Miata Mailing List: February 2000, Message #164

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Hank Harvey" <hank@grove.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2000 3:51 PM


> IMO you gain a lot by changing whatever oil you use often, but with a
street
> driven car I don't think you gain much by switching from dino to
synthetic.
> You still have the contaminants to deal with and any gain from 'reduced
> friction' etc. is more then offset by the heavy premium paid for the
stuff.
> We're talking street driven stuff here, not some toted to the track racer
> with a full on competition engine.  The Miata engine was made to operate
> just fine on dino oil so unless your spinning a highly stressed engine way
> beyond where you should be and pumping out gobs of aftermarket hp, IMHO
> synthetic oils are a waste of money.  Of course if you gotta have the
> absolute best needed or not, it's hard to argue with Synthetics, but then
> everything's a trade off.  Whatever floats your boat.  My .02 worth.
>
> Hank & Belle

Hi Hank,
All good points, but there is one very compelling argument for using
synthetics that you don't discuss... cold viscosity.  I mean COLD viscosity!
When it's -20 (F or C, doesn't matter), and you're starting your cold car,
the synthetic oil will be circulating and lubricating in your engine far
sooner than the molasses-like dino oil.  Since (by some reports) 80% of
engine wear occurs in the first 30 seconds after a cold start (and I'd guess
it's more like 90% for these cold starts), the lower pour point temperatures
and better flow characteristics of synth oil at those temperatures will make
a huge difference.  Believe me, you can HEAR the difference between synth
and dino oils when starting a real cold engine.

OK, maybe where you live it's not a big deal... up here, it's the clincher
for me!  I run synthetics in all our cars.

Regards,
Gordon Choate
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
96 BRG/tan