Engine synthetic or not?

Black Bart

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Every oil is great if you change it often enough!
But a change with full Synthetic for 14 bucks is really good. :biggrin:

I thought it was probably old stock but it has the API SM on it so it is not very old.
 

Giles

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When I am given advise, I take with a grain of salt and do a little research. With something as important as engine oils, I justified doing extensive research and this is just one article that I found.
On the other hand, When I give advise, I always base it on my own research of comparison of different information that is available, not what someone told me, or a single article printed without research.
This is one of my search results and it goes along with many other published articles
Motor Oil Myths and Facts
 

reddragon

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i remember coming across this site from years ago.....but it needs updating
 

Black Bart

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When I am given advise, I take with a grain of salt and do a little research. With something as important as engine oils, I justified doing extensive research and this is just one article that I found.
On the other hand, When I give advise, I always base it on my own research of comparison of different information that is available, not what someone told me, or a single article printed without research.
This is one of my search results and it goes along with many other published articles
Motor Oil Myths and Facts[/QUOTE

I have read that link that you posted several time before.

Most of what he says is spot on but I don't agree with 100 percent, But it is kinda dated maybe if he was to update it he would change a few things.

Things change so fast just like I read a VOA this week for Mobil super syn 5-30 and they have changed their formula again.:eek:

I can't say about the rest of their line it may or may not have changed but I'm not going to be using any of their latest 5-30

Unless they have recently changed it their 0-30 was Superior to their 5-30 even before the change.

You spend time researching oil and find what you want but if you just blindly use it without keeping up on what they are doing you will be using something different than what you thought you were using.
 

reynoldston

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Every oil is great if you change it often enough!

I find that a lot of homeowner buy a mower and lawn mower oil is the last thing on there mind much less changing it. So if the oil is never changed I would say you would be a lot better off with synthetic. I have to agree with jetblast by changing some words from every oil to most oils.
 

Giles

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i remember coming across this site from years ago.....but it needs updating
Where can I find an update that is not published by Product selling Company??
I recently tried to find updated test and only came up with Oil Company Advertising:thumbdown:
 

oldyellr

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Those of you who read this thread but don't really keep abreast of what is going on in the oil industry Castrol was selling oil called Syn-Tech and it was billed as a full synthetic but it was made from a group-3 base.

Mobil sued Castrol saying they were using false advertising.
The government decided that the Castrol was refined in such a way as to change the molecule structure enough that they could call it a synthetic.
I just started reading this thread and have to jump in. This makes me laugh! I heard this argument from synthetic oil zealots in my car club years ago. Since dino(saur) oil is supposedly "real" oil, chemically produced oil is synthetic, i.e. fake or ersatz oil. So I guess that makes "fake" synthetic oil real. Synthetic (fake) oil doesn't even have to be as good as dino oil. Is synthetic (butyl) rubber better than natural rubber? is margarine better than butter. Is artificial sweetener better than sugar, or coffee whitener better than milk?
 

possum

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I have not worked on small engines much, but I have worked them alot in the last 40 plus years in many different situations. In all that time I have never seen much of a problem with the oil used. I have however seen alot of problems with the lack of oil. Low oil, and no oil has ruined alot of little engines near me or right in front of me. But never have i seen an engine shell because of synthetic or regular, 30 weight or 10-30 etc. Next on the list is dirt or dust. Running without air filters of some kind in dirty conditions is slower than no oil but it sure is hard on them after a short while. User error, trusting to memory, not finishing a job started, the wrong engine for the job with no one to look after the operators, lazy operators, no oil on isolated job sites, no spare air filters on hand, always led to dead engines.
 

Giles

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I have not worked on small engines much, but I have worked them alot in the last 40 plus years in many different situations. In all that time I have never seen much of a problem with the oil used. I have however seen alot of problems with the lack of oil. Low oil, and no oil has ruined alot of little engines near me or right in front of me. But never have i seen an engine shell because of synthetic or regular, 30 weight or 10-30 etc. Next on the list is dirt or dust. Running without air filters of some kind in dirty conditions is slower than no oil but it sure is hard on them after a short while. User error, trusting to memory, not finishing a job started, the wrong engine for the job with no one to look after the operators, lazy operators, no oil on isolated job sites, no spare air filters on hand, always led to dead engines.
I agree with you--Back when I ran a small engine shop, I began to expect oil problems with nearly every thing I worked on.
I believe most owners of small engines believe that since the machine had only operated for a few hours--oil was still good.
I have talked with owners that had not even changed the original oil, they just added when it was convenient!!:thumbdown:
I bought a generator with 10 HP. tecumsea engine that was about 5 years old, supposedly run less then 3 hours, and the paint had not been broken on the oil drain plug:thumbdown:
 

kermit911

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Do you have to have a special filter to change to synthetic oil?

Dave
 
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