blend or regular
 

I don't want to use full synthetic, but will use a synthetic blend.
Considering that I change my oil every 3k or 3 months...which ever comes first, would my engine benefit from using a synthetic blend in any way? Or using regular ole conventional be the best option with the short OCI's I do.
By the way, longer oci's are not an option for me since I have 3 kids and need an excuse to get out of the house whenever I can, changing the oil is always a good one.

You didn't state how many miles you usually travel in those three months but I would assume less than 3,000 miles. The best oil, regardless of manufacturer, basestock, etc., is fresh. If the unit gets low miles at each startup, use a quality dino. If it sits a lot and then gets miles, use a dino. If it sits a whole bunch and then sees a whole bunch of miles, use a dino. If it sees a lot of idling but not much in the way of miles, use a blend. Low mileage and synthetics do not mix as the synthetics are more prone to corrosion than a dino in an engine that sits. Wear metals in a low mileage, sitting environment will be higher with a synthetic.

Flash,

By the time I hit 3 months, I have about 2k to 2500 on the oil. At that point I change it. So from you say, conventional is better for me?
I never heard before that syn is not a good option in that scenario for the reason you stated..but that's good to know.

I think the blends are marketing hype, pay almost syn prices for essentially a dino with some syn thrown in for labeling purposes. A lot of the current dino oils are already blends or they are very syn like in performance anyway so why go blend and pay syn prices.

With the low miles you put on I would stick to a good dino. I hear Chevron Supreme is an excellent dino very close to Syn. I also read that Rotella and Delo are excellent dinos.

I use syn but I go for 5 to 7.5K changes.

Jim Henderson

I think you could go longer than 3 months. I would think that "6 months or 3000 miles, whichever comes first" might be a better guide to go by. Then you would be changing about every 4 to 4.5 months.

I was inclined to agree with you. If synthetic is better, why use less than all synthetic? And how much is in the blend? The prices would indicate about half, but it could be 10% or maybe less.

However, now I feel that synthetic is not ALWAYS better, so why should we limit the ingredients? And the blends do seem to save a good half. The results with the Motorcraft blends convinced me to change. Now I use blends (usually Motorcraft or Mobil 7500) in all my vehicles. However, if money got tight, I would not hesitate to use the conventional oils mentioned.

Well, I just bought an '05 E450 HD with the V10 and the recommendation is for syn blend 5-20.

ray

I have a similar situation and was using Mobil1. After reading posts on this site and bitog, I have returned to a 10w30 syn blend and Motorcraft FL-1A filter.I use Motorcraft,Trop artic, or Kendall GT1 which are basically the same Connoco/Philips product and have noticed no problems.

Conoco uses a pure hydrocracked Group II base oil that is of very high quality. Hydrocracked Group II's have been demonstrated to be as good as Group III "syns" in many respects.

I doubt that you need to pay extra for a syn blend. Any Conoco regular dino is just fine.

MC filters are made by Purolator. So are PepBoys ProLine. My suggestion is to buy whichever is cheaper.

conoco has made all of their oils blends and the price still is the same. they have not made the 30w 0r 10w40 or 20w50 blends and they don't plan to.

Another interesting marketing ploy, as I see from Conoco's website that they sell regular full dino and a syn blend:

http://lubes.conoco.com/pds/Automotive.htm

So, if the plain dino is a blend, exactly what are you getting for the money if you buy the syn blend?

their website is not updated. all of the regular dino oil on the shelf is old stock. all of their 5w20,5w30 and 10w30 is now syn blend and reports have shown it is close to 50 %.

IIRC only the Motorcraft has the threaded end bypass valve so the bypassing oil does not have to run past the dirty filter element to get to the valve. That is worth the extra buck or so for the MC over Purolater, ProLine, and many others.

Well, OK. But if the dirt was so easily removed from the filter media, seems to me that the media will not trap very much dirt from the oil actually flowing through the media.

Once again, a "Good, Better, Best" answer/argument to an "Is it good enough?" question.

The bottom line, which few people actually deny, is that the cheapest SL-rated motor oil, and the biggest piece of crap oil filter (that still meets OEM specs) changed every 5000 miles or so will get your engine easily to 150,000 miles.

I know, "I'm going to keep this car forever!".