First of all this is my first post here.. so please bare with me im not very mechanically savvy (Bricklayer)

I just bought a 1993 Twin Turbo Dodge stealth.

The previous owner advised me to get the oil changed.

Ive had the car for 3 days. Today i went to Mr Lube to get the oil changed. I had the owners manual with me as i wasnt too sure of which oil the car required. The tech told me that codes in the drivers manual were outdated and that any of their oils would suffice.

The Tech then asked what i wanted done. I specified i wanted the oil changed and i didnt want to go cheap on the grade of oil. The tech suggested that i use a synthetic oil. But in doing this i would need to flush out the old oil with a chemical. He stated if i wanted performance this was the way to go.

And yes i know... please laugh at me now... but me not knowing any better said alright sounds good. They flushed the old oil and put in the new oil. I requested 10 w 30, he had 5w 50 available and stated it was just as thick as 10w 30.

After the oil was placed in my car the turbos no longer boost properly. Theres quite a bit of lag.

I belive 5w 50 is way to low for my car. The lifter tick was 5 times as loud.

My main concern and question here is. Can i go back to the standard oil?
ive only put 21 kms on it since having the oil changed.

What are the chances of going back to regular oil after putting 21 kms on it?

and 2nd question... if i can't go back to the regular oil.. did i just screw my stealth up? Should i go back up to 20w 50 ( I phoned the previous owner this is what he was using NON SYNTHETIC)

Btw the car only had 101511 Kms on it at the time of the oil change.

Please advise me with as much information as possible.

Im very bothered by what has happened here today, and feel the tech just wanted to make more money off of me, not even factoring in what was gonna benefit my car. I feel in the dark about what to do.

Cheers Blixxus

 

I find quite a bit of techs/mechanics in my area don't know much about our cars or make incredibly wrong assumptions. I've had a guy tell me that my Stealth was a DSM and had a stereo installer tell me that I couldn't put a double DIN stereo in my car since Dodge manufactures a lot of their cars with 1 1/2 DIN.

So it's important you learn as much as you can about the 3S cars if you intend to keep it awhile. Make sure you check out the "3S Resources" posts in this forum.

I use full synthetic 10W30.

Flushing the engine oil before upgrading to synthetic is a good idea to clear engine deposits. However, on older cars (yours is now 14 years old), some of these deposits can help maintain internal seals so you don't want to remove them all.

As far as the lifter tick goes, a 1993 is considered a 1st gen. The lifters in these engines have a 1mm opening which is prone to the "ticking" noise you hear, but usually subsides after the oil has circulated. Using the lower weight oil probably is making this worse in your case. You can find 3rd gen lifters with a 3mm opening to install, which'll get rid of your ticking problem.

Here's a great write up on engine oils:

http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

 

Turbos have 50K RPM and very sensitive to oil, use whatmanual says.

 

it might just be my personal opinion, but its usaully a bad thing when someone is running 20w50 in any engine. this weight is usually put in an engine because its reallly thick and takes a little longer to leak out or burn off. ive had a few small block chevys ive run it in for that sole purpose, but would never concider running it in somethin with turbos on it. personally i run 15w40 castrol synthetic blend in my NA 91 and my NA 92 stealths