I just use plain old standard oil. Change it every 5K kilometers....3K miles, as well as the filter. I figure changing the oil regularly and putting in a new filter keeps any dirt moving out of my engine. The longer oil change intervals on the synthetic stuff makes me a little nervous. I don't really trust vehicle filters nowadays--they seem to be getting smaller and smaller, even on my GM 454 the filter is a dinky little thing, so I'd rather periodically dump the old oil. And regularly changing filters with synthetic oil means you are eventually changing the oil out anyway--you take out some each time you change the filter.
I've never had a lot of problems with really thick oil in the cold weather, although I must admit we don't see much colder than about -5F in my neck of the woods. When I start a cold engine I take care NOT to floor the accelerator pedal and to watch the oil gauge. If it doesn't come up right away I'll stop the engine and restart it until the oil starts to pick up and register on the gauge.
I'm sure there are as many opinions on this subject as there are members on the forum!
Jon.
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