Aloha guys (and gals),

Well it's finally time to change the oil in my new-to-me 2001 Mazda B4000. She has 45560 on the odo as of last night. I was wondering if I could safely switch to synthetic motor oil, since I read somewhere that 50k was the maximum mileage where it would be safe to switch and not have to worry about your engine going out the door.

I'm planning on running Royal Purple, since I hear great things about that motor oil, but if you guys have any suggestion please lemme know.

Have a great one!

Thanks,
Greg

 

I don't see any problem switching now. I am not impressed with what I have seen about Royal Purple. I would go with the Maxlife Synthetic myself, or if you expect to run it very hard and/or have a turbo, then Redline might be a good deal. Assuming you are in Hawaii, then go with a 10wXX minimum.

 

Greg I changed my 99 4.0L over to synthetic about a year & a half ago, it had about 40K on it & so far is doing fine.

I did stay with the same brand of oil though, just to try & minimize any potental for add pack interactions.

I use Texaco Havoline 5W-30 synthetic changed every 6 months. I tow a lot, dragging my 175 Bass Tracker over & thrugh the Blue Ridge Mountains, so it gets worked pretty hard spring through fall.

The truck sits outside 24/7, so it sees plenty of cold starts in winter.

So the synrhetic lube & engine get put through their paces over a years time.

Do I really need it, probably not, as Havoline dino oil is better than many synthetics out there, but it does offer me some 20 deg edge in volitility, which I feel better about, while towing in the mountains.

So if your in the Aloha state & don't tow a lot or off road, you might not need a synthetic.

If you just want to run one, then I'd think about staying with the same brand oil your using now.

If the engine isn't clean inside, has some deposits, I'd watch the oil & filter closely, as most synthetics have a rather aggersive detergent add pack & will make her all fresh & cean inside, so you don't want to remove so many dposits that it loads up the oil filter & have it go into bypass for a long time.

If your in doubt about that, you could just change the filter in two or three thousand miles & add a make up quart. Then cut the old filter open & see how much stuff is in it & go from there.

 

No... They dont. I had an old '86 Bronco 2, with the 2.9L V6, that for the first half of it's life had conventional. The second half of it's life, had Mobil 1 Synthetic. Upon teardown, it was full of sludge. Now the motor did have it's problems, that's why I tore it down. Here's what I found. Oil pan had what I would describe as road tar on the bottom, and the valve covers had some very thick crud on 'em. The synthetic didn't clean anything. Certainly didn't hurt, but it wasn't the cure-all for engine deposits that it is too often described as.

The way I understand it, is that if it's an ester based synthetic, it will have better cleaning properties. Otherwise, it's about the same. The myth about synthetics cleaning the engine came from the fact that synthetics wouldn't volatize and form deposits as readily as the conventional oil of about 10 years ago.

 

Dang Rusty, sounds like a throw back to the 50's!!!! lol

ESSO would break down into what would look like tar. Quaker State would leave what looked like gray pudding, Penzoil would be clean but coat everythng with varnish. Wolfs Head would leave lots of baked on carbon, Havoline would be clean, if you'd wipe the dirty oil off, the part would be clean underneath, or maybe just a very light touch of varnish on the underside of the valve cover, kinda like a light spotty spray coating here & there.

Base oils & add packs do vary, even as far back as the earily 50's!!!

So you don't think Mobil-1 has a very aggressive detergent in it's add pack, interesting????

I know of one guy at work that messed up his Jeep engine back in the 80's, running one of the synthetic lubes, that for the life of me I can't remember the name of right now, but you see it peddled by dealers all over the net, anyway it gelled on him, so he pulled the valve covers & used a shop vac to suck as much of the stuff out of there as he could, rodded out the oil returns, then dropped the oil pan & cleaned it out, flushed everything with Varsol put it all back together & filled it with Havoline 10W-30 dino oil & one qt of Marvel Oil & a new oil filter.

