Synthetic oil

[mrtexas]

John, I'm not saying that you can or can't, but sooner or later you are going to have to. I was at my auto part's store last month to purchase conventional motor oil. There were shelves and shelves of synthetics but only one small shelf with only one brand of conventional oil. When I asked the owner of the store about it he replied that it's only a matter of time before the conventional oil won't be a viable product for him to stock.

There is a simple explanation for what you saw. "Conventional" motor oil is made from crude that contains lubricants. The conventional motor oil was simply separated from the crude. Aromatics and wax are taken out and what is left is motor oil base stock. "Lube" crude is becoming less available and more expensive. The oil companies have had to take crude without lubricants in it and manufacture "synthetic" motor oil from it by a chemical process called hydrocracking. IMHO "synthetic" is just a marketing word from oil companies. It is "better", "newer", etc. I worked for XOM for 32 years as a chemical engineer involved with motor oil for part of my career. BTW motor oil has some 40% additives in it that aren't motor oil!

BTW most "synthetic" motor oils are still crude oil based. PAO base motor oils are not made from crude. They are "designer" molecules manufactured from ethylene are purer than any crude oil based motor oils. Mobil 1 is a PAO oil as are a few others.

 

[Ron_r1959]

Good explanation, I learned something new today LOL Thanks

 

[Merc Cruzer]

Castrol 20/50 with Zink at Wallmart. Real dead dinosaurs!

 

[Ziggster]

I recall some brouhaha many years back regarding the word “synthetic”. As mentioned, the courts or some other regulatory body “loosened” the criteria for what could be considered “synthetic”. Despite all that though, I continue to use “synthetic” Mobil 1.