Synthetic motor oil vs conventional

[F22Chris]

Or pay $50 a year and top off as needed.



@Deev
Shit! If I were working 120 a week, I'd pay to have it changed too! Then I'd go to bed. Christ dude, that's a lot of hours.

[Grumpys93]

Or pay $50 a year and top off as needed.

Would not trust that. If I had a junk car then I would chance it. But that just seems not safe. Especially if it's a daily driver.

[deevergote]

It would probably be fine, but I agree, I wouldn't do it either.

My Fit's oil service light came on between 10,000 and 11,000 most often. It was designed for use with conventional oil, so it had no idea synthetic was in there. That means conventional oil could've been changed at 11,000 and it would have been "fine". I'm sure I could've taken my synthetic to 20,000 regularly and seen no damage as a result. I wouldn't, because that's terrifying... but I bet I could have.

[Vermonter]

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't shy away from it if it was a true 100% synthetic oil. Think about how many years and miles we put on the other fluids in our cars. If the liquid is designed for that use and claims a one-year oil change, then I'm comfortable with that.
The scariest thing about oil to me is the fact that dino oils are in some loose sense organic. No matter what, dino oil will break down with heat, etc. If you take that equation out of the mix and give me a product design in a science lab that can be manipulated to meet certain demands, like being resilient to heat,etc then that eases my mind more than throwing something that came out of the ground into my engine. I've pushed the limits of all my synthetic oil changes, and from my experience even the long-haul oil changes produce an oil waste that looks like it still had plenty of life left. I fully believe that the royal purple claim of 15k miles is very conservative.
Just my opinion. So far non of my opinions have done any damage to my cars. (knocks on wood)

[ukemike]

There is one factor about older cars and oil change intervals that gets ignored in these discussions. Old cars may have rings in less than perfect condition and the oil can get contaminated by engine blow-by. So regardless of what sort of oil you are using, check it on a regular basis and if it is looking black instead of gold, change it no matter how long it's been in there.


Deev I have a Fit too! Love that plucky little L15a7.
In 2013 I had only had German cars since 1989. Now we are an all Honda family. I have a 2013 Fit, my wife has an old Civic, I race a CB7. Soon we will sell the Civic, my wife will take the Fit and I'm going to get an RSX-s. I'll keep racing that cb7 until it dies.

[Cragelarson83]

There is one factor about older cars and oil change intervals that gets ignored in these discussions. Old cars may have rings in less than perfect condition and the oil can get contaminated by engine blow-by. So regardless of what sort of oil you are using, check it on a regular basis and if it is looking black instead of gold, change it no matter how long it's been in there.


Deev I have a Fit too! Love that plucky little L15a7.
In 2013 I had only had German cars since 1989. Now we are an all Honda family. I have a 2013 Fit, my wife has an old Civic, I race a CB7. Soon we will sell the Civic, my wife will take the Fit and I'm going to get an RSX-s. I'll keep racing that cb7 until it dies.

This is off topic but do you have Any videos of you racing. You don't have many performance mods and just seeing the list if what you have done has inspired me to dig into my suspension. I love cruising the the twisties out here in Washington. There's a lot of really good back roads around where I'm at that you can really push your car as long as you know how to drive.

[ukemike]

This is off topic but do you have Any videos of you racing.

There are links to several videos in this thread:
1991 Accord LX Race Car thread

All of our race videos are here:
PicknPull Racing's Youtube Page

Watching the full drives can be boooring but any that are labeled fast laps, are short enough to be entertaining.

If you'd like to talk about how to make a CB7 handle and not worry about all the other suspension sillyness like slamming it, huge wheels, stance, etc, start a threat on the subject I'll jump in with my thoughts. I imagine Deeve would too.

[deevergote]

I imagine Deeve would too.

(also, once I get a few minutes away from school work, I need to check out your videos!)

[Cragelarson83]

There are links to several videos in this thread:
1991 Accord LX Race Car thread

All of our race videos are here:
PicknPull Racing's Youtube Page

Watching the full drives can be boooring but any that are labeled fast laps, are short enough to be entertaining.

If you'd like to talk about how to make a CB7 handle and not worry about all the other suspension sillyness like slamming it, huge wheels, stance, etc, start a threat on the subject I'll jump in with my thoughts. I imagine Deeve would too.

I will doo just that....i scrapped my vigor after i bought my cb7because i had nowhere to park it...i wish i could've snagged all the interchangeable suspension components.. I was pretty bummed out but had no choice. I look forward to hearing what you got for me.

[deevergote]

Scrapped your Vigor? Man, those things are becoming quite rare these days! I always kinda wanted one. Weirdo longitudinal 5 cylinder driving the front wheels...

[OldIronSleeves]

AMSoil, yeah, that's the ticket! I walked into an Autozone, was looking at the oil filters, and one of the floor reps offered help. We got to talking about oil and filters, and I remarked "Of course, the ultimate oil filter is AMSoil." He did a roundabout and just walked away. I guess the best cannot be argued with.

So, my take is the additives. That has changed the oil, and depending on your perspective, either improved it or ruined it. In the olde dayz, an oil change consisted of placing a bucket of dirty oil on a high shelf in the garage, and running a long lamp wick or fiber rope down to a bucket on the floor. Eventually the bucket on the floor would fill up with nice clean oil.