Archive for March, 2011

Synthetic oils were originally used and are still used exclusively in aircraft jet engines.

The leading synthetic oil in the market, AMSOIL was first developed by Lieutenant Colonel Albert J. Amatuzio, the President and CEO of AMSOIL INC.

As a jet fighter squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Albert J. Amatuzio had the opportunity to witness synthetic lubricants in action.

In Feb. 1994, Al Amatuzio was officially recognized for his outstanding developments by Lubricants World Magazine and was inducted into The Lubricants World Hall of Fame for his pioneering effort in introducing synthetic motor oil in automobile engines.

The key advantage of snythetic oil is it’s superior performance characteristics under duress.

In order to reduce friction and wear on engine components, synthetic oil has to function dependably at severely hot and cold temperature extremes and has the to withstand rigorous and lengthy engine operation without chemical breakdown.

Trucking Companies who log millions of miles on their Diesel engines trust synthetic oil to do the job.

For example, Diesel oil and filtration products are designed to deliver 1,000,000 miles for overland trucks before a complete engine overhaul.

For vehicles, pure synthetics have been known to give car engines a life span of between 300,000 to 400,00miles.

Seven major benefits of synthetic oils over conventional oils are:

1. Extended engine life. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil has superior heat and oxidation resistance, controls sludge and extends engine life. Synthetic oil helps engines stay clean.
2. Synthetics maximize fuel economy, reduce oil consumption and emissions. AMSOIL has been proven to improve gas mileage. Conventional oil gets thicker and heavier with time due to vaporization. This affects the engine by making it do more work. Thus, contributing to poor circulation, reduced fuel economy and increased oil consumption, wear and emission.
3. Improves cold start up. The most wear on your car engine occurs on cold cranking early in the morning when it’s cold outside. The reason being that most of the oil is in the oil pan (sump) at the base of the engine. On cranking the oil is pumped up into the engine. Conventional oils are very thick or highly viscous at cold temperatures as opposed to synthetic oils which have low viscosity at cold tempertures. Synthetics also have a very low pour point, which means that synthetic oils flow freely until they get down to -58 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus, the engine is able to circulate synthetic oil easily on a cold day, cutting down on wear and tear.
4. Controls acid formation. Conventional oils contain contaminants such as sulfur. This is due to city driving (short trips of less than 10 miles and stop and go traffic patterns), which prevents the engine from operating at optimum operating temperatures. This means that complete combustion does not take place, and trace amounts of water that are present in the oil are not burned up. The trace amount of water present mixes up with sulfur to form sulfuric acid which corrodes the engine. Synthetic oil does not react with combustion by products and hence does not form into acids.
5. Protects against wear. The Four-Ball wear test for evaluating the protection provided by engine oil, has proven than AMSOIL has better anti-wear performance than it’s competitors. Synthetic oil not only extends engine life, but reduces major wear and tear on engine components.
6. Promotes engine cleanliness. Synthetic oil reduces engine deposits and as a result increase the engines efficiency. Conventional oil contains gunk (tars and waxes) that falls out of solution and builds up in the engine and reduces engine performance. Synthetics have excellent solvent properties which dissolve residues and combustion by products like carbon.
7. Saves money. AMSOIL synthetic oil extends drainage intervals to 25,000 miles while competing conventional oils must be changed every 3000 miles. The argument here is that expensive synthetics save you money because you change your oil less often. However, if your car is still under warranty, and factory scheduled maintenance or under a lease, then synthetic oil is a waste of money in my opnion. Therefore, synthetic oil is only beneficial to high mileage drivers such as Salespeople or Realtors.

I came across an interesting article by Professor Ed Hackett, a chemist at the University of Nevada Desert Research Center. His article is intended to help people like you and me make an informed choice based on more than the advertising hype.

Before we look at the most important properties of engine oil or motor oil, we must first distinguish the difference between petroleum based mineral oil and a truly synthetic oil.

Motor Oil

Crude oil is that precious black liquid that we drill for down beneath the bowels of our planet. Some call it dinosaur juice.

Whatever you call it, the price of sweet crude has sky rocketed recently due to turmoil in the Middle East to more than $100 a barrel.

At this rate I might have to ditch my car for the metro bus because the price of gas is through the roof.

Crude oil is shipped to refineries where is it is processed and refined into it’s component parts.

Crude oil is a mixture of gasoline, kerosene, light weight lubricating oil, motor oil, gear oil, tars, paraffins, waxes, asphalt, sand, dirt, and organic material also called aromatics.

Synthetic Oil

Pure Synthetic oil is chemically engineered in a lab.  Synthetic oils were originally designed to create a very pure base oil with excellent properties. Starting from the basics, synthetic oil molecules are designed to produce a motor oil with superior properties.

Synthetics have superior solvent properties and as a result they do a very good job of keeping your car engine clean.

Another superior property found in pure synthetics is their ‘superman’ like film strength. For example, high grade petroleum based oils have a ‘film strength’ of about 100 pounds without additives, and about 500 pounds with additives for added strength .

Pure synthetics like AMSOIL engine oils have a ‘film strength’ in excess of 3000 pounds.

Synthetic Blend Oils like Castrol Syntec are a combination of a pure synthetic (30%) and a highly refined petroleum based mineral oil. The reason for blending is to give the oil added body while taking advantage of superior lubricating properties of synthetics.

Synthetic Blends are good for old engines which are not designed to handle pure synthetics and may result in oil leaks. Modern engines are designed to handle either petroleum based mineral oils or pure synthetics, but always refer to your vehicles owner’s manual for the recommended oil.

