Synthetic Oil in Older Alfas

There are a couple of issues, mostly related to how long the motor has been running on dino juice (conventional oil). If the engine was rebuilt recently, there should be no problem, as long as the rings have already been broken in. If the engine has rings that need a good brake-in period, I would run it for maybe 3000-5000 miles on dino juice and then go synthetic. Issues:

1. An engine that has run on regular oil for many years will build up a lot of sludge. Switching to synthetic may dislodge some of that crud which can cause damage. Several people reported cam and/or cam follower damage after switching to synthetic. The recommended procedure is to clean out the low places in the cam galley. If you can, I'd also pull the lower sump and clean it out too. Change the first batch of synthetic sooner than you normally would.
2. After running on dino juice for many years, the seals become hard. If you switch to synthetic, the seals can leak. I did this on one of my cars, and it leaked like a SOB. I ended up replacing the front and rear main seals, not a fun job. Also, anything that leaks now will leak more with synthetic oils because they're so slippery.

Bottom line, if your car has run for many years on dino juice, you might be asking for trouble by switching now. If the car has had a recent rebuild, you will be prolonging your engine's life by going synthetic.

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