What kind of oil do you use?

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » March 12th, 2005, 10:52 pm

you mean I have to put oil in my car?

but seriously I use penzoil 10w30. But the BP will get synthetic since i'm getting a full gasket set. About synthetic: This is just my expierence as I maintained a fleet(15 trucks) of chevy s-10's all 2.2l 4cyls. These trucks were mostly purchased new and we always ran mobil 1 synthetic, with no leak problems(some trucks had over 300k on them), but the few used ones we had leaked terribly with the mobil 1.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » March 12th, 2005, 11:30 pm

93SOHC wrote:you mean I have to put oil in my car? but seriously I use penzoil 10w30. But the BP will get synthetic since i'm getting a full gasket set. About synthetic: This is just my expierence as I maintained a fleet(15 trucks) of chevy s-10's all 2.2l 4cyls. These trucks were mostly purchased new and we always ran mobil 1 synthetic, with no leak problems(some trucks had over 300k on them), but the few used ones we had leaked terribly with the mobil 1.

SOHC, your fleet is probably less than 5 years old and synthetic or at least semi-synthetic was possibly the factory recommended oil to use. Our MX's were never factory designed to use synthetic, although a query put to a reputable Mazda shop or Mazda HQ might reveal what experts and technicians recommend......just a thought. Your fleet history with Mobil 1 synthetic is very encouraging!!

mazdubber · Post by **mazdubber** » March 13th, 2005, 12:03 am

Just a thought after reading all of these posts. Motors are not designed to use a certain type of oil. Oil is designed to work with the motors and under many conditions. Synthetic is by far a better product. However, an old motor that has used mineral oil for a long period of time is dependant on it. It contaminates seals and collects grime. As soon as synthetic is poured in, the detergent cleans away the grime and damaged seals will start to leak.

If synthetic is used from the beginning of an engines life it will stay clean and protect the seals. Another benefit of synthetic is how fast it gets to critical engine parts on startup. I've seen footage of cold starts at -10C and the synthetic got to the cams 30 seconds (YES 30) before the mineral oil. Both being 5W30.

The reason your seeing new cars with synthetic required these days is so the manufacturers can offer a longer warranty on their product. That's why there are some serious warranties available now.

I have used Royal Purple in my KLZE ever since I swapped it in. It may be expensive stuff but my car's worth it!

Ricksmx3 · Post by **Ricksmx3** » March 13th, 2005, 12:21 am

mazdubber wrote:
jschrauwen wrote:
Ricksmx3 wrote:Just regular 10w 30.
OK, the non-synthetic, many thanks.
AFAIR Mobil 1 is always a synthetic. It's supposed to mean Mobils best or #1. Natural oil is just Mobil.

Now that i know that i may change to mobil 10w 30 now. Is it better than castrol high milage?

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » March 13th, 2005, 12:32 am

Ricksmx3 wrote:Now that i know that i may change to mobil 10w 30 now. Is it better than castrol high milage?

I've heard a few bad stories from some of the Ducati club members saying that castrol is not very kind to the valve train area, so I never even bothered to try, besides, it had a low tolerance to foaming which is critical to air cooled motorcycles.

kiwi_MX3 · Post by **kiwi_MX3** » March 13th, 2005, 2:06 am

Christ, an't all you lot lucky you don't have to work on stuff thats
had JP8 in the tank, screws everything right up....

93-Spec-Edn · Post by **93-Spec-Edn** » March 13th, 2005, 8:43 am

Ricksmx3 wrote:
mazdubber wrote:
jschrauwen wrote: OK, the non-synthetic, many thanks.
AFAIR Mobil 1 is always a synthetic. It's supposed to mean Mobils best or #1. Natural oil is just Mobil.
Now that i know that i may change to mobil 10w 30 now. Is it better than castrol high milage?

I used castrol high milage and gound my car ran sluggish. Also someone else on this board who used it wrote the same thing. I use regular castrol 10w30 and one on my mx's went up to 300,000km. Regular mobil (NON synth) should be fine as well, but my advice is stay away from high milage oils and synthetic. I am telling u this from expeience.

Chiggles · Post by **Chiggles** » March 16th, 2005, 1:02 pm

mazdubber wrote:Just a thought after reading all of these posts. Motors are not designed to use a certain type of oil. Oil is designed to work with the motors and under many conditions. Synthetic is by far a better product. However, an old motor that has used mineral oil for a long period of time is dependant on it. It contaminates seals and collects grime. As soon as synthetic is poured in, the detergent cleans away the grime and damaged seals will start to leak.

I'm still running the stock K8 on my 95 GS and I've only had this vehicle since November. I did an oil change just after I bougt it for maintenance of course, and to winterize it using Quaker State 5W30. I had been thinking about switching to synthetic on my next change, but reading that makes me think twice about doing that. As far as I know, the previous owner(s) had never switched to synthetic before, and since this motor is about 10 years old now, does anyone think I should just stick with non-synthetic instead cuz from what this sounds like it seems as though I should only be using synthetic if I do the engine swap or change all my gaskets all together?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » March 16th, 2005, 1:21 pm

The issue with synthetic oil is that it likes to get past seals, gaskets, and even piston rings.. its a very slippery oil so to speak. So unless your engine is new or has always run synthetic oil.. it would be best to use a more conventional oil. Now.. you could try synthetic oil and see if you develope any leaks or if you start burning oil more. If not.. great.. your engine is in good enough condition that you can safely run synthetic.. but.. IMO.. if you dont know the maintenance history of the engine.. changing to synthetic is only asking for problems. There are lots of good oils on the market.. and even the cheapest oil out there will work fine as long as you change your oil regularly. Thats the real key here.. regular oil changes, every 2000 to 3000 miles. My trick is to check the oil every time I put gas in my car.. If the oil is black enough that I cant see the marks on the dipstick clearly.. time to change the oil.. regardless of how many miles its been since I changed it last (never more than 3000 though) Now this is just me.. I freely admit that I am probably overly anal about this topic. But then.. I also have never had an engine I maintained die on me either

Tunes67

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » March 16th, 2005, 5:59 pm

kiwi_MX3 wrote:Christ, an't all you lot lucky you don't have to work on stuff thats had JP8 in the tank, screws everything right up....

What?.....no more JP4....it does burn a little cleaner, but not by much.

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » March 16th, 2005, 6:09 pm

little bit of garlic and olive oil (xtra virgin) less residue and gunk build up. Healthier as well.