[al53]

I had to go to advanced auto to get a shackle for my truck...broke one on pot hole..while in there there was a guy from Pennzoil there stocking a new oil...its pennzoil Platinum but its a GTL oil..meaning gas to liquid..its made from natural gas...its claim is ..its the purest synthetic oil out..they dont have our weights yet..just 0-20 and 5-30..but he said they will be coming out with others soon...also pennzoil is a SOPUS company owned by Shell oil...I asked about Rotella T6 oil coming out in a 5-50 and he said yes...he asked me was it for a ATV or motorcycle ..I said ATV...he said they know its used alot for ATV an motorcyles and they are formulatiing one to supply that area....but still label it the same as the 5-40 T6...

he commented on the pennzoil also saying when the 0-40 or 5-40 comes out try it...its way ahead of its time...its pure synthetic...

i tried to look online for info but not much there ...must be that new..lol...but there is some chatter on bob is the oil guy on it..they are all very excited on this...

 

[jgue498]

New snoil?

Well we do have lots and lots of natural gas available to us in the US since about 5 years ago, so they had to find new uses. Maybe it really is better, who knows. The vid sounds a little like snake oil salesmen at work but hey if its cheaper than others and manages to provide either more lubrication and/or life - why not try it? :hmmm:

Real Life Mario Kart 8 @ SXSW ? Pennzoil PurePlus

 

[al53]

I dont think its a snake oil ad....or mobil castrol and valvoline would call out lies..its just technology advancements...they made a diesel fuel from it and its marketed for a few years now...just have to see how it pans out....nothing in weights we use right now....

 

[jgue498]

its still just oil

didn't mean to make it sound like its craxx, just that its a sales pitch. Not saying the oil is bad, i'm sure its good. but its still dino oil, not true synth, make sense?

 

[al53]

true....but in a cleaner form....its no different than synthetic oils made from dino oil just hydro refracted and a molecule change..that makes it synthetic..

Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials

some of the other raw materials are beef Tallow....plant oils...

 

[Sjjr613]

People assume that when they use synthetic that they don't have to change there the oil as often. NOT TRUE synthetic is a only beneficiary when you use it and change your oil at the same intervals as convectional oil, therefore being beneficiary for users. I use sythentic oil but its not all its cracked up to be. just more expensive. and what does synthetic have that makes it so good.

 

[kemblkr]

People assume that when they use synthetic that they don't have to change there the oil as often. NOT TRUE synthetic is a only beneficiary when you use it and change your oil at the same intervals as convectional oil, therefore being beneficiary for users. I use sythentic oil but its not all its cracked up to be. just more expensive. and what does synthetic have that makes it so good.

Synthetic oils don't break down like DINO oils so they continue to provide basically the same lubricity during their entire life cycle. However, they do become polluted with the byproducts of combustion so you should change them at regular intervals.

DINO oil starts to break down the first time it heats up in your engine and starts changing at a molecular level so it does not provide the same protection for as long a period.

Modern synthetics also stick to parts better than DINO oils so it keep your engine protected while it sits.

 

[jgue498]

a while back I read an article that described thru an analogy why synth was better than regular oil. It said to think of regular oil as say balls of different sizes on a gym floor (golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, football -not all round, etc.) and to think of synth as smaller balls like marbles in a gym yet all an even size/shape. If you were to lay anything flat and firm over them you'd have much more surface contact with the synth thereby allowing more lubrication and better cooling. Wikipedia basically says the same thing:

Advantages:
Better low- and high-temperature viscosity performance at service temperature extremes
Better (higher) Viscosity Index (VI)
Better chemical and shear stability
Decreased evaporative loss
Resistance to oxidation, thermal breakdown, and oil sludge problems
Possibility to extended drain intervals, with the environmental benefit of less used oil waste generated
Improved fuel economy in certain engine configurations
Better lubrication during extreme cold weather starts
Possibly a longer engine life
Superior protection against "ash" and other deposit formation in engine hot spots (in particular in turbochargers and superchargers) for less oil burnoff and reduced chances of damaging oil passageway clogging.
Increased horsepower and torque due to less initial drag on engine
Improved Fuel Economy - from 1.8% to up to 5% has been documented in fleet tests

Disadvantages:
Substantially more expensive (per volume) than mineral oils.
Potential decomposition problems in certain chemical environments (predominantly in industrial use.)
Because rotary engines inject small quantities of motor oil into the combustion chamber to lubricate the apex seals, and burned synthetic oil causes gummy deposits on the apex seals, synthetic oils are not recommended in automotive rotary engines.

