engine oil switch to synthetic

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RumRunner

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So I've been having the dealer do oil changes for the last 5 years due to having the free ones. I'm just about out of free oil changes and will be doing them myself shortly. My question is, where the dealer has been using regular oil, should I continue that or switch to synthetic. I've looked for other threads on this, but most that I found were questions about first oil changes, not after a long period of changes with regular oil.

My truck is 2016 1500 5.7.

Just wondering if there is any drawback to switching. I seem to remember some talk about possible issues with sludge from regular oil getting moved around by synthetic and possible leaks due to synthetic being thinner and tolerances that didn't bother regular oil. Not sure if this is old info that is no longer relevant or not.


Thanks...
 

Burla

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The same thing that allows synthetic oils to be run longer, is the same thing that cleans, and is the same thing in conventional oils just in less amounts. Point being, the risk is low so long as we are talking about your shelf synthetics and not some real high performance oil where the risk goes up. You didnt mention miles, but the most popular oil on the board has a real nice high mileage oil, would be a nice oil for that truck. It is popular to go up in weight with aging engines, so 5w30 is a good move. This specialized oil is only 23 bucks for 5 quart on amazon.

If you get any start up tick, 15 ounce lubegard biotech is something that can help with that.

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Neil E

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You will have no issues switching. In fact, you could change with synthetic one time and go back to regular oil if you wanted. But don't mix two different types. Just go with what Ram recommends for the truck. That is the main thing, stay with the weight they recommend.
 

BWL

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I've gone back and forth for years. Regular in the summer and synthetic in the winter. Haven't lost a motor to an oil related issue yet. I go close to 200,000 miles before I sell most of my vehicles and the motors are always still running strong. If you've been running long intervals ie. Going by the oil change light. I'd short change after the first synthetic change. Say 3000 miles and then do your normal thing. If you've been keeping the changes under 5000 mile interval or the oil still looks clean at 3000 then I wouldn't worry about that.
 
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RumRunner

RumRunner

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Sorry, forgot to mention mileage. 72K miles on the truck.
 

Burla

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Good time to consider a high mileage synthetic.
 
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RumRunner

RumRunner

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Thanks for the info, I will look into a high mileage synthetic when the next change is due.
 

Ironhead3

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First, I ramble on....... so if you want to skip over this post I will certainly understand LOL, and second hello from Atlantic Canada--where our temps go from 100F in the summer to minus 35F in the winter, so here is more engine oil questions.
First off, this is my first Ram (2019 1500 Classic, 5.7, 8 speed, blackout package, front levelling kit, 35/12.5R20 Mud Terrains) out of my 68 vehicles. In the old days I had all GM products, from a 1968 GMC 4X4 V-8 4 Spd, to many 73-80 K5 Blazers and Jimmy's, GM vans, and about 8 GM cars- 77 Grand Prix, 5 98 Olds, etc.. I then went to work at a Ford dealer in the mid 80's, and while still driving my old GM's, bought a new 89 F250 4X4, some more old GM's, and 7 new F150 Super Crews from 2004 - 2014.
I have been following this Ram Forum since I got my truck new in June of 2019, and honestly if I had followed it before I bought my truck, I probably wouldn't have bought a Ram. All the posts about oil, cam/lifter trouble, transmission problems, don't let the truck idle any more than necessary, etc. leave me with major thoughts about what oil to use, what oil filter to use, when to change the oil, I could go on and on. I probably sound paranoid, but I have always worked on my own vehicles, except when there was warranty of course, and have always changed oil way before the dealer or builder says to. Nowadays, I only put 5000-7000 miles a year (8,000-11,000kms year) and my truck now has 9950 miles, and have had the oil changed twice at the dealer, and did it the last time myself (couldn't get to the dealer to get it done, and knew I wouldn't have time to get there in the last month or so). I know the dealer doesn't use synthetic oil because it only costs me $69.00 to get it done there.
I mentioned the temperature in New Brunswick, Canada at the start because I do a lot of short drives, and I know that isn't good for vehicles as nothing has time to completely warm up, leading to excessive condensation, whether in the engine, exhaust, etc.. Remote starters for vehicles here is like floormats - 90% of new vehicle here come with them standard from the factory-not an option. This leads me to the "don't let your truck idle more than necessary" post I have seen on here many times. In the winter here, most every vehicle is started with a remote start and let idle for 10-20 minutes.
I like synthetic oil mainly for the cold temps here in winter, and nothing I hate worse than starting a vehicle in -35 and hear tapping noises coming from the engine. I always used synthetic in my vehicles, and could certainly tell synthetic circulates as soon as you start an engine in cold weather - no tapping, oil pressure comes up right away, and yes I have used mechanical gauges with the same result.
All the posts and comments about certain oils not meeting specs, some oil filters no good, got me baffled - no it doesn't take much to baffle me. I work at a construction company, for the last 16 years, and they have everything from 1/2 tons to 45 ton excavators, and I know for certain any "major" oil company or oil filter manufacture will stand behind their products in regards to warranty issues. We have used this "warranty a number of times, including Napa (Napa filters are Wix) covered an issue with a Cummins engine in a Class 8 truck because of a faulty filter.
I plan on keeping my truck for a long time, so my questions are Conventional or Synthetic oil, are Napa Gold filters "good" enough for my 5.7? We, as a Fleet Customer, get excellent prices on filters, from our local Napa, and with 200 units in the fleet, get excellent prices on oil from "major" suppliers (Mobil, Total, Petro Canada, etc.) and I am not cheap when it comes to my vehicles, so why would it be better to go to the dealer for a conventional oil change when the "oil monitoring system" tells me to (which is what the owners manual says to do") instead of doing it myself every 3,000 miles or less? AND NO, I NEVER WENT BY THE OIL MONITORING SYSTEM on any vehicle I ever had.
Thanks for listening, and have a great day!!!!
 

