Fuel Dilution - Dino vs Synthetic

[Winston]

From this site I have learned that if you do a lot of short trips you will probably get fuel diluting your oil. I have also learned that a longer trip will cause that fuel to evaporate out of the oil again.

So I just read that old article from Popular Science that was recently posted here. In that article they commented on Fuel dilution and said that fuel will react differently with conventional oil than synthetic. With the conventional oil the fuel will cause harmfull byproducts to be formed in your oil. With Synthetic they said that would not happen. Is that true? If it is true, that would be a very good reason to use synthetic oil if you are a short tripper.

 

[bar1]

In short: yes.
If you do only short trips you fall into the severe service category and need synthetic oil or short OCIs if you use dino.

 

[Ray H]

In short: no.
That article was entertaining from an historical perspective, but has little relevance nearly thirty years later. If you're a short tripper, change out according to your car's owner's manual "severe service" recommendation - regardless of oil formulation if you intend to maintain your warranty rights. Even ExxonMobil had sense enough to come down off their corporate high-horse regarding extended drain intervals.

(Would anyone on BITOG seriously consider using a thirty year-old synthetic "SE" motor oil over a modern conventional "SM" motor oil in a 2006 Acura TL? Really?)

 

[Winston]

I was actually wondering more specifically whether fuel gas reacts more with conventional oil than synthetic. Was that article incorrect about that specific point?

 

[Matt89]

"Even ExxonMobil had sense enough to come down off their corporate high-horse regarding extended drain intervals."

RayH, not sure what you mean here. With Mobil 1 Extended Performance you can do as many short trips as you want in a year. Sounds like a high horse to me...