chibitul wrote:
> My 2001 Civic LX manual transmission has almost 60k miles. I think the
> original engine oil was special because the dealership refused to
> change it until I had about 7500 miles. Then I changed the oil every
> 5000-6000 miles, I figured my driving is between normal (10k) and
> severe (5k).
>
> Anyway, I read here about synthetic, and while I am going to search and
> find more information about synthetic oil (benefits, cost, oil change
> frequency, drawbacks), I though to ask you guys if it is too late for
> this engine to switch to synthetic.
>
> if synthetic was all that great, why does not Honda use synthetic right
> from the beginning? just curious.
>
> thanks
>
because it's really not necessary! go to a junk yard and look at all
the hondas with 300k or more on the clock. those motors are usually not
in bad shape, and they've been running ordinary cheapo oil.

[genuine] synthetics /can/ be superior, but if the oil's base stock is
of sufficient quality and the additive package is as good or even better
than a synthetic, why do it? marketing can be a good thing because no
one would ever use a new product if they didn't hear about it, but a
successful marketing machine does not necessarily mean superior product.
the word "microsoft" springs to mind.

i've just looked at tegger's post with the "no sludge" article. i've
seen motors like that without using synthetics. quality definitely
matters, and all oils are not created equal, but anti-sludge is a
function of additives, not base.