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Conventional versus synthetic oil

Taxrulz

New member
Newbie question,

I’ve unsuccessfully searched the forum and other places. What are your thoughts for conventional versus synthetic oil for your snowcat engine? My new to me machine is a 1975 Thiokol Spryte 1200c with the Ford industrial in-line six if that matters.

Also, do you change it by the hours or seasonally? The manual recommends after every 100 hours, but if you are putting 50 hours a year are you still changing the oil annually?

Thanks in advance!
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I have been running a synthetic/conventional in gasoline engines in cars and trucks for some time now with good results, and at less expense the full synthetics. All NAPA labeled oils I have been informed are all a blend of the two... Most major oil brands seem to offer blends as well..

I think this makes a lot of sense. As for hours between oil changes, I do mine each season, at the beginning. It could be said you should before summer storage, but I just never seem to do it that way. The oil itself doesn't age, but combustion by products do contaminate it and during storage my do some harm.. Especially if the storage conditions are uncontrolled temp storage.

Regards, Kirk
 

Bannedjoe

Well-known member
xoNR61O.jpg
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
synthetics are a better choice for all engines except oil and air cooled because the synthetic oils wont draw the heat like dino oil will. the synthetics flow better when cold and maintain viscosity better hen hot I use it in everything except my vw engines the vw engines get high zinc oil
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
synthetics are a better choice for all engines except oil and air cooled because the synthetic oils wont draw the heat like dino oil will. the synthetics flow better when cold and maintain viscosity better hen hot I use it in everything except my vw engines the vw engines get high zinc oil

I been running amsoil in my snow trac. what should I change to?
 

Bannedjoe

Well-known member
Just for fun.....

According to these hillbillies, you can run an engine on almost anything.
Maple syrup, astroglide, beer.....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-AOa-xLRU[/ame]
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I been running amsoil in my snow trac. what should I change to?

I used to race a marathon boat with a supercharged hemi I can tell you with conventional oil the oil temp would shortly exceed 300 degrees and oil pressure would drop from 100 psi to 40 psi but necessary during brake in. With royal purple racing oil the temps never exceeded 185 degrees and maintained 80-90 psi. You could add ZDDP to your current oil for the flat tappets or use royal purple or redline racing oil not the stuff at the auto parts store. you can get it at Summit racing or Jegs its expensive but it has all of the additives like phosphorus and zink that withstand extreme pressure between metal parts. Also available less expensive are hot rod oils made for flat tappets. All of those reasons are why I just switched to a roller cam motor for my old dodge 4X4. my 2 cents. Marty
 

mtncrawler

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
From what I've read the older engines with flat tappet cams need zinc and phosphorous or they can round off camshaft lobes. Like M1west says , roller tappets don't need it and synthetic is a good choice. This stuff was completely removed from almost all motor oils in 2006 due to its ability to clog up catalytic converters. An older engine that is well broken in suffers less. Racing or off road oils still have it and BG makes a supplement that Napa sells. The reason I started looking into this was a rounded off cam in a cj7 with the 304 shortly after the owner switched to synthetic thinking he was doing his jeep a favor. I've been running 5w30 dino without trouble so far in my well used ford 200 inline but I bought the BG additive for this season to be safe. I'd like to here more thoughts on this.
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
From what I've read the older engines with flat tappet cams need zinc and phosphorous or they can round off camshaft lobes. Like M1west says , roller tappets don't need it and synthetic is a good choice. This stuff was completely removed from almost all motor oils in 2006 due to its ability to clog up catalytic converters. An older engine that is well broken in suffers less. Racing or off road oils still have it and BG makes a supplement that Napa sells. The reason I started looking into this was a rounded off cam in a cj7 with the 304 shortly after the owner switched to synthetic thinking he was doing his jeep a favor. I've been running 5w30 dino without trouble so far in my well used ford 200 inline but I bought the BG additive for this season to be safe. I'd like to here more thoughts on this.

I lost a cam lobe on my dodge and the additive was in it because I know better but still happened. The other gift from the new car technology is the high vapor pressure with the new gas especially the winter blend, have you been pumping gas and it keeps clicking the handle off like it full? Thats the gas basically boiling at outside temperature. Works great at high pressure with a lift pump in the gas tank feeding a high pressure pump on a new car but can sure give you fits with a carburetor. Cab over snow cats like my Thiokol 603 took every trick in the book to fix it. I even fabricated a stainless tub the carb. sits in with a drain so if it ever happens again it won't dump fuel on the exhaust plus I can pack snow around the carb to keep it cool. Marty
 
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