Uh oh, Here We Go Again!

Synthetic oils were originally designed for the purpose of having a very pure base oil with excellent properties. By

starting from scratch and building up your oil molecules from little pieces, you can pretty much guarantee that every

molecule in the oil is just like every other molecule, and therefore the properties are exactly what you designed in,

not compromised by impurities from dead cockroach shells or whatever. Synthetics were thus originally a reaction to

the relatively poor refining processes available from about 1930 to about

designed for the Army Air Force in WW II. They simply could not make their high- performance turbo-charged

radial engines stay alive on the available motor oils of the time.

One process for making synthetic base oils is to start with a chemical called an olefin, and make new molecules by

attaching them to each other in long chains, hence "poly." The primary advantage of Poly-Alpha-Olefin "PAO" base

oil is that all the molecules in the base oil are pretty much identical, so it's easy to get the base oil to behave exactly

as you like. PAOs are called Group IV base oils.

Until about 2000, these PAO base oils had an enormous advantage over mineral base oils in low temperature

performance and in resistance to oxidation, which is critical in keeping the oil from forming acids. However, modern

group-III oils can nearly match the performance of PAOs at about half the price. Because of this, PAO based oils are

rapidly disappearing. There are new processes being investigated which may significantly cut the cost of producing

PAOs, and make them an important component of oil again.

Another type of base oil is made from refined and processed esters and is called Group V. Esters start life as fatty

acids in plants and animals, which are then chemically combined into esters, diesters, and polyesters. Your

vegetarian girlfriend should love that. Group V base stocks are the most expensive of all to produce. However, the

esters are polar molecules and have very significant solvent properties - an ester base oil all by itself will do a very

decent job of keeping your engine clean. So, people who are serious about making a superior oil will usually mix

some Group V oils into their base stock.

Finally, there are new chemicals emerging which are made from liquefied natural gas called GTL (gas to liquid) base

oils. These will be called Group III+, and many people think they will become an important part of the oils you buy

by 2010. These GTL base oils have natural VIs of 140 or more, meaning for most applications they won't require any

VII package at all. Natural gas is primarily made up of only one type of molecule, so the refining is already done for

you. Most oil wells throw off a lot of natural gas.

Most use a base oil supplied by Shell if I remember correctly but some does not..

See my previous post.

Animal fats would be considered a poor source of lubricating oil.

It can be..... depends on what the chemists do to it...

Now Bill.... you know as well as I do that engines can run perfectly well on

In Brazil most of the cars run on alcohol

OK, I've read the posts and I'm ready to tell you about my two VW's. I have the $62.37 oil change done at the dealership using 100% synthetic oil, and have the oil changed every 10,000 miles. Yes, you read correctly, every TEN THOUSAND miles. I know I'm ahead of the game paying that much for an oil change.

As proof, I present to you, Pocket Pussy.

So do you get 'real' synthetic oil or the 'fake' stuff for you money?

Mike

Unfortunately Bill is actually more right than wrong.

You are out of date on oil definitions.

The oil companies went to court to change the definition of 'synthetic' oil.

Now they can slap a fancy label on anything more refined than crude or bunker C oil and call it 'synthetic' and charge 3 or 4 times the price of the same oil without the fancy label.

Mike

billy ray proclaimed:

The USA available supply of natural gas is nowhere near as large as our supply of dino goo unfortunately. Nor is the fairly low grade coal and oil shale found pretty much all over the west USofA. One really efficient tactic of getting oil and gas from poor grade shale suffers from a small environmental and political issue--folks don't like nukes in their backyard.

We agree your knowledge of basic chemistry is sadly lacking, and when cornered, your debating skills involve mostly the waving of hands and going further off the wall. You should stick to areas where you have some knowledge.

L.W.(Bill) Hughes III proclaimed:

One of the finest lubricating oils ever is from animals whales to be specific. However, once you have the organic material, it is really more an issue of energy and efficiency and cost to take what you got and get what you want. Animal fats are simply not economic--particularly compared to crude oil, coals, shales, gas, and possibly plant sources although currently the plant sources take more oil energy than they return.

billy ray proclaimed:

He gets the real fake stuff. Which for all practical purposes is as good as the fake real stuff or the fake fake stuff or the cracked and synthesized fake real stuff or the cracked and synthesized real stuff or the synthesized and cracked fake stuff real, or the crackpots who think the source of a particular chemical has sod all to do with the properties.

Mike Romain proclaimed: