Why would I want synthetic blend?

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I have just found out for sure that my 4.0 Jeep engine has indeed had synthetic oil in it for the last 195,000 miles. I'm giong to be changing all the fluids, but I don't think I'm going to be paying 30 bucks for mobile 1 right now, but maybe in the summer when I'm towing my boat. What about synthetic blend? What are the benefits of that over dino oil? Is it worth the extra price?
 
Why not stick with what's been working? Mobil 1 is cheap enough at Wal-Mart that the price difference can't be more than about $15.
 
quote:

Originally posted by DonCT:
Why not stick with what's been working? Mobil 1 is cheap enough at Wal-Mart that the price difference can't be more than about $15.

First, there is no walmart around here and the cheapest I have seen mobile 1 is $4.75/quart...and I need 7 quarts. I also am going to be changing ALL of the fluids, and I will be using synthetic in the diffs and probably the transfer case. It's going to be expensive enough as it is...
 
Some SAE testing of synthetic blends showed an iceberg principle at work. It was a test done at least 3-4 years ago, if I remember it correctly.

You get 80% of the flow benefits of a full synthetic with a 20% PAO blend.

Pretty good trade off. Too bad so few synthetic blends are legitimate. Most have no PAO in them at all and are, in fact, a Group III/ Group II blend.
rolleyes.gif


--- Bror Jace
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:

quote:

Originally posted by DonCT:
Why not stick with what's been working? Mobil 1 is cheap enough at Wal-Mart that the price difference can't be more than about $15.

First, there is no walmart around here and the cheapest I have seen mobile 1 is $4.75/quart...and I need 7 quarts. I also am going to be changing ALL of the fluids, and I will be using synthetic in the diffs and probably the transfer case. It's going to be expensive enough as it is...


Easy solution.
Look at it this way.
Your choices are based on dollars.
You want the same as the car always had.
You take the money you would spend on DINO and buy the SYN for the MOTOR, that's number 1.
Then when the money comes in for the gears, replace them.
1. The gears take more abuse and can easily go at least twice what a oil goes because thers no combustion waste to ruin the fluids.

Second, a Syn in the gears will give you many many many miles more than a cheap dino, easily going 2-3-4-5 times, and chances are it was already taken care of and changed very frequently on normal peoples timescale.

I know people run dino and never change it and get 380-450K before the rear freezes or something like that... Certainly going a LITTLE while on the other fluids and taking the time to treat the engine to what its steady diet has been wont hurt.

So take care of IMPORTANT things first, and worry about the secondary issues later.

Put it this way, would you go an additional 10K on a tranny fluid reaching it's normal change or an ENGINE oil? Answers simple. Save the engine, the rest will take care of itself.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Bror Jace:
Some SAE testing of synthetic blends showed an iceberg principle at work. It was a test done at least 3-4 years ago, if I remember it correctly.

You get 80% of the flow benefits of a full synthetic with a 20% PAO blend.

Pretty good trade off. Too bad so few synthetic blends are legitimate. Most have no PAO in them at all and are, in fact, a Group III/ Group II blend.
rolleyes.gif
--- Bror Jace


Sounds like we would be better off getting a quart of a known PAO full synthetic and mixing it with 4 quarts of dino.
 
quote:

Originally posted by TallPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by Bror Jace:
Some SAE testing of synthetic blends showed an iceberg principle at work. It was a test done at least 3-4 years ago, if I remember it correctly.

You get 80% of the flow benefits of a full synthetic with a 20% PAO blend.

Pretty good trade off. Too bad so few synthetic blends are legitimate. Most have no PAO in them at all and are, in fact, a Group III/ Group II blend.
rolleyes.gif
--- Bror Jace


Sounds like we would be better off getting a quart of a known PAO full synthetic and mixing it with 4 quarts of dino.


Would that really be a good idea? I do already have 1 quart of mobile 1 that I don't have a use for. Right now I just don't think it's worth the extra cost for full synthetic. No extreme temperatures, it's garaged, no extreme driving, and I change it very regularly. (I happen to enjoy changing the oil) Also once the parts all get here I will be installing dual remote oil filters...keeping the oil cleaner and adding 2-4 quarts of capacity depending on the filters I go with.
 
What stores do you have that sell oil? This would help us alot! Do any of the stores have a house brand synthetic? It would be a group III at the minimum. If not a good group II or II+ willdo for now. Pensoil Long Life, Delo 400, CHevron Supreme, Delvac 1300 are all excellent oil.
 
quote:

Originally posted by JohnBrowning:
What stores do you have that sell oil? This would help us alot! Do any of the stores have a house brand synthetic? It would be a group III at the minimum. If not a good group II or II+ willdo for now. Pensoil Long Life, Delo 400, CHevron Supreme, Delvac 1300 are all excellent oil.

