Racing Parts

Oil Temp

Oil Temp

What is synthetic motor oil?

There are literally hundreds of types of synthetic lubricants and
hundreds more variations of these! All custom tailored for specific
uses from automotive to industrial to aviation.

Here I will tell you about the most common
synthetic lubricants used for automotive, fleet and some industrial
uses and how they relate to the petroleum oils most people are familiar
with.

The components of a synthetic lubricants base stock are man
made designer molecules "synthesized" by chemically reacting two or more simpler compounds two produce a finished base stock.

This allows a lubrication engineer the ability to tailor the
base stock to a specific application for maximum lubricant performance.

To understand how synthetic lubricants relate to today's
marketplace we must we run through the list of available oils. In the
"oil bidness" different oils are categorized in-groups by the type of
base stock they are made from. The base stock is just that. The bulk of
the product you see in the bottle minus the additives that is mixed in
to make the oil perform certain functions.

Group one oil:

These are the old high paraffin base oils. They are not used for
modern engine oils anymore but can still be found in those little
bottles of all-purpose household oil you buy at the hardware store for
stuff like oiling door hinges.

Group two oils:

This is the standard petroleum base stock that all modern
conventional petroleum oils are made from. Quality varies widely
depending on where it was "dug up from". Even in "finished" form it can
contain various amounts of paraffin (wax), impurities left over from
refining and from the ground it came from! Chemically it is a hodge
podge of different sized hydrocarbon molecules, not all of which "get
along with each other" so to speak. The result of this is a product
that produces sludge, varnish and mechanical wear as it ages and breaks
down in service.

These oils have steadily been improved over the years as API
services requirements have gotten stricter. However as modern engines
pump more horsepower from smaller engines with less total oil sump
capacity and the level of horsepower/torque transmitted though today's
light weight fuel efficient drive trains continues to climb, lubricant
manufacturers find that conventional petroleum oils really just cannot
be improved any farther. Hence the move we see by automakers to
synthetic fluids; both in engines and transmission/differentials.
Combine that with the need to improve fuel economy and synthetic
lubricants well know ability to do just that and you can see why
"factory filled" with synthetic is becoming more and more common.

Group three oils:

Group three oils are petroleum oils that have been hydroisomerized,
"hydro-cracked" as it is commonly called. The most stringent level of
petroleum oil refining. Much of the paraffin and impurities have been
removed and its performance on any number of industry tests is
substantially better than its group two cousins.

Although it is not made from a synthesized, engineered molecule
and as such is not a true synthetic oil, it does offer a portion of the
benefits you would expect from a true synthetic and in fact is usually
sold and marketed as a 100% synthetic product.

In fact the vast majority of synthetic oils on the market are
actually made from group three oils because of a lawsuit a few years
ago between Mobil and Castrol that totally changed the synthetic oil
industry. Because of this lawsuit the buying public has largely been
duped into believing that these oils are actually a real synthetic.

Here's what happened. Exxon- Mobil Inc. makers of Mobil One sued
Castrol, makers of Castrol Syntec in the FTC court, accusing them of marketing a
hydro cracked petroleum oil as a synthetic-which they were!

Mobil Inc. felt that Castrol Inc. had pursued an unfair market
advantage because group three based oils are much less expensive to
manufacture than true synthetic oils yet Castrol was marketing Syntec
as a 100% synthetic product: Castrol could make it for less, sell it
for less and un-fairly under cut all it's competitors in the synthetic
oil market with a oil that was not truly a synthetic product.

In the end though, Castrol convinced the court that group
three-based oils have been sufficiently refined  and altered that it should be able to
be marketed along with true synthetic oils. Basically the court
expanded the definition of synthetic to include group three based oils.

Because the synthetic oil market is the fastest growing part of
the lubricants industry, manufactures are eager to jump up and grab the
profits that having that sexy customer grabbing word synthetic on the
bottle bring.

Group three oils have no where near the performance of true
custom engineered synthetic oils, especially in temperature extremes
where the men get separated from the boys so to speak!

Group four oils:

Polyalphaolefln and related olefin oligomers and olefin polymers.
(Synthetic hydrocarbon)
PAO's as they are commonly called are a true man made engineered base
oil produced by catalytic reaction with various alpha olefin compounds.

PAO's are widely recognized as providing outstanding
performance for many lubricant applications because of its very high
viscosity index, a wide operational temperature range and because it is
thermal and shear stable.

PAO's also have low corrosivity and are compatible with mineral
oils and the range of materials that engines and other machinery is
manufactured from.

The molecular structure of PAO's are easily customized for use
in all kinds of applications from automotive to industrial and are
widely used in motor oils, gear lubes, high temperature/extreme pressure
greases,
Compressor oils and hydraulic fluids.

Group five oils:

This group comprises all synthetic oils other than PAO's. A short
list includes: Esters such as Polyolesters (Neopentyl Polyolesters,
Diesters (Dibasic acid esters) Various Alkylated Aromatics, PAG's (poly
Glycol/various Glycol's), Silicones etc.

This group of synthetics is primarily used for various
industrial and aviation applications.
Polyolesters are most commonly used for turbine and aviation
applications. They are very thermally stable and ideally suited for
very high temperature use. Hence there use in such things as high temp
greases, jet engines and gas turbines.

They have a very low coefficient of friction and are sometimes
added in small amounts to mineral oils and other synthetic oils to
lower the coefficient of friction of the finished product.

Diesters are most commonly used aviation and industrial
compressor applications however because of the tremendous anti-scuffing
protection they offer. They are often added in small amounts to PAO
based two-cycle oils as this feature is very beneficial to a two-cycle
motor oil.

Diesters are shear stable, have good lubricity, detergency and
are polar meaning they have an electrical charge that causes them to
cling to metal surfaces-a desirable trait for most lubricants.
Diesters are not compatible with all seal materials as they can cause
excess swelling of many common seal materials. Because of this they are
often added in small amounts to automotive PAO based oils to provide
positive seal function.

Silicones offer wide temperature performance and are sometimes
used in compressor applications although this use has fallen out of
favor in recent years. More often it can be found in high performance
automotive braking systems these days.

 Amsoil inc. founded in the 1960's was the first company to develop full synthetic motor oils for passenger car use. In 1972 Amsoil was the first to introduce an API (American petroleum institute) rated full synthetic motor oil to the North American market. Today Amsoil is considered the world leader in synthetic motor oils and lubrication.

By Larry Crider CLS. Amsoil direct jobber

Larry can be reached at  www.sowoil.com 

 

About the Author

 A certified lubrication specialist,  I'm a twenty+ year veteran distributor for Amsoil inc. The worlds  largest independant maker of synthetic motor oils and lubricants.  I love to talk about all things lubrication and can be reached through my website. www.sowoil.com

What should be the temp of oil in pan for frying chicken? I have had the problem where by the time the?

chicken is done, the batter is too dark...a bit burnt. Thanks.

The correct answer again is 350 degrees. A candy thermometer can go a long way to helping you get the oil to the correct temperature and maintain it

Auto Gauge Oil Temp test