romus

Is this true? I ask because I’m thinking of switching to synthetic motor oil and sometimes my truck sits for a couple of days without being run.


***When I recently pulled a valve cover I was astonished by how little oil was on the cam lobes. They felt barely oily. The car had been sitting for maybe 12 hours, and the oil was M1 5W-30. ***
This is exact reason I will not run Mobile 1 in any vehicle that may sit around for a few days or weeks. I find the drain back is sever. I have had several folks mention to me that when they start a vehicle up that has been sitting around for a period of time with M1 in it, it sounds like a bucket of bolts. I have also suffering excessive camshaft wear on two infrequently used vehicles with M1 (both solid lifters). Once I switch back to dino, no problems. M1 is great for daily drivers only in my opinion.

ilocan

This sounds false to me. I'm running Mobil 1 10w30 and have left my truck sitting in the Parking lot of a whole week without starting on many occasions. I experience no valve noise or low oil pressure warning lights at startup. I think whoever wrote that must have a faulty oil filter. There is an anti-drain back valve in oil filters to prevent dry starts and keeping the oil from draining back into the pan. If you are using cheap filters with an inferior anti-drain back valves then yes, it is true in this case weather you are using dino or synthetic.

Bob K

This sounds like one of those myths that is around about synthetic oil. I have never experienced anything like this in any car I have owned and I have alway used synthetic oil.

As a matter of fact my neighbor had a beater K car that made the most god awful noise in the valve train (really bad at startup) and when we pulled the valve cover off you could see where the lobes on the cam were worn. (seems those cars did not have a lot of oil preassure to the top end) Anyway he started putting synthetic oil in it to try and make it last till he could get a new car and it was quieter after the change (even at startup).

rimpainter.com

Poor spelling, poor grammar...hmmm, sounds credible to me.

romus

I have a 2003 V6 4runner and the owners manual tells me to use 5w 30 motor oil. Would it be ok if I ran 10w 30 Mobil super synthetic motor oil? I would like to use thicker oil because I hear that Mobil 1 super synthetic oil runs really thin. Also will I be able to feel the difference running synthetic motor oil?

Thanks for all your help and input guys

rimpainter.com

You will be absolutely fine running synthetic 5 - 30 or 10 - 30 Mobil 1. You will not notice a performance gain. Some have reported 1HP, but I am not sure how they measured that.

The primary reason to run synthetic oil is for increased protection over conventional oils in extreme conditions.

I consider the desert heat and my driving habits extreme, therefore I run Mobil 1 5-30 in both our vehicles. I change the oil every 5,000 miles and always use OEM oil filters.

Follow what Toyota recommends.

castrolSi

Sounds like that guy was using Fram oil filters...


~castrol

Plays_with_Toys

After I destroyed the bearing in my idler pulley, my truck sat for a month while I was out in california. Didn't want it started for risk of something else breaking, came back and after fixing the pulley it started right up. I am losing oil though, and don't see any drips, so I am thinking the mobil is too thin for my 16 year old truck.

Bob K

I am running Mobil 1 5W 30 in my 4 Runner and have never had a problem. I go 5K between changes and have never had to add any oil between changes.

The 3.4L motor does not see to have the same issues that the 4.3L in the Blazer I used to have, I had to run 10W 30 in that or I would add almost a qt between changes. There were no leaks it just did not like 5W 30 oil. It was also a POS but that is another issue completly.

BT17R

I run Mobil 1 in all my vehicles. Some sit for extended periods without starting. One is an MR2 Spyder that sits in the garage from October until March. I put it into storage with a fresh change and start it every two weeks and run it at high idle to operating temp. No unusual noises, leaks or consumption ever. The opposite to complete drainback is rapid pump-up. Even my daily drivers become quieter more quickly at cold start compared to the same engine running dino juice during break-in.

Highland Runner

I think this is not even a relevant statement. Any oil will drain off a surface that isn't flat. A syn oil of a certain weight will stay on a surface the same way dino oil will. Plus the very thin layer of oil still there IS doing something at start up. Its not really metal to metal, and about 1 second after startup the lobes will be flooded with oil. Yes the anti drain back is not very good in some filters. Some filters don't even have them. This is one thing that will help get the oil to the vital parts quicker. Most importantly syn oil is better in all ways to dino oil. I've only been running it for 5k miles in an engine with over 200k miles, and have already seen improvements. My experience is just opposite of that statement. Check out http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi? for a lot of good info on oil/filters.

4x4CPOSEADOG

My LX 450 sat in the garage for 6 months with 5W30 Mobil Synthetic in the engine and of course an OEM filter P/N 90915-20004. It sat there without even a single crank for the whole six months I was away for a Mediterranean deployment. When I got back from deployment, I cranked it up and it was running good and very quiet. I did not have a single problem, so in my opinion synthetic oil really do works. Maybe the reason why there was a little oil in the cam lobe area is because your oil filter is clogged, you do not have a drain back valve in that filter, and maybe the engine oil passage leading to that cam lobe area is also clogged. So synthetic oil is not just for daily driver, but also for long term storage.

