To Synthetic or not to Synthetic

[JHardwick]

I'm using AMSOIL 15-40 and right now I'm changing the oil every 9K.

That's a total waste of money. I run Rotella T 15w-40 twice that long with good reports ... ... could run it longer.

 

[BHolm]

My experience is that you can definately switch too soon. I switched my '05 over at 1000 miles, and at 36k miles it was getting 17-18, up from 15-16 when new. On the '06 Mega I never switched and milage rose from 13-14 new to 20-21 at 45k miles. Same roads, same driving. My '03s ran 15-40 Rotella and my '03 QC was getting mid 20's.



I did it as a feel good thing, I'll admit that. I didn't see any real benefits from running Amsoil in the engine, diffs and t-case. 10k mile intervals on good ol Rotella still come back fine. That is long enough for me, easy to remember, and works as well as the fancy stuff as near as I can tell.



I may do the diffs, trans and t-case on my new '06 with Redline. I have heard lots of good things about their products. For the engine though, I will be sticking with dino, cheap and effective.

 

[JHardwick]

All the big trucking companies are saving money on oil by using a by-pass system.

That's not really true. Most have tried this method and have gone back to dino and regular oil changes. The guy who works on my truck does several over the road tractors and many, many multi axle dumpers. They all run dino. In fact, I just today looked at liners out of a big Cummins in a Volvo with 1,200,000 miles that had cavitated. I won't say that I saw any crosshatch, but there was absolutely no hint of a wear line and the bearings looked great ... ... ... . all miles were run with Delo.

 

[amsoilman]

All oils that meet/exceed the APi and Cummins requirements are good, but if you ever loose a serpentine belt or coolent hose, the "true" synthetics will provide better protection against engine damage, simply because the "true" synthetics can handle the high heat!



Wayne

 

[d90boy]

the 'feel-good feeling' of using a super high quality oil, come to mind.



It seems to me that those of us that don't drive, that many miles & don't live in extremely cold climates may not really need the costly synthetics. The new conventional oils seem to be of a very high quality. Especially, the Chevron Delo-400, 15X40.



The Delo has a mix of Moly & Boron in the additive package. Makes it quite a robust oil. Some have said that it is approaching the quality of synthetics, now. And for much less cost.



Joe F. (Buffalo)

The feel good feeling is 90% of the reason synthetics sell in my opinion. I openly admit to being one of them, spending a lot of money on redline and schaeffer synthetics.



Joe has obviously spent time over on the BITOG forums and seen Delo prove out time and again. I happen to use the same stuff in my truck at least until I get some more miles. The latest TDR seemed to show the Valvoline premium blue having a similar moly and boron add pack to Delo so I would give it the nod as well.



Fortunately the cummins is very forgiving on oil and we are safe with most anything.

 

[DHuffman]

Do what you want - that is all that matters... Your engine will be fine if you follow the manufacturer's change interval and oil grade recommendation. Everything above that is trading dollars for cents.

Later

 

[Jeremiah]

Costly synthetic

Given the cost of synthetic oil these days (almost $90 for three gallons), a bypass filter is an absolute necessity. Even then, I'm not sure it's worth it unless, like Amsoilman, I ran one oil change until the analysis said dump it.

 

[AKaiser]

That's a total waste of money. I run Rotella T 15w-40 twice that long with good reports ... ... could run it longer.

Under normal conditions, I'd agree with you 100% and say he should be getting AT LEAST 15,000 miles on a fill, if not 20-25K with that oil, even on severe service. He IS using a Smarty, so he might be getting excessive soot. Good case for bypass filtration.