Thread: Which engine oil?

My GP I just bought has 85k miles on it. This will be my daily driver, about 100 miles a day. It's mainly highway miles and steady speeds. Yes, I know I can put Mobil 1 in it, but I'm saving that for my Imp. Should I put a partial synthetic or the high mileage oil? Also, what about the filter? High mileage, or just the standard filter?

While I tend to be opinionated about this subject because it is one I know fairly well I will just say this and let others post up.

Stay away from the partial synthetics or synthetic blends. Either use a petroleum oil or a full synthetic. Synthetic blends do not give you the best of both worlds and they are not 50/50 either. They charge you a premium price for a product you have no idea how much is synthetic and how much is petroleum.

So I say, as my contribution to this, stay away from the synthetic blends. Pick one or the other and see how your engine responds to it and go from there.

Some may say I am old school. But I use what works for me. I drive 100 miles a day for work. And that is if I go straight to work, and straight home. In my engine, I use Valvoline 10W30 (sometimes 5W30 in the winter), and an AC Delco oil filter. This costs me less than $15 for an oil change. I change mine every 3k miles. And it runs perfect. No problems at all.

My thoughts on this is the 3800 is not prone to oil related failures. They are a strong engine, and for the driver who doesn't drive their car hard, regular, cheap oil from Wal-mart works fine as long as it is changed regularly. Now if I was racing my car. Or a show car that didn't get driven very often. Or driving in extreme temps, I might think about synthetic. But regular oil is fine in my book, and has shown time and time again to work perfectly fine in our cars.

Our cars have bigger problems to worry about than what engine oil.

Originally Posted by Zef_66

My thoughts on this is the 3800 is not prone to oil related failures. They are a strong engine, and for the driver who doesn't drive their car hard, regular, cheap oil from Wal-mart works fine as long as it is changed regularly. Now if I was racing my car. Or a show car that didn't get driven very often. Or driving in extreme temps, I might think about synthetic. But regular oil is fine in my book, and has shown time and time again to work perfectly fine in our cars.

Our cars have bigger problems to worry about than what engine oil.

On a previous '00 Impala SS I had, I regularly changed the oil or had a shop change it with standard oil, standard filter. The engine was fine when it was in an accident with 100k miles on it, so I know these are good engines. That's one of the major reasons I specifically looked for a GP GT. I just wanted to hear others thoughts and opinions and if it was worth it to do anything different for a "regular" driving car.

i have used Castrol GTX in all my cars.
Only time i ever ran mobil 1 was when it was 18 buxs at walmart
And every time no matter what oil. Ac delco pf47. Wish i could still find the ultra gold but still pf47 any time

Originally Posted by maybe_memories

Good point. I hear alot of people saying if the oil is changed regualry and at its proper time, it doesnt really matter what type you use. Im running Valvoline full sythenthic 5w30 right now fwiw.

Peanut oil? High flash point for deep frying, so as long as I keep the car under 375* I should be good, right? Plus, if the car DOES catch fire, it'll smell nice.

I think I'll probably go with whatever is on sale that weekend at Walmart, or if the local car parts store does one of their "free filter with 5 quart purchase" I'll go with that.

Originally Posted by Deezul_AwT

Peanut oil? High flash point for deep frying, so as long as I keep the car under 375* I should be good, right? Plus, if the car DOES catch fire, it'll smell nice.

I think I'll probably go with whatever is on sale that weekend at Walmart, or if the local car parts store does one of their "free filter with 5 quart purchase" I'll go with that.

When he said "Doesn't matter what kind" I think he meant "Doesn't matter what kind as long as it meet API current standards (SJ, SL, or SM)" FWIW.

The key to a conventional is just to keep it changed regularly. If you do that and stick with your standard Valvoline, Penzoil, Mobil, whatever...your engine will last far longer than the chassis around it.

mobil clean 5000 for the GT, Mobil1 for the GTP