I've used Mobil 1 (and Royal Purple in my track car) since they were introduced. I generally change every 5k, but I don't sweat it if I run a little long. Today's motors are so tight and clean you could easily extend your change interval to 10k plus. The only reason for changing a synthetic is breakdown of the additives, the sythetic base will go on forever. I have three cars with over 250k and a diesel truck with 180k and all of them have ZERO sludge build-up and literally ZERO wear on the cam lobes. Heck, my race motor still had the hatch marks from the factory honing over 200k miles ago! I don't care how often you change dino oil, over that time span you'll have some sludge and wear. You paid $30K for your car, is it really that bad to spend $30 on oil for it?

 

Actually the same is true with regular or non-synthetic oil. The molecules themselves never break down, only the additives. Thats why oil is recyclable. Synthetic oil is specially engineered to bond with critical engine components and keep them nice and loosey goosey.

 

I almost have to assume that this statement is made tongue in cheek...

Standard oil is made by starting with light/heavy crude and then trying to refine out the long, "heavy" molocules to leave the shorter molocules that they need. Of course, they can't get all the long stuff out (parafines come to mind), so the oil never acts exactly like what you want/need.

The "full" synthetic oils start the other way: HC gases are reacted to form the short molocules they need. Because they never have the super long molocules to begin with, they can very precisely control the mix to produce the an oil that provides superior protection.

But they both start with "natural resources", just different resources.

 

After having read up a little on "Dino" vs. "Synthetic" it seems the most recommended method is to use "Dino" for the first 5 to 12 thousand miles to allow proper wear in, seating and matching of parts and then switch to full "Synthetic" for the remainder.

"Synthetic" is a better lubricant but in the beginning, you want some minor wear to assure the best economy and performance.