I have a 4.6 with 150,000 miles on her. I was just wonndering if any one knows a web site that tells me the differance between synthetic oil and conventional oil. What is your preferance. I know your not soppossed to run syntetecs on a new engine but obviously mine isn't new. I have seen a lot of addvertixments for special 4 by 4 sythitic oils. What would be better for me?

 

You already have 150k with whatever oil you are using. Why change it now. It has worked for you.

 

Twintips, I don't think you realize the complexity of the question you asked. There are books written about the differences in basestocks and the performance of each. And the good news.....nobody really agrees. Here is a link that was discussed in Houston a few years back about Chevrons Gp III basestocks. Read carefully and you can probably figure out the differences between a Gp I, solvent refined basestock, Gp II hydrocracked basestock, Gp III severley hydrocracked and finished dino synthetic. The Gp IV is a PAO which is ethylene gas, heated, pressurized, and run thru a catalyst like nickel and it comes out a liquid. And the Gp V which is everything else but mostly esters which is a reaction between an acid and alcohol. NONE have a clear advantage over the others. The most common in the USA today would be a classification known as the Gp II+. The difference between the Gp II+ and the Gp III dino synthetic is the Viscosity Index. which is <120. Most of the common oils on the market today are blends which would be a mixture of Gp I and Gp II+ or even Gp III. I am not aware of a PAO and a Gp I. ALL have some great characteristics. ALL have some bad characteristics. The PAOs like Amsoil or Mobil One have issues that the basestock does not support or mix well with the additive package- its the nature of the beast. But some form of binder is used to hold them together. In the case of M1, they were using an alkylated napthalene. From my understanding, they are now using a fatty acid ester. I believe Amsoil is using a mineral oil. There are also polar and non- polar PAOs which present other issues that the Gp IIs don't have, for example. But a GP II will not hold up as long as the synthetics for extended oil changes and oxidation is an issue. I could go on but hopefully you catch my drift- there are no magic bullets and there are no far and away winners. I assume that your Triton got to its mileage on regular dino oil. Hundreds of thousands of engines have gone that far with everyday, bargain priced oils. If you know what oil got it that far, stay with it. At this mileage, there are no advantages for your engine to switch to synthetics of any kind.

http://www.chevron.com/products/prod...npra_paper.pdf

Hopefully this link will answer some of your questions. I don't get by here much anymore but I should be by sometime next week, if you have questions I'll try to help.

 

Stay with what you used already. I've heard of bad outcomes when switching to a synthetic after 120K miles on several vehicles.

 

Is that english?