wheel_of_steel

If you have enough oil sludge in your galleries to actually seal an oil leak, throw your engine in the bin.

If you were 16, and the chevette started leaking after you f*cked with it, maybe the problem was not synthetic oil.



Just to clarify, some of what they test to gain an API oil specification includes: fuel efficiency, sludge prevention, piston deposit control, exhaust treatment compatibility, shear stability, evaporative loss, seal compatibility, and additive performance. Show me that mineral oils of low API rating are better than synthetic oils of high API rating, in every one of those performance categories, and then I'd be prepared to listen.

Tak82

the only evident leak i have in my Beta I is in the main rear seal behind the flywheel, it's leaking through the bottom of the bellhousing, and it needs to leak, if not, the oil would accumulate enough that the clutch would get contaminated with oil and mess everything up.



I personally use Mobil 7500 10w-30 in summer with a quart of oil substituted with a quart of lucas stabilizer and 5w-30 in winter..the lucas virtually stopped the leak while it's in the crankcase.



I'm waitng to replace the main rear seal when my clutch wears out.



a lot is said that its okay to switch from conventional to synthetic..so this is a pretty debatable topic.

Stocker

The car in question is a 1998 Hyundai, not an '86 with dinosaur technology running on dinosaur juice. Thanks for illustrating exactly my point.

pas1216

Oil lubricates moving parts in the engine. As far as i know all engines have moving parts no matter what the year. But thanks for coming out.

wheel_of_steel

All engine have moving parts - so why did your chevette engine (that allegedly contains the same moving parts as a 1998 and 2008 hyundai) leak when you run synthetic?





Synthetic oil is better at lubricating without breaking down into sludge and binning your sh*t.

pas1216

I'm seriously considering buying a $200 POS car with some oil leaks and changing the oil to synthetic and film the results.

wheel_of_steel

You know that sludge builds up everywhere, and in the unlikely situation that there was enough to actually seal an oil leak, you'd wreck literally every other moving part in 5-10k miles, right?



Synthetic oils are not thinner, synthetic oils are not thinner, the viscosity is written on the bottle. If you bottled wombat piss, it would have a viscosity rating - everything else at that viscosity rating would be exactly as thin



What's all this though?







Thick synthetic oil and thin mineral oil??? I guess the thin, winter mineral oil would definitely just seal up oil leaks anyway.

pas1216

I'm stubborn, I can keep this going for ever.

wheel_of_steel

Pas, that's thin synthetic oil. I posted thin mineral oil in my post. The point is that it's the viscosity rating that determines how viscous the oil is.



Whatever the thickness, regardless of whether it's synthetic or mineral, higher grade oil tends to last longer and be nicer to your engine. There just aren't two ways about this.

pas1216

I'm not arguing that, I fully agree. I run nothing but synthetic in my Accent and have done so since it's 3rd oil change. I also run synthetic in my trans as well. But I wouldn't run synthetic in an older car with close to 200K that has always run dino oil. I don't see the point and think it's a waste of money.



Side question- If you took two identical cars from new and ran one with reg oil and one with synthetic over it's entire life, what would you expect to see or happen? Would you expect one to last longer?**



**(not trying to argue, I just love a good discussion)