Considering Switching to SYnthetic, any advice?

hey guys,

I got a 95 trans am, its got 144k miles on it and it's 6 speed. THey guy before me only used regular oil but i've been hearing good things about synthetic, and of course, royal purple

basically this cars a daily driver for me, school work and such, and under normal circumstances i don't drive aggressively, but of course there are times where i have to push it.

so with that in mind, how should i go about switching to synthetic? like what brand/number do you guys recommend, and the advantages of royal purple.
Money is an issue with me but i wanna take proper care of my car

and how often should i cahnge the oil when its synthetic, ive heard 3000, 5000, and even 10,000.

any help is appreciated, thanks

if money is an issue just put Mobil 1 full synthetic. im running that in my Full bolt on Lt1 with mild cam and have never had an issue. and i change my oil every 5000.

royal purple in my book is the best but if your not running the car as a "race" car then mobil one is the best choice for you.

what he said, its about $50 for a oil change with royal purple and a K&N oil filter, it should be around $30 with Mobil 1 5w30 and a delco filter, royal purple is good stuff but Mobil 1 isnt far behind.

I would stick with the regular dino oil. Synthetic will loosen up stuff and you may end up with more leaks than you have now. And if your changing the dino oil every 3k, there really is no need to run synthetic.

:mad: hmmmm why does everyone on this site love Royal Purple?? I hope you dont think its good at protecting your engine??

Anyways... I would go Amsoil > Pennzoil Platinum > Mobil 1
and pretty much always go with 10w30 :thumbsup:
Oh and change roughly 3K-5K....who the F told you 10K? :dontknow: jk

amsoil? i have heard nothing but advertisements about amsoil, no proven test or anything, amsoil is more than royal purple a quart, once someone has acually tested amsoil for performance, then i will form a opinion, horsepower tv dynoed a LS1 6speed, changed all the fluids to royal purple redynoed and gained a solid 7rwhp, it was not alot but still, its proven performance.

Years ago I had this discussion with an chemist from a lubricant company. For gearbox's and other closed systems his opinion was the synthetic oils are superior and a demonstration of Royal Purple showed showed how it provided superior lubricating properties. His opinion on synthetic oil use in engines is that it was was not worth it. Most of the contaminates that get in the oil are a result of the combustion process and synthetic was just as vulnerable to these as refined petroleum products. The logic makes sense to me. I have used petroleum oil but changed it every 3K miles to remove the contaminates that build up.

amsoil? i have heard nothing but advertisements about amsoil, no proven test or anything, amsoil is more than royal purple a quart, once someone has acually tested amsoil for performance, then i will form a opinion, horsepower tv dynoed a LS1 6speed, changed all the fluids to royal purple redynoed and gained a solid 7rwhp, it was not alot but still, its proven performance.

I didnt say anything about performance...it does free up some hp however, at the cost of protection. RP breaks down much faster...its all about shearing...and so on.

ok so for the most part people reccomend regular synthetic, buy how likely is it that more leaks will be exposed? how much of a risk is it, vs the "reward" that synthetic brings?

i use 10-30 mobile in my engine. i think 10w-30 royal purple OIL in my trans and royal purple in my rear end.

I wouldnt switch if you have dino oil... stick with 3k oil changes.

I have used Castrol Syntec (no Mobil One for sure) on two cars since they were new. One had 175,000 miles when I sold it, the other has 285,000 and I still own it. Neither ever burned a drop of oil, nor have I have to replace as much as a valve cover gasket. Oil changes at about 5000 miles.

Would I have the same results with conventional oil? Who knows.

This site seemed credible on synthetic oils info.
http://www.upmpg.com/tech_articles/motoroil_viscosity/

Castrol Edge is a lil pricey, but wear protection is 8x better then mobil 1. Synthetic wont cause leaks, but if you have a slight leak it can magnify it.

in all honesty ,i use b/g products syn oil in my car we did the oil tests in shop wit a timkin bearing tester royal purp has a good marketing claim but fall short on longevity ,mobil 1 is ok, castrol syn is a good one but i couldnt belive the test on the b/g oil was phenominal now my car runs all b/g syn fluids in the tranny and rear diff "obv motor to" the car runs cooler ,shifts better ,and posi holds well i have used there stuff in all my cars and i pound them ...and so far so good


as far as dino oil goes there is a company called cenpico "?spelling"that tested far better than the other diono oils

I started off with Amsoil in my car when I first got it in 1995. A few years ago I switched to Mobil 1 with no issues. I change the oil at around 5k. My car had 5500 miles on it when I got it, it now has over 92k. No oil leaks and still running pretty good. Inside the valve covers are still clean and shiny with no build up either.

