Re: Synthetic Oil & Flat Cams

[Bernie & Diana Bennett <bennetts@domain.elided>]

Carl:

You wrote:

Stuff deleted ....

> My biggest gripe on synthetic oil is that it seems to find its way or
> even make leaks that weren't there.  Given that the Alfa V-6 uses enough
> oil as it is anyway under normal circumstances,

My wife's 1991 (105,000 mi) and my 1994 (45,000 mi) don't leak or use an
appreciable amount of oil and have been using synthetics and long changes
and short distance driving cycle.


> I see no reason to dump synthetic oil in the engine.

Aside from the owner's manual recommended change interval of 10,000 miles
specifying synthetic 10-40 oil!

Save your money for fuel to drive your car, and your time (either doing the
oil change labor or driving to the mechanic's shop) to have more available
for (see above) (meaningful pause) DRIVING YOUR CAR. Sorry, didn't mean to
shout ?G>.

> Carl P.
> 1991 164 w/80k miles
>
> ? From: Thomas Washburn ?thomasw@domain.elided?
> ?
> ? I have heard of more than one case of rapid cam lobe
> ? deterioration (in under, say, 10K miles) after switching
> ? to synthetic oil from conventional oil on Alfa V-6es
> ? with around 60K - 80K miles.
> ?
> ? The theory, anyway, is that the extra suspension additive
> ? in synthetics picks up the build-up of metal particles at
> ? the bottom of the camshaft oil troughs on older engines.
> ? The oil in this area of the Alfa V-6 is fairly captive
> ? and doesn't make it through the filter very often, so it
> ? stays in suspension and abrades the cam lobes.
> ?
> ? Anyone out there have similar experiences?

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