Hello guys,

I had a question about synthetic oil on my '08 s2k.
The previous owner did synthetic oil changes at 3k, 6k, and 10k
(car has 12k miles). I personally don't want synthetic oil, I had used regular oil
in my 97 civic until i sold it at 145k miles and it ran fine.
Is there any problem with me just going ahead and doing regular oil
changes from here on in?
By the way, I absolutely love driving this car.
Any good excuse to drive and I'm driving there.

 

You know i grew up being told that once you put synthetic in that you should never go back but i have read that that's totally not true.
I beleive that you can go back to conventional oil no problem. If you had put 100k miles on using th synthetic than i would say not too but since the car has such low miles i would say go ahead!!

 

If Re3irth doesn't mind me coat-tailing his thread.....

I have been told by my ex-bf and a few car enthusiasts that synthetic oil is the best option, that it makes your car run better and the engine last longer...not to mention, you can go longer periods between oil changes. My Prelude is due for it's next oil change, so I'm curious.....is what I've been told true?

 

Thanks for the tip. Does anyone have any good resources for this?
Personally, I have never found any evidence that says synthetic oil engines last longer.
If anything, all the cars I've seen with 200k and 300k miles all ran conventional
oil.

 

if you are keeping it stock regular oil is fine with the recommened change intervals according to the service manual.

 

I've gone back and forth in my old civic I had and it ran fine up to 230k. The S I've only used conventional oil in.

 

So even though they did the first 3 oil changes synthetic, I can go back to regular
oil for the life of the car? I read one thing that the first 10k miles should be regular
oil in order to let the 'rings seal' or something to that effect. They didn't do that and
went straight to synthetic.

 

The car came with regular oil in it so unless he drove it off the lot and changed it right away to synthetic you are okay. Yes the motor needs to be broken in with regular oil to have the rings seat correctly but not for that many miles.

You are fine to switch back to regular if you are going to do the service manual drain intervals and keep the car N/A

 

synthetic is better in every category except price. if you drive your car hard, synthetic is best for you

 

Is this "better in every category" a purely theoretical statement or
has evidence to back it up? What I mean is, in the same car under the same
conditions, will I see a noticable performance difference or increase in the
longevity of the car?
Again, money is not a huge issue, but I'm an evidence-based guy and
all the 200k+ clunkers that are still running that I've come across, they seem
to be using plain regular oil. I would love to see a single good resource that breaks
it down or a well put together study comparing the two. I realize I may not get
that but its worth a shot.

 

As often as I'm getting conflicting information from people on this subject, I'd like some sort of proof to which one is best.

So what I'm getting is, and tell me if I'm wrong, regular oil ok if you're stock and dull driving....synthetic if you modify and drive it like you stole it. Yes or no?

 

I have only ever used synthetic oil, since that's what i was brought up on. I have just always assumed that conventional oil was crappy and was for people that couldn't afford synthetic. Looking around though, There is not much evidence that shows results from a reliability standpoint.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...oil/index.html
http://www.minitruckinweb.com/tech/e...oil/index.html

 

If I didn't track my S2000 regularly, I'd use regular oil. I've used regular oil in my B16A2 in my Si and that motor pulled 220PSI compression across the board at 150k miles when I sold it. I now use regular oil in the B18C-R that's in there. I use regular oil in my ITR even though I plan on tracking it because I don't wanna deal with the oil consumption from synthetic oil on a B series motor.

Since the S2000 sees a lot of track time and currently doesn't burn *that* much oil, it'll get off the shelf synthetic. Whatever brand name stuff is on sale at walmart or autozone or whatever. The reason I even use synthetic is because of synthetic's superior thermal breakdown properties. Tracks be gettin hot, yo.

There's no issue with going from synthetic to regular. That's a myth. Use regular oil. Do the oil changes at recommended intervals. You'll be fine.

 

amen B...i honestly believe its a personal preference issue...i like synthetic, its never done me wrong and my S burns maybe a 1/4 of a quart in 3 months...not that bad since i drive spiritedly...but running conventional is fine too...different strokes for different folks

 

B_serious is quite correct. The stability of synthetics is their advantage. They maintain good lubrication properties in a wider range of temperatures. Their chemical stability lessens their tendency to be broken down at high temperatures, reducing wear and such. So if, as B said, you are running track days with it, synthetic is the way to go. If you live somewhere cold as hell and drive in the winter, use synthetic. If you live in an arid desert, synthetic might be a good idea. If you are weary about switching completely over and losing some of those advantages, try some part-synthetic.

 

it also all depends on what you mean by the term 'synthetic'. mobil1 for instance, is not in fact a fully synthetic motor oil, and is only marketed as such in the states, thanks to our legal system. true synthetics derive their longevity from shear and chemical stability and from resistance to thermal breakdown, among other things. however, in the typical driving scenario, there is not much noticeable advantage or disadvantage to using synthetic or dino oils.

 

Kinda arguing semantics at that point. Technically it is synthetic, but it is synthetically made from mineral oils. All synthetics originated as some form of natural oil. It's fully synthetic based from a mineral oil, that is why mixing them and making them part-synthetic works. Your mention of "true" synthetics is referring to much more expensive oils used in marine and aerospace industries, which are completely unnecessary for cars.

 

Synthetic oil will get threw gaskets and oil lines before non synthetic.

 

I agree. Everyone on S2KI seems to be OBSESSED with $60/bottle oil and used oil analyses. It's the most annoying thing.

That being said, my AP1 is getting on my nerves. Between changing oil after every track weekend, adding oil that's being burned off at a higher rate that I'd like, and the fact that it takes almost 6 F'ing quarts of oil, I'm considering just using regular oil.

I'm gonna try changing the PCV valve for now...and adding a catch can, which really is a nessecity when tracking AP1s. If that doesn't slow down the consumption, it's getting switched to regular oil to see how it works out.

 

not necessarily true sir. group IV and group V are both non mineral based oils. amsoil i beleive is a group IV, which is a bit more expensive, I think it costs me about twice the $ to change my oil with amsoil as it would if i used mobil1.

 

^yeah, ut you're probably not reaping any real benefits unless youre talking heavy tracktime.

 

I never said that i was, aside from somewhat extended drain intervals, which somewhat balances out the increased cost of amsoil. i did notice an increase in mpg upon my switch to amsoil, but i have no idea what the previous owner had in it, and it may be as much attributed to my actual driving habits as opposed to decreased friction.

 

You may be right about Amsoil cause I don't know much about them other than what I hear from other people, but just about every other car synthetic on the market is mineral based.

 

There is no point in using regular oil any more on ANY car. Synthetic oil provides double protection of regular oil at least, and will be cheaper then doing 2 regular oil changes, you also save time and headache.

Regular oil is what about 35-40 bucks at dealer ? and good for 3-3.5k miles
Synthetic oil is $65 bucks and is good for 6-7k miles.

 

^this is incorrect. Don't listen to T.V. commercials as much. Or atleast read the fine print.