Burla

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First, I ramble on....... so if you want to skip over this post I will certainly understand LOL, and second hello from Atlantic Canada--where our temps go from 100F in the summer to minus 35F in the winter, so here is more engine oil questions.
First off, this is my first Ram (2019 1500 Classic, 5.7, 8 speed, blackout package, front levelling kit, 35/12.5R20 Mud Terrains) out of my 68 vehicles. In the old days I had all GM products, from a 1968 GMC 4X4 V-8 4 Spd, to many 73-80 K5 Blazers and Jimmy's, GM vans, and about 8 GM cars- 77 Grand Prix, 5 98 Olds, etc.. I then went to work at a Ford dealer in the mid 80's, and while still driving my old GM's, bought a new 89 F250 4X4, some more old GM's, and 7 new F150 Super Crews from 2004 - 2014.
I have been following this Ram Forum since I got my truck new in June of 2019, and honestly if I had followed it before I bought my truck, I probably wouldn't have bought a Ram. All the posts about oil, cam/lifter trouble, transmission problems, don't let the truck idle any more than necessary, etc. leave me with major thoughts about what oil to use, what oil filter to use, when to change the oil, I could go on and on. I probably sound paranoid, but I have always worked on my own vehicles, except when there was warranty of course, and have always changed oil way before the dealer or builder says to. Nowadays, I only put 5000-7000 miles a year (8,000-11,000kms year) and my truck now has 9950 miles, and have had the oil changed twice at the dealer, and did it the last time myself (couldn't get to the dealer to get it done, and knew I wouldn't have time to get there in the last month or so). I know the dealer doesn't use synthetic oil because it only costs me $69.00 to get it done there.
I mentioned the temperature in New Brunswick, Canada at the start because I do a lot of short drives, and I know that isn't good for vehicles as nothing has time to completely warm up, leading to excessive condensation, whether in the engine, exhaust, etc.. Remote starters for vehicles here is like floormats - 90% of new vehicle here come with them standard from the factory-not an option. This leads me to the "don't let your truck idle more than necessary" post I have seen on here many times. In the winter here, most every vehicle is started with a remote start and let idle for 10-20 minutes.
I like synthetic oil mainly for the cold temps here in winter, and nothing I hate worse than starting a vehicle in -35 and hear tapping noises coming from the engine. I always used synthetic in my vehicles, and could certainly tell synthetic circulates as soon as you start an engine in cold weather - no tapping, oil pressure comes up right away, and yes I have used mechanical gauges with the same result.
All the posts and comments about certain oils not meeting specs, some oil filters no good, got me baffled - no it doesn't take much to baffle me. I work at a construction company, for the last 16 years, and they have everything from 1/2 tons to 45 ton excavators, and I know for certain any "major" oil company or oil filter manufacture will stand behind their products in regards to warranty issues. We have used this "warranty a number of times, including Napa (Napa filters are Wix) covered an issue with a Cummins engine in a Class 8 truck because of a faulty filter.
I plan on keeping my truck for a long time, so my questions are Conventional or Synthetic oil, are Napa Gold filters "good" enough for my 5.7? We, as a Fleet Customer, get excellent prices on filters, from our local Napa, and with 200 units in the fleet, get excellent prices on oil from "major" suppliers (Mobil, Total, Petro Canada, etc.) and I am not cheap when it comes to my vehicles, so why would it be better to go to the dealer for a conventional oil change when the "oil monitoring system" tells me to (which is what the owners manual says to do") instead of doing it myself every 3,000 miles or less? AND NO, I NEVER WENT BY THE OIL MONITORING SYSTEM on any vehicle I ever had.
Thanks for listening, and have a great day!!!!
Read the oil filter thread, do a search, if it has to be Napa, it has to be platinum, which is spun microglass filtration. Any synthetic even the cheap ones are worth considering, walmart supertech, kirkland, amazon basics, havoline, will all exceed conventional and cost pennys more in some cases less. If you ever get hemi tick or cold start tick, look up tick threads, those recommendations are different.
 

