Popular Science - April 1976 on Synthetic oil

[bullwinkle]

Mobil 1 in those early days really pushed the cold flow benefits
I don't envy the pioneers (boomers mainly ) having to get up on a cold snowy morning with the jumper cables and the can of starting fluid to get the old 460 BBF or 455 Olds started in the morning

The last time we had a daytime temperature as cold as last Friday here was in the early-mid '80s (1983 or '84), IIRC NOTHING we had would start! No EFI, no synthetic oil, just %^&$# carbureted JUNK! Now everything starts, sometimes on the first try!

 

[fantastic]

It's crazy that they were going 50,000 to 100,000 miles on the same oil and just topping it off and changing the oil filter over that time. Maybe the oil use/burn rate was high enough so the oil was always replenished fairly well with top off - ?. The fully synthetic Mobil 1 oil back then might have actually been better than the everyday consumer "full synthetic" of today, as I'd think going 100,000 miles on today's full synthetic wouldn't fair that well.

One of the test cars stated 1 quart per 1,000 Miles so a fairly heavy burn rate. In 4-5,000 miles you'd have all new oil replaced lol.

 

[wpod]

It's crazy that they were going 50,000 to 100,000 miles on the same oil and just topping it off and changing the oil filter over that time. Maybe the oil use/burn rate was high enough so the oil was always replenished fairly well with top off - ?. The fully synthetic Mobil 1 oil back then might have actually been better than the everyday consumer "full synthetic" of today, as I'd think going 100,000 miles on today's full synthetic wouldn't fair that well.

I would imagine HPL top of their line oil would be the ticket these days.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I would imagine HPL top of their line oil would be the ticket these days.

Maybe someone will do some crazy long OCIs with HPL to test that out.

 

[fantastic]

Maybe someone will do some crazy long OCIs with HPL to test that out.

I think one of the staff members wwillson. I think they ran a good chunk of miles on a new heavy duty truck. It wasn't 100k but a good chunk. You've probably already seen that post but I can dig it up if you'd like.

Edit: It looks like it was 19k not really "Crazy Long"

 

[loneryder]

It's crazy that they were going 50,000 to 100,000 miles on the same oil and just topping it off and changing the oil filter over that time. Maybe the oil use/burn rate was high enough so the oil was always replenished fairly well with top off - ?. The fully synthetic Mobil 1 oil back then might have actually been better than the everyday consumer "full synthetic" of today, as I'd think going 100,000 miles on today's full synthetic wouldn't fair that well.

I tried Mobil 1 when it came out in my fairly new Dodge slant 6(70’s). It started using oil. I figured it was blowing thru it because it was thin.(for back then) Didn’t use it anymore.

 

[Cujet]

Mobil 1 in those early days really pushed the cold flow benefits

They can't do that today, as their AN based M1 oils just about gel up at -30.

 

[OVERKILL]

They can't do that today, as their AN based M1 oils just about gel up at -30.

PAO counteracts this. Mobil doesn't use anywhere near as much AN as HPL does, but HPL still gets wickedly low cold flow numbers due to use of PAO.

 

[ford250]

One of the test cars stated 1 quart per 1,000 Miles so a fairly heavy burn rate. In 4-5,000 miles you'd have all new oil replaced lol.

Back in 1978 a high school friend of mine’s father bought a new Chevy truck
350 V8
After factory fill he drained and filled with back then the New Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil

Wasn’t long a cam lobe was wiped off and his days of Synthetic Oil was over and gone
GM wasn’t to kind about the warranty claim !!

My how things have changed !!

 

[OVERKILL]

Back in 1978 a high school friend of mine’s father bought a new Chevy truck
350 V8
After factory fill he drained and filled with back then the New Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil

Wasn’t long a cam lobe was wiped off and his days of Synthetic Oil was over and gone
GM wasn’t to kind about the warranty claim !!

My how things have changed !!

Ahhh the old GM soft cams era.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I wonder how those 100k mile oil changes worked out. But then in 1976 wasn't the average engine ready for a rebuild after 100k?

It wasn’t even close to a 100k OCI… he was “using” a quart per 1k and changing filters on a reasonable basis… I’m surprised he wasn’t promoted to the VP of marketing after making such blatantly untruthful statements like that about a 100k oil change!!

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

PAO counteracts this. Mobil doesn't use anywhere near as much AN as HPL does, but HPL still gets wickedly low cold flow numbers due to use of PAO.

-76*F on the No VII Euro 5w30… I can guarantee I’ll never be attempting to start my car at those temps. I’ll be sitting next to a raging fire, with thermals on and wrapped in something warm!

 

[ZeeOSix]

It wasn’t even close to a 100k OCI… he was “using” a quart per 1k and changing filters on a reasonable basis… I’m surprised he wasn’t promoted to the VP of marketing after making such blatantly untruthful statements like that about a 100k oil change!!

Adding a quart every 1000 miles is basically a perpetual oil change. In 5000 miles you've essentially changed the sump once ... one quart at a time.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Adding a quart every 1000 miles is basically a perpetual oil change. In 5000 miles you've essentially changed the sump once ... one quart at a time.

Yep, so in effect the synthetic oil was changed more frequently than their “control” sample, the mineral oil that was changed at 6k intervals. The filter was essentially then changed on a Honda-type interval, basically every 2 sump changes.

I don’t know of many more ways one could be more intentionally misleading than what’s discussed in that article. And to think that it was presented as actual information and not a paid advertisement!

 

[travis8352]

-76*F on the No VII Euro 5w30… I can guarantee I’ll never be attempting to start my car at those temps. I’ll be sitting next to a raging fire, with thermals on and wrapped in something warm!

My boss would say "sooooo your still coming right?"

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

My boss would say "sooooo your still coming right?"

Mine too!

 

[Stumpy]

The Illinois State Police back in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s ran Mobil 1 in their patrol cars. I spent of an hour talking to one of their fleet managers around 2005. He said back when the big three offered only 24 or 36,000 mi warranties on their cars they would change oil when it was recommended. As soon as the car was out of warranty they would change the oil every 25,000 Miles! They bought Mobil 1 in 55 gallon drums so the cost was not as bad as you would think it'd be and they saved a whole bunch of money by changing oil once every 25k. He said every time they lost an engine they would send it to the main garage and they tear it down. He said there was never a wear-related or oil failure problem that caused that engine to go bad. He said they had to abandon the Mobil 1 synthetic when the legislature took a anti police budget stance in the early 2000s and slashed their maintenance budget.

 

[wpod]

Ahhh the old GM soft cams era.

Now days everything is soft.

 

[oil pan 4]

It's crazy that they were going 50,000 to 100,000 miles on the same oil and just topping it off and changing the oil filter over that time. Maybe the oil use/burn rate was high enough so the oil was always replenished fairly well with top off - ?. The fully synthetic Mobil 1 oil back then might have actually been better than the everyday consumer "full synthetic" of today, as I'd think going 100,000 miles on today's full synthetic wouldn't fair that well.

Yeah they were burning/leaking a quart per thousand miles.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Now days everything is soft.

Same old racing saying applies to new engines from auto manufacturers… “if you can afford to fix it when it breaks, you could have afforded doing it right the first time.”