The truth about synthetic oil: separating facts, no friction
(MS) — Today's automotive technology is pretty amazing. Yet, many motorheads don't give any thought to the motor oil they use in their cars. The fact is, the type of motor oil you use (synthetic or mineral-based) and what kind of chemical additives it contains can have a significant impact on how well your car performs. The best way to find a quality lubricant is to do your homework, research company Web sites, and seek out testing information from independent sources. Almost any lubricant manufacturer will provide results of its own testing or the results of lab tests that don't always correlate to how their lubricant will perform in the real world.
Choosing synthetic
There's been sizable growth in the use of synthetic oils over the years. While many racers and performance enthusiasts recognize the advantages of synthetic motor oils versus mineral-based motor oils, many do not understand the differences between synthetic oils. Those who market motor oil have fostered much of the confusion, and terms such as "full synthetic" or "blended synthetic" and slogans like "Not Street Legal" often make things more confusing. There is no such thing as a lubricant that isn't street legal.
Synthetic oils have a uniform molecular structure that improves lubricity for less friction and increases oxidation stability for longer oil life. Cars using synthetic oils can go longer between oil changes and typically perform better than cars using mineral-based oils.
Additives determine a lubricant's performance
The key issue is not what compounds and base oils make up a lubricant, but how that lubricant performs. Whether a lubricant is synthetic-based or mineral-based, chemical additives must be included with the base oil to give the resulting lubricant the needed properties to do its job. Today's most typical additive agents include detergents to reduce the formation of residue, antiwear agents, friction modifiers, dispersants, and antioxidants. Additive technology creates major performance differences between the oils. For instance, a mineral-based oil with a superior additive technology will outperform synthetic oil with mediocre additive technology. Differences in an oil's performance can be attributed as much or more to the additive technology as it can be to the base oil.
Advances in synthetic
Most of the major advances in additive technology have come from specialty manufacturers who only focus on producing lubricants (as opposed to the major oil companies who focus on refining petroleum and selling gasoline). One such specialty lubricant manufacturer is Royal Purple. It has developed a proprietary technology called Synerlec(R), which strengthens its lubricants for dramatically improved performance. This lubricant's film strength (the oil's ability to keep two surfaces from coming into contact) is a primary factor in its ability to reduce friction.
Royal Purple uses premium base oils with a very low coefficient of friction. The oil also smoothes metal surfaces to further reduce friction. It remains on the metal surface long after ordinary lubricants would have been squeezed out by pressure and heat.
The product's film strength and friction-reducing abilities help create horsepower and torque gains up to 3 percent, improve fuel efficiency up to 5 percent, and reduce emissions by up to 20 percent. Its state-of-the-art technology has been performance proven in independent tests. Results are available at the company's Web site at www.royalpurple.com. Remember, your choice of engine oil will significantly impact the performance of your car. So do your research wisely to dig through the false hype concerning synthetic oils.
