Synthetic, Blend, or Conventional Oil?

Not everyone lives in balmy California . . .
Ever done a 'cold' start-up at -20F . . . . ?
They are a harsh damaging procedure without engine heaters.
Have also got 55+ years of driving gas & diesel, and 43 years operating heavy diesel equipment.
Synthetic oil has its place.
I've said many times here that synthetic engine oil is the right choice for extreme cold climates. If I lived in Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, etc. I'd run a synthetic engine oil during the winter too. I asked what benefit synthetic would have given ME who lives in "balmy California". :)

https://wranglertjforum.com/search/105255/?q=Minnesota&c[users]=Jerry+Bransford&o=date
 
Last edited:
10W-30 is recommended.
I live in a country known for its hot climate ... Here experts always advise the 10w40 for used cars, for almost all brands ... Is not it risky for me to contradict this rule and to put 10W-30 in my engine wrangler ...?
I know that there are many members of this blog who live in countries with a climate even hotter than mine (Dubai, country of the gulf ...)
I am curious to know which oil they use ... (10w40 or 10W-30).?

Envoyé de mon MHA-L29 en utilisant Tapatalk
 
I live in a country known for its hot climate ... Here experts always advise the 10w40 for used cars, for almost all brands ... Is not it risky for me to contradict this rule and to put 10W-30 in my engine wrangler ...?
I know that there are many members of this blog who live in countries with a climate even hotter than mine (Dubai, country of the gulf ...)
I am curious to know which oil they use ... (10w40 or 10W-30).?

Envoyé de mon MHA-L29 en utilisant Tapatalk

10W30 is fine. I run it in hotter conditions than you will ever see. You could also use 15W40 if it's cheap. It doesn't matter all that much.
 
All the taxi's here in sunny Australia use synthetic oil, they tell me there has been lot's of tests done that show extended engine life from simply changing to synthetic oil.

it could be the placebo affect but I recently started using synthetic oil and it seems to of fixed that noisy old lifter? :p
 
I like to run synthetic in all my vehicles. I will change it 2 or 3 times in 6 months at first. After that 5 to 6000 miles. The first few times cleans your motor up well. I know it sounds wasteful but you'll be amazed how clean it stays. Took valve cover off a blazer done this way and It was spotless. As for it finding leaks, dont you want to know about and fix them?
 
Personally I'd definitely choose a synthetic if it was wintertime in Minnesota, Alaska, North/South Dakota, etc. Its better flow characteristics in extreme cold are well document. In temperate or warm/hot climates? Nope, I would not.

Properly maintained engines were getting a million miles on them without an overhaul before synthetics ever hit the shelves in quantity. Volvo and Mercedes had ad campaigns featuring customers with over a million miles back in the 50's.
 
I roll with 10W-30 Valvoline High Mileage Synthetic Blend. 144,000 plus on our TJ. It is stored in the winter here in Michigan and will only see warmer weather.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davidtj
The last rear main I changed on a 4.0 had 10w30 conventional Valvoline in it its whole life, changed every 3000 miles .Had about 100000 miles on it. My 4.0s always got conventional Valvoline .

The engine was very clean inside, and still had hone marks on the cylinder walls. I was very impressed.

As stated before, clean oil is more important than what type.

On a side note, I run only Mobil 1 synthetic in my newer engines. On modern engines with super tight bearing tolerances, and especially with phaser type variable valve timing, I think a manufacturer recomended oil is smart to use. GM calls out Mobil 1 as a suitable substitute to Dexos. I also use Mobil 1 in my daughters '16 Wrangler.

Oil is like springs and shocks and everything else. Everyone has a favorite.
 
I run castrol if I am going to not change oil every 6 months or 3000 miles, I prefer to go 6-10000 miles now. Modern oils are better than the old dinosaur penzoil/valvoline/quakerstate of yesteryear.
 
My TDI uses full synthetic and has 10k mile intervals. I didn't believe it, but that's what VW specifies.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
 
One thing I noticed on my last GM truck was how dirty the oil "looked" when following the oil life monitor. It was going about 10000 miles per oil change with Mobil 1. I backed the oil change interval to 5000 miles and the oil looked much better at oil change time.

It may have just looked dirty. I do not know if the oil actually was getting bad or not. I just felt better changing it at 5000.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RonnieS and RussTJ
My career was in the nuclear power industry. Many of the lubricants we used were synthetic based on the rigorous independent tests conducted by our lubrication engineering dept.. Not all applications required synthetics. The oil life, suspended wear products were routinely measured via oil analysis. Oil change intervals were established based on what the oil analysis results revealed and incorporated into a preventive maintenance program. Many of our outside pumps used synthetics due to the superior flow characteristics in cold weather. While I can't definitively say that synthetics are superior in combustion engines I can only go by what was used for critical applications. Yes, two entirely different scenarios and I tend to lean with a regular change interval with a filter being the accepted norm.. I don't believe one will see a big difference between synthetics vs. conventional in motor vehicle use in most applications. Synthetics can perform longer between oil changes. The advertising for synthetics goes far in convincing that your vehicle will last longer and many people use them for this reason.
 
Last edited: