Before
we can tackle what's new in synthetic motor oil technology, we should first
make sure that we know what synthetic oils are. Mineral or conventional motor
oils come from the ground, like the stuff that bubbles up in oil fields from Texas to Saudi Arabia. On the
other hand, synthetic oils are man-made. Each company has a proprietary process
for creating these oils that they're not keen to disclose.
If there were two puddles of clean engine oil on the floor, one
puddle of mineral oil and one puddle of synthetic, it would be almost
impossible to tell them apart. As ExxonMobil technical advisor Kevin Chinn
quipped during a phone interview, "You'd slip on both of them." If
two vehicles at 10,000 miles (16,093 kilometres past their last oil change
were drained, though, the differences between the vehicle using mineral motor
oil and the one using synthetic oil would be apparent: The mineral oil would be
noticeably thicker.
Synthetic oils have been around for a while; Amoco sold one as
early as 1929. During World War II,
the Germans advanced synthetic oil technology when Allied forces strangled the
country's oil supply. In the 1950's and 1960's, synthetic oil took off to meet
the high-performance needs of fighter jets. Then, just as the fuel crisis of
the 1970's took hold, Mobil1 synthetic oils that promised to increase fuel
economy hit the passenger car market.
Despite the boost provided by the last fuel crisis, it took some
time for synthetic motor oils to gain traction in the automotive market. The
turning point came when auto manufacturers started to understand the benefits
of synthetics -- such as fewer emissions and longer stretches between oil
changes -- and recommended their use in newly built cars.
source: howstuffworks, wiki
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