On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Jeff Lee wrote:
[...]
> Concerning Syn oil. The 2nd greatest cause of engine wear is not oil
> breakdown - its DIRT and contamination. The longer you leave the oil in
> between changes, the more dirt and combustion blow-by gases get
> suspended in it, regardless of whether its syn or dino oil. Yes the oil
> filter removes the big dirt particles, but not the microscopic particles
> or blow-by contamination.
Yep, garbage in the oil is definitely a problem. I've heard of some
people who put magnets on their oil filters which supposedly will trap
some of the metallic particles. Anyone know if this works? Or could this
do any harm? I'd give it a shot as long as I'm sure it won't break anything,
even if the gains are minimal. The one thing I can think of offhand where
it might cause harm is, say the magnet has collected a bunch of fragments, and
then it falls off. Suddenly, all these fragments are no longer spread
throughout the oil, but they're going through the engine at the same time,
in one big clump! Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me...
On a related note, does anyone regularly cut open their old filters to
inspect them? This is done quite often in the aviation world; I was thinking
of starting to do this... I'm too cheap to buy one of those pricey oil
filter cutters though; I'd have to use a hacksaw and gallons of elbow grease.
:-P
>
> IMHO the best thing you can do to combat the dirt and contamination
> issue is change the oil and filter frequently. Unless you have unlimited
> financial resources (read independently wealthy or a high-paying job,
> single, and no family to support) frequent syn oil changes becomes cost
> prohibitive. Like someone said in an earlier post, I use dino oil and
> change it with the filter every 3K miles. Filter cost aside, I can
> change my oil 3 times with dino oil for one time with syn oil. Overkill?
> Yeah, probably...
Well, I am single with no family, but I don't have a really well paying
job, however... I change my oil and filter every 3,000 miles. I use Mobil 1
synthetic and I've been using Fram filters. Probably overkill, but I
consider it worth it. Just a quick calculation here: If I assume that I will
keep my truck for 100,000 miles, and that dino oil (Mobil 1) costs $1/qt. and
syn oil (Mobil 1) costs $4/qt, the additional amount of money over the life
of the vehicle would be: (5 quarts per oil & filter change)
($4 * 5) - ($1 * 5) = $20 - $5 = $15 per oil change
100,000 miles / 3,000 miles = 33.333... oil changes
33.333... oil changes * $15 per oil change = $500
If I were to drive 20,000 miles per year, that'd be $100 per year, or $8.33
per month.
For me, that isn't cost prohibitive after I factor in the peace of mind
that I get from using synthetic oil.
>
> Just my 2 cents. I can hear the reply buttons clicking as this is
> probably another one of those religious topics...
>
:-) The click heard 'round the world...
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu -- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---.
| DoD# 1038, EAA# 518210, NMA# 117376, USUA# A46209, KotWitDoDFAQ, RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT Club Cab, '96 Kolb FireFly 447 (#FF019) |
`-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
I do not speak for the SUNY College at Fredonia; all opinions are my own.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:08:14 EDT