I've read that you can gain a hp or 2 from going over to synthetic/fully synthetic oil. My question is, do I risk it on my 90 b12 with 140,000 miles on it? I had my engine flushed and cleaned with solvent a few thousand miles ago and it hasn't started to leak yet. I do have a small leak in the O ring behind the distributor I just have to get that fixed. Any opinions?
To go synthetic or not...
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I agree with ricebox. I changed to synthetic not too long ago and it leaked out of my valve cover. At first it feels very responsive coz of the slippery oil. Then the oil level went down (never did before) so I switched back using dino oil and no problem. Synthetic too slippery.
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·Your car will only leak with synthetics if you have an underlying problem. The synthetic acts as a "detergent" and cleans out the crud that is left behind by dino oil - which sort of acts as a sealant. Otherwise synthetics can be used in any car that is of reasonable age and mileage...
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Use it.. If you develop leaks fix them, you should any way. Not only may it give you more power, but its better for your engine.
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K, so if I put Mobil 1 in my GA16i, with 92000 km on it, it wouldnt leak to bad and it would actually be better for my engine? (I drive lots of high RPM!)
-Nick
-Nick
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Nick,
I can not guess as to if your car will leak or not. I havent seen your car. If it does leak, just fix the leak(s), they should be taken care of anyway. A word of advice to all that read this thread, dont use cheap oil filters. Stay away from department stores when buying your oil filter. The ones they cary(most of the time anyway) are junk. If you have a Nissan dealership near by, get and OEM filter. If not I belive Courtesy Nissan has them available for mail order. Nissan oil filters use the right flow- to- filter ratio that the Nissan engine designers felt corect for our engines. Cheap one are universial. They may flow well, but not filter worth crap or they may filter well, but not flow enough oil to keep our engines healthy for a long time.
I can not guess as to if your car will leak or not. I havent seen your car. If it does leak, just fix the leak(s), they should be taken care of anyway. A word of advice to all that read this thread, dont use cheap oil filters. Stay away from department stores when buying your oil filter. The ones they cary(most of the time anyway) are junk. If you have a Nissan dealership near by, get and OEM filter. If not I belive Courtesy Nissan has them available for mail order. Nissan oil filters use the right flow- to- filter ratio that the Nissan engine designers felt corect for our engines. Cheap one are universial. They may flow well, but not filter worth crap or they may filter well, but not flow enough oil to keep our engines healthy for a long time.
Alright, so I might try synthetic, but is it necessary for me to use mobile 1? The only place around here is jiffy lube, pepboys, and of course nissan. If I do go synthetic, how long until I would notice problems with my seals and if I switched back to regular oil immediately would the seals still need to be replaced or would they be fine?
I think you missed the point here... what ppl said above is that you will not get leaks from switching to syn unless you have leaks in your seals right now. Which you should fix in either case. The oil won't start gushing out if that's what your asking. Put it in, wait couple minutes see if it's leaking, drive around until engine is warm and see if its leaking with the engine on. Wait a week and see if you have any leaks. If you have none then you're probably safe. I'm not saying you won't develop a leak after that but don't attribute it to the synthetic.dschrier said:
you can use other brands other than Mobil 1.
Alright, thanks for the info, but from what I've read from other posts in the past is that synthetic oil can dissolve sludge in the seals which would be fine with conventional oil but leaky once the sludge has been cleaned out of it. If that statement is false then I might try for synthetic oil, but I really don't feel like paying to get my leaky seals fixed. I just want some added protection to my aging sentra. I thought I had a leak in my o ring behind the distributor but the last 2000 miles I have checked my oil and it is still full and there doesn't seem to be anymore oil on the distributor like there had been in the past.
if you have a leak that is plugged by sludge you should still switch and get the leak fixed. the sludge can become dislodged and you can still get the leak (imagine on a long distance trip, the heat can dislodge the sludge and you could lose oil for hundreds of miles until you break down in like the middle of nevada or texas where you can't see a thing for miles...)dschrier said:
True....I recently had my engine flushed and cleaned, whatever they do to it, add some solvent or something, about 10,000 miles ago, and it seems fine. My oil has always been a little dark. I bought the car at 106,000 miles and it looked like the oil hadn't been changed in a long time. I don't think the previous owner was very good at up keeping his/her car.
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