Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vetali]

@vetali any ideas?

I did an oil change on a rebuilt motor that had ran for maybe 15 miles. Was like water coming out.

2k is way too soon to be doing an oil change anyway.

[byalexandr]

What's your current ride?

Right now I drive a (I think 2014) Kia Forte. Just for school and stuff, it's actually my older sister's car who is currently out of state for a few years. My car that I'm trying to find time to finish restoring is a 1973 Fiat 124 Spider, otherwise known as the Pininfarina Spider.

 

My mom drives a 2013 Kia Sorento, my dad drives a 2008 F-150. We like Kia and Ford

[byalexandr]

Not bad. I'm trying to find the cash to get a 1996 to 2002 Suburban to have as another rig. I'm picky and don't want any rust.

Nice

 

I really want something 4WD, probably an old WRX or Legacy or something I can take off road and go hunting and what not. Don't really want a truck or SUV though, everyone and their dog in my area has one, plus I like rally a lot.

[GlassBomb]

@RevoltTrain here's a project for you. Make one of these

 

~snipe~

 

Front wheel driven.

[ZacDaMan72]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oI8o9f2Co6pAheGhj3nPXdcUGn_eSjfGaMj9cL4s7U0/edit?usp=sharing

 

Did the math on the Outback 3.6R vs the Passat Alltrack. Am I missing anything apart from depreciation?

[ZacDaMan72]

This is about what I want my suburban to look like. I'll be stepping up one size in tire (dunno what size yet but Imma do what I did with my s10, just go one size up from stock)

2002.jpg

Bigger wheels and thicker tyres or bigger wheels and thinner tyres?

[ZacDaMan72]

Stock wheels, I think they're 16x7 and 265 70 16. I'd like to go to 275 70 16 or something like that.

Oh sorry read that wrong. Sounds good if you're getting better rubber, but if you're just getting a wider version of the same tyre it won't make much difference IMO.

[vetali]

I did a 2k change in my s10 just because it was convient to do at the time the time before last.

High miles it doesn't matter. When the engine is "newer" it does.

I quote newer because new cars come from the factory broke in, however few companies disclose how/how long (especially Honda who keeps it secret).

[bcredeur97]

I did an oil change on a rebuilt motor that had ran for maybe 15 miles. Was like water coming out.

2k is way too soon to be doing an oil change anyway.

Yes 2k is short but he wanted to do it because the oil was so thin it was beginning to scare him. (He did note it was getting noticeably thinner every time he checked it)

Could it perhaps be from all the heat from his lead foot? I mean he's literally almost gone through half a set of tires since he bought the car haha, he's been absolutely tearing it up, that engine has gone through waaaay more revolutions than the average person would put on it in that amount of time, and the heat from the turbo I'm sure didn't help.

[MEC-777]

Looks alright to me. The first photo contains air bubbles, those aren't metal bits. Oil turns that dark way before 4,000 miles. And you should change the oil every 3,000 miles, especially since the car is new. If there are any metal bits, it's just the engine break in process. And don't use full synthetic oil, it's not good and leaves a film on the insides. I use either synthetic blend or pure conventional. Saves on cost too.

 

And, I'm assuming it's 5W-20 or 0W-20 since most cars today use that, so it's normally a water like consistency. Motor oil in lawn mowers and stuff is much thicker so I'm assuming you work with it a lot if you're not used to that kind of oil.

 

Was it still warm or was the oil back to room temp?

 

And 5W-20 or 0W-20 is normally that thin. The car could use even thinner oil like 0W-10 and that stuff is basically water (in viscosity ).

 

Not really. Builds up over time, costs more, etc. That's why you always put full conventional in high mileage cars, since that film wears away stuff that's already worn out even more.

 

Dang, I've been missing all this oil talk.

 

Full synthetic doesn't leave any "film" not sure what you mean by that. 

 

Here's the main difference between conventional oil and full synthetic: 

 

Conventional oil is made up of molecules of varying sizes, larger and smaller, which effects how it flows and how easily it flows through tighter tolerances. The bond between the molecules are more vulnerable to thermal and mechanical break down much quicker than synthetic. Conventional oil is also more effected by extreme temperatures - the colder, the thicker it gets. Even if you get conventional oil at a weight for colder weather, it will still be not as good as a synthetic oil of the same weight in those cold temps.

 

Synthetic oil is made up of molecules that are a much more consistent size - all smaller than that of conventional oil.  This is partly what allows synthetic to flow much more easily and effectively through tighter tolerances. The bonds between the molecules in synthetic oil are also much more resistant to thermal and mechanical breakdown - 2x or more resistant. Synthetic oils also have a much wider operating temperature range and will flow much better at colder temps.

