Oil Capacity

[Bowls]

What is the standard oil capacity of a B3, and am i better off sticking with a cheaper oil, or pay the extra 3X for expensive synthetic?

[mattswabb]

about 3.6 quarts. I always use the cheap stuff in the daily driver and good quality in the others.

[darkdan]

The main benefit of synthetic is extended drain intervals.

AMSOIL claims between 15,000 and 35,000 miles (I recommend my customers go with 10k unless they do a used oil analysis or two).

Mobil1 is now claiming 15,000 miles...I'd go with a bit less personally.


If your engine is burning a quart every 1000 miles though, it's just a waste of money.

However, considering a PAO synthetics cold weather properties it might be worth it in Canada to run a synthetic 0w30 or 5w30 in the winter just for less cold weather wear!

If your engine is sound I see no reason to not switch and run extended drains of about 7500 on Mobil1.

If you're burning a lot....use something else.

[REDNECK1]

the engine was not designed with syntheic.........there for unless you know more than the person who built it........

[darkdan]

Synthetics aren't magic.

They're just hydrocarbons.

The main difference is that these are [mostly] the same size molecules of hydrocarbons because they were built through chemistry.

The engine can't tell the difference.

[REDNECK1]

dan.......you are a hell of a sales man :wink: .......if you desinged, processed,built, gave the warrenty and maufactued the moter and said giver synthetic........i would.

i might be mistaken, but the people at the factory......might know a little more about the motor ......when they built it.

[darkdan]

They specified "5w30" motor oil.

Synthetics come in 5w30 and they're a motor oil.

They specified API SG or API SF....synthetics are now API SL or SM and backwards compatible.

The ONLY motors that should not have synthetics in them are rotaries and piston aircraft engines. Put synthetic into either of those and you'll have problems.

The rest of the engines don't know what it is.

Like I said, it's all just hydrocarbons. Synthetics are just "tougher". They handle heat MUCH better, oxidize slower, etc. But in the end, it's just hydrocarbons.

But, if you feel that you need to follow the outdated 1988 factory recommendations you need to strictly run API SG oil.

[REDNECK1]

tell me about synthetics..........cost more, no guarentee of extended life...no visible benifit from regular service,........dude, you crack me up!

synthetic has it's place,......but not in MY crank case. talk diff or tranny, sold. oh as well, 0/30w, good oil if you want to find every leak in you have in you motor.........the rest of us will 5/30 and plug in the block heater!

the motor knows no oil?........the materials were tested with a specific oil, and they passed them, judgeing from the amount of cars still around I would lean to say ........they were right ....they properly engineered them,as you say, now you second guess them?........by knowing more about oil than mazda?...................

[warlocke]

redneck calm down, he is in the oil biz so i think he knows what hes talking about. buy if you must call him out, either do it in pm or the arena, not in some one elses thread and not in repair help section.

[darkdan]

tell me about synthetics..........cost more, no guarentee of extended life...no visible benifit from regular service,........dude, you crack me up!

Actually, both AMSOIL and Mobil1 guarantee their extended life and back it up with a warranty.

synthetic has it's place,......but not in MY crank case. talk diff or tranny, sold. oh as well, 0/30w, good oil if you want to find every leak in you have in you motor.........the rest of us will 5/30 and plug in the block heater!

Most 0w30s are actually THICKER than conventional oils at room temperature. It's only at subzero temps that their cold weather properties really shine through. Viscosity is a curve.

the motor knows no oil?........the materials were tested with a specific oil, and they passed them, judgeing from the amount of cars still around I would lean to say ........they were right ....they properly engineered them,as you say, now you second guess them?........by knowing more about oil than mazda?...................

#1 You don't "design" a motor for a specific oil. You design motor oils for motors. That's why we have API ratings and ACEA
#2 Mazda doesn't say to not use it
#3 Synthetics aren't magic. They're just hydrocarbons. A hydrocarbon is a molecule comprised of hydrogen and carbon in a chain. How is a metal (an inadament object) going to tell the difference between a molecule that is man made out of gas or one that was made through decomposition of organic material and later refined through man made processes?
#4 Here's my spreadsheet of modular motor (Ford V8s) used oil analysis. The "weighted" values are how many miles to get 1 ppm of that wear metal. So higher is better. Please right click and save as:

http://www.dantheoilman.com/modular.xls

As you can see most the majority of the better samples were taken from vehicles running extended drains on synthetic!

[htchbck]

I've been around here a while, and dan knows his stuff... if you're gonna question him make sure you do a lot of research first, cause I guarantee he's already done his research ... I am curious though... what happens to rotaries and aircraft engines if you use synthetic. I'm mainly asking cause I may be going after an RX7 rotary this summer and I'd like to know what to look for when I'm picking out an engine, ie. what kinda symptoms I should be wary of in case someone's been running synthetic in it.

[darkdan]

Synthetics have a higher flash point (much higher) and therefore don't burn as easily.

Rotaries want to burn a little oil to lubricate the apex seals. That's why a lot of rotary owners put 2-stroke oil into the gas every tank to help lubricate it.


Piston type aircraft motors need ashless additives in them. PAO based synthetics lack the solvency to hold these additives in suspension. Mobil learned a hard lesson on that several years ago.

Turbines are a different story. They love synthetics. Especially ester based oils. Just put something with the lowest coefficient of friction in there and let it rip.

[Bowls]

Thanks matt, And thank you Dan, you provided answers to all my questions before i asked them. Much appreciated.

[REDNECK1]

he might well be in the oil biz........I am certifed to make the calls on three eng manufacturers.....they, have trained me to the point they belive me, when i make the calls on failurers, for their warrenty..........but i guess that is not enough, mayby i should sell oil.

i was never lookin for an argument,....i just am not buying the sales pich.

[darkdan]

That's odd because I'm not trying to sell anything.

I'm just correcting misinformation.