well, my brother thinks the ticking from my motor isnt the valves cause there not ajustable, he thinks its the lifters....he told me to put Synthetic in it , that it would quiet them down......my quiestion is this...whats the difference? And I thought it wasnt a good idea to use synthetic on an older car (96) I dont know if i should or not..can anyone tell me the pros and cons?

 

Synthetic oil is far better than regular oil in evey way and this is also why in some rare cases it's worse for an engine with high mileage. It's not really the age or mileage of the engine that matters, it's the engines condition that matters. Most high mileage motors have little tiny oil leaks here or there that don't even loose enough oil to be noticed or they have worn piston rings that allow just a little more oil past them than they are supose to, but not enough to show and this is where the problems begin. It's the synthetic oils superior lubricating quality that causes the problems, because when switching from regular to synthetic oil in any motor that has even the smallest leak it will turn a slight drip into a raging river. If you know for a fact that the engine has no leaks what so ever and as long as it isn't burning any oil, then switching to synthetic should be OK.

Synthetic oil will reduce friction which will free up some horsepower, increase fuel mileage and greatly reduce engine wear as well as lowering operating temperatures. Synthetic oil also coats and stays on the engine parts far better which protects against cold start wear/damage. The wear protection with synthetic oil is so great that when used in a new engine and changed properly, the engine will show little to no signs of wear at all even after hundreds of thousands of miles. The only negative thing about synthetic oil is it's higher price, but with the continued rising cost of oil, the price gap is closing between conventional oil and synthetic.

 

Thanks for the tip, my car burns about a quart every 2-3 weeks.....is this bad enough that I shouldnt switch to synthetic?

 

I would not use synthetic if you are leaking that much oil. You are gonna go from a quart every 2-3 weeks to 1 a week.

 

I dont mind that, as long as it wont hurt anything.........will it hurt anything? lol

 

No, it won't hurt anything, but its gonna be expensive and possibly a little smokey. You will be better off just using regular oil.

 

Yes, unfortunately it is bad enough, do not switch to synthetic as it will become far worse and it will burn enough that you will easily see the blue smoke coming from the tail pipe, that is if it isn't already. Synthetic oil is around $5+ a quart and with the increased consumption rate it will cost far more to keep oil in it. And since it would go through oil quicker using synthetic it could run the risk of running out of oil, unless you check it every day. Stick with a good regular oil like Castrol GTX.

 

so synthetic isnt a good idea for me......should I just have the lifters replaced to stop the ticking? How hard is it to replace them?

 

A slight tick is normal with neons at idle. Its not a big deal, unless its real bad I would not worry about it.

 

Yep, some tick is normal, my '99 R/T had it with only around 35-40K miles on it and nothing but synthetic (Mobil 1 & Amsoil) used in it almost since new.