Is there less engine wear using Synthetics OIL?

[Jewel]

Is there less engine wear using Synthetics oil or is it the same engine wear if you used Dino OIL and changed oil at 3000 miles?

 

[Al]

That's the great unknown. Mob9il ran some tests a few years back where they compared engines with synthetic and dino. They ran vehicles 7.5K and 15 K miles intervals with both and at the end of the tests there was significantly less wear with synthetic. That would make sense because they probably pushed the dino oil well past its life. Unfortunately details are sketchy.

They did a more documented tist where they ran 4 vehicles 200K on Mobil 1 and at the end of the day they indicated that there was virtually no wear on all four cars.

My guess is that the wear factor is better with the synthetic over time. But with the later generation of oils which have some Group III in them, better stocks (Group II), and add moly to many of them..the difference is probably pretty small. Also oil analysis that we see with 3to 4 K dino oil changes don't (to me at least) show a lot of difference.

[ June 19, 2003, 11:09 AM: Message edited by: Al ]

 

[Patman]

If you live in a cold climate, then yes, you will see less engine wear if you run synthetic oil over dino, even with 3000 mile changes.

However for moderate climates, you should see virtually no difference between the two. This is of course assuming that the additive package between the two oils is the same. This is really one of the more important factors in determining engine wear, it's more critical than which base oil is used.

 

[Spector]

IMO if you canged with dino every 3000 miles your engien will long outlive the rest of the vehicle. There are a zillion engines out there with well over 100,000 miles using nothing but dino. However, no realy tests/studies (real life) to prove anything.

With synthetics so much is the hassle factor (fewer oil changes) the belief you are getting better protection. But as Bob is showing, Schaeffers does as well as most synthetics and it is more in the additives then the base oil.

 

[Hapuna Beach]

You have to be leary of some of those tests. You can always gear your tests for predictable results. If an engine is never allowed to cool down (with the exception of oil changes), and run non-stop on a test stand, most oils will probably go the distance.

Take the same engine and put 200k miles on it in a cold climate, with 2 to 8 cold soaks a day, and wear will increase greatly.

Hapuna

 

[pedaltothemetal]

Wear is equal!
If you hate changing your oil so often, then go for synthetics. I'm over 5000 miles now and my oil is still like new using synthetics. All I had to do was change the filter at 5000 and top up. Going for 10000 miles now.

Leo

 

[W8liftr]

But what about wear in my situation: 1) 4 seasons, so temperature is variable, and 2) almost all driving is short city driving (except for the occasional vacation trip) which consist of 3 miles to and 3 miles from work, maybe some longer trips on the weekends where the oil will heat up to operating temp—but I’m usually at the gym or detailing my cars on weekends

Is the additive package still the critical factor in this situation more so than base oil group? What I’ve gleaned from this forum steered me toward a group IV oil (e.g., http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002541 ).

 

[MolaKule]

Ahh, another "iron jerker." Welcome to the board.

 

[plexx]

I don't know if this applies to the subjet, but I work at a power equiptment store and one of our customers used nothing but Mobil 1 in an 11hp. Briggs and Straton engine. Well this engine used commercialy will almost always be junk after about 2-3 seasons, his lasted 8 years and when the mower fell apart and he bought a new one I did a compression check and it was within 20 psi of new. Later I took this motor apart and there was no scoring on the cylinder, no sludge, and you could still see some of the cross hatching in the cylinder.I know it's not a car but after seeing this I was sold.I also knew a guy who told me "now I can't be shure if he was telling me the truth" that he had a chevy suburban with 437,000 miles with no motor work ever done to this truck, he had the oil changes done at every 10k.Who knows but I think synthetics definitely offer better protection than any dino.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
If you live in a cold climate, then yes, you will see less engine wear if you run synthetic oil over dino, even with 3000 mile changes.

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I really wonder if this is true

Both dino and syn oils will be pretty close to 3500 cP at -20 C. I agree once you drop below that number than the 10W syn will do much better in comparison. So in Pa. I am comfortable to run the 10W-30 Mobil at say -15 F. and of course the 10W-30 Dino will be jelly here. But if you use the proper "W" grade (0W, 5W)- why would you see a difference in wear??