Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives How many of you guys use synthetic oil?

Well Swifty, going from Dino oil back to Synthetic..... It surprised me when regular oil DROPPED THE MILEAGE 6 mpgs.... and that was based over a 3000 mile change!

So I went back to the synthetic that it was use to and the mileage went right back up to where it was....Guess the synthetics have a lot more slippery additives than do regular oil...
of course that has been a "selling point" of STP for years......
Slippery additives and increasing the viscosity......

That works out to the car getting about 20% less mileage or so with Dino oil after it had been use to using Synthetic.....

As for my family, we will take the 28 mpg over the 22 mpg any day of the week..... and not question it or call BS at all.....

If you don't believe that gas mileage can go up 20% plus by using a different ( and better) type of oil,.... is it easier to believe that it can drop by 20% instead by using a lesser quality oil???

That is what happened.... whether anyone wants to believe it or not.... Got nothing to gain by feed ya any BS there Swifty....
Just relating experiences.....

cheers
seafire

I run Amsoil and/or Red Line in my vehicles and have for a little over 10 years. On vehicles that have large drivetrain drag (eg my wife's Subaru AWD) and/or are operated in cold weather you can see a significant increase in mileage when switching to synthetic fluids. I can't comment on improvements seen if just the motor oil is changed because I've always switched all the fluids to synthetic. Newer rigs may already have synthetic in some or all of the drivetrain so check that out before you consider switching them. Also, someone up above mentioned Rotella synthetic...you might want to look into it carefully because I read (drat, I wish I remembered where) that it was not a true synthetic but just highly refined dino oil?

Rotella synthetic is in fact a highly refined dino. A few years back Castrol won a court battle that enabled them to call their group III dino oil synthetic. Since then the majority of the synthetic oils on the market are group III oils (highly refined dino oil).

Amsoil,Redline,Mobil 1,Royal Purple are all fully synthetic.

Castrol,Pennzoil,Havoline,Chevron, and numerous others labled as synthetics are group III oils.

Hey Mossy,
Thanks for the info; it echoed what I had read before but had forgotten the details. It's too bad that the court allowed this to happen. I don't know the details of the lawsuit but it seems to me that uneducated consumers are being duped.

I run Mobil 1 in my wife's Liberty (gas eng). I run Amsoil in my F-350 (diesel), Western Star (Detroit Diesel ) and in my Mack. I run Rotella synthetic in a Case backhoe (diesel) I run Valoline syn in the big truck gear box and diffs and Amsoil in the Ford trans and diffs. I but Amsoil by the 55 gal drum and it is $2 cheaper than Rotella syn per gal. However Wal-mart carries Rotella. I have 717,000 miles on the Western Star and plan on getting 1.2 milllion before an in frame rebuild. I change filters and send an oil analysis away evey 15,000miles. I change oil at 95-100,000 miles even though the analysis says it is OK to keep running the oil. In the jeep and Ford I change the oil every 6-7000 miles depending on use (towing driving on dirt roads...) The only dino oil I use is the ATF in a skid steer because syn is too slick and will cause power transfer problems.

I use Mobil 1 in everything...Even my lawn mowers!!! This saved my 14 yr. old Toro when gas got into the crank case. It was pouring out, literally. I rebuilt the carb, drained the crank case and ran dino with Marvel's and changed it.
She's running great.
I also had a new 86 Escort EXP GT that I put 240,000 miles in 5 1/2 years. I got rid of it because I was tired of driving it.

I'm a believer in Mobil 1.

great read!!! i wish i kep my trucks long enough to change the oil <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
woofer

I'm a big fan of Amsoil and Redline products (water wetter). This was until recently. Nothing against Amsoil because I feel they are about the best product out there. I use it exclusively in my RV from the crankcase, transmission, differential, and even the grease.

But the best deal I have run into in a while was when we just bought my wife a 2006 Camry. The local Toyota dealer sold us a package to change our oil and filters, lube the chassis, wash and vacuum the car every 5,000 miles for the life of the car. They use Penzoil semi-synthetic and the whole thing cost us $239. A pretty good deal, IMHO. They even offered to sell us the same package for any other Toyota we have for $239.

I use Mobil 1 in all my vehicle engines and also use synthetic gear lube in the trans and difs. Makes a huge difference when the temp gets down there to -40 or so. Now if they would only come up with a cure for those square tires.