Troll du jour.

[Killer Canary]

Would starting a thread about motor oil upset as many people here as it does on bike fora?
Synthetic all the way.

 

[Marial]

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I always use fully synthetic, and I only have to change it every 7,500 miles.

 

[Killer Canary]

Dino all the way!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I was using Mobil 1, but recently switched to Valvoline.

 

[Killer Canary]

Do I have to chase you back to the Not One To Rant thread?

 

[sharkbait130]

Synthetic for me. I've seen some pretty convincing side by side tests done with synthetic and regular motor oil. The synthetic stuff held up way better in all tests. It is also not nearly as susceptible to contamination from combustion as regular oil. A few years ago I had the serpentine belt break on my truck. No fan and no belt turning the water pump. I was on the highway doing about 65mph. Just the wind on the fan kept the water pump turning a bit and with synthetic oil the truck made it home (about 30 miles)with out overheating. I seriously doubt that regular oil would have gotten me home. The truck currently has over 320,000 miles on it.

 

[Killer Canary]

I'm no scientist.
Putting full syn in an old Honda 750 caused the clutch to immediately start slipping. I thought that that must mean something. Idaknow.
It was a good excuse to replace the clutch with a Barnett heavy duty.

 

[Rob22315]

According to wear studies done on NYC taxi cabs by Consumer Reports, there's no difference between dino and synth for wear.

Reference - [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The one BIG difference between a fleet of taxis and the average consumer is that the average consumer doesn't continuously drive their cars. The consumer's car must deal with the wear/tear of frequent start-ups from cold conditions.

So what is different between synth and dino? -

1. Detergents - manufacturers of synth put more detergents in the oil so you can go longer between changes.
2. Resistance to coking - if your engine overheats, it takes a higher temperature for synth to turn into hard little balls of carbon
3. Resistance to gumming - if you do A LOT of short trips so your oil never heats up all the way, it can get gummy - I think in part because the water (a natural product of burning fuel) that gets into the oil never evaporates and passes out of the engine. Synth resists this more. (I've only seen one case of this due to a head gasket leak and the gum was all in the cooling system.)

Some of the folks on Bob Is The Oil Guy have done detailed chemical tests to see what happens to the chemistry of the dino oil over time. IIRC, there's lubricating molybdenum compound that is consumed over time that's one of the big key chemicals for the oil to be effective. They found that they could extend the life of the oil by adding a quart of fresh oil back in to restore the level of this compound so they could get synth-like intervals between oil changes (~7500 - 10K miles). If your car doesn't burn oil, you'll have to drain a quart to do this.

All that being said, I use synth and I change oil/filter about every 5K miles on my cars.

 

[Salicete]

Synthetic, but my question is, if non-synthetic oil (all fossil fuels) is/are made from the remains on dinosaurs decomposing under pressure over millions of years, how did Fred Flintstone gas-up?

Just saying...

 

[hondo4life]

Synthetic is only good for engines that experience more temperature extremes, otherwise it is money down the drain.

I'm no scientist.
Putting full syn in an old Honda 750 caused the clutch to immediately start slipping. I thought that that must mean something. Idaknow.
It was a good excuse to replace the clutch with a Barnett heavy duty.

You can't put regular car oil in a motorcycle with a wet clutch due to frikshin moterfrysers or something.
You can use motorcycle oil, or diesel engine oil.

 

[Killer Canary]

This is the entire problem with oil threads.
motorcycle specific; non motorcycle specific.
People get excited!

 

[capnjim]

I haven't heard of any modern engine failing due to oil quality. Today's engines could run forever on the crappiest recycled oil available.
Take That!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

with synthetic oil the truck made it home (about 30 miles)with out overheating. I seriously doubt that regular oil would have gotten me home.

I saw a demo back when synthetic oil was a new thing. The refinery where I worked was producing it.
They put synth in one & fossil in the other.
They ran them for just a bit, then drained them.
They started them back up & soon the fossil oiled one started smoking & had to be turned off. The one that had synth was still going like a champ.

 

[Killer Canary]

I never intended for this to actually BE an oil thread.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Crude Oil is named so for a reason. It's got sulphur in it, and who knows what. It's really nasty stuff & leaves behind some yucky residues after it's been distilled.

 

[Killer Canary]

I never intended for this to actually BE an oil thread.

I saw a demo back when synthetic oil was a new thing. The refinery where I worked was producing it.
They put synth in one & fossil in the other.
They ran them for just a bit, then drained them.
They started them back up & soon the fossil oiled one started smoking & had to be turned off. The one that had synth was still going like a champ.

That's a good story.
The problem is that someone else will come along with an equally good story that counters yours.
Then the tempers flare.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Hmm, seems I was wrong about fully synthetic oil being a new thing in 1995/6, but I think it started getting popular then.
Mobil has been making synthetic oils since the 60s, but they were used in aircraft.
The company I was working for at the time was a joint venture between ExxonMobil & Chevron.

 

[Rob22315]

This is the entire problem with oil threads.
motorcycle specific; non motorcycle specific.
People get excited!

D'oh - Thanks for clearing that up - I was wondering what motor oil had to do with bicycling.

 

[Salicete]

It says right on the mammoth that he's using Ethyl (sic).
Ethyl is Alcohol.

Touché