need a little help 92 honda prelude

[Micheal]

well what i would like to know is about switching to Synthetic Oil in my 92 prelude or any older car. will it hurt the motor Ive heard and read it can and it cant so wanting to get your opinions on it. and if i shouldn’t use it what should i use a blend just reg oil and is mobile one one of the better oil on the market if not what is better

Topic

[fitone]

Switching to synthetic oil in a car that old might cause old leaks to occur that were not there prior to using conventional oil. Personally I would just use conventional oil and a quality oil filter. Change the oil and filter about every 5k miles. You will get a lot of opinions as to which brand to purchase, but any of the top brands should suffice. How many miles on this car ?

[William McClurg]

Thanks for this question. I’ve thought about making the switch to synthetic on my 93 accord with 232k miles, but have not for the above reason. I always order Mann filters for my cars and have not been disappointed. I think I’ll stick to dead dinosaur oil.

[Micheal]

i think it around 130,000 or so i had put Synthetic Oil in i before and had to replace the front sill on it. but i had run a cleaner threw it to so thought it was the cleaner not the oil right now it has a Synthetic blend in it just was thinking about trying the full synthetic again but don’t want to have to replace the rear sill lol it doesn’t leak or use any oil and i don’t want it to start to but i hear synthetic is great for a engine so thought be worth using

[Micheal]

but ive had no leaks at all with the blend

[Daniel]

+0.5 to fitone. I have heard synthetic can cause leaks that conventional oil didn’t get through because it has different flow characteristics, (I have never, ever experienced this) but I argue: that should not be a reason to not use it. just fix the leaks. The numbers equating the “weight” of the oil are supposed to create a universal bridge between synthetic and conventional. I don’t recommend using “cleaners in your oil.” It’s ok to use flushes in your coolant, but oils are a “sacred ground.” The ph and specificity of chemical balances determined by the manufacturer indicate that the smallest variance can cause damage unbeknownced to me. Hence the difference between trans fluids. As far as synthetic damaging an engine that has used conventional oils (and vice versa,) if that were true why would they make synthetic blend

[William McClurg]

If I may, in my mind, the fear is that synthetic has more lubricity for a given weight than conventional. That said, I feel like my car has an almost symbiotic relationship with some of the dirt inherent to running for almost a quarter of a million miles, and I’m very hesitant to mess with a system that has worked so well for so long for us (me and my engine). I am very much on the fence about this though, and perfectly happy to admit I’m wrong and switch to synthetic, but I’d like to get some real world experience first. Does anyone have any negative experiences changing a high mileage engine over to synthetic?

[Micheal]

anyone else could use some more imput on this

[Paul]

This is what Eric said on using synthetic oil on my 91 Civic.

Proceed with caution. If you switch to synthetic you may find that your engine leaks oil where it didn’t before. It may also start to burn oil internally. Your vehicle is old enough that it was made before synthetics became popular so you may want to stick with conventional oil.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/component/kunena/8-Service-and-Repair-Questions-Answered-Here/37354-Changed-oil-in-July-car-has-old-oil-smell?Itemid=0#38585

[college man]

stick with conventional oil. just change it regularly.

[Daniel]

I run synthetic in most of my cars but honestly I don’t think it really makes a difference. As long as you perform regular maintenance you should be fine. Hell, my grandfather used to put his old oil in a bucket with a quart of trans fluid and some magnets for a few months then throw it back in his engine. (I in NO way endorse this by the way)

[John B Kobberstad]

I’ve never heard of an engine dying because of oil. As long as it has the proper amoint in it it should be good to go. I’ve got 290,000 + miles on my vehicle changed oil regularly with the cheapest conventional oil and filter. I’ve got my miles out of the vehicle. If you’ve got the money to spend for the synthetic oil and premium filters, go for it. I prefer to spend the money I’ve saved on other things that are needed rather than on that which I really didn’t need. All my vehicles except the newest (1998 Neon 131,000 miles) which I picked up about a month ago, have between 250,000 and 300,000 miles on them and have have very few problems other than ordinary replacement of the parts that wear out over time and use. No synthetic oil for my vehicles.

[William McClurg]

Well, mkdaviss, I don’t know about you, but I’m sticking with conventional until I get something new.

[Micheal]

well its got synthetic blend in it right now. but i don’t understand one thing. the blend is supposed to be both syn and reg. but i keep thinking if it can handle that it should be able to handle the full. it got the same clean abilities i would think. but i don’t know enough about the 3 oils maybe i should of ask if i am running a synthetic blend and wanted to go to full synthetic would it cause much problem or better yet if i was running syn blend and wanted to go to full syn. would i still have a problem with it maybe leaking or does the blend have the same cleaning qualities as the full so i will probley leave that in it for a while the only reason i don’t want to go to full is my luck the rear main would be the one that leak and i couldn’t do that one myself no time or money to do it and back to my bad luck would break something else lol i could deal with valve cover or oil pan but i have bad luck. well if anyone got anything to help about the blend to full syn that could help out to ty all for your help it helps a lot to know what other would do. i should of said it had syn blend just wasn’t thinking sorry

[EricTheCarGuy]

It’s not that it will ‘hurt’ it but rather you may notice that the engine leaks more oil and also it may burn more oil if you run synthetic. The reason for this is that synthetics have different flow characteristics then conventional oil and as a result when switching with a high mileage or older engine you often find these issues. The only real benefit to running synthetic oil is the ability to extend your oil change intervals. Otherwise I would recommend you stick with conventional.

[Author]

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