Synthetic oil use on flat tappet cam after break in

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I switched to Royal Purple in my ramcharger. Actually gained a fuel mileage, ran smoother, lifters quit clattering on cold startup. Never dropped a drop of oil from any seal either.
 
If it's a fresh rebuild, I would make sure the rings seat just like YR said before switching to synthetic. If not, probably still wait 500 miles before switching.
 
ir3333 said:
synthetic is fine after break in.Is it better than dino oil...somewhere at the bottom of the argument there is a grain of relevance.Is it worth the extra money? I have run regular dino oil in all and everything for 50 years.All went 300k and were running fine when sold.
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I tried synthetic but see no benefit. I have run Dino Valvoline Racing since 1972. Change oil every 3,000 miles in everything except the 2009 Challenger. All cars have never had any oil related problems and most have over 250,000 miles on them. They all still run like new.
 
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Good conventional performance oil [ LUCAS or VR1 & STP [ Scientifically Treated Petroleum ] and all is well !!!
 
I won't wade into the discussion on which is best in terms of lubrication, but I do believe synthetics are more likely to leak. That's based on my own experience(my own vehicles) as well as the many we used to see come through the transmission shop.

Does anyone remember how the first synthetic oils looked black, like liquid graphite? Back in the 70's, my father was working at a large motor manufacturer, as he did for 48 years. One of the big oil companies bought a big motor of about 10,000HP. Takes about a year to make. During production, they came in and said they wanted the motor bearings to be filled with the new synthetic oil they had developed. The motor engineers naturally shriveled up at this idea and told the customer 'We'll do it but we won't take any responsibility for the bearings....' The oil company said 'No problem, this oil is hot **** and we know it'll work'

So, when it came time to test the motor on the shop floor, they filled it up with the new synthetic oil and spun it up. After the machine ran a while, they started picking up all the usual sign of an unhappy situation so they shut it down and lifted the bearing caps. The oil had cooked itself into a black carbon-y sludge. After the head scratching was over, they swapped out to all new bearings and refilled it with conventional oil which ran fine. That's a page from the early days of synthetic oil development!
 
over 15.000 miles combined on a 340 and 360 stroker using synthetic Valvoline vr-1 10-30 racing oil or royal purple 10-40 xpr after breaking in with dino oil. Over 12 years on the 340 3 on the stroker , no problems yet . 340 was a flat tappet ., never burn oil between changes every 3 or 4 thousand miles , never had a leak either. synthetic works for me . but that is just me , maybe i'm lucky
 
ir3333 said:
is it worth the extra cost?
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WELL WHEN THEY STRIPPED DOWN THE ENGINE TO CHANGE THE HEADS THERE WAS ALMOST NO bearing wear and the builder thought there was less than 1000 miles on it , was sp clean with mo wear . been using syn since 1986 some cars with over 500000 miles on them , they all looked new when torn down none ever used oil between changes I'm a believer
 
I use to use Amzoil hi zinc but switched out years ago because it was costly.I'm just using Penzoil 10W30 in my Dart.
Maybe i should go back to synthetic but it doesn't get many miles...maybe 1000 year.
 
In my modern cars, I use Mobil One (except the Challenger). It's basically as cheap as regular oil.
 
I saw the benefit of synthetic oil in the late 80s, I was having trouble keeping 4.88 pro gears in my Plymouth more than 125 passes. A buddy said to try synthetic gearlube and I started pulling the ring & pinion at 400 passes just because it seamed like I should. That year I gave up on my Valvoline racing oil ( I still have five 5 gallon buckets of it) and went synthetic in everything.
 
Oldiron440 said:
I saw the benefit of synthetic oil in the late 80s, I was having trouble keeping 4.88 pro gears in my Plymouth more than 125 passes. A buddy said to try synthetic gearlube and I started pulling the ring & pinion at 400 passes just because it seamed like I should. That year I gave up on my Valvoline racing oil ( I still have five 5 gallon buckets of it) and went synthetic in everything.
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THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO IT , My 1990 thunderbird SC said to change supercharger oil every 60,000 miles, My 1992 Tbird SC said no oil change needed for the supercharger as they used synthetic oil in it , drove it 500,000 miles in 5 years never had a problem . The engineers believed in it , good enough for me .
 
Parents bought a Ford Tempo back in 1987 just as I got out of the military. After break-in we switched to Mobil1 and changed at 5000 mile intervals. Car run great until 175,000 miles, when the oil pump quit. Before Dad could get off I-75 it started to clatter. I went investigating and found the entire engine full of the nastiest sludge, I couldn’t have imagined. By that point the car had paid its dues and got recycled. It was replaced with a Purple Gray Neon.
I have shy away from using Mobil1 in anything since but, I would expect by now that formulations, no longer be the same.
 
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