Synthetic Oil

I'll add to the idle the Hemi debate a bit and say that I know of a few that were in our company fleet that ounce started up at 5:00 am in the morning, no matter what the temperature would not get shut off till quitting time most days, and on some long summer paving days that could be 15 hours. A quarter or more of that would be idle time on a superintendents truck. These trucks went for three seasons and had well over three hundred thousand kilometres on the odometer and ran regular old bargain basement oil. Not always on time either. Now after that they go to auction so I don't know if they are still running but they were hard tuff performing engines and trucks while they worked in the fleet. And they abuse they endured would or should be more then a lifetime for most. Not all are created equal of course and there is bound to be bad apples in every orchard. I give mine penzoil platinum with a synthetic filter and I don't even go with very long drain intervals. Not because I'm worried about it wearing out prematurely or anything else just because I can and I know it is in fact better for my truck.
That's my 2 cents Canadian. take it at the current exchange rate I guess.


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I've always let my vehicles warm up to some degree before I start driving. In the winter months I usually let it idle for 5-10 mins. I wouldn't consider where I live a cold climate in the winter, but we get some days where it approaches 0 degrees F. Usually if its really cold I do what Burla suggested and idle it up a few hundred rpms. In the summer I usually only wait a minute or two. Regardless of the season, I always take it easy on my vehicles until it's reached operating temp.
So far its worked well for me.

Warming an engine may or may not cause more wear, but it does prevent premature failure of going out and slamming an engine in the cold everyday might do. Metal is much more likely to break if cold and stressed. Anyhow, that was an interesting study, and maybe you will get less wear on warm up if you just warm up off idle 500 rpms or so. Don't most engines do this anyway? They start off at 1200-1400 or so rpms and when warm the idle falls. Maybe the engine builders already get this one right.

I use Royal purple sometimes Redline!

Burla said:

Warming an engine may or may not cause more wear, but it does prevent premature failure of going out and slamming an engine in the cold everyday might do. Metal is much more likely to break if cold and stressed. Anyhow, that was an interesting study, and maybe you will get less wear on warm up if you just warm up off idle 500 rpms or so. Don't most engines do this anyway? They start off at 1200-1400 or so rpms and when warm the idle falls. Maybe the engine builders already get this one right.

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That's how my Ram and Jeep work. They start at around 1300-1500 RPM's and drop slowly over a minute or two. I always let them warm up for a couple minutes during the warmer months and 5-10 minutes during the colder months. Gets everything moving, coated in oil and allows the cats to fire up.

I finally changed the filter, 14 months since the oil change. Woaah, Royal Purple Filter still looked and felt brand fricken new! I am bummed I ruined it. Pretty much ends any question of what is the right filter for me. I will never have to cut another open. Back in the f'n day I would never think there would be a filter that will last 2 years, but that is exactly what RP is. When they say it is a 15k mile filter, they mean it. Finally there is a filter that lasts as long as oil in an engine. I can't get over that, 14 months and still fresh and pliable.

Redline oil still looked good at 14 months, dropped it back in and will change at the 2 year mark. I recently bought an acre and my wife and I have chain sawed down many trees and planted an orchard or two, so this is why I use the good chit. Life gets in the way and if you need something that will last to the next oil change whenever you have time, Redline Oil and Royal Purple Filters is a good choice. I'm telling you 14 month that oil and filter combo was probably cleaning and lubricating my engine better then 90% of the oils that are new. I'm not bothering with a UOA at this point, when I change and run 5w30 Redline for a couple years I will run another, but that is like 3 years and one oil change away.

Cerma- well it didn't thicken any oil which is a good thing. It is elemental science and there are more thorough tests online then I can give. So I wont say yeah or neah, but if I was suffering from hemi tick it would be worth a shot. It helped others on Amazon.

Very interesting pic Burla. How many miles on that oil. It looks very clean. I just dumped my oil (regular motor oil) and it was black after 4k kilometers. I switched to synthetic for the first time, went with amsoil ss as getting pennsoil ultra is impossible up here and redline has to be ordered out of the states. Put the amsoil ea syn filter on and have a royal purple to put on next time i dump the oil. Only put 7k a year on my truck so we'll see how amsoil works out but the cleanliness of that oil has me thinking redline is the way to go.

Around 5k, but I did a flush before this change with regular walmart oil, back on page 42 I think. I would expect many oils to still be clean, but I wouldn't expect any filter to still be fresh, that was the surprise IMO. The oil still smelt brand new, redline has a brandy smell to it. I always smell it to make sure it is not rancid or to make sure there is no fuel in the oil if I'm going to run the oil longer.

Now i cant wait to cut my wix/napa platinum! Im confident that it will look as good as that inside after a year
I did get a little gasket seep during the winter (-30 celcius daily starts) but it was just enough to get the top greasy, no drips.

Also you can not determine how much life is left in the oil just by the color. Some engines are dirtyer than others and some oils clean better.
However i do consider it a good sign when your oil stays cleaner long it just means your engine is clean and you have good filtration.

Since some are saying there are issues with oil flow to the top end has anyone employed a high volume/performance oil pump?

305stunnin said:

Just had my oil drained and filled back up with 5w30 Pennzoil Ultra. I have the MDS shut off with the Diablosport so it shouldent be a problem. I will perform a test on this oil around 5k and let you know Burla. I too am not a fan of 5w20 in the Hemi and care more about the long term of my engine rather than fuel economy, being that i must hang on to this truck at least 10 years 5w30 is the way to go imo. Truck has 5k miles on the odo so once it reaches 10k i will run a lab test

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I put some 5w-20 Pennzoil PP in my Hemi (only 3k miles) and I'm not happy with how the truck still has those ticks and noises that I'm trying to get rid of. Have you used the 5w-20 PP before, and if so, is the 5w-30 Ultra a noticeable difference? I always used thicker oil in my '04 Hemi, ended up using 15w-40 for the later part of it's life...so 5w-20 oil seems absurdly thin to me.

