On 08/08/2017 3:35 PM, OK Don via Mercedes wrote:
There's a Youtube video out there that claims that after the law suit that
resulted in partially synthetic oils could be marketed as "synthetic", all
but one of the companies stopped making/selling true synthetic oil. I
believe that Herr Booth was correct, at the time, that M1 was far superior
and resulted in less wear, etc. However, the oils available to us today are
the same as they were then. The results of that Blackstone Labs study has
convinced me that there is virtually no difference in the oils we can buy
today, so go cheap.
For what it is worth, I will throw my 2 cents in . . .
I suspect that the primary advantage of synthetics is in either very hot
or very cold weather.
Here in the great white north, we get a lot of pretty cold weather.
I believe we were led to believe that the oil would flow much better in
the cold and provide more immediate protection to things like the
bearings if we use synthetic oils.
I wonder what difference one might see if one were to put a gallon of
the dino oil and a gallon of the synthetic oil in a freezer for a day or
two and then pour them out.
I remember pouring out a jug of dino oil in cold weather and saw a big
lump of some sort that looked like there was a can of the old STP in the
jug. Not sure if the cold caused it to separate from the other
ingredients but that was my thought at the time. Do the modern oils
avoid that sort of thing? Do the synthetics do it better?
The jug that I was pouring was likely 10W30. These days we are using
5W20 so much thinner to begin with.
I have been running M1 for the last 15 years or more in my trucks and my
wife's car but have never switched the old diesel to it as I have
trouble finding the right grade around here. I only drive it in the
summer and it gets few miles so I have never worried about it. Should I?
Hard to say. I started out using Rotella and have switched to Delo.
Am I wasting my money on the synthetic oils for the other vehicles? Hard
to say.
I have been a believer in changing oil and filter at very regular
intervals - about 3000 miles when I was running dino. More like 4K to 5K
with the synthetics. I had an 86 Taurus engine apart at over 100K miles
due to a bad head gasket and the inside looked like new and it never had
synthetic oil.
I guess I have to think that any oil is better than no oil and clean oil
is better than expensive dirty oil.
However, engines have become expensive and complex and I sort of think
of the synthetic as being more insurance against an expensive failure.
My truck is a 2013 F150 with the 5 litre coyote engine. It only has
about 39K miles on it. My wife's car is a 2007 Honda Accord with about
70K miles (if my memory is correct). We are not putting huge miles on so
I only change the oil in either of them about 2X each year. Dino oil
might be fine but the cost difference is minimal so I will likely carry
on with the M1 in both of them.
RB
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