Question about synthetic oil loss

[mrpyb]

My 97 2.5 dohc has about 167k miles on it and it has barely burnt/loss any oil when I run conventional which its always had. I put Castrol GTX Edge in it for the first time and after about 2000 miles it has lost about a quart. Is this normal when making a switch from conventional to synth? I did the HG's about 15k miles ago and I put some cardboard under the engine in my garage and there are only a few new drops a week, definitely not a quart. Can I expect this kind of oil burn to continue? thanks for any input you might have.

[EJ22E]

Has it been cold lately? With a thinner oil viscosity you can have some blow by during cold start ups. Its best to get a oil catch can and keep on topping off.

[Huffer]

Fairly normal. Whyd you switch to synthetic when conventional has been working for you?

[rougeben83]

Because teh interwebs told him to.

I've said this before about oils, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Subaru engines are better with "thicker" oils like dino to begin with, its not a tight-tolerance engine like ones designed in the past decade.

The ONLY reason synthetics are suggested for subaru's are for turbo ej's, because of the heat that a turbocharger generates. Synthetic oils have a higher temperature at which they start to break down.

And no, no matter how much you beat on your NA ej, it will never heat up like a boosted ej, so save yourself some hassle and money and stick with dino.

[datdookie]

Id it possible to go back to conventional if you stared using synthetic "?

[mrpyb]

Fairly normal. Whyd you switch to synthetic when conventional has been working for you?
It was just a really good sale so I figured I would try it. I probably will go back to conventional when I change again because I have a ton sitting on the shelf.

[ouch1011]

I'd try a better quality synthetic. Castrol is garbage all the way across the board. Penzoil Platinum is around the same price and much better quality.

I use synth on my Subaru exclusively, but that's because I drive the poo out of it which does get the oil temps way up (since we don't have an oil cooler). For the average driver, synth. oil is a waste. Only other reason to use synth is for extended oil change intervals, but there is more to that than just going 5-7-10k miles between oil changes, you still need to replace the filter every 3k, and you need to do used oil analysis to determine how long the oil is actually good for in your engine.

[mrpyb]

What company do you use for you oil analysis? I probably wont be trying any other synth oils or comparing them. I haven't has any troubles with my conventional so I'll go back to that when this stuff get changed.

[cmilligan724]

As stated before i work at valvoline and when i ran full syn my ej22 would run to about 5K on cold starts. I had about the same lose as u did with about 1500 miles. I switched back to a simi-syn 5w30 durablend oil and it never burns/losses oil now. At all our training events they say that you can switch any oil at any time no matter what grade or weight it is. Only thing i seen was that if u use conv. oil and switch to a full syn is to put about another .5 qrts in just because the new oil has better cleaners and additives in it that will brake down oil build up in the cylinder walls. Also never ever run a engine cleaner in ur boxer motors due to the way the oil sits on seals and gaskets!!!! i ran valvoline engine cleaner and had to replace my valve gaskets. :smt013 thats all i got

[ouch1011]

What company do you use for you oil analysis? I probably wont be trying any other synth oils or comparing them. I haven't has any troubles with my conventional so I'll go back to that when this stuff get changed.

I use Blackstone Labs.