Dareng

Hey guys,

I've got a 2000 civic with 213700 and change on it. Is it to late to change to Synthetic oil? I've heard stories that if you change at a higher mileage, you could risk the seals leaking since all the crap has built up in them. I want to change over to it since the engine is getting up there in mileage.

I was looking to do the change asap.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
DG

Polkaroo Killa

Synthetic oils are a lot less viscous than your standard oil, therefore there is a greater chance that it can seep through worn seals compared to regular oil.
I recommend you do a compression test, it will give you some idea of what conditon your seals are in.

Dareng

I had Defcon do one before. The first 3 cylinders are reading between 6 and 8 percent but the 4th is at 13 percent? Do you think that I'll have trouble if i switch over? and if it does start to leak, can i switch back?

starboy869

I wonder how a compression test will tell the condition of your crank seals, cam seals, and oil pan gasket just to name a few.

Polkaroo Killa

Correction: I meant in regards to piston rings. And also I stated it will give him 'some idea' of the health of his engine.

hula_balu

once you go synthetic you cant go back.

spike

Yes you can. But just like Dan said, you do take that chance of oil being able to flow pass the rings a little bit. They did a leak down test from the numbers you said that they got, and compression test numbers would be higher. But if the compression test and leak down test numbers are good, you should be good to put synthetic in.

d16y8

Don't bother. At 213 km and change the motor is already worn out. Synthetic oil isn't going to make it last any longer.

MPR

Ok here is the low down on engine oils:

1st, some ppl seem to think that you can run only one type of oil or the other. Synthetic or dino(regular) oil. The truth is IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER! Oil is oil when it some to mixing synthetic and dino. You can be running regular and top up with synthetic or the other way around. They don't clash like water and oil! They are both oil.

2nd, Synthetic doesn't make oil leaks worse. It does flow through tighter spaces giving the appearance that your small drip of a leak with regular oil has now become full blown puddle on the ground leak with synthetic oil. In which case you should fix the leak anyways. Because synthetic flows through tighter tolerance spaces better and quicker it gives superior protection over regular oil.


3rd, the main reason synthetic is better than regular oil is that it does not break down anywhere near as quickly as regular oil and it can withstand higher operating temps as well without breaking down. This results in an oil that lasts much longer than regular oil. I run amsoil or mobil 1 full synthetic in my EM1(2000 SiR with B16A2) and it has just over 200,000kms on it. It does not have ANY blue smoke out the exhaust and will maybe burn 1/2 to 1L of oil max in a range of 8000 to 10,000kms between oil changes. And most of us know a little oil burnage in a b16 is normal. After even 10,000kms when I drain my oil, it's still actually translucent and still looks usable.


So your choice is this:

Keep using regular oil and change it at regular intervals (every 3-5k). There is nothing wrong with that, your engine will still last as long as you take care of it.

Or

Switch to synthetic, change your oil still at regular intervals (every 5-10k depending on your driving style) and know your engine is being protected better than if you ran just regular oil.

Does you engine currently have any blue smoke out the exhaust? If not, I doubt you will have any trouble running full synthetic.


Synthetic oil IS better. It's a fact. But as long as you take car of your car and change you oil on time, you can run what ever oil you want.


Hope that helps you out.

Thanks.

chris_v2

If you've lasted 200+ on dino oil, why switch now? Just keep doing regular services at 5000km and you'll be fine. People last 500,000km on dino oils all the time. Synthetic is pointless in our engines IMO.

FiveO

I used to use regular oil in my 8 year-old garden tractor with a Kohler 24 hp twin-cylinder gas engine. That oil and filter got changed every spring and again just before winter snow-blowing season.

Around year five, it started smoking lightly but continuously, and would burn through four or five litres of oil each year. Winter or summer, grass cutting, snow-blowing, or just hauling trailers of topsoil around the property made no difference in oil consumption to what was now a heavily-used, now well-worn engine. The engine had no leaks at all, it just smoked out the oil while running.

Last year I figured I'd try synthetic oil for diesel engines in it just to see how it would do. Except for an initial brief puff at start-up, the smoking stopped completely. I used the tractor just as much as I did in previous years but ended up burning only one litre of oil all year.

Oils designed for heavy-duty diesel engines give better sludge and deposit control than regular gas-engine oils, and they also provide extra wear and viscosity breakdown protection in the higher temperature and cylinder compression ranges found in diesel engines.

That extra protection also works to your advantage in gas engines even before you get into synthetic oils designed for diesels. As a result of my tractor experience, I've moved to that synthetic oil for diesel in all of my gas-powered motors, including my motorcycle and my push lawn mower. Just verify that the oil you intend to use is dual-rated for both gasoline and diesel engine use to the API service class specification required for your car. You can find this info right on the oil bottle label, and these days, just about all high quality diesel oils are also rated to meet or exceed the current SJ, SL and SM oil specs for gas engines.

Oh yeah - the oil that achieved this wonder on my tractor was Shell Rotella Synthetic heavy-duty oil for diesel engines. You can use it in your cars and get not only the added protection of synthetics, but also the added heavy-duty protection built into diesel oils. It costs a bit more than regular oils, but I buy mine in 20-litre pails which saves me about 30% per liter over the regular 4-litre bottle cost, plus I also save another 4 litres of oil not burned just on the tractor alone each year.

egb20

i had a 180 k gsr and switched to synthetic when i bought it to baby my new car ya know and i never had any problems with the seals leaking and drove the **** out of it untill 230 k when i did a rebuild.Its not so important, just more important that your level is always full and isnt old or used for to long.

RedLine Tuner

213 km is nothing, my dads toyota previa just breeched 425 km and running hella strong so to me thats nothing

Dareng

Thanks for your posts guys! I did the swap over. It seems to run smoother. But i'm gonna do another change at 3000 KM just to get all the crap out of it and then put in fresh 5W-30 synthetic. Thanks guys!