Synthetic oil or not ?

[XJMUDDER]

I'm sure this has been brought up 100 times before and sorry if it has for doing it again but i have been thinking of switching to a synthetic oil like maybe Royal Purple or one of the other top brands the thing is with me i don't put very many miles on my truck per week i drive 5miles on way to work so 10 miles round trip for 50 miles a week then maybe a trip to town so another 34-35 miles once a week there would it be worth it to buy synthetic oil ? or just stick with what i am useing now ? would it help at all with gas mileage ? i have heard yes and no to that one , now i am changeing my oil by what the truck tells me it time to , i have been useing havoline 5W30 and a wix filter if i switch to syn. what brand of filter is a good one or will the wix i use now be fine ? Thanks for any input and sorry about bring up the synthetic oil question again !

[XJMUDDER]

sorry i should have said my truck is a 2007 silverado 1500 4wd with the 5.3L flexfuel motor.if that makes any diffrents or not.

[stumpuller454]

Synthetic all the way! worth every cent, as far as filters the wix will work fine... i also recommend synthectic in all the drivetrain, its saves fuel!!! plus stuff should last longer!

I use all castrol syntec but thinking about tryin royal.....

[bradrhale]

if you dont drive it like nascar the little you do drive it, just stick with the regular oil. no sense in spending the extra. its true that syn does not have to be changed as often but you will still end up changing it the same time since you put no miles on the truck.

[gmctrucks]

I used it once on a truck I had but I felt bad about not changing the oil as often so I would change it at 3K like if I had regular oil and I want to comment about Wix filter thay might cost more but there good filters.

[bradrhale]

i have a wix on the dodge. i filtered out some contaminated mineral oil through a goldenrod one time. i dont know if they make them for a truck but i would buy one. it worked 100 times better than any other filter we used.

[batty1214]

okay......
perks of the synthetic oil.....
true synthetic(mobil 1 and royal purpul.... and the expensive stuff) is man made. they use only the good particles, meaning virtually no sludge.... sludge is mainly caused by the "BAD" particles in the oil that bunch up together(as found with mineral oil) and as such, the oil doesn't loose it's viscosity as fast..... thus the 7000 mile oil change... BUT you should still change your filter out every 3000 miles or so, due to the plugging and decreased efficency of the filter after that much time..... It does lessen the drag on mechanical items, thus giving less heat, and better mileage...

The other synthetic is actually mineral oil (or a blend of both)that has been striped of the unwanted particles, and gives you close to the same advantages... at a lower cost. But you can only get down to a 5w-30 in that I do belive...

the cons,
if your vehicle has been running on mineral oil for 75,000 miles or more, the change over, may be hard on seals..... synthetic has been known to break down some types of seals.... And then there is the cost.... it can cost alot. and if your going to consider it, take into account of how many miles you drive in the 3 to 6 month oil change intervals that you do on your rides.... it may not add up.....



oh, if you are in a cold climate, you can get a lot out of a 0w30 synthetic oil..... the 0w part means that your oil remains pumpable down to 30 to 40 below 0 and at operating temperature, it covers the neccesary 30w requirements.... the gm dealer here suggested that we run it in our company trucks that see cold starts of 45 below.

personally, I run synthetic in EVERYTHING I own..... motors, gear boxes, final drives.... but then I put on almost 1000 miles on most of my daily driver vehicles per month(60 miles a day).....
as to brands of oil, to each his own. I stick with the bigger brands.... mobil1 (for the cold start advantage) I would still be running royal, but my dealer went out of buisness...... and on filters, you get what you pay for!!!! 3 dollar fram, or 15 baldwin..... what price is your motor worth???

If you have any other questions, I'll give ya a discourse.... I went through 3 days of this stuff.

[merlin5577]

Originally Posted by batty1214

okay......
perks of the synthetic oil.....
true synthetic(mobil 1 and royal purpul.... and the expensive stuff) is man made. they use only the good particles, meaning virtually no sludge.... sludge is mainly caused by the "BAD" particles in the oil that bunch up together(as found with mineral oil) and as such, the oil doesn't loose it's viscosity as fast..... thus the 7000 mile oil change... BUT you should still change your filter out every 3000 miles or so, due to the plugging and decreased efficency of the filter after that much time..... It does lessen the drag on mechanical items, thus giving less heat, and better mileage...

The other synthetic is actually mineral oil (or a blend of both)that has been striped of the unwanted particles, and gives you close to the same advantages... at a lower cost. But you can only get down to a 5w-30 in that I do belive...

the cons,
if your vehicle has been running on mineral oil for 75,000 miles or more, the change over, may be hard on seals..... synthetic has been known to break down some types of seals.... And then there is the cost.... it can cost alot. and if your going to consider it, take into account of how many miles you drive in the 3 to 6 month oil change intervals that you do on your rides.... it may not add up.....



oh, if you are in a cold climate, you can get a lot out of a 0w30 synthetic oil..... the 0w part means that your oil remains pumpable down to 30 to 40 below 0 and at operating temperature, it covers the neccesary 30w requirements.... the gm dealer here suggested that we run it in our company trucks that see cold starts of 45 below.

personally, I run synthetic in EVERYTHING I own..... motors, gear boxes, final drives.... but then I put on almost 1000 miles on most of my daily driver vehicles per month(60 miles a day).....
as to brands of oil, to each his own. I stick with the bigger brands.... mobil1 (for the cold start advantage) I would still be running royal, but my dealer went out of buisness...... and on filters, you get what you pay for!!!! 3 dollar fram, or 15 baldwin..... what price is your motor worth???

If you have any other questions, I'll give ya a discourse.... I went through 3 days of this stuff.

I agree with batty for the most part. You will have to do out the math. Driving so few miles it does not sound worth it to add synthetic to your engine. HOWEVER, I would recommend putting synthetic oils in everything else, gears, trans, etc... Also, in my experience, synthetic DOES NOT cause seals and gaskets to go bad. What it does do, is make an existing leak MUCH more apparent.

[stumpuller454]

Originally Posted by merlin5577

I agree with batty for the most part. You will have to do out the math. Driving so few miles it does not sound worth it to add synthetic to your engine. HOWEVER, I would recommend putting synthetic oils in everything else, gears, trans, etc... Also, in my experience, synthetic DOES NOT cause seals and gaskets to go bad. What it does do, is make an existing leak MUCH more apparent.

Yeah when i told my dad to change his old 6.5 to synthetic it started leaking everywere, then he put the dino oil back in and it sealed back up... shows you synthetic gets into places the dino doesn`t

[bradrhale]

Originally Posted by stumpuller454

... shows you synthetic gets into places the dino doesn`t

where exactly is this place that dino wont go, on the ground?? bet you i can make it go there. ive watched people put new oil in a truck and forget the oil pan plug.