Drove that 1000 miles & changed the oil & filter again & when I retired in 99, much to my surprise, he was still driving that puppy.

As a kid, I hung out at a local garage that did engine rebuilds. Got so I could tell you what brand oil was used, by the deposits in the engine.

Never saw one messed up that had been using Havoine. So when I got my first car, thats what went in it & back then you changed the oil & filter every 1000 miles & 20W-20 was the weight most everyone used here in SW Va. LOL

Anyway I've used multiviscosity Havoline for over 50 years now & I've never had a engine dirty up on me, so I know their base stocks & add packs have worked in my engines & for my kind of driving, for a long long time.

My first Ford was a 53 flat head hard top convertable. The last year for the flat head.....thank goodness, that puppy got 10W-30 Havoline & ran like a top!!!!

94 Taurus 3.8L & 99 Ranger 4.0L, all began life with 5W-30 dino Havoline, both are still squeeky clean inside. Both are now on 5W-30 Havoline Synthetic & so far loving it & still squeeky clean inside!!!! LOL

 

Well, I cant speak to the current Mobil 1 additive packages, but the stuff they were putting out from 1997 to 2001 sure didn't help! My one engine certainly doesn't establish a trend, but I can only report what I've seen.

Remember, the thing that makes an oil synthetic is the base oil, not the additives.

One of my brothers does seem to like Havoline, maybe there's something to that stuff?

 

Havoline is the same as the chevron supreme it is now a isosyn base with tons of moly.

 

I bought my 99 F250 with 114K. Runs great! I had the dealer change the oil to synthetic before I picked it up. Mistake?

 

I've changed four vehicles over to synthetic. Two of them had 90k when I changed, the other two had 50k when changed to synthetic. No problems. For the older vehicles, I changed the filter after 500 miles and again after an additional 1000 miles just to be safe. Had a buddy that changed over to synthetic with 180,000 miles and plugged his filter-lost an engine.

 

That is a great suggestion! I appreciate that a lot. Most people are saying that the Motorcraft filter is the best for the truck.

When I was in the Navy and had access to Auto Hobby Shops (we could rent lifts for a small fee), I ran synthetic all the time. But once I retired, I couldn't fathom paying the shops to install synthetic until recently. How many miles do you run between synthetic oil changes?

 

I don't know of any problems with the Ford filter-I just happen to use Wix. I change my oil every 12-18,000 miles. I let my Aerostar go 18,000 miles since I drove that many in less than 6 months. I changed my daughter's after 12,000 because it took her two years to get there. I have a good friend that is a Machinist Supervisor that also runs Royal Purple. He sends a sample to a lab every 3,000 miles. He is now up to 20,000 miles between changes on a Powerstroke diesel.

 

Does Royal Purple offer lab tests? I just bought a couple of quarts, and will do so every week or so until I get a case. OR I may stay with Mobil 1. If RP offers the tests, then I'm a Royal Purple man!

 

Just switched over to synthetic in my 4.0 2005 Ranger.
Used a conventional oil until I got to 10,000 miles.
Am using Castrol Syntec(5W30) with a Fram filter.
Thoughts/comments welcome.

 

I don't know of Royal Purple offering lab testing.

 

Getting back to the original question. That engine is modern and has such low mileage, there is no issue switching, the question is why? Royal Purple is an overpriced "boutique" oil IMO, and the only real benefit of synthetic over modern dino oils is in arctic temperatures. Since your profile states TX, that is hardly an issue.

With really high mileages, a switch to synthetic could be a problem. I tripled my oil consumption going from 15W-40 Chevron Delo to 10W-40 Castrol Syntec. Gas mileage did not improve nor did oil analysis results. Plus, it almost failed a smog check on hydrocarbons.

As far as the urban legends about synthetic having all these magical detergents that will "cleanup" an engine, the same thing was said about switching to detergent from non-detergent oil decades ago. Mobil did a legitimate scientific study that totally disproved that myth. New deposits were prevented, but the old sludge left there from non-D oil was not removed.

Jim