[muddpile]

I've been thinking about switching away from my standard Esso Extra 5w30 to Mobil 1 5w30 this summer. My car runs pretty warm, and dinosaur oil gets dirty pretty quick, so maybe a change is what I need. It doesn't leak oil right now, so it should be fine with synthetic as well, but I still have a few questions:
-At 60,000 miles, is it worth the switch?
-Is 5w30 the answer, or should I go 10w30?
-Do I need to run a special type of filter?
-How often should I do an oil change (I do 3000km right now, so about every 1800 miles)

I think that's about it. I have a whole pile of plain old small block chevy filters in my shop right now (Fram and Autopar I think), and I can get Mobil 1 at work, so if that's all I need I'm going to give this a try.

 

[AK's Z06]

I've been thinking about switching away from my standard Esso Extra 5w30 to Mobil 1 5w30 this summer. My car runs pretty warm, and dinosaur oil gets dirty pretty quick, so maybe a change is what I need. It doesn't leak oil right now, so it should be fine with synthetic as well, but I still have a few questions:
-At 60,000 miles, is it worth the switch?
-Is 5w30 the answer, or should I go 10w30?
-Do I need to run a special type of filter?
-How often should I do an oil change (I do 3000km right now, so about every 1800 miles)

I think that's about it. I have a whole pile of plain old small block chevy filters in my shop right now (Fram and Autopar I think), and I can get Mobil 1 at work, so if that's all I need I'm going to give this a try.

Your 1984 C4 @60K is certainly low milage, but the age of the original gaskets would be my concern for new leakage from synthetic, specifically the timing chain cover, rear main seal and valve covers. If it were me, I would stay with a high quality domestic oil. One typical reason for running a little warm is the radiator, all C4's are prone to debris caking up on the bottom section, very common, and it just sneaks up on you over time. It's a weekend project but, you'll have to pull it out and hose it down and hit it with high pressure air. It really was a alarming site the first time I did it, and yep, the car ran cooler afterwards.:thumbsup:

 

[OldVetteFan]

I've been using synthetics since about 1985.

The first car I started with had about 20,000 miles on it when I changed from dino. No leaks anywhere.

The second car (that wasn't new) that I changed to synthetic was an Omni Turbo GLH that had about 80k on it when I bought it. I ran synthetics for the next 50k miles until I sold it a couple years later. No leaks.

My oil change interval is typically double the manufacturer's recommendation, although I follow the Oil Life monitor on the Vette. When it lights up, I change it. On my '04 Blazer, I've been 14k since the last change, and I'm going about 12k - 14k on my wife's Malibu.

I have never had an oil related engine failure in any of the cars I've run with synthetic. In fact, the ONLY engine failure I ever had was in a car that was filled with dino oil (it wasn't an oil related failure in that case, though - it was my right foot).

I just can't get anal about oil. I know there are people that do, and they change much more frequently than I do, and that's OK with me - it's their money!

Steven

 

[The Shield]

Leak concerns are what has kept me from switching my '86 w/ 65k to synthetic. While Steven has put me a little more at ease, I don't know if I'll make the switch until the engine is rebuilt.

 

[GRIPPER]

I would stick with the conventional oil due to the possibility of leaks. You should have a lot of life left in your car's engine with such low mileage with whatever oil you put in it. I have always used Mobil 1 in all new cars I have purchased since the early to mid 90's and had nothing but praise for that oil, but I bought a used SUV (80,000miles) for a daily driver in the winter time and put Mobil 1 in it about the third oil change from the time i purchased the vehicle. It started leaking oil, but not that bad. I changed back to conventional oil , leaks lessened and I have driven it ever since(190,000+ miles). Just my opinion from this experience. I use conventional oil in my '91 Corvette at a little over 100,000 miles, but when i rebuild the motor I will put synthetic oil in it.

 

[L81_Corvette]

Unless you're worried that your engine may not be in great shape, I wouldn't worry about leaks from synthetic oil. I use Mobil 1 religiously in everything I own with fantastic results, no matter the mileage.
The latest being my daily driver Grand Cherokee. It had 145k miles when I bought it, I then switched it from the cheap Pennzoil crap the previous owner kept in it to synthetic. It is now close to 175k miles, NEVER leaks, the oil is still clean and amber-looking at each 3500 mile change, and she still runs great and smooth everywhere.
Synthetic won't cause[I leaks, but it will uncover any you may already have but that might be plugged with dino sludge.
Anyway, that's a long-winded way of saying, I recommend it!

 

[redimpss5]

I have never had a problem with Redline oil leaking. I have seen Mobil One creep past some gaskets. Not much, but enough to see.

 

[War Machine]

I started using synthrtic oil when the 87 had about 75k on the clock. I never leaked a drop of oil, except when I ran it too low on oil and the motor blew leaving a trail of oil a 1/4 mile long. :lookinup: The od reading when the motor went was well over 110k miles.

I run the synthetic for 6k miles at a clip. Did it w/ the Vette and have been doing it w/ my van and I'm coming up on 100k miles w/ no problems. I use either Mobile, K&N or Napa Gold (Wix) filters. I'm using Mobil 1 and K&N filter on my van now. Last oil change was at 93K so actually I'm going on 7k between changes. I tried Fram on the Vette and the seam popped on 2 of them in 2 weeks. I will never use fram again.