After finshing the complete break-in of my engine, plus 10 dyno pulls can I now add Mobile 1 synthetic oil? I was planning on just changing the oil until I found out is was Quaker State 10/30 (for gasoline engines only). Now that I have to buy more oil is it ok to go straight to synthetic or can I use the Quaker State? Would it be wise to use the Quaker State 10/30 (for gasoline engines only), since I have already bought this oil?

Thanks:

I'm far far from an oil expert, but when I had my cam changed the guy just drained the pan changed the filter and added mobil one and told me to use it, especially because I have hydrocarbon buildup in my motor from blowby.
I would think its safe to switch to mobil 1, but IMHO not entirely needed. I am going to continue to use it because if its just a bit better, in the grand scheme of what I spend on my car its not a big cost, considering miles driven and stuff. If it was my daily driver I probably wouldn't use it, even if you can get 5qts of it at wal mart for like 17-19 bucks depending on what mood the waltons are in..

hth
Matt

BillK swears by it. If my motor wasnt peeing oil, likely run it. 1/2 oil changes a year. Maybe he'll chime in and clarify when to switch. You could certainly run one more fill up of regular oil through it.

I've seen recommendations on running the motor for anywhere between 500 and 2000 miles before switching over to synthetic. I've also seen many racecars do a 20min breakin session with regular motor oil and run straight to synthetic after that. I think I'd opt for the 2000miles altho with Moly rings I dont see why 500 wouldn't be more than sufficient. Then again I think the more new parts you have in your motor the longer I'd wait as well...

BTW DEEBOO. How's the car running with that cam(idle, power, milage, etc..). I'd also be interested how your carb is working out for you and what, if any, mods/changes you've made to tune it since your dyno runs? I'm about to dropin my motor this weekend, if I can find all the damn pieces to my cherry picker :rolleyes: .

Justin

I run nothing but Mobil 1 in Everything from my Cars/Truck to my Harleys and even my lawn tractor. I just had Tony Bischoff of BES Racing Engines build a engine for me and I ask him how soon can I switch to Mobile 1 and he said to put about 25 miles on the break in oil and replace it with 10W40 Mobile 1.

I used Mobil 1 oil in my fresh engine built at BillK's shop from day one, all is fine, no smoking or oil usage. I, too, hope Bill will chime in here. :D

Originally posted by RegaMaro:
BTW DEEBOO. How's the car running with that cam(idle, power, milage, etc..). I'd also be interested how your carb is working out for you and what, if any, mods/changes you've made to tune it since your dyno runs? I'm about to dropin my motor this weekend, if I can find all the damn pieces to my cherry picker :rolleyes: .

Justin I just put the engine in this week and she is pretty good so far. I have not taken her on any open roads to unload the torque. but from what I have done in the neighborhood she seem well.
I have about 12.5hg of vaccum at 950 idle and she works the power brakes pretty good. I just need to put the power steering on the little mouse and see what she can do. BTW: I also need to put my cherry picker back together so that I can install my new hinge parts. Don't like sagging door on the ground effects....
I went ahead and use the Quaker State oil, I will run it for a while then change to synthetic in a few (3) months. I will not be driving a lot since next week will be dedicated to the body work and prep for painting. So this is what I have accomplished during my 2 week vacation graemlins/clonk.gif

Don't Corvettes, and some other pricey cars, come with Mobil 1 from the factory? I started putting Wal-Mart synthetic in my Silverado and I get better gas mileage. I won't use anything but synthetics from now on.

I know vipers do, and a bunch of other cars. Not sure about vettes though. It was either listed on the back of the 5qt mobil 1's I was buying at walmart or on their website.
I wonder how the valvoline full synthetic compares to mobil 1. There are cheaper full synthetics, I wonder if they are worth it.. cheap syn over good regular oil?
The only reason I use it honestly is because (and I don't know why) is that my cam guy said synthetics do better with hydrocarbon contamination than other oils, and I contaminate my oil very quickly, which irks me because I had the engine refreshed just 2 winters ago.

Matt

Yes - All Corvettes since 1997 use a Mobil 1 synthetic 5w/30 factory fill. Modern rings seat very fast and are seated by the end of the assembly process.

ok, here's where i did some research myself using it..... i use to run a lotta race bikes, 1 being a 89 (yes this was a few years back) gsxr750, this is an oil cooled bike, ran hot most of the time... well i street drove it daily, and i tried regular oil, after about 100 miles of me on it, the oil was burnt, i could go about 1000 miles before the mobil 1 was burnt, i also tried the castrol syntec when it first came out in the same bike (tick,tick,tick) so i went back to mobil 1, after nearly 50K miles on that bike it still looked like a brand new head under the valve cover, NO SLUDGE, nothing.. and for a crotch rocket (and an oil cooled one at that) to have no sludge and to go over 15-20k miles (total rag miles) is pretty un-heard of..... since then i use Mobil 1 in EVERYTHING i own, for the extra $$ it's cheap insurance, and in my opinion will pay for itself

Concerning break in... it all depends on how your block was honed and how your rings are. Some hone jobs will break in in a few minutes; others may take 500 miles. I usually play it safe and run a new motor about 500-750 miles on regular dino juice and then change over to a synthetic. Never had a problem.

After 10 dyno pulls, it's probably a safe bet that your motor is broken-in. I'd change to synthetic now.

I run Mobil-1 10w-40 Truck/SUV formula. It's actually Mobil's Delvac-1 HD Fleet/Diesel oil in disguise, and has better viscosity rentention/shear properties than the standard Mobil 1.

