New Engines and Synthetic Oils

[ToeJam]

I once heard it wasn't good to run synthetics in new engines.  Something about not being able to break the engine in properly.   ???

 

Anyway, I was under the impression you should switch to synthetics until about 10,000 miles.  

 

Any input on this?  Is it BS or just an opinion?

 

Thanks,

[RyanbabZ71]

well if this was true then one would have to ask why do corvettes come with mobil1 (synthetic) from the factory?  

 

Obviously it doesnt hurt the vette engines and the truck engines are a derivative of them

[Black02Silverado]

Mobil and Amsoil will tell you that you can run it in your vehicle as soon as you want. If you do a search on here you will find a few threads that some have pointed to the Mobil site. This is a little of what is on the site.

 

 

Don't Just Take Our Word For It

Mobil 1® comes as standard equipment in some of the finest production vehicles you can buy. It's "factory fill" in Chevrolet Corvette, all Porsches, Mercedes-Benz AMG models, Dodge Viper, Ford Mustang Cobra R and all Aston Martin cars. Here are some remarks from some of the top engineers and executives at these renowned manufacturers.

 

"Every car produced in the factory in Stuttgart gets its first oil from Mobil 1. And that means that all our cars and engines are developed with that product."

– Herbert Ampferer, Director,

Porsche Motorsports

 

"Mobil 1 is the only oil we use for our engines as the first filling. And then we put the sticker in the engine compartment just to make sure that people know what's in their engines."

– Domingos Piedade, Managing Director,

Mercedes-Benz AMG

 

"Based upon the results we saw several years ago in endurance racing with Team Shelby, we felt Mobil 1 could do the job in the Viper, Dodge's highest-performance sports car."

– Charlie Brown III, Viper Engine Supervisor,

DaimlerChrysler Corporation

 

* Viper photo courtesy of DaimlerChrysler Corporation.

** PORSCHE, 911, CARRERA and the PORSCHE CREST are registered trademarks and the distinctive shapes of PORSCHE automobiles are trademarks of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. Used with permission of Porsche Cars North America and Porsche AG.

 

 

5K is a good mileage to start with Synthetic oil. My understanding on this is you can start using synthetic oil as soon as you want but you have to remember that your engine is still breaking in and all that contamination is floating around in that expensive oil. Better to use a good grade regular oil to get it all broke in and then switch to synthetic. You want to keep the oil clean and to do that is to change it frequently for the first couple K. No sense spending all that money on the expensive oil only to change it out so soon. There is not going to be any more wear on regular oil in 3k then there is with synthetic. You just don't have the benefits of cold start oil flow or high temperature protection and slight increase in mpg with regular oil.

 

As far as the vettes and the other cars, ie Porsche, those car's are "engineered", or as Mr. Herbert Ampferer states above, they were "developed", with the synthetic oil factor figured into the spec's when they build them. There is a difference in an engine being developed with synthetic in mind and just the regular "Piston slap" engine being developed. Now if only the engineers put as much effort and time in all their engines and not just the ones for racing things would be different. When we pay up to $40k for our vehicles the last thing we want to do is deal with a design problem. OK where was I?

 

I started using synthetic in my 93 Sonoma at 2800 and it ran great but would go through a quart of oil in 3500 miles. Never could see it smoke and no leaks but the plugs had a constant crust on them every time I changed them, which led me to believe that it was burning the oil but very effeciently as to not have any smoke noticable coming out the tail pipe. I even had the valve seals replaced under warranty. Did the synthetic cause it, don't know.  I just think that if you wait till at least 5k then you have given the engine a good chance to break in and lessen any problems later. :thumb:

 

[lrymal]

...  I just think that if you wait till at least 5k then you have given the engine a good chance to break in and lessen any problems later.

From everything that I have read, I don't think there is a need for this.

 

But, it is a practise that I have observed for a couple of decades.  It just sorta makes me feel better and it surely won't hurt.  

 

Just be on the safe side.  And use the correct oil rating as per your manual during the break in. Don't use lower quality oil during the break in as some folks will do.  I change to Mobil 1 at about 6k to 7k.

[BlueRado]

I doubt it really matters too much during break-in whether you use synthetic or not.  The only issue I've ever heard is that synthetic tends to lengthen the time it takes for rings to properly seat - and I'm not sure that's really true either.

 

Black02 has a good point about having all the break-in and manufacturing waste products floating around in the expensive synthetic.

 

I normally wait till 8K to 10K to first use synthetic, but I had about 3500 miles on Blue last November, and I hate to hear that -20 degree grind before dino oil gets up into the engine, so I filled it w/ 5W-30 synthetic. And although this is only my experience, and it's still young ~ 9000 miles, I see almost no difference in dipstick level between changes thus far, about every 4000 miles now.