Hi, Again. Thanks for the replies. I teach at a State School and a few years back a student did a report on the effect of synthetic vs. dino oil. We did the test with a 530 HP 440 engine that I used in my drag car. We started out with 10-40 Pennzoil dino (short for dinosaur) oil. The engine made 529 HP. We then swapped that oil for 10-30 Pennzoil synthetic. The power was DOWN to 524 HP. We then went to Mobil I 5-30. HP was 524 again. The last oil was Mobil I 0-5. This time the power was back almost to the original at 528. Now you might say that this doesn't predict what the gas mileage results would be but I feel if the engine lost power it must have increased internal friction. I could be wrong but I still don't think there's any mileage increase from synthetic oil. I had another student who tested the effect of running premium fuel vs. regular. He claims that he did get an improvement but that it took a couple of tankfuls to get it. The feeling is that the computer advanced the timing over a period of time due to the knock sensor communicating with the computer. Sounds reasonable, but I haven't tried it myself. I know the car is boxy but my daughter owns a Toyota Matrix which she claims gets well over 30 mpg. My friend has a 2006 Hemi Charger and he claims the thing gets 30 mpg. say whaaaatttt!!!!! The thing supposedly runs in the 13's so this is REALLY pi$$in' me off!
