synthetic oil

[MTU 50]

Originally posted by Mach 1



What exactly would this "certain amount of time" be? Maybe just a ball park figure? And why?

I switched back and forth freqeuntly (oil change to oil change) so I wonder if that falls under the "certain amount of time" category?

The reason I switch is because I usually only buy snythetic if I happen to stumble across it on sale at wal-mart. Ive gotten the 5 quart jugs for around $17.00 before on sale.

Sh*t, I can't remember how long exactly. I should have said some amount of time. Maybe after 12,000 miles of running synthetic, you should not go back to petroleum based oils. I have not a clue, its just something I have heard from a number of people. Some mechanics, some not. I don't know if its true or not, thats why I said I don't have evidence to back it up. If and this is a big IF, I can find time to test the viscosities in lab with a high quality viscometer and find other evidence that it is a bad idea, I will have convinced myself that it is better not to switch after using synthetic.

Until then, its cheap insurance. When my radiator went out in stop and go traffic and I could not pull over and the temp gage shot up to the red, I am sure as hell glad I had sythetic in there because of its proven resistance to thermal breakdown.

BTW Mach 1, I got ya beat. I bought 5 quarts of Mobil 1 15W-50 for $15 at Wallymart. hehe I already have 3 quarts of 0W-30 lying around so, I'll probably mix the two to bring the weight down slightly for a little better flow when the oil is cold (startup).