Oh, and I am a fan of synthetic oils in certain situations, like transmissions and axles where the extended drain interval is an advantage, but in the crankcase of my miata I have tried all the synthetics and found that they sludge up just as fast as good dino oil. That car has hydraulic lifter issues that rival the 235- The holes in the lifters are too small and they clog up, and then 4 valves per cylinder clatter and sound terrible. I know when my oil is saturated with contaminates because the lifters start getting noisy. I have found that good old valvoline works just as well as mobil one, but the cheap oil only lasts half as long. I replace a quart of oil with a quart of ATF through the engine (has lots of detergent) for about 15 minutes before I change the oil and that cleans all the scum out. After I changed the timing belt at 145k miles the inside of the engine is still clean even though the oil is always black and ugly when I change it.

You can't use synthetic oil in some motorcycles that share transmission oil with the engine- the clutch won't engage properly. My bike has a dry sump engine with shared tranny oil and it is very picky about oil. Luckily we have dry clutches (well, unless our rear main seal goes Jeep) on our stovebolts.


Paint & Body Shop moderator
A lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.