 

Because of the benefits of synthetic oils, you can run it for much longer (10,000kms/6200miles +) between oil changes and doing so is perfectly safe. Modern oils are far better than they used to be when the old "change it every 3000miles" was actually necessary back in the day. Even modern conventional oils are much better. 

 

For modern advanced engines, I can't recommend full synthetic enough. It is what the engine was designed to run on and is a requirement for proper lubrication with how tight the tolerances are in these engines. Conventional oil will work, but will break down far quicker than synthetic. Yeah, it's more expensive, but you only have to change it half as often. You can easily find the weight of oil you need on sale somewhere for not much more than the cost of conventional oil. IMO, there's no excuse if you have a fairly new car, regardless of mileage. I;m running full synthetic in my '01 Golf 1.8T with almost 300k kms on it. The oil isn't leaking or going anywhere. In fact I wouldn't put anything else in my engine, primarily because it's turbocharged and that will put an increased thermal stress on the oil (turbo's get damn hot, lol ).

 

@bcredeur97 - DO NOT put anything in your friend's 2.3T except full synthetic. At the very least a blend. But honestly, there is really no reason to use a blend on a modern high performance engine like this one. Should be full synthetic, always. (especially considering that your friend is adding more power and drives it aggressively). 

 

If you have an older car (10+ years old) with high mileage, that is maybe burning oil a bit or has some leaky seals, yeah, throw conventional oil in it because A: it's just going to get burnt or leak out and B: the characteristic of conventional oil containing larger molecules and lower ability to flow through tighter "gaps", means it will leak less than if you put synthetic in it. 

 

So yeah, it depends on the age and type of vehicle/engine itself, not just the mileage. 

 

The most important thing above all is this; change your oil at regular intervals, regardless of what you put in it and your engine should run strong for a very long time. 

[MEC-777]

Yes 2k is short but he wanted to do it because the oil was so thin it was beginning to scare him. (He did note it was getting noticeably thinner every time he checked it)

Could it perhaps be from all the heat from his lead foot? I mean he's literally almost gone through half a set of tires since he bought the car haha, he's been absolutely tearing it up, that engine has gone through waaaay more revolutions than the average person would put on it in that amount of time, and the heat from the turbo I'm sure didn't help.

 

Yes, totally. If you beat on it, the oil will breakdown faster.  All the more reason he should use full synthetic. 2k is still pretty early to change it and just by looking at those pics, it looked like it still had plenty of life left. Synthetic is pretty tough stuff. Still, the harder you are on the engine, the harder it is on the oil. 

[byalexandr]

Dang, I've been missing all this oil talk.

 

Full synthetic doesn't leave any "film" not sure what you mean by that. 

 

Here's the main difference between conventional oil and full synthetic: 

 

Conventional oil is made up of molecules of varying sizes, larger and smaller, which effects how it flows and how easily it flows through tighter tolerances. The bond between the molecules are more vulnerable to thermal and mechanical break down much quicker than synthetic. Conventional oil is also more effected by extreme temperatures - the colder, the thicker it gets. Even if you get conventional oil at a weight for colder weather, it will still be not as good as a synthetic oil of the same weight in those cold temps.

 

Synthetic oil is made up of molecules that are a much more consistent size - all smaller than that of conventional oil.  This is partly what allows synthetic to flow much more easily and effectively through tighter tolerances. The bonds between the molecules in synthetic oil are also much more resistant to thermal and mechanical breakdown - 2x or more resistant. Synthetic oils also have a much wider operating temperature range and will flow much better at colder temps.

 

Because of the benefits of synthetic oils, you can run it for much longer (10,000kms/6200miles +) between oil changes and doing so is perfectly safe. Modern oils are far better than they used to be when the old "change it every 3000miles" was actually necessary back in the day. Even modern conventional oils are much better. 

 

For modern advanced engines, I can't recommend full synthetic enough. It is what the engine was designed to run on and is a requirement for proper lubrication with how tight the tolerances are in these engines. Conventional oil will work, but will break down far quicker than synthetic. Yeah, it's more expensive, but you only have to change it half as often. You can easily find the weight of oil you need on sale somewhere for not much more than the cost of conventional oil. IMO, there's no excuse if you have a fairly new car, regardless of mileage. I;m running full synthetic in my '01 Golf 1.8T with almost 300k kms on it. The oil isn't leaking or going anywhere. In fact I wouldn't put anything else in my engine, primarily because it's turbocharged and that will put an increased thermal stress on the oil (turbo's get damn hot, lol ).

