Well guys, I have concluded that it is time to swap my 03 Hemi over to synthetic motor oil from conventional. It has 102k miles and has the notorious Hemi tick (hopefully it will quiet it down some). I am planning to go buy 7 quarts of Mobil 1 5W-20 in the morning. Is there anything that I should look out for or be cautious of after I swap it? Also, what kind of filter should I run?

 

watch for leaks because the syn oil will clean the engine and could open up some new leaks. I would recommend running the M1 for only 1 to 1.5k miles and then change again to clean all the gunk out that the dino oil has left and to do that I would would get maybe a Purolator filter that doesn't cost much. After that you can stretch your oil changes out to say 5 or 6 k miles and for that I would recommend a M1 extended service filter or K&N. That way you don't need to change the filter before the oil. Hope this help and answered your questions.

 

I have always used a synthetic blend whenever I purchased a used vehicle and knew it used conventional oil.
I have NO documented evidence that this is beneficial, but to my thinking, it eases the transition. Kinda doesn't break down all the deposits and sludge all at once and won't expose so-so seals that could start leaking.

I'll leave it in there for no more than 3k miles then go onto a good full synthetic.

Many people go from dino oil straight to synthetic with no problems, but that's just my two cents.

I'm kinda partial to Wix and Purolator Pure One filters, but there is nothing wrong with a K&N or Mobil 1 either...

 

Is it ok to run a regular oil filter like a Wix with Synthetic oil or should I use a filter "labeled" to run with Synthetic, such as Mobil 1?

 

I've been running Wix filters with synthetic oil for over 20 years... First with Mobil 1, now with RP. Never a problem.

I also know two performance shops who do the same...

 

Alright, thanks! Do you see any disadvantages to swapping it over from conventional?

 

Nope, none... Synthetic oil is better than conventional in every case.
I know of one guy who had so much sludge in his engine that the change to synthetic brought it all down and clogged the sh*t out of his sender, basically allowing no oil to get up out of the pan. In that case though, the sludge was there and the move to synthetic just hastened the problem showing up.
But that was an extreme case. And it might be my method of "easing" into the change with one interval of a blend oil might alleviate that..

 

FYI, the '03s want 5w-30, not 5w-20

 

Thats what I bought. I had a typo when I was writing my thread! Lol! Thanks though.

 

I haven't tried it, but since the mfg's claim that you can mix synthetic with conventional oil, I would work up to full synthetic by starting with 5 or 6 quarts of conventional, and the remainder synthetic. Each oil change thereafter, substitute another 1 or 2 quarts of synthetic until to get to the full 7.