I've been reading up on full synthetics and how much better they are for your engine. I have been using synthetic blend for the last 16 years, will swtiching to a full synthetic now hurt the car or posssibly expose a leak? Engine has close to 500,000 kms.

 

Your engine lasted this long on syn blend so I wouldn't rock the boat.

Syn oil this late in the game may slip past worn areas and expose leaks.

 

mclasser has a point, but: If your car ran fine on synthetic blend, it should run just fine on full synthetic. Synthetic oils don't break down (or break down much less), and they run very clean. In Alberta, with its cold winters, you need all help you can get. During the winter, I would use Mobil 1 0W-30.

Just an opinion. From a former resident and UofA graduate.

 

Will cause oil leaks, especially from upper oil pan, something not the easiest to reseal

 

Do a full flush of the engine and do switch to full syn.... Don't see any problems doing it

 

You've got 500k on the engine - don't fix it if it ain't broke. I think switching to full synthetic could expose leaks, especially with such high mileage. I don't think the marginal gains are worth the potential downsides in this case.

How many more k do you think you will be getting out of your engine? Is it enough that the (really small) improvement in oil performance will impact the lifespan of your engine?

 

I got 200K, run it all the time RPurple full syn , have some slow leaks that are so slow you would never know till you look under and can't figure where they are coming from lol, been like this for so long I said leave it as is ....love this car after A good hour of driving tho....A real beast still, just needs A real good warm up drive to be at it's full potential...Try the Royal Purple and see the power difference....trust me you will notice it after two oil changes....maybe even first one.

 

Which RP are you running? UOAs show the API-spec one really isn't worth it over any of the off the shelf syns.

 

I bought my car this summer and have no idea why type of oil is in it. I haven't found any leaks other than some oil on the valve covers from bad gaskets, but I'm gonna change those out soon. I bought Pennzoil full synthetic 5W-30 and plan to swap it in pretty soon.