Synthetic Oil

[nsmitchell]

Sounds pretty nice. I onaly have 1700 miles so far. I got only 31MPG on my last fillup. What kind of filter are you using? I want to try Amsoil PI - Performance Improver. My brother swears by it in his XB. He gets about 10% better MPGs when using it. It might put you over the 50MPG mark. It is about $8.00 per 16 oz bottle, but you only use 1 oz per 10 gallons of gas. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/api.aspx

[07WYarisRS]

Originally Posted by nsmitchell

Sounds pretty nice. I onaly have 1700 miles so far. I got only 31MPG on my last fillup. What kind of filter are you using? I want to try Amsoil PI - Performance Improver. My brother swears by it in his XB. He gets about 10% better MPGs when using it. It might put you over the 50MPG mark. It is about $8.00 per 16 oz bottle, but you only use 1 oz per 10 gallons of gas. http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/api.aspx

I've used it (Amsoil PI) is a great fuel injector cleaner, no complaints here.
I switch to Amsoil 2000 0w-30 and my hwy mileage is 43-45mpg depending on speed.
Be fore the switch it was 39
Once I switch the ATF over I expect and extra 3~4mpg

[nsmitchell]

Mobil-1, when it was a real PAO, took Castrol Syntec to court for claiming that Syntec was a "synthetic" oil. Castrol Syntec won the case, so Mobil-1 said, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Syntec, and now Mobil-1, use a cheaper method for producing their "synthetic" oils. Amsoil and a few others are the only ones making PAO synthetics. Mobil-1 and Syntec are still far better than dino oil though. Amsoil is popular for use in 18 wheelers because when used with a bypass oil filter, the oil can be used for 100,000+ miles without an oil change, whick saves truckers lots of $$$. If you are going to change it every 3000-7500 miles, you can just use Mobil-1 with a nice Napa filter, or blow the wad, and use the Mobil-1 filter which is an excellent filter. Do this, and your engine will last a long, long time, with great MPG.

[nsmitchell]

This was taken from this website: http://www.performanceoiltechnology.com/
CASTROL AND MOBIL GO TO COURT TO BATTLE IT OUT:

Recently, Mobil accused Castrol of reformulating its synthetic by substituting other basestocks in place of its synthetic polyaphaolefins (PAO's). Castrol Syntec is a hydrocracked oil. That's right, Castrol has replaced the PAO synthetic base stock with hydroisomerized petroleum base stock. Hydrocracking, as it's called, is the highest level of petroleum refining. Castrol isn't even a Group 4 synthetic yet Castrol ended up winning the battle when the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus ruled that Castrol could still market its oil as "synthetic" despite their new formulation. Basically, they expanded the definition of synthetics to include Group 3 hydroprocessed petroleum oil. This high profile case took place because synthetics are recognized as the market's best hope for growth. Synthetic oil sales have outpaced petroleum oil sales by a wide margin and the gap continues to widen every year. Consumers are getting smarter and demand the best for their vehicles. Read the full story on the Castrol issue in our informative articles section. Additionally, just as soon as Castrol won this battle, several other major oil companies jumped in and came up with hydroprocessed motor oils of their own and labeled these products to be "100% synthetic", when they still are Group 3 hydro processed petroleum oils.

Incidentally, the Castrol Syntec 5W-50 allows for a 2.284 mm wear scar (ASTM D4172 4-Ball Wear Test), compared to the AMSOIL Series 2000 20W-50 Racing Oil which allows for a 0.454 mm wear scar. That's 5 times greater wear with Castrol!

This site goes on to show that Amsoil is better than all the non-PAO oils. I might stick with Amsoil after all... I have a dealer close to me thank God! He keeps a complete Amsoil shop in his garage! Very nice!

[07WYarisRS]

And it's that great protection that allows the engine to run much cooler and increases you MPG as well.

I do not sell amsoil, but I do use it in my shop. I pay for it from Royal distributing, crappy tires and private amsoil dealers just like everyone else. So I gain nothing by preachin' about it. I do so only because I like to help people and want people to get the most out of their machines, be it a car. bike, outboard you name it. A happy customer is a return customer.

I'm a motorcycle/ATV mechanic, worked for Yamaha, Arctic cat, Stihl etc.
I've built and rebuilt engines from Cars to sleds, outbards to 500cc Hotsaws and everything in between and I've never found an oil that works as well as Amsoil. I've used , tested 9including lab testing) and seen the real results first hand of just about every oil out there and I'm most impressed with this one.
I have a huge cabinet of used parts, cams, valave buckets, valves and pistons etc and i use these to show people and compare them to new parts. Then they can clearly see the difference between a regular oil, mineral based oil and a true group IV-V lubricant.
.

Redline is also an awesome oil but lack the versitility and selections available.

Royal Purple is another fine oil but they have proven to have quality control issues

Here is just a small example
This is a Honda XR piston (RIGHT) I replaced last year from a 1995 XR motorcycle. The piston on the left is a new wiseco high comp piston.
This engine had 10 years of hard riding and ran Amsoil 20W-50 from new
This piston has less then 2% carbon, no build up in the lands or oil ports, ZERO wear, no burnt oil, no scuffing sings on visable wear ANYWHERE. This piston was replaced ONLY because a higher compression unit was being installed along with a race cam.





