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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/24/2013 in all areas

  1. Gentlemen: It is important to note the real differences betweeen synthetic and "conventional" motor oils: Conventional oils are a blend of refined base oils from different levels of the catalytic cracker in a refinery i.e. heavy and light oils are blended together to achieve a particular viscosity rating eg 30W. Thus, under extreme or extended operating conditions, the light fraction tends to evaporate out, and the heavy fraction tends to break down to "lighter" molecules, which changes the characteristics of the oil. Synthetics are a "straight cut" from the cracker - one particular viscosity, if you will. As you can imagine, from any particular barrel of oil flowing through the refinery, there is only a very limited portion that has the exact desired characteristics, thus scarcity leads to the additional cost of "synthetics". All reputable oil refiners supply good quality oil that conforms to the API standards. As many have pointed out, the best protection for any engine is frequent oil changes, with the correct viscosity grade for the expected ambient temperatures. As a final point, note that the oil companies have large marketing departments, and are all competing for your $$, whilst supplying a product that is largely conforming to a very well known standard.
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