Whats the difference? Ok, I guess one is derived from dino, and one is created from the ether. What I mean is, is the end product different, and how? Is is not still atoms of carbon and hydrogen?

I get the feeling its sort of like the difference between 'organic' fertilizers and chemical fertilizers ( i.e. as far as the nutrient goes, there is no difference. Nitrogen is nitrogen). The nutrient is the same, organic or not. Also like natural and artifical flavoring. If a certain molecule imparts a certain taste, is it any different if its naturally or chemically derived? No, its the same molecule no matter how you get it.

So I'm wondering, are the hydrocarbons any different in a "true" synthetic vs. a petroleum derived synthetic? I'm from Missouri, show me.

Being the cynic, I suspect its just marketing. No real world difference between the two.

Dino oil user anyway, but curious,
-Shawn

 

Good question! There sure has been a lot of noise from the "real" synthetic people, but there isn't a whole lot of difference in specs or performance, as far as I can discern. Just price.

Then again, I'm one of them cynical dino-guys too.

 

This URL is found in another thread in this forum.

Wow, really good reading and it explains a lot.

Chip


http://www.brainmaker.com/ST1300/Oils1.html

 

Oppy, we agree on something else!!!!!!!!

 

:-staun

Well, at least we know great minds sometimes think alike!

 

Petroleum oils contain a wider range of fractions, that is, larger and smaller sizes of molocules that make up it's compostion. Group IV and V synthetic lubricants have a much narrower range of fractions and have more similar sized molocules. Group II and III petroleum oils use a hydroisomerization process to reduce the range of molocule size and it comes so close to the 'true' synthetic performance that the biggest difference is only in the price.

Here's a link to a thread I posted about it a while back.

 

How can you tell what Group a particular name brand of oil originates?

 

That's a great thread - thanks for posting the link!

peppy - I'd start with the company's spec sheet and MSDS. They should give you that info. If not, I'm sure someone here can tell you what's in your favorite brand.

 

Wow horsepuller, that was a really good summary of a 14 page technical paper. In fact the summary was technical enough to transport me back to my grad school days.

So let me see if I get this straight. In a nut shell, the "true" synthetic oil is a very uniform oil (with respect to the hydrocarbon chains) that is cobbled together from smaller molecules. The idea being that by building the oil up from scratch, you can precisely control the uniformity of the end product.

The petroleum based synthetic differs from the true type in that the oil is refined from crude rather than built from scratch. The deal these days is that the refining processes are so good that the end product is almost as uniform as a "true" synthetic, and therefore performs almost as well.

I saw ester oils and their solvent properties mentioned in a link, which reminded me of the solvent properties of bio-diesel, which is a fatty-acid methylated ester. I wonder how easy it would be, or if you can, turn the waste oil from an oil change into a combustion ignition fuel. Biodiesel is easy enough to make from waste vegetable oil.

Anyway, thanks for clearing things up. Good stuff.

-Shawn

 

It's actually being used every day in a low-tech sorta way here in the north. Waste oil furnaces are fairly popular at service garages and quick-lube joints. If I remember this correctly, a lot of the other waste oil picked up by recycling companies is filtered and sold as a burner fuel too. If it is kept warm, waste oil is not all that different in viscosity than #6, and it has a lot of Btus.

 

SMB, your nutshell description is right-on.

There are huge marine diesels that run on #6 bunker oil. So a diesel can run on the very heaviest of hydrocarbons. But our comparitivly light duty diesel vehicles would smoke excessivly if you ran fuel spec'd heavier than #2 diesel.