hemihustlin

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instead of doing it myself every 3,000 miles or less? AND NO, I NEVER WENT BY THE OIL MONITORING SYSTEM on any vehicle I ever had.
Thanks for listening, and have a great day!!!!
for the period of time where you are doing 20 minutes warm ups at -30 do your oil changes at 5k kms or less because there will be lots of fuel contamination in the oil
in the summer you can safely go 8k kms on the oil change
run the wix (napa) platinum filter and your choice of syn 5w30 or better
 

StickyLifter

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I've been switching back and forth between conventional and synthetic oils since I started driving over 20 years ago and have never had sludge, a leak, or any incompatibility or problem develop.

People hate me over this, but do check the ASTM test results for the Fram Ultra line of filters, their media is AWESOME. Also if you try to use a K&N or a Wix, do watch for leaks because there are several oil filter manufactures out there that use a standard size seal that is just slightly larger than our 5.7L oil filter pedestals.
 

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I've been switching back and forth between conventional and synthetic oils since I started driving over 20 years ago and have never had sludge, a leak, or any incompatibility or problem develop.

People hate me over this, but do check the ASTM test results for the Fram Ultra line of filters, their media is AWESOME. Also if you try to use a K&N or a Wix, do watch for leaks because there are several oil filter manufactures out there that use a standard size seal that is just slightly larger than our 5.7L oil filter pedestals.

Curious, are you aware Fram just redesigned their top of the line Ultra XG Oil Filters by cheapening them from wire screen backed all synthetic filter media to mid-grade synthetic blend media without wire screen? Just like their Tough Guard Series.

See the Oil Filter Thread if you want to get depressed. Fram was bought out by Trico, who apparently needed mo' money for their executive bonuses.
 

Burla

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Yup, the orange can is back to being the joke of the filter world. What a shame.
 

StickyLifter

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Thanks for the heads up, I'm shocked. Time to get the word out.

Dual layered synthetic blend media provides 99%+ filtration efficiency.*

*FRAM Group testing of average filter efficiency of PH8A, 3387A and 4967 or equivalent FRAM TG or EG models under ISO 4548-12 for particles greater than 20 microns.

What is this "greater than 20 microns" crap? Whatever happened to 99.9% on first pass? Second pass good down to 8 microns? They really have downgraded their media.
 

