Hi All,

Im considering going Synthetic oil in my EF XR6 as ive read ppl get more kms and longer service interval's which are both great.

I currently replace my oil every 3 months with Valvoline Dura Blend Semi Synthetic 15w50 and has 166,xxx kms and thinking of using the following oils.

http://www.valvoline.com.au/files/productpdfs/7.pdf

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/m ... hetic_5w40

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/m ... tic_10w-40

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/products/m ... etic_5w-50

Does anyone have any real world expierence of going Synthetic and getting more kms and longer service interval's???

Also would u say 5w40 is abit to light for a EF and lowest would be 10w40???


Thanks in adavance

i run penrite semi synthetic in my au engine, its got 124'000km, i did a couple of services in a row where i used nulon full synthetic,
and imo there wasnt any real noticable difference between the semi synth to the fully synth in regards to performance or fuel economy..
so im back to the semi synthetic...

Oil contaminates whether its mineral based or synthetic.
To change to an synthetic just to go longer between services is not the right way to do it.
If it was a new motor and run on Synthetic fromthe time the reings were bedded in correctly there would be some advantage but not for one with 165000.

I currently do 1000-1200kms per month and replace oil and filter every 3 months so say 4000kms tops every 3 months.

I figured if i went Synthetic oil i can strench the oil service to every 4 months instead of 3 as its sopposed to be a better quality oil, and sopposed to last longer.

depending on how hard you drive your car, you could almost double your oil change intervals with the semi synthetic your using now,

considering ford recomment 10,000km 6 month oil changes with mineral oil..
i think you could stretch yours to 8000km 6 month???

It's a daily driver and 90% of the time it spends its life under 2500rpm and ill take it once or twice a week to 5000rpm just to open it up and, clean it out abit.

I can stretch out current oil service interval but i dont as i want it to be running and protect it as best as i can. If i owned it since knew or a few yrs old i would stretch the service out but as most of us dont know previous maintaince i do it regularly............

I may give the Synthetic a go and service every 4 months instead but ill get a oil test done so i know what's going on inside and make a decision.

I wouldn't use an oil any lighter than the 15W50 you were using.
I use Mitsubishi Engine oil....about $33 for a 5L bottle.

The difference is how well the oil deals with the contamination.

tickford_6

What Synthetic would u recomend and what weight rating???

I have used Amsoil synthetic in my EF XR6 with great results. Switched to Royal Purple synthetic last year as it's at least as high quality, but half the price. The recommended oil for an EF is usually 15w40 or heavier.

Amsoil guarantee change intervals of 25,000 miles (40,000 kms!) or one year in normal use. I have run Amsoil 20w50 and 15,000km/12 month changes with no problems. After 4 years on Amsoil, my 250,000km engine was almost spotless inside. But do change the oil filter every six months at least and use a top quality one (eg, Amsoil nanofibre or similar). Royal Purple say you can safely extend intervals to 2 to 3 times the manufacturer's recommendation. The extended interval should repay the higher cost of the oil.

Even if you change at normal intervals, consider the extra cost of fully synthetic as insurance. It reduces friction, wear and heat. It keeps the inside of the engine cleaner (more detergents). It will give you a small increase in fuel economy, but possibly not noticeable. The lower friction will release a tiny amount of power, but more than 1kw would be a good result. The thing that sells it for me is the film strength - it drastically reduces wear, especially on cold starts or when I'm thrashing it

Check out this article:
http://www.royalpurple.com.au/article_i ... lement.php

Royal Purple and Penrite Synthetic come up aces, and Valvoline Durablend looks like one of the better semi-synthetics.

I have seen a long-term test of Amsoil and Mobil 1, where they did oil analysis every 1,000 miles. Amsoil performed so well and had so much additive in it that they said they might never actually have to change the oil. The oil in the filter on filter change and the top-up oil were enough to keep the additive and contaminant levels well within safe limits. Mobil 1 came up very average and not worth the big money.

im with you mate
i changed over to royal purple because it drastically reduces wear and they say you can extend your oil changes out to 20,000kms (but i will be doing mine at 15,000km with a filter change every 7500kms)
that artical made my mind up for me
i did notice an increase in fuel economy (about 0.5-0.8L/100 better than before) now does about 10.4L/100km on country road sitting at 110km/h with aircon on