I have 2001 tib that has had regular oil changes since I got it almost 2 years ago. I have used regular oil and was thinking of switching to synthetic now, so that it will have a couple of oil changes with synthetic before I put a turbo on. The question I have is that my car has 54,000 miles, is it bad to switch to synthetic now? I don't know why it would but I thought I would ask. I used to have an 89 Saab 9000 beater and it had like 120,000 on it or something and I was going to put synthetic in it but the guy at the auto parts store told me it wouldn't be a good idea because it is thinner and could leak through any small cracks or holes that might be in the gasket of an older car. Is this true?

 

i wouldnt... as long as you change it regularly then normal oil is fine. but as for the turbo part idk. would it make THAT big of a difference if you just did it when you turbo?

 

regular oil - you mean semi-synthetic? what oil did you use? 10W-40?

how much hp are you gonna to gain with turbo?

will you change internals?


I would switch to synthetic.

 

on the saab, older cars don't like synthetic period. those engines weren't designed with synthetic in mind. I changed to synthetic about the same mileage as you, using mobil one(with the green label, think it 10w-40). it's great. I usually go a bit longer between changes now and nothing bad so far. actually it runs better. I'm up to ~73k now no leaks, no burning oil. so I would recommend it. it's more expensive but to me it's worth it.

I usually go about 5k between changes now but 3k when i was using regular oil. so if you look at it that way it's not really much more expensive.

btw, the manual says to change oil every 7k under normal conditions and 3k under extreme conditions so 5k to me seems like a happy medium when using nicer oil.

 

When i bought my car it was already running synth. Ive been using Castol Syntec but am thinking about changing to Mobil 1. I got about 6k miles between changes sometimes and everything runs perfect. Never ran low on oil or anything so far!

 

I would switch to Mobile 1 synthetic. You could go up to 6K miles on oil changes on full synthetic. If you do so, just make sure to change the oil filter every three thousand miles as the oil can outlast the filter (depending on what filter you use).

 

All great and VALID points.

Synthetic can cause older engines some problems because seals tend to lose their properties as cars near 100K miles.

For a proven fix (that's in my car right now) use Auto RX Just finished half my treatment and the car feels great. I am planning to do a write up when it's done, but so far I'm VERY impressed.

Once you finish that treatment, you're engine's gonna run like new. That would be a good time to switch to synthetic.

Mobil has a Mobil 1 filter out that's expensive, but well designed.

And finally, there are Mobil 1 synthetic oils out there that are guaranteed to last 15,000 miles. I wouldn't go that far, but 7-9K would be a fairer bet. That's 3 conventional oil changes and bang! It's paid for itself.

 

yeah, I have heard that it does last longer. I have used all different brands of non-synthetic oil, 10-W30 and 5-W30 (depending on the season). I know that my dad only used Mobil 1 synthetic in my mom's cavalier and that thing has like 300,000 miles on it and still runs. I also know that Mobil-1 is the only recommened oil for use in Corvettes, so it must be good stuff.

I am planning on boosting at least 17psi, maybe more if I can get it to hold more. I want to get a motor from a junkyard and build it up from scratch.

Has anyone ever done an over-bore of the 2.0 engine, maybe to 2.4 or so? Also, I am going to need to get the motor sleeved probably, does Darton make sleeves for this motor?

I am also going to be running nitrous as well, so the motor has got to be able to hold up to this.

I am looking at building it for road racing, BTW. Has anyone here got the Quest coilovers with dampening that are on Kspec?

 

for synthetic oil i prefer royal purple over mobil 1. go to www.royalpurple.com for more info. i just recently swapped my trans fluid w/ royal purple "max-gear" and i swear my car gained back lost power and shifts and rides better than ever. royal purple is proven to reduce emissions, increase your fuel economy (which we all know how much it sucks to fill up your tank now with gas prices), and protects & cleans. the increased fuel economy alone will prove to be a money saver alone. just my opinion though.

 

Is is purple? lol haha.gif I might have to look into it. Sounds like pretty good stuff.