I have 2 ‘04 discos and it’s oil changing time! Should I change to synthetic oil? What’s the process to change from conventional to synthetic?

 

Waste of $$ IMHO on a Rover V8.

 

Why would you do that? Anything going on with your engine that makes you think it isn't running right? What is your current oil?

You came to the right place if you want to research this as there are hundreds of oil related threads here....

Just to save you some time what you need in one of these is an oil with ZDDP in it and something not thin, like 5w.

Most people use Rotella 15w40 conventional.

 

@Wesc233 They run fine on synthetic but as noted the ZDDP levels are critical, weight matters too you do not want to go under 10/30. I personally found 10/30 to be too light once the engine was up to temp and went up to 10/40, this was based on my oil pressure.

You want ZDDP between 1200 and 2000 ppm and no more is not better. Also do not fall for the long oil change marketing these are 5000 mile or less oil change trucks, I do 3000 myself

 

I am going to change to synthetic too after doing some research. So far I have been using synthetic blend, but I learned that there are no standards for such oil and the manufacturers can put whatever amount in and call it "synthetic blend". One has to assume that this is essentially a marketing gimmick to sell you dino oil for a higher price. Synthetic oil has much better properties and these oils exist for a reason. Although it is about 30% more expensive than blend oil, it saves me cost. If I increase the oil intervals just by the same amount then there is no difference, if I can go further than that it is even cheaper and it saves me cost and work (less frequent oil changes). Usually I change my oil every 2000-3000 miles and it looks very dark when draining. I plan to increase the intervals to 4000 miles.

 

should you use synthetic oil in these trucks? that's entirely up to you. a few on this board will way yes. more will say no. they'll say to use a conventional oil with a weight that is appropriate for your areas climate and weather and change your oil every 3,000 miles or three (3) months. whichever comes first.

i daily drive all my Rovers. well, me or another family member. three (3) of the four (4) Rovers are north of 180,000 miles. my '96 had over 240,000 miles when i sold it.

i use semi-synthetic and full synthetic in all my Rovers. Schaeffer 15W-40 and 5W-40. for me it was both convenience, had friend who worked for Schaeffer Oil, and peace of mind.

if i run long on an oil change, i don't worry too much about the oil breaking down. Schaeffer Oil caters to the heavy duty crowd. think large farm and construction tractors, earth-movers, etc.. so, it works well with these old, dirty running V8s.

as far as the process to switch over. buy good filters, your synthetic oil of choice and new copper/steel washers for the drain plugs. drain the old oil, take off the old filters (i always drain these and take a look for sludge at the bottom just to get a feel for how my engine is doing), pour a little oil in the new filters. lube the filter O-ring and install the new filters. then add the required amount of new oil to the crankcase.

oh, yeah. don't forget to reinstall the drain plugs before adding the new oil.

check the oil level. top off as needed and then start the Rover(s). the red oil light should shut off pretty quickly and you should be good to go.

 

It was recommended from the rover place I bought it from! I got the Rotella 15w40 synthetic!

 

Thanks for the input guys! This is my first time changing the oil myself and wanted to make sure I didn’t need to do anything special to switch from the conventional rotella to the synthetic

 

I change my 03 with Rotella 15w40 and get T4 or T5, whichever is cheaper at the time.

 

how are you guys getting zink levels ? last time i called castrol and another oil company they would not disclose the content of zink in the oil ?