Fred Meyer is really the only place I have looked at oil. (I'm 18, I haven't been buying oil long) Tomarrow I'm going to look around at a few places and see what's available for all of the fluids, I've got a K-mart, target, and most major parts houses around here. I was already thinking of either Penzoil long life or Havoline.
 
I'd run the Chevron 5w-30, which I've been impressed with for $1.25/qt. The additive package is very nice and the oil analysis results have been uniformly good....

Tooslick
Dixie Synthetics
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:
What about synthetic blend? What are the benefits of that over dino oil? Is it worth the extra price?

First, define 'synthetic'. Look at Schaeffers PAO synthetic blends. Some of the benefits I think are better low temperature flow and viscocity, better shear stability which Jeeps can certainly use, better sludge and deposit protection and general engine cleanliness over dino. As a result of all these, you can go longer OCIs. You get many of the benefits of a PAO synthetic without the higher price tag. That said, the Schaeffers blends don't seem to work as well in some engines. I think there were a few UOAs of Jeeps you can look at on the board.
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:
. (I'm 18, I haven't been buying oil long)

That's okay, thers many 50 year olds that know nothing or could care less.
I posted above how I would do it in your place. That's how I usually post. Now, if you have a budget of X:dollars for the whole job, and will have Y:dollars in Z:months... that might help.

Are you saying that you want to use SYN but have the budget for Dino. Or do you want to know if dino's gonna hurt and after several months or a year, go back to syn if that is okay?
 
quote:

Originally posted by Robbie Alexander:
Are you saying that you want to use SYN but have the budget for Dino.

Yep.
wink.gif
I could get synthetic, but I think the extra money would be better spent making my boat go faster.
grin.gif
 
Syntec Blend has sure been showing some good UOA's here and can be had for around $10 bucks for a 5 qt jug. I may start running it in my S-10 4.3
 
ZmOz, if you do a search using the word "soup" you may be able to find the UOA from a guy who mixed all sorts of oils together and ran it for a few thousand miles.

His results were surprisingly good but you never know when you are going to get some sort of additive clash which results in the mixed oils not performing terribly well. It's only a small risk.

You could also search the same subsection using "4.0L" to find the many Jeep 6-cylinder UOAs posted there. Lots of different oils used over the last 2+ years.

--- Bror Jace
 
Meeijers does not carry Chevron last time I looked. Havoline is good group II+ and I belive Meijers has havoline. They also carry the untested "Drive Clean Plus" wich is a blend. I hate to send you down the dark side but Castrol blend 10W30 has turned in some good numbers lately too. Meijers carrys alot of QS and Valvoline. THey have a house brand of synthetic for $2.50 a quart. It is probably made by Costal but no one has tested it yet!
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:

quote:

Originally posted by Robbie Alexander:
Are you saying that you want to use SYN but have the budget for Dino.

Yep.
wink.gif
I could get synthetic, but I think the extra money would be better spent making my boat go faster.
grin.gif


Then, IMO, I would conside something like ... well I'll just say a quality Dino. If it were me here, based on my knowledge, and my experiences... I's find a dino with a HEALTHY dose of moly and run the crud out of it for several OCI's.

Then, when the money comes in, if you want to change then fine... In my un-scientific studies, I find the MPG increase and easier starts, and more quiet cruZe sound, all stay fairly good even after 12K of a drain of an oil that had healthy moly.

Enjoy the new car, and keep the fluids clean, even if you never go to syns again, you can still get many hundred K out of that engine.... I've done it a few times and about 1/2 there again.
Keep it clean, and clean, and clean, and it'll last a LLLLLLLOOOOooooooooNNNNNnnnnnGGGgggggg time!
 
Alright, I decided to get a case of Chevron @ costco for 11 bucks. I almost got the 6 gallon size but decided it would take way to long to use that up.
grin.gif
What do you guys think about using up the quart of mobile 1 I have with 5 quarts of Chevron? And can anyone tell me why both Costco and Target sell oil, but not the filters?
rolleyes.gif
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:
What do you guys think about using up the quart of mobile 1 I have with 5 quarts of Chevron? And can anyone tell me why both Costco and Target sell oil, but not the filters?
rolleyes.gif


Use a quart or two of Chevron Delo 400 15w-40. Same ISOSYN base stock formulation. I'll have a UOA with this setup to be posted this week. I feel more confident running oils from the same vendor as the chance of "additive clash" are quite minimal.

They carry oil only since every car could use a popular oil, but not every car can use the same Filter. It's all about how fast inventory moves on the shelves. The local Sam's club has Havoline/Chevron only in 5w-30 and 10w-30. Same for M1 and Castrol GTX.
 
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