HEMIMANN

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Thanks for the heads up, I'm shocked. Time to get the word out.

Dual layered synthetic blend media provides 99%+ filtration efficiency.*

*FRAM Group testing of average filter efficiency of PH8A, 3387A and 4967 or equivalent FRAM TG or EG models under ISO 4548-12 for particles greater than 20 microns.

What is this "greater than 20 microns" crap? Whatever happened to 99.9% on first pass? Second pass good down to 8 microns? They really have downgraded their media.

No, no - that part hasn't changed. Filtration of 99%+ down to 20 microns has always been there. But changing from all synthetic media to blend with cellulose DEFINITELY affects the flow restriction adversely, raising it. And also the life of the element, as paper (cellulose) age-degrades.

Cheap is good (for the executives, that is).
 

Rado

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I always find out more from these oil threads ! :)
I use 100% synthetic oil in my RAM,Car and motorcycles ! I change at 5k, Yes over kill :) But makes me feel good !

Synthetic Oil + has Better Thermal break Down the Dino oil. So with our engines running Hotter today IMO a Plus !

At your first oil change from Dino oil to synthetic oil, Keep a sample of the dino oil. Look at the color ! It is dark !
Check first sample after first Synthetic oil change same mileage and compare the color ,
do the a few time more after changes , You will see cleaner looking oil (less dark ) as you have less carbon build up I think then dino oil .
Winter time way better start up. I noticed that at my first Synthetic change on my F150 in the 90s and convinced me to stay synthetic oil !

Class 101 Synthetic Over lol
 
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StickyLifter

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No, no - that part hasn't changed. Filtration of 99%+ down to 20 microns has always been there. But changing from all synthetic media to blend with cellulose DEFINITELY affects the flow restriction adversely, raising it. And also the life of the element, as paper (cellulose) age-degrades.

Cheap is good (for the executives, that is).
Yeah, but they used to state the results at finer particle sizes. Either way, the big hitter on those was that 10gpm flow rating of that media, if it don't do that then I don't want it.

That is really unfortunate, the numbers from their pure synthetic media were incredible.
 

jmc921

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The same thing that allows synthetic oils to be run longer, is the same thing that cleans, and is the same thing in conventional oils just in less amounts. Point being, the risk is low so long as we are talking about your shelf synthetics and not some real high performance oil where the risk goes up. You didnt mention miles, but the most popular oil on the board has a real nice high mileage oil, would be a nice oil for that truck. It is popular to go up in weight with aging engines, so 5w30 is a good move. This specialized oil is only 23 bucks for 5 quart on amazon.

If you get any start up tick, 15 ounce lubegard biotech is something that can help with that.

View attachment 467839
Hello Burla: From what I understand about these (and many other newer) engines, it's a bad idea to change the viscosity of the engine oil from what is factory recommended. All sorts of things are dependent on the correct viscosity, including MTS. Possibly this was not the case in 2010 (your truck year). Other than that, I agree that switching to synthetic (in the factory recommended viscosity) should not cause any problems. BTW, the correct viscosity is listed on the engine oil filler cap. For my 2014 5.7L, it's 5W-20.
 

Burla

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Hello Burla: From what I understand about these (and many other newer) engines, it's a bad idea to change the viscosity of the engine oil from what is factory recommended. All sorts of things are dependent on the correct viscosity, including MTS. Possibly this was not the case in 2010 (your truck year). Other than that, I agree that switching to synthetic (in the factory recommended viscosity) should not cause any problems. BTW, the correct viscosity is listed on the engine oil filler cap. For my 2014 5.7L, it's 5W-20.
About a little less then 1/2 the forum with your year truck runs 5w30, if you believe what the manu says by all means follow their recommendations. Many hemi owners lost faith in fca over cam/lifter issues on the board, so we as a forum developed our own lubrication strategies based on science. It was proven about a decade ago mds will operate fine on 30 weight oil.
 

jmc921

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Thanks for the update (and the correction to MDS, not MTS). I have been fortunate, apparently, to not have had any issues with this truck but, then again, almost nobody asks questions about why there truck is NOT giving them problems. :) Thanks again.
 

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