Oils ain't oils.

[mudnut]

For those of us old enough to remember. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE_HbVs3bCM

But seriously, what experiences have you had with partial mineral/synthetic, and/or full synthetic oils.

For the first time I just serviced my daughters 2011 Camry, with 343000 ks on the clock. I went with a full synthetic oil, so what should I expect from this sort of product?

Has anyone used a mixed oil on their older Patrols?

Did you see an increase or decrease in oil consumption or seepage around the engine?

[GQtdauto]

Was using semi synthetic in the GQ on advice from the mechanic but we both found excessive oil consumption, even the GU drank it like a drunken sailor .
The mechanic checked with his oil bloke who told him no don't use it not suited so went back to mineral oil .

[Touses]

Same same. Checked with older wiser head, aging uncle, recommended full mineral for what is in truth a tractor engine. Uses heaps less.

[4bye4]

I have always used Penrite oil in the ZD30. Never missed a beat and at 250000 still looks clean. Got caught out once and had to use castrol, which is a great product in my opinion. Worked well but drained out black as. Refilled with Penrite and back to normal. I have a small engine workshop and we do a lot of LPG air cooled motors which have thair own specific issues. They run very hot and being LPG they have no impurities to help lubricate. We use Penrite heavy duty truck oil in these as burning LPG produces byproducts that introduce acids to the oil. The HD diesel has the ability to remove these impurities and with a bit of luck and frequent changing we get a good run, 4 to 5 thousand hours from a motor. The motors we have pulled down indicate that the synthetic leaves the engine cleaner than mineral. Hard to tell with semi-synth but my own personal opinion is that it is just offered for sales benefit. "All the benefits of synth but at a better price"?. for what its worth and with no proof at all, I tend to leave a vehicle on what its used to. If its been running mineral oil, leave it on that. We used to run a HQ racer, but that got new oil every race day so was always perfect. Used the cheapest we could get but it was only in the car for maybe 20k then changed. A couple of things about synthetic. 1 It doesn't alwys mix well with mineral oil. Sometimes "topping up" with one when you have filled with the other can produce what can only be described as bitumen. 2 It doesn't always give you a tell tale black exhaust smoke or black deposit on the exhaust pipe if you have an oil burning problem. Mate of mine deas vintage and classic cars and his rule of thumb is "if in doubt use Castrol RX" on older motors. He hasn't been bitten yet. Shell Australia and Penrite used to have top labs you could call and chat with, but nobody gives a damm any more about technical advice.
That actually didn't help did it? Sorry.

[mudnut]

Thanks, blokes. I have no idea what oil was used in the Camry. I did notice a lot of gunk in the fill cap of the Camry, so I will keep an eye on it to see if the full synthetic causes more build up.

I will continue with the mineral based oil in the RB30.

[garett]

ahh that depends on the engine... if it calls for synth than use the synth, running mineral in an engine that requires synth can cause problems. I found it depends on the engine which brand is better, had one car that would rattle after 1000km on castrol 2000km on penrite but good for 7000km with Caltex, but also had one the other way round, sooo hey, watch it see what happens look at the build up under the cap different colours and textures may be a problem. seen a reddish deposit when the car was run on mineral when it should of had a full synth.
camry a semi or full synth should be fine but I wouldn't use a full mineral.