Who was first with syn. oil?

[4ever4d]

My hunting/fishing partner whom i've known many years is hard core amsoil i love to kick start him by telling him M1 was first on the scene he debates the issue, does anybody know infact who developed the first syn. oil?

 

[c3po]

I know for a fact that Amsoil came out with a synthetic oil in 1972, I believe the owner had a batch in the 1960's.

I think Mobil 1 came onto the scene in 1976, but I also think the Germans were making some kind of synthetic oil back during WWII.

 

[dirty]

In the mid 1960s Chevron U.S.A was the first to market and produce a complete range of 100% synthetic Polyalphaolefins based lubricants, which began to be marketed as a substitute for mineral oils for engine lubrication. Although in use in the aerospace industry for some years prior, synthetic oil first became commercially available in an American Petroleum Institute (API)-approved formula for automobile engines when standards were formalized for synthetic-based lubricants.
Other early synthetic motor oils marketed included "The Original Syn!" by SynLube in 1969, NEO Oil Company (formally EON) in 1970, which were dibasic acide esters, or diesters, and polyol esters-based synthetic lubricants. In 1971 All-Proof, now called Red Line, introduced a synthetic oil, followed fourth by Amsoil who packaged and resold a diester-based 10W40 grade from Hatco[8] in 1972, and then Mobil 1, introduced in North America in 1974 (with a PAO-based 5W20 grade).

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Quattro Pete]

If you trust wikipedia on this subject, supposedly Chevron came up with something in the mid 60s...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_oil

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: dirty

Source: Wikipedia

Ha! Beat me to it.

 

[4ever4d]

I remember M1 from back then but i didn't remember amsoil until some years later i am mostly curiously interested,didn't know about the german experiment,interesting info i'm getting here!

 

[4ever4d]

I like the blocked out M1 bottle on wiki! With Chevron being the "first" wonder why m1 and ams top the market,advertising maybe?

 

[shpankey]

Houkster would be so proud of the SynLube. lol

So SynLube was one of the first? btw... anyone ever use this stuff? Supposedly a "lifetime" oil b/c it's truely 100% pure synthetic and never goes bad. Sounds crazy talk to me.

 

[nfs480]

It is crazy talk

 

[lovcom]

I think you are all wrong...it was the Germans, before WW2 that made synthetic oil and even marketed it back then...around late 1930s or early 1940s.

While on the subject of the Germans, they were also the first to administer Chemo to cancer patients, back in the late 1930s.

 

[L_Sludger]

Yeah the Germans needed synthetic oils for their jet engine designs, so they have MobilOil licked.

 

[nfs480]

I believe Amsoil claims to have had the first synthetic oil to "meet API certifications" which is not the same as first synthetic oil.

 

[defektes]

The Germans made synthetic petroleum during WW2

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I think Mobil Oil Co. has a patent from late 50's.

 

[lovcom]

Originally Posted By: defektes
The Germans made synthetic petroleum during WW2


True, and when they could not keep and develop the Russian oil fields, they started making synthetic oil, and refining gasoline from it. They also made synthetic gasoline from other sources and chemical processes too.

 

[Trav]

Interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process

 

[mechtech2]

Whoever it was, they spoke German.

This was greatly accelerated in WWII.
The Russians lit fires under their oil pans in the brutal winters - the Germans designed synthetic oil.
Another reason was the lack of crude oil.

 

[shpankey]

Originally Posted By: defektes
The Germans made synthetic petroleum during WW2

They also developed a synthetic morphine, since they couldn't get any supplies in.

 

[paulo57509]

The first synthetic motor oil I recall seeing (and using) was Pennzoil PZL.

http://www.adclassix.com/a3/78pennzoilmotoroil.html

And it's in the popular 10w-40 Grade!

 

[Tom NJ]

If you are referring to synthetic motor oils, it depends how you define a "motor oil".

A paste from a reply I gave in the past to a similar question:

"Just because someone mixes up a synthetic in their garage or pours a jet engine oil in their car does not earn them a seat in synthetic oil history. Experimentation is easy, but it is success that counts. There were standards in place at the time that defined what an product must do to be considered a motor oil, and the Amsoil product was the first to meet those standards. That earns a seat.

Wikipedia is only as accurate as those who feed it, and is sometimes slanted by personal or commercial bias.

There were many pioneering experimenters at the time and they deserve credit for their efforts, but Amatuzio broke the "approval" barrier and so gets the trophy."

If you are talking about synthetic oils in general (not just motor oils), they were around since the 1930s or earlier.

Tom NJ