To: dakota@csclub0.cs.fredonia.edu@INTERNET; stei0302@penny.cs.fredonia.
edu@INTERNET
From: Clement_D on Thu, Jun 20, 1996 7:40 AM
Subject: RE: Speaking of oil...
From: stei0302@penny.cs.fredonia.edu@INTERNET on Wed, Jun 19, 1996 8:44 PM
> My '96 318 just passed the 11,000 mile mark not too long ago. At
>12, its due for another oil change. Since it is past 10,000 miles, and
>the engine should have "broken in" by now, does anyone forsee any problems
>with using synthetic oil from now on?
I use Mobil 1 synthetic in my turbo Daytona because of the better heat
breakdown characteristics (turbo's get awful hot). My first Daytona I put
240,000 miles on the engine and turbo with no problems and the engine was
still running good when my son sold the car. The second one currently has
88k miles on it with no problems. I currently have 198,000 miles on my
Dakota and it has had nothing but conventional oil. The 3.9 v6 is still
solid and running well. I also have a Ford Tempo that my wife has but 140k
miles on with no problems and it to has only had conventional oil.
The Daytona's have been on 7500 mile drain intervals and the Dakota & Tempo
have been on a 3-5k mile drain intervals. Unless your Dakota is being
subjected to some extreme heat from extended towing or the like I would say
the additional cost of synthetic is not warranted.
The most recent issue of Consumer Reports has a test of oils (including
synthetic) where they blue printed the engines in a fleet of New York cabs
and ran them with 6k oil drain intervals for 2 years. There finding was
there was no appreciable wair and now recomend 6k drain intervals. The
synthetic did not show and significant improvement over conventional oil in
this test.
CR did say that when compared to the last time this test was done (1987)
there has been a significant improvement in oil and that brand did not
matter as long as it had an SH rating.
Dave Clement
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