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| Engineering/ Technical Ask technical questions about cars. Do you know how a car engine works? |
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#1
02-22-2005, 01:15 AM
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synthetic oil
I was just reading on some other forums heated debates on whether you can switch to synthetic oil in high milage engines or not. What do you think?
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#2
02-22-2005, 02:02 AM
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Re: synthetic oil
Yup, its fine. Sometimes messy, but fine. Synthetic oil and mineral oil are the same oil molecule. Its just that mineral oil starts dirty and they take out all but the oil molecule. Of course, they can't do it perfectly, so there is a lot of stuff dissolved in the oil. Synthetic oil is made in a lab, so it contains only the oil molecule. Of course, to this molecule they add stuff to make the different properties that you need.
Since synthetic is more pure, it can dissolve much more stuff, including all the gunk your old engine has accumulated over the years. The cracks in the old gaskets which once housed crud may now leak once the crud cleans out. Sometimes the purer synthetic will clean crud out of the fissures in the cylinder walls which allows more blowby and oil consumption. If these issues happen to you, chances are switching back to regular oil and using some stop leak will take you back to where you were in about 10,000 miles allowing the crud to build back up. I don't know if its a good thing, but I used synthetic on an older engine to clean things up, then ran that product, "restore" through it and it seemed to do a nice job. It leaked oil like nuts, so I had to do a couple treatments of stop leak, but it sure did restore compression.
__________________
Dragging people kicking and screaming into the enlightenment.
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#3
02-22-2005, 03:15 PM
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Re: synthetic oil
Actually the oil molecules are different in a synthetic oil, the chains are for example much longer and all molecules are identical. The exact molecule will depend on what type of synthetic oil we talk about, like PAO, esters...
The cleaning addetived added to the oil is similar in both mineral and synthetic oil, so no difference there. However, when chaning to a new clean oil there is always some risk of leaks. Some synthetic oils can also be harder on the gaskets, and some can leak though even the smallest hole.
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#4
02-22-2005, 05:40 PM
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Heres an article comparing the differences between 100% synthetic and mineral (petroleum based) oil.
http://www.synthetic-motor-oil-chang...-to-synthetic/
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