I did both, at the same time...no kidding. Been in the maintenance field for a long time and their is no difference except for oil change interval. If you use the synthetic oil, your oil change interval is longer. Regular oil, your interval increases. All up to you...

Me personally, I change my oil whenever i see it getting dark. Sometimes i go 10K, sometimes i go 7k, sometimes i go 3K.

The point is, as long as you change it on a regular basis..you be good to go!!

 

You all bring up great points about engine oil. I'vespent many dyno hours researching motorcycle engine oil for HP gains, engine noise, and transmition smoothness. For some reason engine oil fascinates me. There are oils out there that can last5k, 7k, 10k, 15k miles. What your not taking into consideration is oil filter life. Oil filters ate designed to filter up down to 20-25 microns. So it doesnt take alot to clog the filter passages. Once these passages start clogging, oil filtration and flow start becoming compromised. The engine is designed to have a certain rate of flow, otherwise oil pressure drops and your engine doesnt get the lubrication it needs. This can be especially detramental at higher RPM's. An oil starved engine is not a happy engine. So, the more often you change your oil and filter, the cleaner the inside of your engine will be. But in the end, any oil is better then no oil at all.
Also something to consider if your doing long interval oil changes is to use a quality oil filter. FRAM and other cheap oil filters are made of paper which deteriorate and gum up quicker. Where K&N oil filters are made of more of a fabric like material. which wont deteriorate as quick.

In case anyone is interested, I found that synthetic oils make more HP then petroleum and semi-synthetic oils. The test bike was a Honda 954RR. With full synthetic Motul 300V oil it made 4.5 more HP then the Honda and Shell petroleum oils I tested. All Synthetic oils saw hp gains of at least 2hp., but the Motul was the most significant.

Motul 300V (full Synthetic) and Shell Rotella T (diesel oil,non synthetic)promoted the smoothest transmition engagement on the test motorcycle.


Do what you want with this information. I'm not here to debate this subject, just share what I've learned.

 

Seems to me if your filter is getting clogged you have some serious engine problems....no?
What is te filtering?
Carbon? Todays engine all but eliminated carbon blow by
Metal parts from engine wear? If so, no filter and no amount of oil changes is gonna help you

 

I check my engine oil and fluids around every week as well as a general checl of tyre pressures too. Re changing the oil......I go with the OEM recommendations.

Just as an add on.........15 years ago, I ran a Peugeot 309GLD as a company car. At that point service intervals were every 6000 miles ( things have moved on a lot since then)
For the first year it was serviced regularly, then basic services as and when ( I was working for a really dodgy company at the time...lol)
Basically, it really wasn't all that well looked after, bearing in mind being younger I drove every where as fast as I could, braked as late as I could and raced everybody. The car had 7 miles on the clock when I first got it...............three years later almost to the day it had 196,000 miles on it and still ran very well.

Obviously I agree that regular maintenance is vital as is regular servicing..... its just a true story with not a lot of regular anything and she ran like a dream till they sold her on.

Jim C

 

Run it till the tires fall off!!
(than of course get new tires)

 

Lol......that was pretty much the way it was back then racer.

Re oil top ups / change etc. I was thinkin about the Audi just yesterday and checking the oil, when, a few hours later, the low oil light came on (spooky or what?)
Anyways, I checked and sure enough it was low, so I topped her up and she had used just under a litre. Now she's only about 2 months old with 5000 miles on her. Used Castrol longlife syntex III 5w/ 30 to top her off as per the OEM recommendations.
Just hoping that she's not gonna be using oil like that too often.

I had a Ford Mondeo for 9 years, well, 3 in that time, all 2.0 Tdci diesels and not once did I ever have to fill them will oil between servicing.
On the other hand I had a Vauxhall Vectra around 10 years ago, a 2.2 Tdi diesel engine..............you had to seriously watch that baby, as she used oil like nobodys business.
Allegedly, after speaking to one of the techs at Audi, he said that it may use oil for the first 10 - 15k and then will settle down after that point!
Hmmm..........we'll see I guess

Jim

 

Don't worry Jim ,hope it will be ok .Type of oil also counts on oil consumption .

 

Castrol syntec 111 5w/30 mate

Jim C

 

That's what I use Jim

 

Hey! that's what i use too!
Though in the hot summer months I switch to 10w-40

 

Oh man...we all are screwed! This is what happens when you don't change your oil!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QdhZPnpaMgQ

 

Just topped off the Audi using the same product
Alls well!

Jim C

 

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

Very interesting forum all about oil.