According to Professor Ed Hackett, six important properties of a motor oil are:

• Viscosity
• Viscosity Index (VI)
• Flash point
• Pour point
• % sulfated ash
• % zinc

Viscosity

Viscosity is the most important property for an engine. Viscosity is a measure of the “flow-ability” of an oil or how easily oil pours at a specified temperature. Thicker oils generally have a higher viscosity, and thinner oils a lower viscosity.

If you stick a cheap can of petroleum based oil in the refrigerator to replicate winter conditions and then attempt to pour it out, you will observe how thick it gets.

Now imagine that this was the oil in your oil pan at the base of your engine on a cold Monday morning. On cranking your car engine this oil would be sucked up to lubricate the moving part in the engine.

Can you imagine the engine attempting to turn over with this thick gooey stuff lubricating your motor. This can result in the oil film being torn apart at high rpm. This is an example of a high viscosity oil.

Alternatively, pure synthetic oils maintain low viscosity at low temperatures up to -55 Fahrenheit. But, too low viscosity oil can shear and loose film strength at high temperatures.

So, you need the right balance of properties to meet the needs of your motor at cold and hot temperatures. Multi viscosity engine oils provide the required balance.

How Multi viscosity oils work: Polymers are added to a light base(5W, 10W, 20W), which prevents the oil from thinning as much as it warms up. Popular multi-viscosity grades today include 0W-20, 5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30, 10W-40 and 20W-50.”W” refers to the oil’s cold temperature viscosity rating, while the second number refers to the oil’s high temperature viscosity rating.

At cold temperatures the polymers are coiled up and allow the oil to flow as their low numbers indicate. As the oil warms up the polymers begin to unwind into long chains that prevent the oil from thinning as much as it normally would.

The result is that at 212 degrees Fahrenheit ( boiling point of water) the oil has thinned only as much as the higher viscosity number indicates.

Viscosity index (VI)

Viscosity Index is an empirical number indicating the rate of change in viscosity of an oil within a given temperature range.

Higher numbers indicate a low change, lower numbers indicate a relatively large change. The higher the number the better. This is one major property of an oil that keeps your bearings happy.

Flash point

Flash point is the temperature at which an oil gives off vapors that can be ignited with a flame held over the oil.

The lower the flash point the greater tendency for the oil to suffer vaporization loss at high temperatures and to burn off on hot cylinder walls and pistons. The flash point can be an indicator of the quality of the base stock used.

The higher the flash point the better. 400 Fahrenheit is the minimum to prevent possible high consumption.

Pour Point

Pour point is 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the point at which a chilled oil shows no movement at the surface for 5 seconds when inclined. This measurement is especially important for oils used in the winter.

A borderline pumping temperature is given by some manufacturers. This is the temperature at which the oil will pump and maintain adequate oil pressure. The lower the pour point the better.

% Sulfated Ash

% sulfated ash is how much solid material is left when the oil is reacted with sulfuric acid and burned. This is used to quantify the amount of metallic anti-wear and detergent additives in the oil.

Zinc dithiophosphate is a common detergent and antiwear additive that is reflected in this test.

% Zinc

% zinc is the amount of zinc used as an extreme pressure, anti- wear additive. The zinc is only used when there is actual metal to metal contact in the engine.

Hopefully the oil will do its job and this will rarely occur, but if it does, the zinc compounds react with the metal to prevent scuffing and wear. A level of .11% is enough to protect an automobile engine for the extended oil drain interval, under normal use.

Conclusion

From his extensive analysis, professor Ed Hackett came to the conclusion that only synthetic oils offered the most significant differences: due to their superior high temperature oxidation resistance, high film strength, very low tendency to form deposits, stable viscosity base, and low temperature flow characteristics.

He also states that Synthetics are superior lubricants compared to traditional petroleum oils. But you will have to decide if their high cost is justified in your application.

Oil change intervals:

The extended oil drain intervals given by the vehicle manufacturers(typically 7500 miles) and synthetic oil companies(up to 25,000 miles) are for what is called normal service. Normal service is defined as the engine at normal operating temperature, at highway speeds, and in a dust free environment.

Stop and go, city driving, trips of less than 10 miles, or extreme heat or cold puts the oil change interval into the severe service category, which is 3000 miles for most vehicles. Synthetics can be run two to three times the mileage of petroleum oils with no problems.

They do not react to combustion and combustion by-products to the extent that the dead dinosaur juice does. The longer drain intervals possible help take the bite out of the higher cost of the synthetics.

If your car is still under warranty you will have to stick to the recommended drain intervals. These are set for petroleum oils and the manufacturers make no official allowance for the use of synthetics.

Some oil companies, AMSOIL being an example, offer their own engine warranties. If the oils are used in compliance with the company’s recommendations (including extended drain intervals) and a problem is caused by the engine oil, the company will pay for the repairs. Check with the company for specifics of any warranties offered.

Personally, I believe that Synthetics offer long term benefits. Though expensive, synthetics are worth it in the long run because they extend the life of your vehicle’s engine.

Cheap oil should be changed frequently, every 3000 or 3500 miles before the additives begin to fail.

The purpose of oil is to not only lubricate your motor, but to also suspended particles which were small enough to get past the oil filter.

These suspended particles are left over carbon particles from the combustion process; therefore, the oil has to be drained frequently to prevent damage to the motor.

I hope this information will help you make an informed decision on how to select the best oil for your car.

Sources

http://micapeak.com/info/oiled.html