Dinosaur or Synthetic

[wkrp]

Are any of you fellow OFC`ers using synthetic oil in your 4 stroke outboards. I have read some great articles about this oil .

[DRIFTER_016]

I run synthetic oils in all my motors 2 stroke or 4.

I will never use Dino oils again, except during break in.

Edited January 9, 2010 by DRIFTER_016

[JohnF]

I suspect synthetics are the only way to go, particularly with modern engines. It seems logical that the new oiling systems and engines have been designed with syntetics in mind anyway.

 

JF

[fish_fishburn]

I have a 96 175 efi merc on my bass boat and my motor has never seen a mechanics wrench except for water pumps and general maintenance. Two years ago I figured it was time to have the head gaskets changed. They say they should be changed every five years (was told this by a merc mechanic). The manual says no such thing. He changed them for me and was blown away by how clean the heads and cylinders. piston tops etc were. He called me asked what kind of oil I used and I told him I used synthetic, amzoil to be exact. He said those heads were as clean as a motor a year old and he was converted that synthetics are the way to go, especially with the v6 motors. Way better than merc synthetic blend and a bit cheaper I might add. About 9.00 per litre. I use it in everything, mowers, truck, snowblower etc. Would never use dino ever again.

[irishfield]

I won't use it in anything..

[Fisherman]

Well now ain't we all in the humbug mood...

I use it in everything, especially 2 strokes, chainsaw, weedwacker and ice auger, no fouled plugs for one thing.

[NANUK]

I use Mobil-1 full synthetic in my outboards, truck, snowblower, lawnmower etc.

They all start & run better (specially in cold temps) and the plugs are always cleaner compare to dino oil.

[JohnF]

I won't use it in anything..

 

OK. I'll gladly defer to yer mechanical superiority today. My tool box has cobwebs on the drawer pulls. But out of curiosity what don't you like about synthetics?

 

JF

[HTHM]

OK. I'll gladly defer to yer mechanical superiority today. My tool box has cobwebs on the drawer pulls. But out of curiosity what don't you like about synthetics?

 

JF

Make that two people who are curious. I have heard a lot of good things about synthetic oils.

[irishfield]

Lots of reasons.

 

1/ I'm a dinasour.. hard to teach an old dinasour new tricks.

 

2/ In many cases it's too slippery and doesn't allow rings to seat/seal for proper compression strokes.

 

3/ Not recommended for Supercharged engines.

 

4/ Does not scavenge lead properly.. which is a big deal for me.. considering AV gas has lead in it as does fuel required for my old cars.

 

5/ It's a good lubricant for many applications.. but it's a terrible cleaner!

 

6/ History of failures like this multi million dollar Cluster....

 

http://www.avweb.com/news/news/182891-1.html

Edited January 10, 2010 by irishfield

[John Bacon]

Lots of reasons.

 

1/ I'm a dinasour.. hard to teach an old dinasour new tricks.

 

2/ In many cases it's too slippery and doesn't allow rings to seat/seal for proper compression strokes.

 

3/ Not recommended for Supercharged engines.

 

4/ Does not scavenge lead properly.. which is a big deal for me.. considering AV gas has lead in it as does fuel required for my old cars.

 

5/ It's a good lubricant for many applications.. but it's a terrible cleaner!

 

6/ History of failures like this multi million dollar Cluster....

 

http://www.avweb.com/news/news/182891-1.html

 

 

Is it okay when using unleaded fuel; or would you still recommend nonsynthetics? What about blended oils?

[Sinker]

I use whatever is cheapest!!!! Really, how much difference can it make??

 

S.

[irishfield]

John.. just a personal view.. nothing that I've read.. been shown.. told with factual back up.. or otherwise have knowledge of.. justifies the higher price of Sythetic vs dinasour. Had a customer that demanded I use an $18/ litre synthetic bike oil in his Rotax 912 aircraft engine... that he picked up from a TO bike shop and left with me twice a year to do his bi-annual maintenance. I tried to get him to stick with the $3.50/liter Castrol GTX bike oil with gear box additive from CTC that I've run in both my wife's and father-in-laws 912s for over a decade...... 3 years on his expensive European stuff and a $12,000 overhaul later.. he's letting me use what I want !

[smally21]

i have done awful things to all my cars and motorcycles and small engines in the past without failures. in fact, after a dozen bikes and 15 or so cars and trucks i have never had any kind of engine failure (catastrophic inside the block/heads kind of thing). i'm a lot better on my equipment now. but i'm not sure why. every 300,000 km wreck i've taken to the scrapyard was running fine, just banged up and rusty. most didn't have any oil in 'em!

 

to totally change tune i winterize and oil change everything regularly now ( alittle more time an money these days). i use regular oil and don't feel too guilty about it - it meets all OEM specs and that's good enough for me.

 

synthetic and blended oils are most likely better - i beleive in progress and research and technology. scores of egghead scientists didn't come up with synthetic oil on a bet you know.

 

my question would be i've got a fairly new 115hp that has always had regular oil, i've heard, perhaps a myth, that switching back and forth is bad?

[irishfield]

scores of egghead scientists didn't come up with synthetic oil on a bet you know.

 

No they came up with it, because the sales tool was there.... the fear of fossil fuel depletion.

[BillM]

I run dino in the truck and a Group IV PAO full syn in the TDI.

 

Great additive package and soot handling abilities.

[musky66]

Use full synthetic in my Jeeps- perform changes myself- cheap and easy- my '96 5.2 litre had over 410,000 kms- no issues ( body fell off). Still use the old stuff in my 4 stroke and injected yamaha o/b- what the manual calls for- also, automotive motors do not usually maintain high rpm for very long, unlike my o/b- I have heard synth oils are not that great with extended high rpm.

[canuckjack]

All Dino all the time, 4 strokes: car, truck, snowblower, mowers and 2 strokes: gas trimmer, OB motor.

 

Haven't heard any convincing arguments to switch yet, and my mechanic only stocks dino.

[kickingfrog]

I use synthetic.

 

It saves me money. I get twice as many kilometres (or hours) per oil change (that's recommended by my mechanic) but it is only twice the cost with less trips to the garage.

 

-Cold weather starts (this is Canada after all)

 

-Short trips

 

-Engines today are much different, so my oil is too.

 

-turbo engine

[bigbuck]

Just make sure that for your cars you are using the correct oil!!! All synthetic 5w30's, 5w20's etc... are not created equally!! Make sure you check your owner's manual for the correct type of oil. There are quite a few engine failures happening these days because people aren't going to the dealer for oil changes and are going to the corner lube shop for the cheapest oil change. The wrong oil goes in and they have catastrophic engine failure. Since most engines now are interference engines, anything goes wrong usually ends up in a grenaded engine. For the boat, I use the correct VOLVO PENTA oils and lubricants in the engine and out drive.