Possible to tell what oil is currently in an engine? I am going to change the oil on my '88 CRX ZC and I don't know what oil is currently in there as I've only had it about 7 months. I'm um'ing and ah'ing on whether to put mineral or synthetic oil in there.

What would honda-tech do?

Thanks

 

ZC is an old engine. Has your's been rebuilt recently with new rings and a cylinder hone/bore? If that's what you meant by 7months (being 7months since rebuild) then it really won't matter which oil you use.
If the motor is old and stock, then go with regular oil and skip the synthetic.

 

Had the car for 7 months. Engine was apparently either rebuilt 70-80,000km ago or replaced with a motor with 60,000km on it (would be about 80,000km now). Engine doesn't use an ounce of oil. I've heard you're better off going from mineral to synthetic than vice versa, so taking into account I don't know what oils currently in there, would I be better just throwing synthetic in there?

 

the short answer is no. you can really go either way, but the engine was designed by honda for conventional oil. that said, i used to use mobil 1 and now use castrol gtx.

 

castrol gtx is good

valvolines good too :]

skip the syn

 

I read about this on an oil article. It used to be like that whereas if you went to synthetic, you could not go back, but that is based on oil technology from the 80's. Obviously oil technology has improved since then. It is now totally safe to go from synthetic to conventional and back or whatever. It's just up to you what you want to run in the engine.

 

Ok so what would you guys use? Mineral or synthetic?

 

gtx is WIN!

 

mobil 1 is great but synthetic is a crock. if youre not spending 8+dollars a qt its not even good synthetic.

i spend 14.99 for 5 qts and a filter from the auto parts store i change every 2000 miles and my baby has been running great since ive been keeping it to this routine. skip the synthetic & DO NOT run synthetic auto trans fluid. these motors dont need it. change the regular oil quite often check ur dipstick atleast every other day and you will have ZERO issues with conventional oil.

 

Pennzoil is the best conventional oil available at the moment. What is on the shelf is already spec'ed for SN and GF-5. Check the back of the bottle. Today's top conventionals are already so close to synthetic in quality that synthetic really isn't necessary except for extreme applications. Also, everyone should know this by now but the every 3,000 miles bullshit is a huge myth. It makes me sick to see how wasteful and ignorant people are thinking they are taking better care of their motor by changing it every 2-3k miles. Today's conventionals don't even break a sweat going 5k miles between changes.

If you really want your oil questions answered by people that know what they are talking about you need to head over to BITOG.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php

 

ive worked at a lube shop for the last 5yrs, nowadays you can go either way, synthetics help in the long run and if you are really gonna be roddin the **** out of your motor, if you want to keep the top end of your motor lubricated go synthetic, otherwise when ur car sits for a few the oil drains into the pan and its metal on metal on the start up, with synthetic it leaves the top end lubed, ive always looked at it like this if your motor leaks dont use synthetic, it will find the leak and leak even more, or seem to, if you want opinions i use quaker state 5w50 full synthetic, it covers from a 5 weight to a 50 weight, good for hot and cold, but thats me and my opinion,

 

Way, way, way too thick of an oil, especially for people in cold climates. Even in Texas I wouldn't run a 50 weight.

All a Honda motor needs is 0w30, 5w30, or 10w30. 5w40 in certain applications.