poll - high mileage civics, what oil U burn ?

"Michael Pardee" wrote in news:Xrydnd4fSfms_lHenZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@sedona.net:

Reeeeally tiny bolts and nuts?

Reply to
TeGGeR®
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Recycled Paper Products (c) is the only ID type wording i can find on bottom

Reply to
Rob B

well isn't that the process of making a synthetic in the simplest laymen terms

breaking apart oil polymer/molecules (cracking) and then re-assemble according to some desired/engineered characteristic.

and the point of such a venture... to produce a stable oil with many of the characteristics engineered into the oil so that the synth does not suffer problems as the dino coctails do

things such as viscocity stability w/o viscocity improver additives, then high thermal stability and strength where synth oil does not break down (shear) as quickly as dino oil which adds to extended oil life and then there is the adhesion properties and bla bla bla

that is if you believe the pretty brochures produced by synthetic oil companies.

Reply to
Rob B

PAO synthetic oil base stock is made from a hydrocarbon gas so no cracking is necessary. Short chains are reassembled to make the desired long chains which meet the engineer's reqirements. No annoying wax, asphalt or other goo that is difficult to remove from the refined petroleum lubricant base stock. Additives are mixed with this base stock to meet SAE reqirements. I'm guessing the largest manufacturing expense is package design and advertising. Amoco Ultimate synthetic used to sell at K-Mart for like a buck a quart when purchased by the case. Most consumers were not aware of this product because neither company chose to advertise and the label was flat black. Amoco is gone now and K-Mart is close behind. Advertising drives the market, not technology.

Reply to
Enrico Fermi

great! i knew an expert would show up and give some good info

i am weary of web searches more garbage and non-info than useful stuff

so there is no synthetic process that uses or alters some base stock oils ? is it possible to use base oils (cracking into the short chains you mention) ?

can short chains be more easily derived from used oil as per re-refining used motor oils ?

do you happen to know if there is some standards on synthetic labeling ? as someone claimed that walmart synthetic is mfg from re-cycled oil by SafetyCleen .

of course if you have links to this info then i could go do the work

thanks for info robb

Reply to
Rob B

Because it makes a difference in extremely cold climates?

I became a believer in synthetic about 18 years ago. A group of us were on a winter camping trip. It was 25 degrees below zero (minus 75 with wind chill). We had six vehicles at the site. In the morning, one by one we tried to start them. The first 5 vehicles failed to start (they could barely crank). The guy who owned the 6th vehicle was sitting on a picnic bench watching with a smile on his face. When it came his turn, he put the key in, turned it, the engine cranked very rapidly and started. Everybody wanted to know what the heck he did to his car. The answer was Mobil 1.

The following winter I had two vehicles, one of which had Mobil 1 and the other not. Both vehicles happened to be parked outside one night when the temperature got down to minus 22. The next morning I went to start the non-Mobil1-vehicle and it did start, but it made the most spine-chilling screaming and metallic scraping noise. I figured that was good for about 100,000 miles of engine wear right there. I shut it off and started the Mobil1 vehicle. It cranked rapidly and started right up with no unusual behavior.

I know these stories are anecdotal but that has been my experience. Now I use Mobil1 in all my vehicles in the winter. I also use Mobil1 in my air-cooled lawn tractor, which has only a splash lube system, because I tend to abuse it (cutting tall brush to clear trails). My understanding is that synthetic has better extreme high temperature behavior (maintains viscosity better and doesn't chemically break down).

EJ

Reply to
Ether Jones

which i think is BS, like wendy's making hamburgers from worms. the safetykleen website makes no mention of it being an oil producer.

Reply to
SoCalMike

Can't remember. I just did an oil change and decide to switch to 0w30 instead of 0w40 because of the winter. In spring, I'll switch back to the 0w40. The 0w30 has a black cap, but I don't recall any red caps for the 0w40.

I'll have to take a closer look at the bottle on my next oil change for the starburst symbol. From the bottle, the 0w40 was recommended for european cars and the 0w30 for high efficiency.

Pars

Reply to
pars

Can't remember. I just did an oil change and decide to switch to 0w30 instead of 0w40 because of the winter. In spring, I'll switch back to the 0w40. The 0w30 has a black cap, but I don't recall any red caps for the 0w40.

I'll have to take a closer look at the bottle on my next oil change for the starburst symbol. From the bottle, the 0w40 was recommended for european cars and the 0w30 for high efficiency.

