MY MECHANIC SAID I SHOULD JUST PUT MOBIL 1 IN MY 206 DINO...... COMMENTS PLEASE....... MAHALO FROM MAUI....GREGG
Gregg, my recomendation is stay away from synthetic oils on older cars. The oil will find it's way through joints / gaskets / and the porous casting and start leaking. I use Castrol 20W50 in my 71 Dino 246GT (I live in Arizona). My 2 cents Pietro
It won't hurt anything to try it. As for leaks, a syn oil will not cause a leak by itself. However, if you have any tendency to drip oil now and then, a syn oil will leak much worse. At least that has been my experience over the past 8 years. I use regular oil for the street but switch to a syn like RedLine for track days. I have found that works best for me.
Many people say that putting synth into a old motor will cause leaks or make existing leak worse. My Dino leaks so I have not tried synth in it until I fix the leaks but I have never had a motor start leaking after putting synth if it had no leaks to start with. I have also heard that if putting in synth causes a leak, going back does not fix the leak, now that I believe. The real question is on a old car like a Dino, do you actually gain anything by putting in synth ? I will still change the oil every 2,500 miles no matter what oil I have in it so aside from spending more money on oil, will the motor get any benefit, I don't think so. (yes, I know synth oil is better, less friction etc.)
The only logical reason synthetic could leak more than dinosaur oil is that it doesn't get as thick when it's cold, so it tends to seep out a bit more while the car is sitting. I switched from 20-50 dino oil to 15-50 Mobil 1 and didn't notice any difference in the "weep" rate.
Did the Dino come with Agip SINT 2000 oil? If so, that is a synthetic blend. I have always used synthetic oil in my Ferraris, including mu former 330GTC with no leak problems whatsoever...
Years ago I changed the transaxle/gearbox fluid to synthetic Mobil 1 and leaks started developing around the pan studs. I talking to Carl at Blackhorse and he said that is a typical spot for 2x6/3x8 models and recommended copper crush washers and 6mm nylock nuts on the studs. Our FCA club Tech advisor, Carlo Durante, states the seals were not made for the tight seling required by synthetics, so I'd be careful. I now run only Castrol 20-50W engine oil and Vavoline standard gear oil. Regardless of the transaxle oil used, many owners still avoid second gear until the trans warms up.
A little leaking isn't a bad trade off for the benefits of synthetic oil. If anything it will force you to keep your engine clean.
A Ferrari mechanic once told me that when a Ferrari doesn't leave an oil spot on your garage floor it means its out of oil!
I switched to synthetics and there were less drips from my 78 308. I was advised against it and did it anyways, I won't go back as it starts and runs so much better with the synthetics than it did before I changed.
jpl, without getting too whacked out on synthetics I must say that the film strength is five to ten times that of dino oil and it breaks down at a rate that blows the dino oil away. What does this mean in the real world? Much better wear resistance on cams (big deal on non roller Ferrari's) and bearings, plus extended ring and cylinder wear. Just about everything. Thats not all! Most dino oils start getting very wimpy at the very mention of heat which by the way synthetics can stand 150 degrees more rise in temperature than dino oil before realizing degradation. There's more but Ive said enough.
My question is - if you only drive your Ferrari 2000-3000 miles a year - what difference does it make? I drive around 2500 miles on my 1981 Porsche 928S annually and not much more on my Dino Spyder 2L. But I change the oil every 6 months no matter what. The 928 requires synthetic oil but the Dino does not. Anyway, with such little mileage being put on these cars - isn't all this academic?
ajmarten, no! The dino oil starts breaking down in as little as 200 miles and keeps going. I always wondered after changing new dino oil why its effects from a new oil change, the increase in power, the quieter running all deteriorated after a short time. Synthetics don't do this and actually free up ponies with reduced friction and much longer intervals before degradation occurs. Castrol bite's, not true synthetic. Safe bet Mobil 1 with pure polyolester base stocks.
Yeah, put the synth in your Dino, should the seals be compromised and leak like a sieve, this will give us some great chatting.
When I had two lobes on my P6 cams being "fixed" by Dema Elgin, we got into a discussion about oils. Some of you may know Elgin cams. He's been around for a long time and is one of the few people recommended in the Bishop book. Knows more about cams than most people. Had a 3 ft long cam from a straight 8 Studebaker or similar in his shop being done for the historics. Hopefully this paints a picture. He mentioned he repairs (or had repaired) quite a few cams for 246s. Cars are seldom used. Oil drains from cams. Then used little/not up to operating temp before being put away for another often extended period. The lack of "cling" of the dino oils is acute on the cams and lead to lobe wear. He strongly recommended synthetic for this reason. More cling, less wear. I asked about leaks. His point was that some blends of synthetic were reformulated so the additives did not influence the desired operation of catalytic converters. Unfortunately, these reformulated blends would not make the butyls in the older seals expand in the same way, hence the leaks. Dema's advice was to stay away from any (synthetic) oil with the multi-point star and marked "specially formulated for gasoline engines" [or similar]. These are often 10w-30 or similar performance range. Typically an oil with a broader operating characteristic (e.g., 5w-50) does not carry the "problematic" additives. After putting my engine back together, we ran 5w-50 Syntec. No leaks. Philip
If I chose to switch to synthetics now, with my engine installed and about 1500 mi on it since a major rebuild, would there be any problems mixing the (new) synthetic with the little conventional oil remaing in the engine after the change?
No. It is advisable for any new or rebuilt engine to run conventional oil in the beginning anyway. It's detrimental to do the opposite though, syn to dino, since the synthetic oil has smaller (and more consistent) molecule size than conventional oil.
That's what I've heard as well. The synthetics are SOOO good the engine isn't able to break in because it provides such good wear protection. I've always been told to run Dino oil for up to 3,000 miles on a fresh rebuilt engine then switch over to Synthetic.
