Oil - You get what you pay for!

I posted this a very long time ago but for the benefit of the newer members and those that missed it first time around, some enlightening facts from and expert!

A word of caution – You get what you pay for!

Below is an article written by John Rowland, Silkolene Chief R & D Chemist for 40 years.

Quote:

Costs of synthetics vary considerably. The most expensive are the “Ester” types originally only used in jet engines. These cost 6 to 10 times more than high quality mineral oils. The cheapest synthetics are not really synthetic at all, from a chemists point of view. These are in fact specially refined light viscosity mineral oils known as “hydrocracked”. These have some advantages over equivalent mineral oils, particularly in lower viscosity motor oils such as 5w-30 or other oils with a low “W” rating such as 5w-50 etc and they cost about 1.5 times more than good quality mineral fractions.

We use several different grades of this base oil, where appropriate. This is the “synthetic” which is always used in cheap oils that are labelled “synthetic”.

Yes it’s a cruel world, you get what you pay for!

Now, you may ask, why are these special mineral oils called “synthetic”?

Well, it was all sorted in a legal battle that took place in the USA about ten years ago. Sound reasons (including evidence from a Nobel Prize winning chemist) were disregarded and the final ruling was that certain mineral bases that had undergone extra chemical treatments could be called “synthetic”.

Needless to say, the marketing executives wet their knickers with pure delight!

They realised that this meant, and still does, that the critical buzz-word “synthetic” could be printed on a can of cheap oil provided that the contents included a few percent of “hydrocracked” mineral oil, at a cost of quite literally a few pence.

So, the chemistry of “synthetics” is complex and so is the politics!

The economics are very simple. If you like the look of a smart well-marketed can with “synthetic” printed on it, fair enough, it will not cost you a lot; and now you know why this is the case.

But, if you drive a high performance car, and you intend to keep it for several years, and maybe do the odd “track day”, then you need a genuine Ester/PAO (Poly Alpha Olefin) synthetic oil.

This oil costs more money to buy, because it costs us a lot of money to make, very simply, you always get what you pay for!

Unquote:

This article is something that all car owners should read and understand before buying oil and I’ve posted this with Johns permission.

Cheers

Simon

mnghghgh i couldnt be bothered to read all that, but can you tell me what top put in my BPU Supra TT and how much you charge?

I've always used 3-in-1.

lol

Agree with DamanC, too testicle for me, got past the first couple of lines and then woke up with my keyboard imprinted on my face, can it be translated in to English?

I use the recommended Toyota 5 w40 synthetic - seems ok to me.

Can any one tell me different?

yeh id like to know what to put in mine aswell. am confused from all the many other old threads saying what to use!!!

I am struggling to see why anyone would think that post is difficult to understand. Even someone as thick as me managed to follow it

The engine oil currently reccomended is Silkolene Pro S. I know most of the higher power car owners use it and have no complaints.

For the ones that are having difficulty following what oilman is saying:

USE HALFORDS SYNTHETIC - the Bargain FULLY Synthetic oil

If you are too dumb to understand then sell your supra and buy a push bike

The engine oil currently reccomended is Silkolene Pro S. I know most of the higher power car owners use it and have no complaints.

Ahh the smell of burnt silkolene.......takes me back!

Ohhh

Come on guys, you can do better than that

Please try harder, you're Supra owners afterall

If Nova owners can understand it I'm sure you can

Read and learn a bit, honest, you will find it enlightening.

Cheers

Simon

I understand Simon/guy, what can you do for us then?

Group buy/prices?

How much are we needing yadda yadda

There is one coming up (carriage free) so keep an eye out as it doesn't get much better than that.

I usually do one a month, should it be more visible?

I though group buys was the place to put it.

Anyway, keep your eyes open beginning of next week!

Cheers

Simon

Perfectly understandable - how often do you need to change the good oil?

Perfectly understandable - how often do you need to change the good oil?

I recommend changing the oil after every track day.

Where's that string again

Indeed, depends on how good and what the car is used for plus mods.

The Silkolene tecchies say 9000-12000 or 10 track hours.

This is a proper race oil, built for a thrashing though

Fuel dilution and excessive heat are the main killers of oil.

Synthetics stay in grade for much longer 9000-12000 miles but can still be wrecked by fuel dilution.

I looked at an oil recently that had done 1000 miles (ok it was a 800bhp car that was trying to break a record) and it was a top quality 15w-50 when new.

After 1000 miles it was very close to a an sae 30 due to excessive fuel dilution, in fact 8% by volume!

The oil was in fact in good shape (addatives not depleted and good film strength) it had simply thinned due to it being diluted by the fuel.

Cheers

Simon

so you want a can with "fully synthetic" written on it with a 15w - 50 thingy on there?

Err no, not really, you want to know a man that knows, not the spotty faced youth behind the counter.

You know it makes sense

Cheers

Simon

Simon AKA OILMAN - stop it, youre only a trainee

ok when picking oil - no spotty kids.

Hmmmm.

I think there's a chap called "oilman" on here, he might be able to help you out a bit

Cheers

Simon

Thats not all that technical an intro. If you started going on about various contents in PPM and how temperature and pressure affected viscosities of differing ols then I'd understand the lack of enthusiasm for reading the article.

I suppose if you said "this oil will give you 50 BHP more guaranteed" you'd get some results lol

lol dangerous.....have you seen some of simon's other posts....if he wants to go technical, he'll put most of us in a coma

Worse than a coma

Do a search on user "oilman" and then tell me that you knew all that

Oh.................and there's more

Cheers

Simon

PS. 5712 posts, where have you been?