another oil question

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Kool-aid kid

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I've purchased a 2003 ram 2500 4x4 from a friend. It has 174000 miles on it. Conventional oil has been in it all it's life. The truck is solid and has been regularly maintained. It has a little bit of tick when it first starts. Disappears in a few seconds. My question is will it hurt to switch to synthetic oil or should I stick with the conventional oil? I do not drive it hard. But I will be towing a 29 ft. camper occasionally but always go less than 100 miles to local campgrounds
 
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Kool-aid kid

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Thank you, Zoe. It was probably a redundant question. But I had not seen any posts mentioning the milage that's on my truck.
 

TorqueWagon

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I've purchased a 2003 ram 2500 4x4 from a friend. It has 174000 miles on it. Conventional oil has been in it all it's life. The truck is solid and has been regularly maintained. It has a little bit of tick when it first starts. Disappears in a few seconds. My question is will it hurt to switch to synthetic oil or should I stick with the conventional oil? I do not drive it hard. But I will be towing a 29 ft. camper occasionally but always go less than 100 miles to local campgrounds
I am no expert, but have done a lot of reading on the subject all over the interwebs. I don't think you should have any problem at all switching to synthetic. I have never heard of problems after switching. Now, if I may, a variation on your theme. I also have a high mileage diesel - a 2007.5 Ram 3500 with a 238,000 Cummins 6.7. I am also considering switching to synthetic.... but then I got to thinking - which is better for the engine- Syn oil/filter changed at 7,500 miles, or Conventional oil/filter change every 3500?? Diesels put a lot of black gunk out into the oil so would it be better to put clean oil in twice as often (with a new filter as well)? Wow, my head hurts!
 

danielmid

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I wouldn't hesitate to switch to synthetic at all, but I would run a short interval the first few oil/filter changes as I would expect the "better" oil would start flushing some residue/gunk/deposits out.
 

3pedals

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Exactly what was said above. Synthetic is better all around but run a short interval on the first change as syn can loosen up/clean deposits.
 

crash68

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I also have a high mileage diesel - a 2007.5 Ram 3500 with a 238,000 Cummins 6.7. I am also considering switching to synthetic.... but then I got to thinking - which is better for the engine- Syn oil/filter changed at 7,500 miles, or Conventional oil/filter change every 3500?? Diesels put a lot of black gunk out into the oil so would it be better to put clean oil in twice as often (with a new filter as well)?
If color was the deciding factor on changing oil in a diesel you would probably log more miles driving to where the oil gets changed than anything else... LOL
Diesel engine oil has additives to suspend the soot, you would be surprised how little soot will make 3 gallons of oil look jet black. If your concerned have the oil tested. There is hot shot drivers that will log 10K-15K miles between oil changes and get to 500K miles on a 3500 Cummins(B10 rating is 300K).
Where synthetic oil excels for diesel engines is cold weather flow. Cummins has been recommending to use 5W-40 synthetic if the outside temps are 0°F or below.
 

HEMIMANN

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@crash68 is spot on. The ONLY way to know when diesel engine oil has more soot than the additives can carry in suspension is used oil analysis. Period. Most of us just change when the owner manual states.

For those of us in mandated biodiesel states, engine makers usually say to change oil at 1/2 the interval of pure diesel fuel. Why? Soybean oil leaves more deposits.
 
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