Quote:
Originally Posted by nkwasley
Is synthetic oil better 5W-30? Why or why not? What is the differance?
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Greetings !
The term synthetic is being used very loosely these days.
Synthetic oil used to mean chemically engineered oil.
Now that the big oil companies have hydrocracked /isodewaxed their conventional motor oils, the council of better business bureas' National advertizing division has ruled several years ago that synthetic is now just a marketing term when applied to motor oil.
There are 2 types of synthetics on the market today, one is the original chemically engineered synthetic which is a group 4 chemically engineered basestock, and the "NEW" synthetics which are group 3 basestocks that are conventional oil that has been refined one step further in a process called hydrocracking/Isodewaxing.
This process does improve the lubrication quality versus conventional basestocks, and costs a lot less to make than chemically engineered synthetics, unfortunately in many stores they are priced nearly the same as a chemically engineered oil, and if you check the ASTM test results on the oil specification sheets, you will see the difference in performance.
A majority of "Synthetic oils on the market today are group 3 hydrocracked/ isodewaxed petroleum base oil.
If you seek out and find a chemically engineered oil, in most cases it will outperform conventional oil, and the "NEW" synthetics by a wide margin in the areas of wear, viscosity index, volatility, oxidation, cold flow, and shear stability.
Hope this is helpful !
Have a great day !
Don
