Oil + Oil Leak question
 

Before I get to the question, let me give you a little back story.

I have been using conventional oil since I owned the car.
You can tell that the car had an oil leak because of all the gritty oil that covered the engine among other things, but there never was any drips on the ground. So it never worried me that much.

During start up, the car was burning more oil than usual (granted I only start my car 1 - 2 times per 2weeks) and when I checked the oil it was a quart lower (approx) than the last month I checked. I assumed that the engine is burning all this oil since there is no oil dripping on the ground.

At this point I thought I should try Synthetic Oil, because I have always read that it didn't burn as easy as conventional.

Removed all the conventional oil and put in synthetic. Now during start up the car barely smokes. But when the car is warmed up, or driven hard the oil leak is noticeable. Smoking from the oil blowing down the exhaust then burning on it. Then when I stop to park the car. I check and the oil was dripping on the ground about 1 drip per 1-2 seconds.

So I guess my question is, why would syn oil cause the oil leak to be more exaggerated?

Synthetic is much better at suspending and carrying away deposits. It probably removed a lot of the gunk which kept the leak from being too bad. One that gunk was removed, it exposed the leak and made it "seem" worse. This is why I never suggest switching to synthetic on higher mileage motors, unless you are ready to repair/replace some gaskets.

Thanks!

Maybe I switch back to conventional and hope for it to "gunk" up! :)