Oil change

Big advantage of synthetics is their ability to stick to the metal surface, lowering wear on dry start up and also protect the engine in case of failure.
I had broken oil pump on my Mercedes and it run for couple of minutes with no oil pressure.
Later on I was replacing head gasket and the engine at 300,000 miles still had factory crosscuts on the cylinders.
Synthetics also allow lower weight, what saves fuel.

NeverHome2 wrote:
The only reason to use full synthetic oil is to extend oil change intervals by having samples analyzed at regular intervals. The cost of synthetic oil doesn't make sense to run it and drain it at normal intervals. The only advantage of synthetic over regular oil is less dirt retention and a wider temperature profile. If you drain at normal schedule or don;t have an excessive temperature problem, no need for high price oil. Its a waste of money.

I guess it depends on how much oil your rig holds. On my daily driver, which I put about 30k a year on, my additional cost of running Mobil 1 is about $40 per year over using conventional oil. This is sticking to the manufacturers recommended intervals. To me, $40 isn't worth the effort of having the oil analyzed. Of course this would be a moot point depending on the oil capacity of a particular rig!

The only reason to use full synthetic oil is to extend oil change intervals by having samples analyzed at regular intervals. The cost of synthetic oil doesn't make sense to run it and drain it at normal intervals. The only advantage of synthetic over regular oil is less dirt retention and a wider temperature profile. If you drain at normal schedule or don;t have an excessive temperature problem, no need for high price oil. Its a waste of money.

The first number really doesn't factor in during warm weather. That is the cold weather weight. 5 or 10w30 has about the same flow characteristics in warm weather because it is the 30 weight that matters.

I run the 5-30 as the manufacturer recommends. The only thing I did change was the oil filter. I went from the 1/2 quart filter to the 2 quart filter. This gives me an extra 1 1/2 quart oil capacity, which helps to keep things a little cooler but it also gives me 4 times the filter capacity, which can't be a bad thing.

Same engine here, 5W30 Mobile 1. Why would you question what the manufacturer recommends?

If your oil is working for you stay with it! I have the same engine. I run 5W-30W Mobil 1 Synthetic Oil (Gold Cap on the bottle) ever since my coach was new. It works fine for me so I never changed.

Stay with the OEM recommended oil.

Stick with what the manufacturer recommends. The higher the winter weight the less the oil flows in cold weather.

My 06 8.1 has been running 10w30 since it was new.It's got about 44000 on it.