1976 Poplar Science article on synthetic oil.

[tig1]

I read this article in 1978 at the Mobil station in Bath,Me. where I purchased M1 oil for $5.00 a qt. If you are interested scroll down to page 90. I remember some of the oils shown there.

http://books.google.com/books?id=FAEAAAA...nce&f=false

 

[StevieC]

No link?

 

[tig1]

Sorry. There it is.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Interesting that M1 had a 5w-20 grade some 35 years ago.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Interesting that M1 had a 5w-20 grade some 35 years ago.


It is. I first used it in a 76 Dodge slant 6. Oil consumption went up a little but sure worked well in the Maine winters. Latter in a 305 Chev.

 

[Popinski]

Sorry, off-topic comment. I just had to laugh at the "Bradley GT" ad. That thing is ugly as sin.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Sorry. There it is.
No worries, I thought maybe I was too tired to see it...

Really tired... Been a long day looking at BITOG on my I-Phone.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Would non-synthetic oils of those days actually solidify when the engine cooled, even for just an hour? The article doesn't say whether that was in winter in Wisconsin or something.

 

[addyguy]

The article does say that these problems were observed in the Southwest, in the late 1960's.

I'm assuming it's a problem with exteme heat, and the oils oxidizing soo fast that they just 'gelled' into a solid lump.

The article does say that by 1976, thios problem had mostly been solved - I'm assuming that the advent of SE-spec oils in 1971 were what solved this - these problems came from pre-SE oils...

 

[Silber Igel]

I still have a copy of the article! Great to be able to revisit all those old adverts and think of times gone by!

Good find!!!

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Silber Igel
I still have a copy of the article! Great to be able to revisit all those old adverts and think of times gone by!

Good find!!!


Thanks. According to the guy doing the video, that was the longest article PS ever produced.

 

[Geo_Prizm]

$5 a quart in 1978? It must be like $30 a quart in 2010 currency.
What changed since then that made a quart of synthetic oil way cheaper?

 

[BobFout]

Originally Posted By: Geo_Prizm
$5 a quart in 1978? It must be like $30 a quart in 2010 currency.
What changed since then that made a quart of synthetic oil way cheaper?


Probably a mix of technology and volume.

 

[CBR.worm]

So the lincoln that ran 100,000 miles without an oil change had 1qt added every 1k, so 100 makeup quarts in 100k. Today I change my oil about every 7.5k (I know, too soon - but it's a VQ35) and have used about 111 quarts in the last 100k

Essentially he had oil changes quite regularly without the benefit of a drain.

 

[yaris0128]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: tig1
Sorry. There it is.
No worries, I thought maybe I was too tired to see it...

Really tired... Been a long day looking at BITOG on my I-Phone.

I need to get an iPhone

 

[wgtoys]

Thanks, that was fun to read. It seems to me that Popular Science was written to a higher standard in those days then it is today.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: Geo_Prizm
$5 a quart in 1978? It must be like $30 a quart in 2010 currency.
What changed since then that made a quart of synthetic oil way cheaper?


Yep. Volume. When I started using M1 in 78 nobody heard on synt oil.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: tig1
Sorry. There it is.
No worries, I thought maybe I was too tired to see it...

Really tired... Been a long day looking at BITOG on my I-Phone.

I need to get an iPhone

No you will end up with neck problems and always need to be near a wall-plug because the battery life sucks.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
So the lincoln that ran 100,000 miles without an oil change had 1qt added every 1k, so 100 makeup quarts in 100k. Today I change my oil about every 7.5k (I know, too soon - but it's a VQ35) and have used about 111 quarts in the last 100k

Essentially he had oil changes quite regularly without the benefit of a drain.


Yeah had the oil consumption been less than 1 qt/10k miles, then that would been impressive. At 1 qt/1k miles he was replacing all the oil every 5-7k miles. Not too impressive really. Today's SM Group II oils have come a lot closer to todays Group III synthetic. Apparently Mobil 1 was mostly PAO with some ester back then. But I guess the Group III is about as good.

 

[Ben99GT]

According to Wikipedia, All Proof became Red Line, is that true?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_oil

I only bring it up because All Proof was one of the brands shown in the article.