RAM_Designs said:

I put some 5w-20 Pennzoil PP in my Hemi (only 3k miles) and I'm not happy with how the truck still has those ticks and noises that I'm trying to get rid of. Have you used the 5w-20 PP before, and if so, is the 5w-30 Ultra a noticeable difference? I always used thicker oil in my '04 Hemi, ended up using 15w-40 for the later part of it's life...so 5w-20 oil seems absurdly thin to me.

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Somewhere a while ago on this thread I posted about my experience with PP. Essentially I will never use it in my hemi again. I switched to PYB which is technically an inferior oil, but has over 4 times the amount of moly in it. My hemi is much quieter on PYB.

Hemi395 said:

Somewhere a while ago on this thread I posted about my experience with PP. Essentially I will never use it in my hemi again. I switched to PYB which is technically an inferior oil, but has over 4 times the amount of moly in it. My hemi is much quieter on PYB.

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Thanks for the info. Yeah I saw that the PYB has high only and one of the best noack ratings for dino oils. I plan on doing 5k oil changes so I may just go with PYB or use some of that Schaffers (sp?) if I go synthetic.

Did you use 5w-20 PYB?

RAM_Designs said:

Thanks for the info. Yeah I saw that the PYB has high only and one of the best noack ratings for dino oils. I plan on doing 5k oil changes so I may just go with PYB or use some of that Schaffers (sp?) if I go synthetic.

Did you use 5w-20 PYB?

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Yes I use 5w20 because my truck is still under warranty. Schaeffer is another good one with a high moly count. Quaker State 0w20 (that weight only) has a high moly count as well.

I really think that I'm over-thinking it...like my dad asked me today:

him: how many miles did your last truck have before you sold it?
me: 212k
him: and how many did my old one have before I sold it?
me: 280k?
him: yep...and my current hemi?
me: 380k
him: and I've always used plain ol Quaker State oil and Fram filters...

Made me think that maybe we do over-analyze stuff some times, and that plain old PYB with the high moly will do just fine with Fram Ultra filters and 5k change intervals.

RAM_Designs said:

I put some 5w-20 Pennzoil PP in my Hemi (only 3k miles) and I'm not happy with how the truck still has those ticks and noises that I'm trying to get rid of. Have you used the 5w-20 PP before, and if so, is the 5w-30 Ultra a noticeable difference? I always used thicker oil in my '04 Hemi, ended up using 15w-40 for the later part of it's life...so 5w-20 oil seems absurdly thin to me.

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So far it is a lot more quiet for sure. Mpg are steady at 13.9 nothing has changed from 5w20 except the weight oil and the smoothness of the engine while running. So far my 5w30 experience has been positive

RAM_Designs said:

I really think that I'm over-thinking it...like my dad asked me today:

him: how many miles did your last truck have before you sold it?
me: 212k
him: and how many did my old one have before I sold it?
me: 280k?
him: yep...and my current hemi?
me: 380k
him: and I've always used plain ol Quaker State oil and Fram filters...

Made me think that maybe we do over-analyze stuff some times, and that plain old PYB with the high moly will do just fine with Fram Ultra filters and 5k change intervals.

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I would have to agree. I never ran Synthetic in any of my cars and never had issues.

I only do in the Ram because of this thread.. haha


I did switch to PYB in my Grand Prix, since I don't drive it often and so with the high moly will help on cold starts.

RAM_Designs said:

I really think that I'm over-thinking it...like my dad asked me today:

him: how many miles did your last truck have before you sold it?
me: 212k
him: and how many did my old one have before I sold it?
me: 280k?
him: yep...and my current hemi?
me: 380k
him: and I've always used plain ol Quaker State oil and Fram filters...

Made me think that maybe we do over-analyze stuff some times, and that plain old PYB with the high moly will do just fine with Fram Ultra filters and 5k change intervals.

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BlownGP said:

I would have to agree. I never ran Synthetic in any of my cars and never had issues.

I only do in the Ram because of this thread.. haha


I did switch to PYB in my Grand Prix, since I don't drive it often and so with the high moly will help on cold starts.

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This is a common view in many auto forums.

You can probably run any off the shelf oil and 87 octane for 200k+ miles and never have any issues.

There is a big difference between not having any issues, and running optimally.

Most people would not even notice the difference. I however, can feel how much smoother the engine runs from just going from Amsoil XL to the SS.

I've always use Rotella T6 5w40 in all my turbo car and in my ram , it run quieter and last longer, they can absorb a lot of fuel in it and stay with the right viscosity. I ditch the 5w20 in the first oil change.

nickauger said:

I've always use Rotella T6 5w40 in all my turbo car and in my ram , it run quieter and last longer, they can absorb a lot of fuel in it and stay with the right viscosity. I ditch the 5w20 in the first oil change.

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Yeah I'm probably going to go 5w-30 here in a bit...I have 1500 miles on my Pennzoil PP and I'm not liking the noises. Seems like it's worse than with the factory fill.

I'll probably go PYB for the good moly count and the price. I'm used to doing 3k oil changes in my '04 Hemi, so going with dino and 4-5k oil changes is fine with me (if I can get that much out of PYB and Fram Ultra filter).