someone care to respond to this bash on synthetics?

[RobZ71LM7]

An engineer on our truck board made this post...
"A teaser for everyone who loves synthetics and are tech heads, consider microshearing and kinematic viscosity of the thin synthetic film in the bearing gaps and induce quick dynamic change - say acceleration... Yeah, if you're wondering I am a MAJOR tech head - ex-wrench turner, Doctorate of Engineering and Professional Engineer, and life-long gearhead, and I don't use synthethic oils! Over 180K on my 98's L31 and performing strong! "

BTW he uses conventional Valvoline. Here's the rest of his post...
http://www.pacific-audio.com/performance/messages/204959.html
He seems to be blaming the high copper wear on LS1's on synthetic motor oil.

 

[G-MAN]

Sounds like a blow-hard who's full of high viscosity fecal matter.

 

[TheLoneRanger]

I agree with what he said about lighter cast blocks and "piston slap", but about the rest.....

?????

 

[JWRENCH]

Well I may not be a major tech head over here, But my LS1 style truck engine takes longer to warm up, runs cooler, and gets better mileage on the synthetic stuff. That tells me less friction is going on and that's good enough for me. Oh yeah, it also made the same little ticking at startup with Castrol gtx as it does with Mobil 1 so there was no advantage with dino there either. I'd like to peek inside his high mileage dino engine to see how much copper his oil didn't carry away to the pan.

 

[MolaKule]

I agree with XHVI,

Me thinks he says too much.

As Stoessel say, "Gimme a break!"

What are his oil change intervals, never stated that.

 

[Idrinkmotoroil]

maybe he's a sanitary engineer ?, not that there is anything wrong with that. It just seems that he is not the best person to be preaching about motor oil. Valvoline appears to be one of the weakest conventional oil formulas on the market too.

 

[RobZ71LM7]

From searches of the forum I've gathered he uses conventional valvoline and ac delco filters every 3k miles. At the rate he's racked up miles (180k on a '98 model) and with the 3k interval it's pretty easy on the engine (even if he does tow an rv occasionally). I thought his stance against synthetics was pretty much b.s.

 

[turbochem]

quote:

---

Doctorate of Engineering and Professional Engineer

---

So? I have a B.S. in chemistry and working on my PhD. Does that mean I know anything whatsoever about engine lubrication? Nope. That's not my area of expertise...learning just like everyone else. Maybe I'll see what Ulmann's (Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry) has to say...even that's just sratching the surface. Maybe I'll go work for Mobil...then I could dazzle all on the board.

Just wondering what type of Engineer? If he's an Electrical Engineer, for example, why should that matter?

 

[Cutehumor]

hey jwrench

I see your from clarksville. I'm in Memphis, TN; my g/f is from clarksville and goes back often to visit her family..small world.

anyway, I agree. the bash against synthetic is probably based on monetary reasons than on actual evidence

 

[Mike_dup1]

Maybe he's educated beyond his intelligence.

I worked with engineers all my life and they have proven the above statement many times.

quote:

---

A teaser for everyone who loves synthetics and are tech heads, consider microshearing and kinematic viscosity of the thin synthetic film in the bearing gaps and induce quick dynamic change - say acceleration... Yeah, if you're wondering I am a MAJOR tech head - ex-wrench turner, Doctorate of Engineering and Professional Engineer, and life-long gearhead, and I don't use synthethic oils! Over 180K on my 98's L31 and performing strong!

---

I wonder how many times he changed his oil in those 180,000? Every 3000? Someone using synthetic could have got by changing every 10,000 and saving all that oil. Assuming those numbers he would have using 300 qts of oil just for oil changes, while the later only used 90 qts. So 210 qts of precious oil wasted and the money in the hands of the big oil companies, who buy 95% of the oil from the Middle East.

[ January 09, 2003, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: Mike ]

 

[Terry]

Mike that happened to me in 2nd grade !

 

[MolaKule]

Turbochem,

Excellent comment.

IMHO, Anyone who touts his education in front of someone else's nose, has a problem. I feel the only time its necessary to bring up the topic is when you have to defend your credentials when called into question, otherwise, mum is the word.