Noel

seafarinman

I use Mobil 1 5W-30 in my rig (and 0W-30 when I can find it) . I have over 181,000 miles now, and my truck will consume a little bit especially when I run at redline. The whole purpose of having a thinner oil (based on the instruction that the guys at Pennzoil gave us when I first got hired at Jiffy Lube in Vallejo CA in 1991) is that the thinner the oil, in this case 5W-30 vs 10W-30 is that the thinner oil on STARTUP will pump more quickly and easily throughout the cold engine . In this case, the 5W-30 will pump twice as quickly as the 10W-30, and 4 times as quickly as 20W-50 (for you diehard Castrol 20W-50 fans) on STARTUP and therefore reduces engine wear resulting from the bare metal to metal contact.

glockcoma40

I have been running royal purple 5w-30 since 2,880 miles. I have never had a problem with it and I think it saved my motor one time because it overheated. I have no knocks or pings in the motor and it uses no oil

hross14

I change my oil every 10k with M1--mostly onroad miles. Also, i used to drive about 36k a year and saw that Dino got dirty much faster than M1. There is alot of data and tests out there that show the benefits of Synth and even a study that used "spectral anaylsis" (vaporizes oil to see how much of what metals are in the oil) to see whether the DINO was better or the M1 was better. The Synth went for 12k before (1yr) before they just decided to change it. By the Way--Spectral Analysis is what the Airforce uses to determine whether a jets oil needs to be changed or whether the engine needs to be rebuilt. Synth is great because it increases intervals between oil changes (Enviro Friendly) and has better protection.

However back to the original post ---MY old Acura was an Angry sewing machine until it warmed-up. That didnt matter whether it was dino or M1. Additionally, when i was turning wrenches--all the motors i opened where "dry"(relatively speaking). I have 145k on my 97 3.4 and it doesnt use any oil. I will probably have to change the rearend before anything on the motor goes wrong. Just my $.02

BruceTS

There is no such thing as a pure synthetic motor oil, but they are all blends. Why are you worried about how mcuh oil is on the cam lobes, all you need is a thin film, which you stated it has. With that said most wear to an engine occurs on inital start-up. Have you ever heard the term "planned Obsolescence"? All auto manufacturers do this, because they don't want your vehicle to last forever. If you were to build oil pressure before starting your engine it last much longer, but this would require installing an electric oil pump.

The only vehicles that I know of that use a pre-pressure system is the newer Catapillar engines, you turn the start key and hear a wine, like the starter is turning, but the engine isn't turning over. About a minute or two later the wine stops, then all the sudden the starter kicks in to fires up the engine. I remember the first time I tried starting a D10k, boy did I feel like an Idiot....

EnolaGaia

If you're that worried about 'dry starts', you could always install an Amsoil Pre-Charger:

http://www.amsoil.com/StoreFront/amk.aspx

WATRD

Huh?

Amsoil is fully synthetic, unless you are specifically buying one of their "Blends".

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/atm.aspx

MTL_4runner

Ditto......synthetic is synthetic

But sometimes not:
Recently, Mobil accused Castrol of reformulating its synthetic by substituting other basestocks in place of its synthetic polyaphaolefins (PAO's). Castrol Syntec is a hydrocracked oil. That's right, Castrol has replaced the PAO synthetic base stock with hydroisomerized petroleum base stock. Hydrocracking, as it's called, is the highest level of petroleum refining. Castrol isn't even a true synthetic yet Castrol ended up winning the battle when the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus ruled that Castrol could still market its oil as "synthetic" despite their new formulation. Basically, they expanded the definition of synthetics to include Group III hydroprocessed petroleum oil. This high profile case took place because synthetics are recognized as the market's best hope for growth. Synthetic oil sales have outpaced petroleum oil sales by a wide margin and the gap continues to widen every year. Consumers are getting smarter and demand the best for their vehicles! Read the full story on the Castrol debacle in our informative articles section. Additionally, just as soon as Castrol won this battle, several other major oil companies jumped in and came up with hydroprocessed motor oils of their own and labeled these products to be "100% synthetic", when they still are primarily Group III hydroprocessed petroleum oils!

Here are the five industry standards:
The base stocks that motor oils are blended from come in five groups that are industry standards.

I=traditional solvent refining, nearly obsolete but still number one in world wide production.

II=hydroprocessed for better purity and higher viscosity index, rapidly becoming dominant in the US market. "ISO-SYN" and "Purebase" are marketing names for group II.

III=similar technology as II, but longer, more expensive process, legally can be called synthetic. Most major brand and house brand sythetics are group III. Shell Helix Ultra is considered group III, but is made differently and is factory fill for Ferrari.

IV=Poly Alpha Olefin, the traditional synthetic, still a hydrocarbon. Amsoil, Mobil 1 and Royal Purple are primarily PAO.

V=esters, the most exotic and expensive, made from alcohols processed with acids. Redline and NEO are ester-based.

Alklated Napthelenes are another type of synthetic hydrocarbon made by ExxonMobil and blended in Mobil 1. They wont admit that it fits the definition of group III.

Make sure whichever synthetic oil you buy is actually made with PAOs (polyalphaolefin) or Esters, if not, you are not really getting a true synthetic or your moneys worth (Amsoil, Royal Purple, Redline, etc).

rugerm44

Why buy castrol synthetic when you can have full synthetic for same price.As far as Im concerned its false advertising.I can say that because Im the one buying in the first place!