Ok, I have now had my 240 for a week. I bought it with 178K on it. I do not know when the last service was done on this, any kind of service. The oil is rather black. I have been pondering switching to synthetic (after reading much about it on here). My question is this: has anyone here used Lucas oil? I have used it in all my previous high mileage vehicles (have not lost a motor yet) but they have all be 4.0L jeeps (and one land rover w/ nearly 200K), I have used only lucas when changing other fluids in them too (diff oil, t-case, etc) with good results. The abuse i put them through, combined with the high miles on them and they held up just fine, never having lost any major component with lucas in it. Is there any reason I should NOT use it in conjunction with synthetic oil in my 240 or even in the rear diff and gear box (mine is a 5 spd) I would like to see 300K (and beyond) on this car, I KNOW they can do it, I just need to start treating it better then the previous owners but want to know what the best course of action is. If I do switch to synth. I will be getting a magnetic oil plug, and (as I have learned) after the FIRST application of synth, change the oil again soon after and start documenting service intervals (I tend to forget things quickly).

The only other time I have used anything but conventional oil was in an old (high miles) saab, again with good results. I am not a gentle driver, and I want it to stand up to ME for a long time, long enough for my kids to use it as a first car (the first one will be in 3 years).

Other than mobil1 is there a equally good synthetic oil? How (other then longevity of the motor) do I justify spending $8+/qt? Thats $32+/gallon!

Also, I have always used one particular oil filter, is there one that, unbiasedly really is better for these cars?
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-Chaos Manager-