What a Joke! GM and its latest recall.

[Soundguy]

I believe Ford spec.'s synthetic with a friction modifier for the rear diff. On mine it's 75w-140 syn.

could be.. whenever I get to that oil change point, I'm going witht he motorcraft syn psd oil for the crankcase, and whatever they call for the diffy in a syn.. plus anything else I can go to syn.. like ps.. etc.

will have to check on the trans.. not sure what optons are available.. I do have an aux cooler and temp gauge for the trans.. etc.

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

I was using the Motorcraft oil for a while but got a great deal buying enough Dello to do 6 full oil changes. Basically get the filters for free so I stock up on oil a few times a year.

Chris

My brother uses delo in his 2000 gm 2500 truck.

I almost went that way.. but figured the ford should probably get the motorcraft oil specifically marketed for the power stroke diesel.. similar price, and I believe both oils are decently high quality.

 

[sld]

One thing I noticed in my use of full synthetic motor oil was excessive usage. Are any of the people here that have had usage problems using full synthetic?

I have come to the conclusion it is more volatile and some of it actually flashes off or evaporates. Switching back to conventional, or even semi-synthetic has always solved my "usage" problems.

 

[Soundguy]

hmm.. evap or flash off... I'm no chem-eng.. but that don't sound right... syn oil is suposed to handle heat better than conventional.. I can't imagine that would be true if it just all boiled off.

maybee it cleaned better and leaked?

soudnguy

 

[Diamondpilot]

I think is the cleaning action of the synthetic more than anything. The Saturn I had was plagued with carbon build up issues. The GM fix was to pour diesel/coke in each cylinder, let it sit for 1 hour, crank it over with the plugs out to blow oil out, repeat with GM carbon cleaner, change oil to Mobil 1, run for 500 miles to clean it up, then back to regular oil.

My fathers Corvette always calls for Mobil 1 after any engine work is done for 500 miles per GM then you can go back to conventional or keep running synthetic but you have to change it after 500 miles no matter what.

This is all due to its high level of cleaners.

Chris

 

[sld]

Maybe during cold starts before the engine warms up you are actually burning some of it.

The way synthetic flows, I bet it can get around a cold piston much better than regular oil. As soon as the piston heats up and expands, maybe the issue goes away.

But Ford has been using the high silicone content (hypereutectic) piston for years now and it is supposed to limit the amount of thermal expansion that happens.

Either way, I have always noticed less oil on the dipstick after 3k miles with synthetic than conventional oil. And these are newer vehicles that have zero leaks.

 

[Builder]

It's pretty much conventional knowledge that when you switch to synthetic, you burn a little more. One of my employees has a hemi in his Dodge 2500. he switched to synthetic and it just drinks oil. Sometimes 3 quarts between changes. Dodge tells him that synthetic goes through the Hemi. Not sure if I'm buying that much useage, though.

 

[timswi]

From what I've seen, you start with synthetic and keep using it. If you add it later in the vehicle's life, it either burns off or causes cold start noises.

I've run my stuff on nothing but Castrol GTX and never had any issues. Some of the buyers of these switched to synthetic and had some strange behaviors. None of them severe, but once they went back to conventional oil, the noises or burn off stopped.

My uncle ran his Vettes on Mobile 1 from new and never had an issue.

I'm not doing that. Used to be $6.00 per quart. I put too many miles on to deal with that. My GMC uses nothing between changes at 5K or whenever the computer yells at me. The wife's Hummer is the same.

 

[FlaDon]

One thing I noticed in my use of full synthetic motor oil was excessive usage. Are any of the people here that have had usage problems using full synthetic?

I have come to the conclusion it is more volatile and some of it actually flashes off or evaporates. Switching back to conventional, or even semi-synthetic has always solved my "usage" problems.

I've run both types. Didn't make a difference either way. And it has no leaks. One thing mentioned about newer engines, 2000 and up, is that they tend to pull a higher vacuum than older design engines. Thus pulling more oil into the cylinders.

 

[Dmace]

One of my employees has a hemi in his Dodge 2500. he switched to synthetic and it just drinks oil. Sometimes 3 quarts between changes. Dodge tells him that synthetic goes through the Hemi. Not sure if I'm buying that much useage, though.

My 03 RAM 1500 HEMI has 98k miles and I've used Mobil 1 full synthetic since I got it with 25k miles 5 years ago. It has never been more than 1/2 qt low between changes and I go 6-7k miles. 90% of the time that it's running it has a trailer on it too!