Jsharp
HMMMMM, that would be 7 1/2 notes above middle C.
The Exxon stuff is like M-1 used to be before it became a department store oil.
There was some speculation, and posted on another discussion board, that with the merge of Mobil and Exxon, the latter may influence the quality of the consumer synthetic products for the better.
As far as I know, EssoExxon was the first company to devolop and market an HDMO PAO/ESTER blend synthetic 0W40 and 0W30.
Other oil companies followed quickly with group III HDMO 0W30 and XXW40 offerings, that quite likely needed a viscosity corrector and/or VI improver.
Mobil's Delvac 1 5W40 (and 15W50, which was dropped) were introduced about the same time in an attempt to market synthetics to truckers.
Delvac 1 is a commercial product where Mobil 1 is a consumer product and blended to meet a price point instead of a performance standard, which PAOs were originally known for.
Without knowing the facts, we can only speculate that the recient and numerous blending changes to consumer Mobil 1 was an attempt to lower the production costs and price for the retail market.
Exxon on the other hand is never seen in department stores, and is very expensive for gas station managers to justify stocking considering the rate the product is shoplifted. (inventory shrinkage)
Besides, nobody can afford a car synthetic that is expensive as Delvac 1 at gas station prices.
Twenty dollar VOAs will only tell the additive package typicals, and not the base oil particulars other than viscosities and flash point.
I believe that lighter base oils cost less to manufacture whether synthetic or conventional.
A product of either discription could then be made cheaper by using a very light base oil then adding a small amount of a very high "viscosity corrector" to bring the formula up to the desired final viscosity.
Conventional engine oils may use bright stock (brite) and VI improvers blended with a very light base oil to arrive at a desired viscosity.
Tri-synthetic may, could, perhaps, been just a smoke and mirror attempt to pull one over on the consumer and lower the retail price to compete with group III synthetics......
Tit for tat. If you can call a group III a synthetic, then we can play that game too with PAO blends.
Nobody told any lies as there could be a three blend synthetic in the bottle.
A very light base oil, an ester additive carrier/seal conditioner, and a very viscous synthetic corrector.
German Castrol and a few others may be single grade (cut if you will) PAO synthetics that are already the desired viscosity of the finished product with the added ester additive carrier.
If that and/or anything I have written above is true, then the non-blended products are the better and more expensive ones to produce, and the final price to the consumer will again be higher.
[ November 05, 2003, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: userfriendly ]
