Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: SaturnIonVue
of Mobil's CoolAid and accepted the big switch from them too. Nevertheless, I'm of the belief that PAO IS superior to GpIII as a base-stock product. Why? Because no one seems to know or care about what levels of impurities that may still be IN GpIII oils as apposed to what impurities were never IN PAO based oils to begin with. What made me switch to synthetic oil in the first place was that PAO was a "pure" engineered oil with none of the thousands of harmful species of molocules that were in mineral oils even after refining.
Show me which of those superioroity metrics really holds true over your OCI. Again, not trying to be a Grp III apologist, just saying, because if you arent pushing to the point where the PAO is being used in a useful way, why pay for a pure PAO oil? DOubt it will make any difference in an ion or vue or most cars.
As for the lack of knowing what impurities are in there, you must be joking. IR, GC and a few other techniques let us easily know the basis of chemical content, plus how much sulfur, aromatics and other things there would be in the basestock.
No, I'm not joking at all about my concerns of what may be left over in the GpIII process. I've never heard or read of discussions about what wax--slack, or otherwise, what aromatics or other nasties may be left in there. Probably you're right--OCI to OCI maybe it doesn't matter, but over many OCI's maybe it does. I bought into synthetic oil about 25+ years ago when synthetic and PAO were one and the same thing, and I have used nothing but "synthetics" since then. Just because the oil blenders changed their secret recipies of herbs and spices doesn't mean I have to accept or believe the switch was for MY personal benefit. I think we know that how PAO is/was produced precluded nasties out of the product, and I was then, and still I am convinced that PAO base-stock is a superior base-stock than is other groups of base-stock. I am of the generation post SB/SC grade oils--of the same era when you could not buy motor oil anywhere else but from a gas station! At the time, Pennsylvania crude oils dominated the market. What you got then was an improvement over SA and SB but for decades SC, amd SD, and maybe even SE had a witches brew of every nasty imaginable--and your crankcase and dipstick would prove it to you!
Today, occasionally a thread comes along about "is it true that Quaker State and Pennzoil sludged up engines once upon a time" and it seems that more often than not various ones will answer: "no, that is an old wives tale" when I know for a certainty that those and some other oils did sludge up even well kept engines!! So, for some younger car lovers on here the issue becomes a just a myth as the deniers (who may not have even been born then, let alone driving and caring for cars) make their comments of denial. My concerns about GpIII vs. GpIV synthetic oils has its apologist and deniers already. I don't think we have seen many or any true reports of GpIII synthetic oils doing what Quaker and Pennzoil oils did 30-40 or so years ago. Believe me, I'm all for progress, especially in the state of the art of motor oils--it's just that when a BIG Switch comes along from what has been defined "as the best" to "it's just as good" I have to wonder who benefits--me and you--or just "them."
However, now that I think about it, I don't really care for CoolAid very much anymore!