I'm going to have to get the oil changed soon in my '03 Malibu, and, would like some info about switching to synthetic oil. My car has the 3.1 engine, with 96,xxx on the clock. Would synthetic oil be beneficial to my motor, given the current mileage? What is the best type of synthetic oil out there for the money? Any ideas?

oil is always a debate. ive probably put 800k (adding up the dd'*) on my gm v6'* over the years just doing regular valvoline every 5k without one engine failure

I don't know what the best synthetic is, but Mobil 1 is certainly a good product. I prefer to use mineral based with frequent changes.

If you go synthetic Mobil 1 Synthetic gets my vote, it is considered one of the higher end group IV synthetic oils.

As for the synthetic oil being beneficial, I don't think the mileage matters a lot, and I do not think there would be a huge overall beneficial gain as far as engine life is concerned, as long as oil/oil filters are serviced regularly.
Now there may some benefits if you have cold winters where you live, the synthetic won't have as thick of a viscosity when cold, as a conventional oil would, but I believe once the oil warms up it will lubricate all the same, I get pretty cold winters here in VA, so I'll run only Mobil 1 Synthetic, or G-Oil.

If you are ok with spending a little more you could get the G-Oil, it is said to be a Group V synthetic motor oil.

To explain a bit better about synthetic oil groups I have to use the dreaded wikipedia, as I cannot explain it as well as it is explained there.
Wiki info below.



Motor oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"""Synthetic oils are derived from either Group III, Group IV, or some Group V bases. Synthetics include classes of lubricants like synthetic esters as well as "others" like GTL (Methane Gas-to-Liquid) (Group V) and polyalpha-olefins (Group IV). Higher purity and therefore better property control theoretically means synthetic oil has better mechanical properties at extremes of high and low temperatures. The molecules are made large and "soft" enough to retain good viscosity at higher temperatures, yet branched molecular structures interfere with solidification and therefore allow flow at lower temperatures. Thus, although the viscosity still decreases as temperature increases, these synthetic motor oils have a higher viscosity index over the traditional petroleum base. Their specially designed properties allow a wider temperature range at higher and lower temperatures and often include a lower pour point. With their improved viscosity index, synthetic oils need lower levels of viscosity index improvers, which are the oil components most vulnerable to thermal and mechanical degradation as the oil ages, and thus they do not degrade as quickly as traditional motor oils. However, they still fill up with particulate matter, although the matter better suspends within the oil,[citation needed] and the oil filter still fills and clogs up over time. So, periodic oil and filter changes should still be done with synthetic oil; but some synthetic oil suppliers suggest that the intervals between oil changes can be longer, sometimes as long as 16,000-24,000 km (10,000–15,000 mi) primarily due to reduced degradation by oxidation."""

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I have to disagree on the last part said there though, synthetic oil or not, I still feel changing it at the same scheduled intervals as non-synth oil is a must.

some AMSOIL is rated for something like 25K miles.... and people apparently do it all the time without issue.

anyways, if i came across a good deal on pretty much any synthetic, i'd run it.

otherwise, i picked up 5.1 quarts of mobil super 5000 for ~$12 the other day.... it will be my first time trying that oil, but the BITOG forum seems to like it well enough.

I'm a believer in synthetic oil, only run Mobil 1 full synthetic in my truck and it gets changed every 3-5K miles, usually closer to 3K.

So, here'* my question. Normal dino oil is usually changed after 3months/3000 miles and synthetic can go up to 5000ish miles. If I just changed the oil and have synthetic, and only drove 50 miles in 1 day, how long can the car sit in a garage until the oil needs to be changed due to age?

I'm not that good at math, so, I'm not going to tackle that one...

i really wouldn't call it a math issue so much as one of is there anything in the oil that is breaking it down while the vehicle is sitting.

the whole 3 month/3000 mile recommendation is one that had been surpassed a long time ago... i know that the 95 monte carlo owner'* manual states 7500 miles / 6 months, and that'* with conventional oil. i don't mind doing 5000 mile changes unless i'm suspecting some type of failure/evidence in the oil.

well my gto sat 6mo in my shop without being started. fired it up and all was the same.
My gto has 107,000 miles on it. it has had full synthetic ran in it after the first 5000 miles, breakin period. now that it has been modified for the past 45000 miles i run royal purple in it. and no break downs, and it still run'* as good as it did when it was new. plus for the last 45000 mi it has been running 500flywheel hp and 400rwhp and 400rwtq.