 

@bcredeur97 - DO NOT put anything in your friend's 2.3T except full synthetic. At the very least a blend. But honestly, there is really no reason to use a blend on a modern high performance engine like this one. Should be full synthetic, always. (especially considering that your friend is adding more power and drives it aggressively). 

 

If you have an older car (10+ years old) with high mileage, that is maybe burning oil a bit or has some leaky seals, yeah, throw conventional oil in it because A: it's just going to get burnt or leak out and B: the characteristic of conventional oil containing larger molecules and lower ability to flow through tighter "gaps", means it will leak less than if you put synthetic in it. 

 

So yeah, it depends on the age and type of vehicle/engine itself, not just the mileage. 

 

The most important thing above all is this; change your oil at regular intervals, regardless of what you put in it and your engine should run strong for a very long time. 

There is a drawback to synthetic though, despite all of it's advantages.

 

Sure the synth stuff is a lot 'slicker' and lets components move smoother, but it sort of amplifies the effects of a leakage. If you have a high mileage car, or a car with a slow leak, it's not really a good idea to use full synth, because the leak will get worse with continued use or the slight wear will accelerate into much quicker wear. You can also have blow-by, which we all know is not good for an engine.

 

But yes, any new car or lower mileage car should use synthetic, but if it's an older car with high mileage, a synthetic blend or straight conventional is a better choice. We just tend to use synthetic blend no matter what since it's cheaper and offers the best of both worlds (to a certain degree), and conventional on my dad's F-150 and my Pininfarina since they tend to leak more and the fact that my car is 30+ years old.

[byalexandr]

I wouldn't even call 150k high milage. Above 300K maybe.

You can still use synth blend at that point. Like I said we use synth blend on all of our cars unless it's a special case like my dad's F-150 or my Pininfarina. Even my mom's car that has 40K on it uses a synth blend every time we change the oil.

 

Basically you can use whatever you want, just as long as you change the oil every interval.

[vetali]

I use dino oil in my car. Its a commuter and I don't like leaks. My dad is big on synthetic stuff, all his cars puke oil all over the place. Annoying, especially when you have to pull the engine to do an oil pan.

[MEC-777]

There is a drawback to synthetic though, despite all of it's advantages.

 

Sure the synth stuff is a lot 'slicker' and lets components move smoother, but it sort of amplifies the effects of a leakage. If you have a high mileage car, or a car with a slow leak, it's not really a good idea to use full synth, because the leak will get worse with continued use or the slight wear will accelerate into much quicker wear. You can also have blow-by, which we all know is not good for an engine.

 

But yes, any new car or lower mileage car should use synthetic, but if it's an older car with high mileage, a synthetic blend or straight conventional is a better choice. We just tend to use synthetic blend no matter what since it's cheaper and offers the best of both worlds (to a certain degree), and conventional on my dad's F-150 and my Pininfarina since they tend to leak more and the fact that my car is 30+ years old.

 

That can be considered a drawback to synthetic, but only in those circumstances. And that is a fault of the condition of the engine. The oil itself, carries only benefits over conventional and this is not a problem for pretty much any engine that is in better condition. 

 

What I've done in the past with running synthetic in "leaky" high mileage engines (my wife's old 94 Accord wagon with almost 500k kms) is add about 1/2L of Lukas heavy duty oil stabilizer.

 

 

This stuff is amazing. Significantly helps reduce leaks and burn-off in old tired engines running synthetic.

[byalexandr]

That can be considered a drawback to synthetic, but only in those circumstances. And that is a fault of the condition of the engine. The oil itself, carries only benefits over conventional and this is not a problem for pretty much any engine that is in better condition. 

 

What I've done in the past with running synthetic in "leaky" high mileage engines (my wife's old 94 Accord wagon with almost 500k kms) is add about 1/2L of Lukas heavy duty oil stabilizer.

 

 

 

This stuff is amazing. Significantly helps reduce leaks and burn-off in old tired engines running synthetic.

I'll give it a try, think I might have some actually.

 

Thanks!

