Mobil 1, good for 6k miles?

[Mr 5 0]

Originally posted by PKRWUD

Mobil 1 won't breakdown as quickly as a conventional oil, and may actually provide 12,000 miles of great service, or more. Problem is, it still get's dirty, and it still should be changed. I change my oil and filter every 3k miles, and I use Mobil 1. Truth be told, it looks nearly as good coming out as it did going in, but I still change it every 3k.

You've just explained not only the value of synthetic oil but why I don't use it in my daily drivers but would in a race car or very high-performance, low-mileage street car.
It lubicates better than conventional oil but with the problem that it still get dirty.

I find that changing my conventional oil (and filter) every 2,000 miles for the past 12 years and 115,000 miles on my '90 LX has kept it running beautifully with almost zero sludge build-up and no oil-related problems of any kind, including silent lifters and shiny heads (not even discolored) when I pulled the valve covers awhile back.

Would it be even better with synthetic oil? Probably a bit less wear from cold starts of course but other than that, not much. I save about $20. per oil change which comes out to over $1100. saved by using conventional oil vs synthetic oil over the mileage i have now. Worth it to me and frankly, I like having fresh oil in the crankcase every 2,000 miles. I couldn't force myself to leave synthetic oil in there for 10,000 miles or so.

Again; I would never recommend not using synthetic oil if you want to pay the price but on a daily driver I don't believe it's really necessary. Like my using Sunoco Ultra 94. It's a choice that we make with our money on our car...doesn't mean it's always the best thing to do for everybody.