engine last longer, but I doubt it! Plus I'm way to lazy to keep track of mileage on oil changes, I go by the idiot lite, whenever it comes on I change the oil and filter!

OK changing fuel filters often is a good idea!

Power Steering fluid is a waste of money and a rip off, most shops suck out your reservoir with a basting bulb and refill it, coupled with the fact that to do it right is such a hassle that the extended life to the steering rack is not worth the effort - need to take the lines lose from the rack to pump the fluid out of the rack Major PIA on a GA. Either way your only getting a 150 to 200K out of a rack if you drive the car hard - why bother, flush and refill it when you replace the rack.

Brake fluid - same thing, suck it out and refill it, no flushing done by shops. Consider this, brake fluid (Dot 3) absorbs moisture and air from the atmosphere, so I personally never open the reservoir for any reason. It is a closed system so there is no need to add any fluid unless there is a leak. If the fluid is low it means pads and/or shoes are low and it is time for a brake job. Once you depress calipers and/or pistons fluid lever returns to normal. If there is a leak fix it right away, and then flush the system when you bleed it, close it and leave it. I personally never opened my brake reservoir for 310K miles, fluid still looked clean. It was only when a caliper was not retracting that I replaced everything, Master, rear wheel cylinders, and calipers blowing out lines before install, bled all new fluid through it closed it and again haven't opened it for any reason for 3 years going on 4 now.

It is a closed system leave it closed and protect it from the air, it will last longer!!

Transmissions you can change it every 50K if you want, I've gone both ways with stock trans, never changing it, or changing it every 50 to 60K, either way I only get 130K to 180K miles before a rebuild. Never seemed to make any difference in the life of the tranny ... in my experience!! Performance rebuilds may be different like yours, you might get more miles with regular changes, can't say or not!

My 2 cents!!

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by WireGeek

Brake fluid - same thing, suck it out and refill it, no flushing done by shops. Consider this, brake fluid (Dot 3) absorbs moisture and air from the atmosphere, so I personally never open the reservoir for any reason. It is a closed system so there is no need to add any fluid unless there is a leak. If the fluid is low it means pads and/or shoes are low and it is time for a brake job. Once you depress calipers and/or pistons fluid lever returns to normal. If there is a leak fix it right away, and then flush the system when you bleed it, close it and leave it. I personally never opened my brake reservoir for 310K miles, fluid still looked clean. It was only when a caliper was not retracting that I replaced everything, Master, rear wheel cylinders, and calipers blowing out lines before install, bled all new fluid through it closed it and again haven't opened it for any reason for 3 years going on 4 now.

It is a closed system leave it closed and protect it from the air, it will last longer!!

Got to disagree with you there. It's not hard to flush brake lines, and I've never heard of a shop simply sucking it out of the reservoir and refilling. The fluid won't stay clean either simply by keeping the cap closed. It's not an air tight system. The fluid absorbs moisture around the caps and fittings, dust seals, and even through the metal of the brake lines themselves.

Every person who's ever tracked a car knows this. Better bleed your brakes before you go to the track... otherwise you'll be boiling the fluid. Because over time it still gets water in the system.

[sleepyalero]

I work at an auto shop. I have seen many cars come in that have brake fluid that looks clea. But when I take a brake strip tester to the fluid it will read 200-300 copper parts per million. And that point is when I recommend a brake flush to said customer.

[plastic_indian]

Originally Posted by blckgagt

Maybe I have been mislead, but I have heard it was bad switching back and forth between conventional oil and full synthetic. I thought it was pretty much a one and done deal. I'm guessing semi-synthetic kind of blurs the lines there.

Originally Posted by AaronGTR

I've heard similar things too. Haven't heard any specifics about what it actually does or what the negative is if you switch. Just always heard you should stick with the same type. I always ran castrol gtx in my grand prix which is a synthetic blend, and the lab test said I could run it up to 6k miles so I'd usually change it sometime after 5k. Always used straight synthetic in the grand am.

Synthetics tend to exhibit a lower pour point versus conventionals, so the argument can be made an engine with accumulated wear at shaft seals (front/rear crank, cam seals, et al) showing a minimal leakage with conventional could show a heavier rate of leakage with a synthetic. Whether this proves the case in any specific example might be, however, less related to syn/conv and more related the specific engine, its innate design quirks and its individual wear characteristics.

Arguments have also been made to the effect that synthetics boast more aggressive additive packages and can break up deposits accumulated in a higher mileage engine running conventional; the greater quantity of debris suspended in the oil all at once supposedly accelerates bearing/seal damage. An engine with considerable deposit accumulation is probably a poorly maintained engine; blaming an oil for aggravating the problem is simply looking for a scapegoat. Besides, that argument is less relevant to syn vs conv and more about the merits of whatever additive package any given manufacturer chooses to use in any different oil product.