The standard Mobil-1 is great stuff, but their Delvac is even better. You can usually find the Truck/SUV blend anywhere that has Mobil-1, whereas finding the actual Delvac labelled stuff is difficult.

Motul, AMSoil, and Redline are also very good oils, albeit at much higher prices. Mobil-1 has the advantage of being a good oil that is widely distributed, easy to find, and at a good price point.

Besides the film strength and temperature durability of synthetics, the other big advantage in a daily-driver type of application is extended drain intervals due to the longevity of both the base stock and additive packages. Synthetics will maintain their viscosity and additive stocks longer than conventional oil, allowing you to go longer between changes. I made 15,000 miles using AMSoil 10w-30 (adding a make-up quart every ~1500 miles) on my '77 Elky before changing. I did oil analysis every 5K at Blackstone labs. At the 15K mark it was STILL good and had a lot of life left! The only reason I changed it is that it was a year old at that point and I didn't want to carry it longer than a year. I'm sure adding the make-up oil (for what was burned) really helped out on the life, but don't try a super-long drain interval without doing oil analysis. What drained out of the pan at the end of the year certainly didn't look appetizing, but the lab results told the real story-- it was still acceptable! I would never try this on my Chevelle though, too much money invested into the engine.

Synthetics are good, however I wouldn't recommend changing to synthetics in a higher mileage or older-age motor, as the seals/gaskets usually won't keep them in.

Troy

To add to the confusion arn't most synthetic oils out there actually only semi-synthetics. I've been under the impression that only Amsoil, Mobil 1 and possibly Redline are the only actual full synthetic motor oils...

Motor oil folklore and anecdotes. Some interesting stories here. I see one above that seems like a takeoff on the old yarn about the woodsman commenting on his reliable old axe: "Best durn axe I ever owned; had it for 20 years and only had to replace the head twice and the handle five times." or something like that.

Sort of like the oil that "...made 15,000 miles..(adding a makeup quart every ~1500 miles)...before changing"

That's a good one graemlins/thumbsup.gif or maybe there's something about the science or art of motor oil selection that's way over my head! :D

My $0.02

From my understanding the problem with synthetic oils is that they dont cool as well as other oils do. They claim lower temps but, thats cause of reduced friction. What about on parts that dont have much friction but still need to be cooled off by a cool shower of oil? On high performance engines the valve springs dont get the nessary cooling from synthetic oils. On oem applications this isnt a problem cause the valve springs are on the week side along with the ramps on the cams.


This is why I belive most cam companys dont recomend use of synthetic oils.

Originally posted by Tunedup:
From my understanding the problem with synthetic oils is that they dont cool as well as other oils do. They claim lower temps but, thats cause of reduced friction. What about on parts that dont have much friction but still need to be cooled off by a cool shower of oil? On high performance engines the valve springs dont get the nessary cooling from synthetic oils. On oem applications this isnt a problem cause the valve springs are on the week side along with the ramps on the cams.


This is why I belive most cam companys dont recomend use of synthetic oils. =
Hmmm ????
I guess all of the Cup teams, Busch teams, Craftsman Truck teams, IRL & most NHRA pros,,,, the list goes on hasn't heard about this as I think you will find they are all using synthetics :D

If you would like some factual reading on motor oils go here, do a little reading & buy the book.
A lot of testing & probably more information in one place then you ever wanted on oils ;)

Motor Oil Bible (http://www.motor-oil-bible.com/index-test6.html)

Here is another using a very respected independant lab:

Motor Oil Studies (http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html)

When you get done with all of this information if you still feel Synthetics aren't worth it,,,,,
Oh well graemlins/sad.gif

I run Mobil 1 in almost all of my vehicles manely because I don't drive all of them often enough and Mobil 1 is far superior to conventual oil in that situation. I did notice something different when I put some 15-50 Mobil 1 to replace the 5-30 that was in the wagon. Like most cars with an XE series of cam it always sounds like it has solid lifters with about .005 clearence. I noticed something was different. The lifters quit making their clatter I don't know if it has caused earlier pump up but my cam runs out of power before the lifters die.

Originally posted by Wolfplace:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Tunedup:
From my understanding the problem with synthetic oils is that they dont cool as well as other oils do. They claim lower temps but, thats cause of reduced friction. What about on parts that dont have much friction but still need to be cooled off by a cool shower of oil? On high performance engines the valve springs dont get the nessary cooling from synthetic oils. On oem applications this isnt a problem cause the valve springs are on the week side along with the ramps on the cams.


This is why I belive most cam companys dont recomend use of synthetic oils. =
Hmmm ????
I guess all of the Cup teams, Busch teams, Craftsman Truck teams, IRL & most NHRA pros,,,, the list goes on hasn't heard about this as I think you will find they are all using synthetics :D

If you would like some factual reading on motor oils go here, do a little reading & buy the book.
A lot of testing & probably more information in one place then you ever wanted on oils ;)

Motor Oil Bible (http://www.motor-oil-bible.com/index-test6.html)

Here is another using a very respected independant lab:

Motor Oil Studies (http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/oil-life.html)

When you get done with all of this information if you still feel Synthetics aren't worth it,,,,,
Oh well graemlins/sad.gif </font>[/QUOTE]Accutaly, I heard it second hand from a factory sponcered pro street driver. Of coarse he ran synthetic oils but, then again what pro level racer doesnt change the valve springs every race?