Oil question

[Billsboats]

What do most guys break there engines in on synthetic or dinosaur oil?

[Steve Litzell]

What do most guys break there engines in on synthetic or dinosaur oil?

2 stroke just use the normal oil you race or run, If motor is built right and parts are good normal mixture is ok. On 4 stroke such as inboards it depends on if the cam is a roller or not. Never use synthetic oils in a flat tappet non roller motor. Modern oils do not have enough zddp in them to keep the lobes on. Roller motors , again use what you like. Steve

[BayCity17]

2 STROKEs Dinosaur oil. Synthetic will slow the break in process. The rings seat better with petroleum based oils.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

On my vehicles, I run 12 to 15 thousand miles with a standard good quality petroleum base, then switch to synthetic. That way I figure I get the rings seated good, then go for the superior protection of a good synthetic. Seems to work pretty good as I have three Dodges with a combined 680,000 miles with no motor ever opened up. I figure that might work for all types of engines, but listen to Steve's advice regarding non roller motors.

[zul8tr]

On my vehicles, I run 12 to 15 thousand miles with a standard good quality petroleum base, then switch to synthetic. That way I figure I get the rings seated good, then go for the superior protection of a good synthetic. Seems to work pretty good as I have three Dodges with a combined 680,000 miles with no motor ever opened up. I figure that might work for all types of engines, but listen to Steve's advice regarding non roller motors.

What is your maintenance interval in time and milage that you change out the synthetic oil? Brand and weight?

[zul8tr]

For the outboard 2 cycle I break in with petroleum TCW III at richer oil mix than the factory ratio. For a new block or a machined true block heat cycling the block is important and not to do sustained full throttle runs . Thus run the engine then shut down and let cool and repeat several times. Then increase the revs but vary them and let cool and repeat. After break in can switch to Syn oil.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I don't do any maintenance by time. I drive three to four thousand miles a month nowadays, so it doesn't take long for oil change time to come around. I change it at 6,000 miles and I use Mobil 1 5W20. Those high milages were run up mostly before Obama became president. I drive only half the miles now per month than I use to. The high milage in relatively short periods of time allow gasoline engines to last longer than if over a ten year period. But I think without synthetics you couldn't get 300,000 out of a gasoline engine even in a five year time frame.

I think Castrol, Quaker State, and others make an excellent synthetic, but I just stuck with Mobil 1 because that's what I started with. I would not recommend petroleum based Pennzoil for any use unless it was to mix with diesel and herbacide to poison grassy weeds. (Unless they made some changes in the last twenty years)

What you just said about your break in procedures zul8tr sounds like a perfect plan. We also did what you said on break-in with our alky engines by varying the engine speed, and not hold it open for any length of time until right before the end. Then we would do a couple of high speed passes down a straight. We went through only one tank of fuel for break in, but we didn't let it run out. It only took less than ten minutes.

[David_L6]

I would not recommend petroleum based Pennzoil for any use unless it was to mix with diesel and herbacide to poison grassy weeds.

What's wrong with Pennzoil?

[David_L6]

I run some dino oil through my two strokes initially then switch to synthetic. I don't add more oil for "break in" but I did open up the needles a tad on my Mercs to richen the mixture some. On the motorcycles we have now I don't even do that because they don't have adjustable needles and I don't want to mess around with swapping jets.