Synthetics Incompatible with Certain Bearings?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
127
Location
Bakersfield, California U.S.A.
I called Blackstone Labs the other day about an oil analysis I had not recieved yet, so he went over it with me on the phone. I have continuing high lead #'s in my analysis which worry me. He continued to say that some bearings are just incompatible some synthetics. Is this true? I will post my UOA as soon as I get it, but I have never heard of this phenomenon regarding bearing wear.
 
Every engine is different, to the extent that wear metals differ markedly among dino oils or syn oils, even among the same brand/type of engine. It would be almost impossible to prove bearing incompatibility due to the type of oil given that the engine is sound
 
Being that there are only a few bearing manufactures out there I'd have to disagree with them. Most bearings never wear past the babit layer anyway.
 
Perhaps he meant to say that certain engines experience more bearing wear with certain weights of synthetic oil.

btw-what synth and what weight ..engine etc??
 
With continuing high lead numbers, I would get some expert advice from someone like Terry Dyson.

I've never seen any evidence myself to suggest that bearings care one way or the other whether it dino, PAO, or Group III like your Syntec.

The Syntec 10W-40 is an extremely thin 40 wt. oil.
Just barely 40 wt.

Maybe the viscosity of the syns is a problem?
dunno.gif


[ July 13, 2004, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: haley10 ]
 
quote:

10w-40 Syntec in Chevy 383 stroker.

Hmmm ..high torquer ..lots of burn/thrust duration ..lots of bearing squish..

Given the results ..I'd be prone to go to a 15w-50.

What type of oil pump do you have (std, hv, hp, hd)? What's your oil pressure running at?

About a decade ago some machinists found that the blind use of synthetic were great for the valve train ..especially those with hydraulic lash..but they also found that, in some engines (since they were seen by a machinist ..they obviously saw some "exceptional service") bearings didn't do so well. My neighbor is one such machinist and related this too me. He does, however, tend to work in the weekend racer type realm.

Which leads me to ask...

How do you use this obviously non-OEM engine (as in, "never came off the assemblyline in a vehicle)??
 
Coolant would show up in Blackstone's tests. So its probably not that, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Could it be the assembly of the engine? Maybe bearing gaps are out of tolerance, the block was not line bored, a fastener snapped on the main or rod caps, old fasteners used, fasteners not properly torqued, etc. Could be a million things. Who built this engine? Could there be high wear on the cam bearing?
 
What crashz said...

Plus I don't believe you ever stated the air filter you are using. Might want to look at that.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Jason Troxell:
What crashz said...

Plus I don't believe you ever stated the air filter you are using. Might want to look at that.


When you look at the silicon #'s to see how your air filter is doing, keep in mind the Syntec voa. It has a very high 6-7ppm silicone that will need to be take in to account. It may elevate the silicon readings in uoa.
 
I have seen posts on other newsgroups that Mobil 1 synthetic gear oil is not the best choice for "yellow" metals like copper or brass. Some axles, wheel hubs, etc have brass bushings. Engine cam bearings?

If you have high lead, maybe the polishing on the crank journals was less then perfect or one or two got nicked in assembly.

Or maybe you need to go to a different grade of oil.
 
You should use Terry Dyson's services.

Redline is the only oil I've seen that has elevated Pb numbers in certain engines. It's the type of bearing materials being used that react differently with RL's chemistry. You'll see this in Honda engines, but not in VW/Subaru engines where RL does well.
 
I have used Terry's services and am doing what he said to do. Which was run one interval, then test again. I decided to test this interval anyways just to see what was going on (its also just kinda fun to do it) This should probably be in the UOA section, but I'm having some trouble with Blackstone getting the results.

Oil pump is a high volume unit, and K&N 3002 filter was used.
 
Didn't someone post on an earlier topic that they were getting high lead levels in their UOAs, and traced them to the (over)use of Techron concentrate as a fuel additive?
 
I know of no currently available "synthetic" automotive lubricants that would be harmful or incompatible with any bearing or for that matter seal materials in engines built in the last 20 years.

Additives with Chlorinated Paraffins that are improperly inhibited, fuel or oil adds,bonding or gasket making agents that have very aggresssive and not very lubricious solvency DO affect bearing wear rates. Of course the synthetic fluids and additives used in coolants could affect bearings too.
 
Maybe the issue is because some synths are blended toward the thin side of the SAE spec. We all know that thin oils are bad
grin.gif


I'm a little surprised that the knowingly excellent KN filter didn't filter out the lead.

An easy solution would be to use the Neo oils. Last I heard they were still using a lead EP/AW additive. All you'll have to say that the high lead is the oil additive and the bearings aren't wearing at all
smile.gif
kinda like a pseudo placebo effect!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top