1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Oil consists of a base stock to which are added additives.
Synthetic oil refers to the base stock of the oil, and is separate from the question of the additives in the oil.
Synth oils were developed in the aircraft industry for very high heat applications. They remain stable at high temperatures while dino oils will burn (coke). So when turbo cars first came out, many of them were only oil cooled and if you "rode the horse hard and put it to bed wet" the turbo would burn the oil in the turbo, turn it to carbonized sludge which would kill the turbo bearing and then the carbonized sludge would be recirculated through the oil, and well, you get the rest. Modern Saabs have water and oil cooled turbos, so the problem of the turbo getting hot enough to burn the oil inside is not present. So synth is probably overkill for Saaba, but good stuff.
More important than the base stock are the additives. The additives come in two basic categories, one is antiwear additives (metals like moly, phosphurus, zinc) and the other is detergents (like calcium and magnesium). In general, the more anti-wear and detergents in the ad pack, the better.
The EPA has restricted the levels of some anti-wear metals in the newest API designation "SM" oil because EPA believes it can damage the cat conv and increase emissions.
Diesel oils, on the other hand, do not have to meet the "SM" standard and therefore have much better additive packages than gas engine oils.
Don't take my word on it. Go to bobistheoilguy.com and look at the VOA (virgin oil analysis) threads. You will see that diesel oils have much higher levels of additives than gas oils do.
I use Delo 400, about 2 bucks a quart and has a much better additive package than ANY synthetic oil other than Redline ($7-10 per quart)
posted by 65.9.209...
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