I've always used regular oil but in the last year or so after reading so much about it on this site and others I've switched. Its just a few bucks more, still change my auto oil at 5K and sports/utility engines at 50 hours. Who knows the absolute Truth but synth has to be better or at least let us sleep better at night. :cowboy:

 

[kemblkr]

a while back I read an article that described thru an analogy why synth was better than regular oil. It said to think of regular oil as say balls of different sizes on a gym floor (golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, football -not all round, etc.) and to think of synth as smaller balls like marbles in a gym yet all an even size/shape. If you were to lay anything flat and firm over them you'd have much more surface contact with the synth thereby allowing more lubrication and better cooling. Wikipedia basically says the same thing:

Advantages:
Better low- and high-temperature viscosity performance at service temperature extremes
Better (higher) Viscosity Index (VI)
Better chemical and shear stability
Decreased evaporative loss
Resistance to oxidation, thermal breakdown, and oil sludge problems
Possibility to extended drain intervals, with the environmental benefit of less used oil waste generated
Improved fuel economy in certain engine configurations
Better lubrication during extreme cold weather starts
Possibly a longer engine life
Superior protection against "ash" and other deposit formation in engine hot spots (in particular in turbochargers and superchargers) for less oil burnoff and reduced chances of damaging oil passageway clogging.
Increased horsepower and torque due to less initial drag on engine
Improved Fuel Economy - from 1.8% to up to 5% has been documented in fleet tests

Disadvantages:
Substantially more expensive (per volume) than mineral oils.
Potential decomposition problems in certain chemical environments (predominantly in industrial use.)
Because rotary engines inject small quantities of motor oil into the combustion chamber to lubricate the apex seals, and burned synthetic oil causes gummy deposits on the apex seals, synthetic oils are not recommended in automotive rotary engines.

I've always used regular oil but in the last year or so after reading so much about it on this site and others I've switched. Its just a few bucks more, still change my auto oil at 5K and sports/utility engines at 50 hours. Who knows the absolute Truth but synth has to be better or at least let us sleep better at night. :cowboy:

Nice write up!

 

[robk]

Crude oil is a soup of many many different carbon-hydrogen molecules. Methane is CH4, or one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms. Ethan is C2H6, or two carbon atoms linked together with 6 hydrogen atoms (add one oxygen molecule and you get ethanol, my favorite hydrocarbon molecule). The longer the carbon chain the heavier the molecule. Gasoline is like C5 through C12, diesel is like C8 through C17, etc. Oils are in the C15 through C20 range. Longer chains make wax and asphalts. Along with the carbon molecules there are all kinds of other compounds and contaminants in crude - heavy metals, sulfer, carbon rings, etc. Petroleum products are made by refining, which is just using heat to distill off the lighter products. While this works well, the end products are by no means pure. There are so many variables including the source of the crude, the cracking process, etc. As a result, "dino" based motor oils are still a mixture of desirable and unwanted molecules. They are more susceptible to breaking down with heat and don't flow as well when cold.

Synthetic oil is made using chemistry to create very specific and desirable carbon chains. In the end there are no (or minimal) contaminants or undesirable products in the synthitic motor oil. Just the carbon chains intentionally created and other additives. As a result, the oils resist degredation and flow better. Natural gas is used as a feed stock to synthesize the carbon chains. The molecules in natural gas are essentially building blocks to make longer carbon chains.

 

[hatzie]

Outside of the high availability and quickly renewable aspect of natural gas... There are likely fewer initial contaminants making it easier to get an extremely clean base to synthesize the long chain hydrocarbons. This drives down the price.
I like the probability of much much cleaner product. With almost no initial contamination to screw with the add pack you should see better useful lifespan. 99.9% of your contamination would then be coming from the combustion chamber and not the oil itself. Synthetic fuel would close the loop on that one.

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