In this pick the same piston is on the right to show any carbon build up on the top. The piston on the left is a two stroke piston from Kawasaki KX




In this pic the bottom piston had been cleaned to look for any indexing or sizeing markings but you can see it had a much heavier carbon build up. This bike Yamaha Seca ran for only 20,000km on Castrol GTX. This engine was rebuild due to a camshaft/ camshaft bearing failure. The other two pistons in the pics are Yamaha snowmobile pistons. One ran CAstrol 927 (middle one) and the one at the top ran Klotz.



The under side of the seca piston.



Not to bad you say ! well think about this. That black build up you see is also built up in the ring lands, and in the oil ports. This does a couple things. The deposits in the ring lands and behind the rings forces the rings out or causes then to become sticky and this greatly increases the amount of cylinder and ring wear. The biuld up in the oil ports block oil flow by up to 50%. Less oil to the cyclinder increase wear and engine temps.



Not to mention these black deposits you see on the underside of the pistons is whats floating around in your oil and turns you oil black quickly. With any mineral based product you will have these deposits.

Using a true synthetic it will vertually eliminate these deposits and build up and switching to synthetic will help to clean away these depostis to help prolong the engine life.

[nsmitchell]

I think dino oil should be outlawed. I looked at my friend's girlfriend's Saturn once. She had been using Jiffy Lube religiously every 3000 miles. I stuck my finger in the oil fill hole and scraped the underside of the valve cover. I got a finger full of some crusty, black, waxy buildup. It was disgusting. Now multiply that by all the uninformed people driving cars, relying on Jiffy Lube and others like it. "Ignorance is Bliss" i suppose.

[07WYarisRS]

I use Amsoil 2000 0w-30
It may not perform the VEY best in every single test but over all its apperently a better lubricant.

[daq421]

I just wanted to say thank you to all the posters in this thread. This is a most informative and useful thread .. Based on what I've read here I'm going switch to synthetic at my 5k change.

-Peter

[dandj]

Ok now I plan on switching over to amsoil but will need to know how to reset the change oil light. Anyone? My saturn vue is as simple as turning the key switch to the on position and flooring the gas pedal for 5 seconds. (engine not running of course)

[foober]

thanks for all the input on oils. I've been using mobil 1 for 10 years but will now switch to amsoil oils. I just want the best for my babys.

[Billstein]

[QUOTE=nsmitchell]Anyone plan to go Synthetic on their first oil change.

Yes. Mobil 1
Car feels and runs smoother.

[ketel0ne]

Which Amsoil filter do I use, specifically the one for the yaris?

[nsmitchell]

Originally Posted by ketel0ne

Which Amsoil filter do I use, specifically the one for the yaris?

I was just on the Amsoil site... You can use the Scion Xb or Xa oil filter which is EaO09/51394.

[foober]

Originally Posted by nsmitchell

I was just on the Amsoil site... You can use the Scion Xb or Xa oil filter which is EaO09/51394.

I just talked with toyota and they said get an oil filter thats compatible to an 05 echo. Then I phoned amsoil and they said if you want an amsoil oil filter that oil filter number is #EaO09. That the EaO09/51394 is an oil filter made by Wix. To get a true Amsoil oil filter the number is just EaO09.

[nsmitchell]

After switching to Amsoil Series 2000 0W-30 with an Amsoil Ea Oil filter a few months ago on my 2002 Odyssey with 60K miles I noticed my oil is looking dirtier than with Mobil-1. I had been using Mobil-1 0W-20 and Mobil-1 filters in the past. I did not use the Amsoil motor flush before switching from Mobil-1 to Amsoil. I wonder if the Amsoil is cleaning/suspending the small particles that the Mobil-1 wasn't catching. With my next Amsoil oil change, I will be using the Amsoil Motor Flush. Any comments or ideas would be helpful, because I'm baffled!

[nsmitchell]

Amsoil or Royal Purple? Any thoughts or knowledge we should know about?

[Racer X-8]

Ok, Amsoil is supposed to be right up there and maybe it is the best, i dunno. But, here's a linky to the oil blog going on at the Mazda RX-8 club forum. I'll bet pretty much every car forum has something like this going on for that matter. Bon apetite...
http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.ph...5&page=1&pp=15
Oh yeah, one thing about this being the RX-8 forum - Mazda doesn't want the RX-8 to use synthetic oil. The reason is that a minute amount of engine oil is injected directly into the rotary chambers for lubrication of parts in there that have no other way of getting lubricated. It's a rotary thing. So, they're worried about the different kinds of residues left behind in there .vs. the known residues of conventional dino oil. It's basically taken as a CYA maneuver that Mazda is doing, since Mazda can't / won't thoroughly test every synthetic that is out there. Now that you know about that little issue, dive in!

[nsmitchell]

Since rotary engines use some oil while operating by design, and since synthetics dont burn up as easily (vaporize) as conventional oils do, they might start to build up over time in the rotary engine.

BTW - I was getting a laugh from a BobTheOilGuy.com member complaining about their oil getting black after switching from dino to synthetic. No one there mentioned that the synthetic was suspending all the crap that dino didn't clean in the oil, and that all he needed to do was use an engine flush before going to synthetic. Amsoil makes a flush just for that purpose, as do plenty of other companies. I think most of the engine flushes are just kerosene in a quart can.