schwett

changed my tranny oil (honda mtf) and engine oil (redline 10w-30, synthetic for the first time at

PilotChris

Schwett, I notice the same thing every time I change my oil. It seems like my car is slower right after the change. After about 500 miles it feels like the power returns.

Maybe the oil thickens up and this effects the VTEC transition (?)

Barry in Wyoming

There are quite a few threads about people feeling like they're losing "the vtec surge" after changing from petroleum oil to synthetic oil. You might run a search. I don't think anyone has actually shown less speed or power with the synthetic, just loss of seat of the pants sense of "the vtec kicking in."

I've only got 4,000 miles on my S2000 and I'm still running petroleum based oil.

schwett

my apologies to everyone for the redundant thread... i was going to the "advanced search" and then thinking search was down. now i realize that the quick search works.

to add one more data point to all those old threads, immediately after the oil change vtec was either not engaging or engaging so subtly as to be not noticeable. it seems to be slowly coming back. i have not reset the ECU and probably won't, just to keep the variables down.

i have always been a little leery of switching back from synthetic to dino oil, but i may do so in a thousand miles or so just to see what happens.

StwoK

Actually synthetics and one as good as RedLine will actually reduce friction, which means more power. Personally, if I'm in a turn, I want the application of power to be smooth. The VTEC surge you talk about would probably cause you to lose control of the car.

Here's a link to King Motor Sports site, they also sell RedLine products. The use an example of a BMW 318ti and change the engine, tranny, and diff. oil to RedLine products. The dyno results are about a 6% gain in HP. People on this board will spend $1,200 to $1,500 on an exhaust system and pickup just 3-4 hp. Using synthetic oil just might be one of the cheapest performance mods you could make. Here's the link, go to the bottom of the page.

http://www.kingmotorsports.com/products/redline/

cbender

Sounds weird, Schwett, but I hope it works itself out! Good luck.

Nobody

UL or someone....could it be that the old oil (after being heated up/cooled down so many times) has lost a lot of its viscosity....less viscosity in most cases=less oil-induced friction and you'd have more power (at the expense of shorter engine life).

schwett

it seems like i may have overfilled it a little. the consensus from a search seems to be that a small overfill won't really affect anything, but i'll drain some out and see what happens. after a good bit of driving, and then a 5 minute cool off or so, the oil is at the top of the "H" character on both sides of the dipstick. for some reason my dipstick always reads the same on both sides.

Yellow Streak

I was under the impression that one of the advantages of synthetic oil was that there wasn't a huge change in "thickness" whether cold or hot (because it is synthetic).

Also, it is oil pressure that engages VTEC, so it is more like an on/off effect. Whether your oil is thicker or thinner shouldn't matter, unless your oil pressure is way down. Additionally, the ECU has a feed from the VTEC solenoid which has "VTEC oil pressure". I have to *assume* that if the ECU tells the VTEC solenoid to engage and the oil pressure isn't there, a CEL would come on. This is of course a theory.

I switched over to Amsoil 10-30 and felt no change....but then again, my car is FI and I don't really feel it as much as hear it anyway.

-YS

Barry in Wyoming

Pardon my ignorance. What does "FI" stand for?