I would be hesitant to switch to synthetic with the mileage you have. There could be minor leaks that have plugged up with gunk over time and the synthetic will clean out.

i would just change the oil with some mobil 1 5w-30 synthetic, and a delco oil filter and call it a day and change it every 5k, no need to worry about minor bullshit like oil

the biggest prob wit switchin to syn oil wit miles is that dino oils leave a ashy residue on seals and such ,syn beein a good cleaner of things strips the residue and then in turn oil leaks start ..some are minor some major all in all id stay dino if i were you dino oil has come a very long ways in the past few yrs .my car has had syn oil in since day one and now has 63 k on it pulled the motor apsrt recently and looks like day one still but if your good on it yours will to

personally I run 4.5 Quarts Lucas Synthetic 10-30 and a Quart of Lucas Synthetic Oil Stabilizer, or I run the Heavy duty stbilizer. I've just found that at high temps and lots of abuse it holds up better than RP, with the purple my oil pressure would nose dive after it got real good and hot from hot lapping at the strip or from road tracking, the Lucas never drops below 20psi, even after just as much if not more abuse. Just my personal experience.

personally I run 4.5 Quarts Lucas Synthetic 10-30 and a Quart of Lucas Synthetic Oil Stabilizer, or I run the Heavy duty stbilizer. I've just found that at high temps and lots of abuse it holds up better than RP, with the purple my oil pressure would nose dive after it got real good and hot from hot lapping at the strip or from road tracking, the Lucas never drops below 20psi, even after just as much if not more abuse. Just my personal experience.
the lucas works good for a motor that is tired and wasted but i wouldnt run it esp seein what that crap leaves behind as far as sludge goes

amsoil? i have heard nothing but advertisements about amsoil, no proven test or anything, amsoil is more than royal purple a quart, once someone has acually tested amsoil for performance, then i will form a opinion, horsepower tv dynoed a LS1 6speed, changed all the fluids to royal purple redynoed and gained a solid 7rwhp, it was not alot but still, its proven performance.

I wonder what would have happened had they just changed all the fluids with standard stuff and dyno'd it. My hunch, there would have been an improvement too.

I wonder what would have happened had they just changed all the fluids with standard stuff and dyno'd it. My hunch, there would have been an improvement too.

^ Makes a very good point. If if really was the real deal...why wouldnt they test it against another good synthetic... :confused:
IDK...maybe some control testing....oops :homer:

i dunno i just knwo that they have done tests on royal purple and lucas vs. basic oils and have shown improvements, but yeah my theory is that especially in a street car it doesnt matter how much power you gain, as it will be marginal, you should buy it for the stability increase over regular, and even then, im sure that only cars getting track time are going to need that.

^ Makes a very good point. If if really was the real deal...why wouldnt they test it against another good synthetic... :confused:
IDK...maybe some control testing....oops :homer:


the power block on spike t.v. is controlled testing???? :eureka:

mobile 1 5w30 by far thats all i use can afford royal purple.

the power block on spike t.v. is controlled testing???? :eureka:
umm im not sure what you mean by that...but what I was trying to say was...
There didnt seem to be much for any kind of controls or variables for that matter. just put in some RP and away they went? :confused:

umm im not sure what you mean by that...but what I was trying to say was...
There didnt seem to be much for any kind of controls or variables for that matter. just put in some RP and away they went? :confused:

I hear ya.

The media is full of it... even when they aren't talking politics!
:roflmao:

royal purple gave me a extra 9 hp on a dyno here in corpus about two years ago,that was on a srt-4(stock then) before was 230hp, then we did the oil change,then i got 239hp.... so yea royal purple is the oil for me when i can afford it.

royal purple gave me a extra 9 hp on a dyno here in corpus about two years ago,that was on a srt-4(stock then) before was 230hp, then we did the oil change,then i got 239hp.... so yea royal purple is the oil for me when i can afford it.

sooo...you did the same? Didnt put another fresh synthetic in to compare the two? :rolleyes:

sooo...you did the same? Didnt put another fresh synthetic in to compare the two? :rolleyes:

na, i already had the oil in ,plus my three dyno pulls where over,lol...back then it was 65.00 for three pulls.

My 99' is about ready to turn 100k (bought with 95k already) and everyone i've talked to at work and such says that royal purple is the way to go if doing the synthetic switch at a higher mileage (>75k). Of course i'm not trying to say i know everything here...

umm im not sure what you mean by that...but what I was trying to say was...
There didnt seem to be much for any kind of controls or variables for that matter. just put in some RP and away they went? :confused:

they were simply testing rp to see if what they said about more hp was true, they changed the gear oil, trans fluid, and engine oil all with rp in a 2000 Z28 Camaro M6 and gained 7hp on the dyno, they were not testing it against other brands if thats what your trying to get at, but i would like to see what other brands get on the dyno.

we tried this at the last shop i was in we did the r/p dyno test wit three other oils at first the r/p did get numbers but after a few cycles it fell off again then mobil 1 we got a 8 horse gain smae thing after a few days it fell off and the same wit the third its all a gimmick really ya want dyno numbers add stuff to the car and build it not hokuss pocus oil

... ya want dyno numbers add stuff to the car and build it not hokuss pocus oil

:thumbsup:


Really, if is API certified... it should be just fine. Synthetic or dino.

Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System (EOLCS)

API’s Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System (EOLCS) is a voluntary licensing and certification program that authorizes engine oil marketers who meet specified requirements to use the API Engine Oil Quality Marks.


API's Engine Oil Quality Marks—the API Service Symbol "Donut" and Certification Mark "Starburst"—help consumers identify quality engine oils for their gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.


http://www.api.org/certifications/engineoil/