IdealConcepts

Ok, I have read the post on here concerning synthetic oil and just want to get some feedback on what I want to do. Here is my plan and need to get your guys/girls thoughts. I have a 2000 R with 68,### miles and use to be the daily driver. I bought a Toyota Truck as a daily driver (Oct 04, I love the truck and enjoy the R even more when I drive it now) and now the R sits in the garage and gets driven once or twice a week to pick up pizza or to hit the town on Friday or Saturday nights. I use to change the oil at the dealership every 2,500miles (typically every 2-3 months) with Castrol 10-30w and OEM oil filter. Since the R sits in the garage and don’t drive it very much I was thinking of changing over to Castrol Synthetic 10-30w and perform oil changes every 5-6 months (if I don’t hit 2,500 miles which I doubt I will) at the dealer. Also since I drive the car hard, when I do drive it, I figure the synthetic will do a better job at protecting my engine at high temps and during start ups. I'm in Sac Cali so it rarely gets below 25degreesF and gets into the 100's in the summer time if that maters. Can I still use the OEM filter with the Castrol Synthetic? Do I need to do anything to my engine before I switch over to Synthetic, if I do any estimates on how much it will cost me? Any comments, suggestions opinions are welcome.

RisforTypeR

I've used the OEM oil filter on several cars (Edit: cars using the B-series motor) including the R. I've always been using synthetic ever since I got the my R. Should be ok, I don't see any reason to change or add anything around. You're pretty much good to go. Just make sure that once you go synthetic, NEVER go back to the dyno oil, your R will start hating you :P (no joke!)

bbasso

You can use stock filter with just about any oil. But you should be changing your oil at 3 months or 3000 miles. there is moisture that builds up and contanimates that will settle.

IdealConcepts

Thanks RisfortypeR and bbasso for your reply backs. Will synthetic help with less oil burn? I noticed my R’s Vtec wasn’t kicking in when it normally does and the engine oil light turned on, this was after only about 2,200 miles and about 3-4 months since the last oil change. I checked the oil and it was low, so I added a quart and it ran perfectly fine. I had the dealer do the oil change that week and asked them to check for any leaks and didn’t find any. RisfortypeR I’m leaning more toward going to synthetic, but want to do more research before I make a final decision. bbasso are you saying even with synthetic change every 3,000 miles or 3 months? The reasons I wanted to change over to synthetic was better protection for my car (at start ups since I only drive it once or twice a week), heard possibly less oil burn (since I drive it in the 5-7K rpm after it’s warmed up), longer time periods between oil changes (longer than the 3 months, hopping for 5-6 months, since I won’t reach the 2,500 mile mark in 3 months anymore).

bbasso

ITRs have a long track record of burning oil. Use mine as a example... every 500 miles of normal driving I can kill almost a qt. sometimes over a qt.
On the track a 25-30 min session will kill a qt.
Then there are some like my friend Opie, He hardly burns any oil. I meen like next to none.

So what I'm saying is every time I open the garage I pop the hood and check the oil level. I'd rather take the 4 mins then blow the motor.

I have used Mobil 1 5/30 since the first night I got the car home from the dealer.
I have tried different weights of oil and if I go too thick the crossover is muted, and the power is reduced. I stick with either 5/30 or 10/30 (which ever I find). But allways M1 oil.

bbasso

Oh and since motors are not sealed off from the outside world and oil does get contanimated from the cumbustion chamber, moisture, carbon build up and other trace elements. I would recommend changing it 3to 4 months regardless of mileage.

PikkaGTR

yeah id change the oil atleast every 3 months no matter how many miles i drive it
my R barely burns any oil at all,
i change the oil every 2k miles and a little over 4 quarts comes out every timem the rest of it is in the filter

IdealConcepts

Thank you guys both for the replies back. Now I was at I think Kragen this weekend to pick stuff up for my daily driver, 89 Toyota Pick up, and asked about full synthetic motor oil. The guy asked how many miles I have on my car and I said 68K and he said it’s too late to switch over to full synthetic and that if I wanted to use full synthetic I should have done it at under 10,000 miles (couldn’t have because I didn’t get mine until it have 13K miles). Is this true (my R has too many miles to switch over to full synthetic)or can I switch over my R to full synthetic even though I have 68K miles on it? Thanks again.

bbasso

I don't see why not...
Some oils on the market today are 100% syn and are geared towards higher milage cars.
I would put it in your car. Example... A while back I bought a AE86 with 125K on the clock and put M1 oil and to this day the car runs great with 218K miles.

IdealConcepts

Thanks bbasso, not to find out what the dealer has in terms of synthetic. Hopefully they have mobile 1. I'm pretty sure they have at least Castrol Full Synthetic. Thanks again.