is it safe to switch to synthetic???
 

hey all...i recently purchased a 97 civic si with 140000km from my uncle...the car is a 1.6 litre v tec motor and runs great.... i baby my cars and like synthetic oil...is it safe to use it at this amount of kilometres????? will i make seals leak if i do switch over...??? any benefits??? any info would be great.

no there are none benefits.. except for the larger receipt.

With that kinda mileage toss some conv. 10w30 in there and call it a day. The motors were designs for conventional, not syn.

Plus.. it may cause a leak depending on how much crude is in your engine

I wish i could find a great article about this, Basically it says u can switch to synthetic anytime, without problems, U deff dont need it though just use regular oil and be done with it.

as chris said.. it might leak goin from normal oil to syn oil.. thats what ive been told by alot of people as well, no personal experience tho.. but who really needs syn anyway?

Pathetic...ugh i mean synthetic oil has a smaller molecular structure than regular conventional oil.


Only motors where clearances are made for synthetic oil should run synthetic oil. Ask any good engine builder and he will tell you the same. On a note, we wont warrenty any motors if they ahve been running synthetic....

I have heard stories of causing leaks. I would do it, considering its got that many kms, and you dont need to run it.

Where do you work?

there ya have it right there....no need for that kind of oil, regular is good enough :thumbup:

kool... anyoe suggest a good conventional oil??? i am a castrol fan...any better??

I switched over to synthetic and nothing leaked but then again I had recently already changed my cam seal, valve cover gasket, spark plug seals and oil pan seal. When switching over to synthetic I did notice less engine noise and believe it or not a significant increase in fuel mileage.

Why not? A longs as the same same oil standard is met then it should be safe to use. I call BS on denying warrenty claims.

Oil spec's

I run Mobil 1 in everything even my push mower. I notice with my pushmower I can cut my whole yard w/o refilling & runs a bit quieter. Before I had to add a bit more gas to finish my yard.

I'm Mobil 1 all the way for my vehicles.

When I bought my car my d16 had 165km on it. I did a few oil changes with regular oil then got a link on motul syn for really cheap.

i flushed the engine twice before i put the synthetic in with regular oil to get all the crap out.

I just changed the oil for the 2nd time... Ive noticed my car doesnt consume as much oil, it's cleaner for longer intervals, engine runs quieter and it works amazing for cold starts and driving off. I also tracked the car in between and after the track day, although the level was quite low it still wasnt as dirty as ive seen it before w/ conventional oil.

To be honest, i wouldnt have made the switch if i didnt get it for cheap. if the connection for motul ever stops, i'll probably switch to some standard synthetic now that ive already started using it. D16 can run perfectly fine on normal oil... but i do like the benefits of synthetic... i think a lot of it is in my head though.

oh and my car hasnt leaked a drop of oil as of yet. read this post by this guy cam stableford who deals amsoil stuff. he has a lot of good info about synthetic.

hope that helps man.

how I pick my oil is what is on sale...you drive a civic so use whatever cheap crap you can buy just change it at the right intervals

use synthetic if you are running a race engine and you are at max load and rpm all the time

ya, you don't need synthetic unless you have a race engine... in terms of longer time inbetween changes there are some issues with this... 1 the oil might be fine, but the filter might not be... and 2 - you can void your warranty if you don't change your oil at the regular intervals...

but seeing as you're out of warranty that's not an issue..

honestly, considering the car you're driving i would'nt spend the extra money on the synthetic... you're not driving a race car..

cool thats great...thanx guyz... now next question...why does my car bog?? between 0 and 3000rpm...???i replaced everything...capr rotor dizzy plugs wires fuel filter...wats teh deal..????

have you checked your timing?

i was using syn on my rebuild i found it was spraying outta my tail pipe on high rev's i switched back to reg oil (Pennzoil) 5w30 i dont see use in syn after that. since honda engines were built on regular oil and seem to last a long time

I think that using synthetic when the car is brand new or close to it might be beneficial. At least then the properties that make synthetic good will help a new engine.

On a car that is old and already has 140000k's, it's a waste. The engine is already worn way in and the synthetic isn't going to miraculously make it better.

I put 5 year's amd 100000k's on my 98 Si using OEM Honda oil and filters and the car ran perfect.

I'm sure our Amsoil Affiliate will chime in here eventually.

run a semi-synthetic

I have 200,000km still use synthetic no problems, bought the car new. Put it in after the break in period never had problems.
Mostly i would say that synthetic lasts longer, i dont change till 6000km later. Also in the winter the oil doesnt thick'in up as much as regular oil. Starts up faster, no chug, chug,chug. I find that some filters work better than other's and not all synthetic are equal. Also high milage oil i believe is really semi-synthetic cause if anybody noticed they really dont sell "semi-synthetic " anymore.
In the end if you can afford it why not, if not just make sure you change more frequently