I Opted For Synthetic

I finally switched to synthetics in my Jeep after 15,000~ish miles when I decided to start doing my own maintenance. The savings I made on not paying for labor made it easy to justify the expense of synthetic (about an extra $3 per quart). I tried Royal Purple 5W-30 (for the winter season) but then switched to Mobil 1 10W-30. I can't say that I've seen any improvements to fuel efficiency, but there haven't been any declines either.

There were many studies that led me to make the change, although one stands out in memory involving either a Formula-1 or Indy car. IIRC, after every race, the engines are taken apart to study them for performance and weakness. One of the most commonly noted weaknesses were that the cylinder walls were usually scored by the pistons. After a team switched to synthetic, they noticed that for several races, the engine cylinders were perfectly smooth, unscored and "like new". Basically, any scores in the cylinder have the potential of allowing explosive energy to get past the piston/cylinder seal - robbing you of power and damaging the engine. This is one of synthetics arguments towards prolonging engine life - the fact that various impurities, etc. aren't present to cause such harm.

Anyway, my oil change intervals are between 6000 and 8000 miles now. I was always a 3000 mile changer on conventional oil. 33,000 miles later and no problems (my engine is working a little extra to turn big 35" off-road tires, too). It's actually cheaper, too, to pay a little extra per unit but buy half as much oil in the aggregate.

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