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Originally Posted by antonino
Thanks to all of you for weighing in on this and many of you make a strong case for changing to synthetic oil. Being a person of old habbits, it will be hard but it may be time to do it. My only reservation is that, like Larry Bible, I have always believed in "change it hot change it often". Since the car mostly does short runs and is one of 3 garage queens that does not go out in foul weather, I am a little anxious about going even 5K between changes. Oh well, time to sh_ _ or get off the pot on this one. One final question, if I do make the jump to the synthetic, do I need to add one of those motor flush additives prior to dropping the mineral oil or can I just drop it and add the synthetic? Thanks again for trying to teach an old dog a new trick.
Antonino
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Unless you want to drive extended mileage between change intervals or need the wider viscosity range of a synthetic, there is no economic benefit for the additional cost.
For occasionally driven cars an API CI-4 mineral based HD diesel engine oil is a better choice because it has a better additive package than any current API SM oil designed for modern spark ignition engines regardless of base stock.
The commonly available mulitgrade mineral oil based CI-4s are 15W-40 (10W-30 is also available) and the viscosity chart in my owner's manual says this viscosity range is okay down to about 5 F IIRC.
You should change the oil once per year, regardless of mileage, preferably in the fall or prior to winter storage if you don't drive the car during the winter months.
The subject of synthetic versus mineral oil has been beat to death, so you may want to take a run through the archives. Unfortunately, these discussions are primarily a reiteration of the marketing hype for synthetics, which is motivated by their higher profit margins. You will rarely find any discussion of additives because very few have an understanding of why motor oil has additives, what they do, and why they are the most important factor in motor oil selection.
Duke