Synthetic oil and miles on volvo

camper guy · Post by **camper guy** » 03 Nov 2003, 11:10

I just purchased a 95 850 Turbo with 117,007 miles on the clock. Is it too late to switch to synthetic oil and tranny fluid? I did this on my last Saab at 186,000 and it blead from all the main engine seals until I went back to dino oil.

Post by **matthew1** » 03 Nov 2003, 13:06

I switched my 850 over to Mobil 1 at ~50k miles and it's been ok, no leaks. 70k miles on her now.

Geevs2 · Post by **Geevs2** » 03 Nov 2003, 15:52

Hi all,

While we are on the subject of synthetic oil, what grades are you using? I have been using Mobil 1 Synthetic 5W-30 since 20K kms. My car now has 104K kms. It has been working quite well and no problems.

My question is should I, at one point , switch to 10W-30 grade? I was reading the new Mobil bottle with the "SuperSyn". It says "5W-30 is for newer cars" and "10W-30 is for higher-mileage cars". Hence, I was wondering if it makes any sense to change grades due to mileage rather than geographics/climate/temperature.

Thanks again to all.
Geevs

Tsquared · Post by **Tsquared** » 03 Nov 2003, 20:27

My opinion:
I use synthetic in all my engines. The Volvo gets its recomended weight - 10w30, F150 gets its recomended 5w30, HD deviates a little -its recomended is 20w50 twin cyl oil and I am using 15w50 auto grade that exceds the recomedations from HD. I also put 10w30 synthetic in my push mower, the riding mower, garden tiller, and pressure washer engines.

I now live in a metro area but I also own a farm. I ran some "un-scientific" tests on farm equipment in the early 80's. The engines that had synthetic after the "normal" rebuild time of two years were still running strong. I tore them down to perform the normal ring job and everything was just as it was two years prior - all within spec and without gum and varnish build ups. The engines also ran cooler and were slightly more efficient in the fuel useage. My Volvo has 95K, F150 has 65K, HD 25K - all with no discernable oil useage or leaks. The push mower -almost 20 years old, Riding mower -10 years old, garden tiller - 30 + years old??, and pressure washer 20 years old - all run smooth and do not burn any oil.

I have heard of stories of bearing skate, weaping gaskets, and excessive blow-by because synthetic is too slick - Never seen a case of any or any supporting documentation. Every report that I have read on the comparison of any synthetic to dino oil has shown the dino oil to be inferior in every catoagory. Some synthetic oils state that they can extend the service periods two and more times over the normal service periods - I have not bought into this philosphy - I follow the recomended service schedules utilizing a full synthetic oil: Mobil1

camper guy · Post by **camper guy** » 04 Nov 2003, 07:04

I'm not looking to reduce the time of oil changes, I just don't want a repeat of what happend with the saab and the leaking. Mechanic told me that the synthetic cleaned the seals and that allowed leakage. Fortunately the dino oil gummed them up again and the leaking stopped.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 04 Nov 2003, 08:43

its more like the additives in the dino swelled up the seals but synthetics does not have such additives, the seals reduced in sized and leakage occurred. Its better u changed the seals and switched back to synthetics. Engine will definitely last longer. A swollen seal is a weak seal.

Its like removing the silencer, conventional logic says u get better horsepower and all that b s. What happens in actual fact is that horsepower loss occurs coz without restruction engine suck back exhaust instead of sucking fuel. and u know how dirty exhaust is. All who tried it admits engine died in less than a year without silencer.

Do not trust conventional logic. Things are always Not what they appear to be.

camperguy · Post by **camperguy** » 04 Nov 2003, 12:02

Well I wasn't going to dump over a grand into a used Saab with close to 200K on the clock. $1K buys allot of dino oil.