tampaSi

OK I just switched to Mobil 1 synthetic oil yesterday. My car has 17,000 miles and the following mods: AEM CAI, DC 4-1 header, axle-back exhaust. Well as soon as I got my car back and i started driving it, within 5 mins. i noticed a bad smell and some smoke coming from under the hood ( just a tiny amount). Well i worried, but after another 2 mins. it had stopped, so i attributed it to some oily hand marks on the engine burning off. It hasnt done this since. Since last night, its driving really sluggish, like I have a lot of weight in the trunk. I opened the hood today and the same strange odor was back, something like burnt oil , but not exactly. I also checked the oil level, and it is fine, but seems thin--Could that be because its new oil or synthetic or what? Anyway-what could the cause of these problems be? I havent even really vtec'd it since i got it changed, but i did run it at the track the night before it was changed. Anyway, please somebody help me out! I hope i dont have fried piston rings but im sure there would be other noticable warning signs. Thanks in advance.

MattG

Synthetic does smell different than regular oil when it burns off exhaust parts. Its hard to discribe but it smells less harsh than reg. oil. As for being sluggish I don't know what to tell you.

Tonto92

I just switched to Synthetic, and I noticed a pinch in power gain. Its great. It sounds like the engine is a little louder though.

Has anyone heard anything bad about Formula 1 synthetic?

Methos

Contrary to popular belief, oil IS NOT a power adder like stickers and yellow paint. Unfortunately oil, synthetic or normal, will not add or take away power. Sometimes people think their car is faster after an oil change but unfortunately NASA did a study on this and the results were inconclusive. A motor may run a little SMOOTHER but that is it. Now a synthetic oil sitcker will add power . . .

The moral of the story is that the oil did not make the car sluggish and in case #2 it did not make the car faster. No really. It didn't.

AMSOIL89LXi

I beg to differ. Oil may not add power but it will release some of the horsepower in an engine. I personally witnessed a 2000 Corvette being dynoed and three different oils were used. All were synthetics, Mobil 1, Leading Edge and AMSOIL. The Leading Edge and AMSOIL dynos showed an increase in approximately 3 HP and 4 lb/ft of torque over the Mobil 1 (which is the factory fill). Not much of an increase but it does illustrate that there are definitely advantages to using synthetics.

Methos

*Yawn*

Ok I will play along . . . how the hell does it do that?

Even if the above statement is true it still validates my point. Let's face it. 3HP is 3HP. That gain is on a Corvette which is a much larger displacement. I am willing to bet on a small displacement motor the gain is less than 1HP. Even the most sensitive *** dynos won't detect a 3HP improvement let alone less than 1.

That above statement sounds more like a ploy devised by the marketting people at AMSOIL than anything else. Who did the test? My guess is that it comes from the same type of "study" that manufacturers use to tell people that their CAI or header gives 10-20HP when in actuallity the numbers are more like 1-7HP.

To gullible fools who buy into this hype. Do you drive a Saleen Mustang by any chance? I hear they are extremely fast and are the cutting edge of handling.

AMSOIL89LXi

The dyno was done by a local shop. The Leading Edge rep was the instigator of the test. I was invited because he thought he would blow everybody away. He was very disappointed.

You get these results by reducing friction. The oil can create friction within itself as well as in the engine. I'm not trying to sell snake oil, just reporting a personal observation.

I drive an 89 Accord LXi. Bought it brand new in June 1989. Has 187,000 miles on it and still going strong.

Methos

It is common knowledge that oil creates friction when cold but as it heats up the viscosity thins out and the co-efficient of friction goes to negligable levels. This raises an interesting point. Was the car at the exact same temperature for all 3 tests? That can alter the results and give exactly what you saw.

I don't think you are trying to sell it. I am just saying that I am confident in the fact that what you saw is bullshit and now these people's heads are being filled with the idea that synthetic oil is gonna give them more power. I can believe you saw what you did but A) What you saw is completely inconsequential to real-world power increases and B) The test is more than likely flawed and if duplicated will yield different results.

Rah Rah

I absolutely agree that a 3 hp gain is not significant enough to assume that the oil made a difference. As for the original question, or part of it, synthetic is more "watery" than conventional.

rioninja

Well, i can definatly say that from my personal experiance, it does something. Its true that it may not be much at all, but i'm not the only one that thinks they can feel a little bit more pull after a change.
Its a fact that oil thins out after its been run for a while, so i beleive that all a fresh oil change is doing is helping reduce blowby by a minute amount. On newer cars there is probably no change whatsoever, but on cars approching 100,000k there is definatly a difference. Not much, but its there. Its an old trick to put some heaver weight oil in an engine thats rings are going to help it seal a little better. Synthetic oil just resists thinning for a longer time, but for those who change their oil often enough you probably wont feel anything. just my .2

WOTTEG

You probably have put in too much oil. I replaced the oil in my LS and added too much ( You are supposed to use less if you don't change the filter, like 3.5 quarts) and I put in 4.

Anyway, the engine felt boggy but zooms great now that I put the correct ammount in there.

I bet that's your problem.