conventional or synthetic oil?

Hi,

I have a 97 Disco I (79,000 miles) and I just changed my oil. While I was changing it, I thought about switching to Mobile 1 or a synthetic blend of real oil and synthetic. My question is, on my next oil change, would it damage my engine if I put Mobile 1 or a synthetic blend in the engine?
What are the pros and cons?

chrisusvi

Other than being slightly more expensive, there are no cons to synthetic oil... Your motor will thank you. 
 
I just got my Disco back yesterday from the shop where it had new wires, plugs, and several gaskets replaced to fix some leaks.  My Rover mechanic told me it was remarkably clean inside the motor and synthetic oil is the main reason it's so clean. 

Your engine will perform better and show less wear on something like, Royal Purple, Mobil 1, Amsoil or Castrols synthetic.
Use a good filter like the Mobil 1 or 3001 K&N and change it every 5000 miles.

I also have a '97, it had 152,000 on it when I bought it and I switched to Mobil 1 15w50 and change it every 5,000, it now has over 171,000 miles on it and looking inside the oil filler tube it looks better now than when I bought it last April.
Just make sure that whatever brand you use, use ONLY that brand.
And yes you will get better MPG with full synthetic.

I forgot to mention in my last post, fluash your engine with 6 quarts of ATF, for 20 minutes, prior to switching to a synthetic.

Question for Disco Mike. Isn't 6 quarts a lot for to switch over, especially with the oil prices the way they are. Other than motor oil, it sounds a little strange to me to a foreign oil in that part of the engine. What will that do in terms of preparing the engine for synthetic oil?

Just curious.

chrisusvi

Cheap automatic tranny fluid is around $2 a quart and that is all you need for a engine flush.
The flush will clean your engine, but with your mileage I dont think that you need to do it.
Full synthetic has more detergants than dino oil so it will clean as you drive.
I did not do a flush on mine and it had 152k on it when I switched to Mobil 1.
 

(first time posting) i have a 99 disco 2 and i have 111k mi on it and i went to my family's preferred oil changer and i decided to switch to mobil 1 synthetic and it cost 70 dollars for the oil change. ridiculous in my mind. and we asked if they checked my fluids, to which they replied yes, and an hour later found out i was devastatingly low on steering fluid. i was so frustrated. by the way, do yall think that 70 bucks is ridiculous, considering it is synthetic?

I just thought about oil filters. When switching to Mobil 1, does the type of oil filter have to change also?

70 sounds about right for synthetic.  My local lube/filter place charges the standard 30 bucks, then an extra 30-40 for the upcharge depending on the week.

Change your own oil

No you do not have to use a Mobil 1 oil filter, just use a good brand like NAPA or Purolator, these guys like the Mobil 1 and K&N oil filters, but I refuse to pay $10 for a oil filter so I use either NAPA, Purolator or Mopar.
Whatever you do, DO NOT use a Fram oil filter, they are junk and that is the number one manufactor of oil filters for the quick lubes, they just paint it a different color and put their name on it.
As far as $70 for a oil change goes...most of us change are own, you can buy 6 quarts of Mobil 1 and a Mopar oil filter at Wal-Mart for around $30. And if you do it yourself you know for a fact that all of the other fluids were checked.
Those quick lubes are a rip off, you found that out. 
When using full synthetic you dont need to change it every 3,000 miles, you can go 5,000. Land Rover recommends 7500 miles but that is way to long in my opinion.
Hope this helps.
 

OK, a little info on those "quick lube" joints.  My girlfriend didn't want to wait for me to change her oil, so she took her Corolla there one time.  She came home and her Corolla was smelling really bad and was smoking all over the place from under the hood.  You guessed it.  They didn't put the oil filler cap back on.  Oil was everywhere.  I told them to come to our house to clean up the mess and that they needed to tow her car to their place and take car of this problem.   Their idea of taking care of the problem was to send two flunkies to our house with a little bottle of de-greaser and some oil.  The proceeded to squirt that on the engine and then take my garden hose and start hosing down the motor.  (not bothering to check if the engine was hot or not.)  Now I had oil all over my driveway and a dirty car which then started to sputter when we started it.  The two flunkies thought they were done.  I took pictures of the car before they came over, then again as they were "fixing" the problem and then afterwards.  What a bunch of morons.  I asked for our money back and they were fighting me the whole way.  We were having issues with the electrical system for weeks after that.  We were looking into taking them to court, but a couple of weeks later a Ford F250 decided to run a red light and plow directly into me.  This was the ONE time I drove her car and just to get ithe gas filled up.  Needless to say, the car was toast and the electrical problems were gone with it......  The morale of the story.... Change your own fluids.  Make the purchase of the ramps, tools, funnels, etc.  The first time it will be a tad expensive, but you will make up your entire purchase price the second time you complete a fluid change and you will have the peace of mind knowing that the job was done correctly!

X2     Change your own oil......!!!!!   If the flunkies at the quick lube place can do it, how hard do you think it is. And yes synthetic is way better than conventional. And you and your engine will be better off in the long run.

If you do go for the synthetic oil use the use the Highmileage
Mobil One.
 
It will help the seals.