[bcredeur97]

@MEC-777 we used a full synthetic, also 5w-40 instead of 5w-30. So it should be ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

Speaking of oil I run the valvoline high mileage syn blend in my Corolla. I burn oil (like all other early 1ZZ's stupid Toyota engineers putting 4 super tiny drain holes in the Pistons...) so I usually get this. I want to try some 5w-40 in it though, maybe even a 0w-40 as I don't like the way it runs on a cold start. Also I don't care as much about price because I can't get the valvoline for $16/5 quarts anymore and I can get Mobil 1/Castrol full syn for $25ish and the valvoline is like $20 now. But that's an experiment for another day. It burns oil (gets consistently worse the higher rpm you go) so the 40 weight might burn a little less than a 30 weight I'm figuring. Something like a 5w-50 would probably be perfect but I don't think that exists in a cheap, easy to find form.

I would get that Lucas stuff you recommend but it's far from cheap...

[MEC-777]

I'll give it a try, think I might have some actually.

 

Thanks!

 

No prob. It looks like really thick stuff, but don't let that scare you. It mainly helps maintain better bonding between the molecules. 

 

If you have a really "leaky" old tired engine, you can also add this to conventional oil as well. Will help it last longer and possibly also reduce some of the blow by, burn off, leaking and seeping through the seals and gaskets.

 

My wife's accord with 500k kms also had some rod knock which that stuff actually reduced significantly. 

[MEC-777]

@MEC-777 we used a full synthetic, also 5w-40 instead of 5w-30. So it should be ok. Thanks for clearing that up.

Speaking of oil I run the valvoline high mileage syn blend in my Corolla. I burn oil (like all other early 1ZZ's stupid Toyota engineers putting 4 super tiny drain holes in the Pistons...) so I usually get this. I want to try some 5w-40 in it though, maybe even a 0w-40 as I don't like the way it runs on a cold start. Also I don't care as much about price because I can't get the valvoline for $16/5 quarts anymore and I can get Mobil 1/Castrol full syn for $25ish and the valvoline is like $20 now. But that's an experiment for another day. It burns oil (gets consistently worse the higher rpm you go) so the 40 weight might burn a little less than a 30 weight I'm figuring. Something like a 5w-50 would probably be perfect but I don't think that exists in a cheap, easy to find form.

I would get that Lucas stuff you recommend but it's far from cheap...

 

Yeah, just run a thicker oil. Won't hurt anything. Can try adding that Lukas stuff I posted a little earlier, it might help. 

[terrytek]

I use dino oil in my car. Its a commuter and I don't like leaks. My dad is big on synthetic stuff, all his cars puke oil all over the place. Annoying, especially when you have to pull the engine to do an oil pan.

apparently an e39 m5 is very picky on what kind of oil it uses. they recommend Mobil 1 or castrol 10w60 oil, though I can't find any at a local Walmart and the stuff I find in eBay is liquimoly oil. although I heard some e39 m5 owners did get away with using 5w30 oil. good idea or not?

[terrytek]

Why not just get some from a BMW dealer?

feel pretty iffy about dealers. i feel like 90% of the time they're ripping me off.so I'd rather buy bulk from amazon or eBay or something. is liqui moly a good brand

[AlwaysFSX]

If it's still a bit warm then it's normal for it to be a lot thinner. Even just a little makes it thin a lot. And I'm almost positive it's 5W-20, pretty much all cars use that nowadays. Even at 2,000 miles the oil gets that dark btw.

 

Go ahead and disagree with me, that's just what I put in my cars, seems to work great. My dad knows quite a bit, I follow along.

 

Edit: Oh, if you put in conventional oil, not sure if you said whether the oil coming out was synthetic or conventional, but conventional does darken a lot quicker than synthetic.

EcoBoost Mustang uses specifically 5w-30.

 

ooh shit. i've been putting full synthetic in our 250k protege. 

It won't die. We've been using fully synthetic in our Mustang since we got it and that thing has taken more abuse than most cars, no problems with the oil yet.

[711jrp]

apparently an e39 m5 is very picky on what kind of oil it uses. they recommend Mobil 1 or castrol 10w60 oil, though I can't find any at a local Walmart and the stuff I find in eBay is liquimoly oil. although I heard some e39 m5 owners did get away with using 5w30 oil. good idea or not?

There are check valves in the heads that are designed to work with a certain weight oil, some say Mobil 1 is iffy Too but that's what I use. Remember Rod bearings are almost a consumable in the S62 so good lubrication is imperative...

[AlwaysFSX]

[MEC-777]

Running 0w40 in the Golf right now. VW recommends 5w40.  You don't have to use the exact OEM recommended oil, but it's a good idea, especially if the vehicle is still under warranty. Anything happens to the engine, they can't say you used the wrong type of oil.  

 

Out side of warranty, go nuts. Check vehicle specific forums as people sometimes find other weights of oil that work better than the factory recommendations.