Originally posted by ANDYW:
Last I read the Gov't uped the percentage of synthetic oil required for a synthetic like Modil One to be called synthetic!
-Andy
No.
Mobil took Castrol to court for calling it's snake oil "synthetic" even though the base stocks were derived from conventional petroleum (or something like that.)
The gov, or the NAD, or whatever, sided with Castrol. The SAE got out of the business of trying to define the term "synthetic" back in the early 90's, so by the time this case came around, I guess Mobil didn't have a leg to stand on in court.
So, the ruling of the court was that since the word "synthetic" is so ill-defined, that Castrol has as much right to use the term as anyone else. Heck, any oil could be marketed as synthetic, since it doesn't occur naturally.
So, basically, there is no government required percentage or standard of any kind on what the word "synthetic" really means.
So are we getting ripped off? That depends.
I think Mobil is just as synthetic as it has always been. Which means, that the base stock is 100% PAO synthetic. I've read reports that bash Mobil for using conventional petroleum as a "carrier" or "process" oil, but within that same report, the author defined process oil as "non-lubricant oil used in the production..." to serve as a solvent/carrier for additives. Doesn't sound like a big deal to me, and the author had an axe to grind and a product to sell.
Is it worth 4x the cost of regular oil? That depends. You certainly can't go wrong using conventional oil with regular changes, and some people have done engine teardowns after 150k and measured no significant difference in wear. But others have had their oil analyzed and seen appreciable differences between engine wear indicators. Finally,
Grassroots Motorsports found actual horsepower gains (2 hp) in switching to Red Line synthetics.
So, if actual wear at high mileage is your main concern, then dino is fine. But if you feel that less friction is a good thing (more hp, less heat, smoother running, etc.) than the right "synthetic" might be for you, whatever the word means.