Originally Posted by WireGeek

Power Steering fluid is a waste of money and a rip off, most shops suck out your reservoir with a basting bulb and refill it, coupled with the fact that to do it right is such a hassle that the extended life to the steering rack is not worth the effort - need to take the lines lose from the rack to pump the fluid out of the rack Major PIA on a GA. Either way your only getting a 150 to 200K out of a rack if you drive the car hard - why bother, flush and refill it when you replace the rack.

Brake fluid - same thing, suck it out and refill it, no flushing done by shops. Consider this, brake fluid (Dot 3) absorbs moisture and air from the atmosphere, so I personally never open the reservoir for any reason. It is a closed system so there is no need to add any fluid unless there is a leak. If the fluid is low it means pads and/or shoes are low and it is time for a brake job. Once you depress calipers and/or pistons fluid lever returns to normal. If there is a leak fix it right away, and then flush the system when you bleed it, close it and leave it. I personally never opened my brake reservoir for 310K miles, fluid still looked clean. It was only when a caliper was not retracting that I replaced everything, Master, rear wheel cylinders, and calipers blowing out lines before install, bled all new fluid through it closed it and again haven't opened it for any reason for 3 years going on 4 now.

It is a closed system leave it closed and protect it from the air, it will last longer!!

Transmissions you can change it every 50K if you want, I've gone both ways with stock trans, never changing it, or changing it every 50 to 60K, either way I only get 130K to 180K miles before a rebuild. Never seemed to make any difference in the life of the tranny ... in my experience!! Performance rebuilds may be different like yours, you might get more miles with regular changes, can't say or not!

My 2 cents!!

If a shop is cutting corners, using 'snake oil' products and/or otherwise failing to render services properly, it is the shop lacking efficacy rather than the service itself. Flushing PS systems is a mild annoyance, but I think I would rather perform a dozen such services versus even a single rack replacement on some vehicles.

Brake fluid is hygroscopic and the brake system is hardly air tight; obviously, vehicles in dry climes will be less affected by lack of maintenance than those in humid areas.

That said, I would agree the 'flush service' is one of the most oversold, overhyped concepts in the service industry, particularly among chain/quickie type places.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by plastic_indian

Synthetics tend to exhibit a lower pour point versus conventionals, so the argument can be made an engine with accumulated wear at shaft seals (front/rear crank, cam seals, et al) showing a minimal leakage with conventional could show a heavier rate of leakage with a synthetic. Whether this proves the case in any specific example might be, however, less related to syn/conv and more related the specific engine, its innate design quirks and its individual wear characteristics.

Arguments have also been made to the effect that synthetics boast more aggressive additive packages and can break up deposits accumulated in a higher mileage engine running conventional; the greater quantity of debris suspended in the oil all at once supposedly accelerates bearing/seal damage. An engine with considerable deposit accumulation is probably a poorly maintained engine; blaming an oil for aggravating the problem is simply looking for a scapegoat. Besides, that argument is less relevant to syn vs conv and more about the merits of whatever additive package any given manufacturer chooses to use in any different oil product.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So less of a difference between one oil and the next... probably more of a difference between specific engines and their wear characteristics, or difference between a well maintained engine and a poorly maintained one. Sorta like how some people take a transmission that has been beat on and never service, do a fluid flush, and suddenly have problems.

[FuriousG]

Both my GAGT and the G8 get Mobil 1 Full Synthetic and have ever since my first oil change with both of them. Filter is normally Fram for the GAGT and Bosch for the G8. I change my own oil because I don't trust any shops to use decent stuff and there's really no good way for me to check to make sure they did it right unless my engine blows.

The one time I let my wife take our brand new '08 Caravan to a shop for it's first oil change the shop used air tools to put the plug back in. Ended up stripping the head of the plug trying to remove it and had to wait for a replacement to arrive (lived in Germany) before I could do the oil change. I hate corner cutting shops and the oil change places are often the worst since less time per customer means more customers. They rush the job too often...

[sleepyalero]

Ive done a 10 min oil change before because the customer was waiting a good min and had to get it out. Even at 15 min oil changes I dont like. Cause they usually cap it off before all the oil is out. When I do em I make sure its a very thin stream coming out to where its almost not coming out anymore. Lol just a personal preference

[H.O. Driver]

They sound like two people that used to date and have unsettled feelings towards each other....

Seriously we all know you two have issues, can you keep it to PMs and stop cluttering the remaining few active threads. Aaron you are a mod, can you clean it up so it is back on topic?