Pars

Reply to
pars

SoCalMike wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

But they do have REFINERIES. The site mentions that fact.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

interesting. yet, they dont list the finished product under "products".

Reply to
SoCalMike

My line of thinking is, if you change the oil, oil filter, and air filter at the recommended intervals, you should be fine. My previous car, an 88 Maxima SE, had 170K miles, never burned oil, never leaked any and never required any in between changes. It was changed about every 4K to 5K miles.

My current car, an 04 Accord EX, Honda recommends changing every 10K miles. I change mine every 5K. I currently have 68K miles on it, still going strong and hope to keep it that way.

Reply to
MinnPinn

That seems to be a prevailing consensus, properly changed dino oil and will keep the car going well into high mileage and i tend to agree

since my car is at 200K though and burning/loosing about 1/2 qt between changes and the oil comes out looking like liquid charcoal... i wonder if i need to do something extra special to counter the wear/tear that apparently has occured

i want to keep it going another 100k hopefully without major engine overhaul.

thanks for feedback robb

Reply to
Rob B

Did you say what the condition of your PCV valve is?

If it's the original PCV valve, I would do the pinch test (with a cloth wrapped around the tube to the valve, pinch the tube shut. Listen at least 30 seconds for a click, indicating the valve is working at least somewhat). This will serve as a kind of benchmark. Still, even if it passes this test, I'd replace the valve. Twenty bucks or so. Buy only an OEM one.

Rob B. wrote: > since my car is at 200K though and burning/loosing about

1/2 qt between

charcoal... i wonder if i

wear/tear that apparently

major engine

Reply to
Elle

This doesn't make sense: It was TeGGeR who argued that making "synthetic" from waste oil doesn't work BECAUSE OF THE HIGH COSTS OF CLEANING IT. Cleaning used oil, I responded, doesn't make synthetic oil. On the other hand, I believe it is economical to make motor oil by "rerefining" used oil. And if the used oil were ONLY synthetic then the "rerefined" oil would be synthetic oil.=20

=20 .

Reply to
karl

"karl" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I suspect a snippage problem here. The quote at top is mine. I was trying to illustrate to the OP that in order to make synthetic from used oil you'd need to clean it AND somehow separate the atoms and reassemble them correctly into a synthetic. If I left the impression that you could make "synthetic" just by cleaning old dino oil, that is not what I intended. My post shown above should show that.

Chemically, as I understand it, just about anything's possible, but not everything's economical.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

"karl" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Now that I think of it, what started it all was when the OP asserted that recovering used oil would provide a "cheap" base stock with which to make his "synthetic". I said it would hardly be a "cheap" way of getting ANY kind of base stock. I don't recall saying that the cost of cleaning was the only barrier to making synthetic from dino.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

This post is very long and has several quotes, which can be confusing. For those who want to skip it and to make it easier to find the end there is at the bottom a line like this (saying END OF KARL'S POST).

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX = =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

There is no quoting problem on my part; thank you. But snipping of pertinent information amounts to trickery:

TeGGeR substituted "" for,

The "synthetic oil from used oil" issue started with a post by "T L via CarKB.com" in which he speculated whether Walmart's tech 2000 is "reconditioned used oil." "Rob B" then opined that sending used oil "back through a refinement process" would be a cheap way to get synthetic oil ("since it is engineered" he argues). Here are the first posts, including mine:

Here is TeGGeR's first post regarding the costs of refining used oil:

And here is TeGGeR's second post regarding the costs of refining used oil:

snip

Clearly, "Rob B" explicitely talked of recycling, refinement, and cleansing of used oil to transform it into synthetic oil, and so did TeGGeR, who emphasized that it is "extremely expensive to recover post- consumer motor oil." It was only after my posting,

snip

that TeGGeR talked of chemical transformation. He may had this in mind all the time but he didn't say so until later.

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D END OF KARL'S POST = =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=20

.
Reply to
karl

That is correct, you also mentioned the costs of collecting the oil. And what else you exactly wrote I documented in my previous post.

Fact is that the discussion was about turning used oil into synthetic by "cleaning" it. And if you remember it differently then quote the relevant posts.=20

.
Reply to
karl

"karl" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

OK, you win. I guess I've killed too many memory cells with beer. It's not that important anyway.

Reply to
TeGGeR®

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