The magic of swapping to full synthetic at 150k miles

My old 97 Ford F150 had been burning oil like crazy for about two years. I always ran conventional 10w30 because that's what my dad used and I figured the engine was too old to change now. Finally got tired of adding a quart every 400 miles and switched to full synthetic 5w30 after doing some reading online. The first oil change after the switch, I was shocked that the oil barely looked used after 3,000 miles. The ticking from the lifters quieted down too, which I honestly didn't expect. It's been about 6 months now and I've only had to add half a quart once. Anyone else seen this kind of difference switching an older high mileage engine over?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy3912d ago

Are you sure that's not just because the synthetic has better detergents cleaning out built up sludge, making the leaks worse down the road? I've read plenty of stories where switching a high mileage engine to synthetic actually caused new leaks by dissolving all that old gunk that was plugging up seals. Seems like you might have just gotten lucky with yours, but I wouldn't bet on that working for everyone.

williamschmidt2d ago

Huh, you really think that's what's happening here? I mean, I've seen those stories too, but my mechanic buddy who's been wrenching for like 30 years swears the real issue is people switching to synthetic when their seals are already shot, not the oil itself causing the damage. Did you actually check if the seals were still good before you switched, or were you just rolling the dice on an older motor? Because from what I've seen, a lot of those horror stories come from guys throwing synthetic into a high-mileage engine that was already leaking a little from dry rotted seals, and the new oil just makes it more obvious. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it feels like correlation versus causation to me.