Synthetic Blend Oil

From time to time I hear people on here talking about how synthetic oil is not compatable with straight run petroleum oils. Aren't the semi synthetic engine oils that they sell simply a % blend of the two? As per past posts synthetic oils cause seal leakage, gasket destruction and engine destruction? LOL

Just about all he newer oils are compatible with each other, regardless if sold as conventional, synthetic, or a blend. Many oils sold as "full synthetic" are made 100% from petro-base oil and are NOT synthetic anyway. Very hard to tell from the label is an oil sold as "synthetic" actually IS synthetic. In the USA, it is allow to sell petro-oil as "full synthetic" if it meets certain standards. Often the only way to know for sure is to read the data sheets and high-temp flash points.

i think it depends maybe on the vehicle.as far as seals and things go.My boy ran his little ford ranger on synthetic from day one,without any problems.I on the other hand decided to switch from conventional oil to synthetic in my high mileage but nonoil burning 99 chevy pickup.I honestly coudnt pour oil in it fast enough!went back to regular oil and it stopped.

I believe Synthetic oil is a waste of money
no proof as to what it gives over regular oil

Same thing happened with my 06 Chevy Impala LT with 3.9 with less than 30,000 miles. Went back to regular oil and it stop useing oil.

Synthetic oil isn't for everyone as far as saving money on oil changes. If I couldn't do extended oil changes I'd use regular engine oil. If one drives more than 12,000 miles per year there is a savings.

I have a 1999 Nissan Frontier with 195,??? on it now. I bought it in 2001 with 24,??? on it. It's had one oil change per year and still running strong. Now that's not unusual for those engines to go 200,000 miles but I think it proves synthetic oil does do it's job to be able to run extended oil changes and still be in great shape after all those years. I average just over 14,000 on a change. I have run up to 16,000 on a change.

Now for those that think there's nothing to synthetic I'll give an example. I have a good friend in west Kentucky and we visit every so often and talk just about every day. He has a 1991 I think dodge diesel truck. He got it used cheap. Reason it was cheap was it has a Gertrag transmission in it. It also would eat shifter forks pretty fast. He had 3 sets of forks put in the truck in 7 years. He told me his problem and I contacted my oil tech to get advice. I was expecting to get a reply of one of the synthetic gear oils and we'd try that. But his answer was to put 10w-30 100% synthetic engine oil in that transmission. My friend had the truck in the shop replacing the forks again and I had the oil dropped shipped to him to put in when they were ready to put it back on the road. I told him since all that wear had taken place to run it for 3,000 miles and drain it and then fill back again with new synthetic oil. He did and said the oil came out looking like aluminum paint. It cleaned all that mess up and suspended it in the oil. He refilled and that was in 2001 and he's never had another problem with the shifter forks or the transmission. BTW this truck is used to pull loads of hay as he delivers as far as Ga. from his area. He's a believer now.

I've had 2 co-workers that had problem with shifting/ one was a motor cycle and the other was a 4 wheeler. I ordered synthetic motor cycle oil designed for wet clutches and it solved the problem with shifting in both.

As far as leaks. Synthetic doesn't cause leaks. It cleans out the gunk from regular oil and exposes the leaks.

As far as trusting what is synthetic and what's called synthetic I use Amsoil and have since 1989. I buy at dealer cost but have never tried selling it to others. I became a dealer so I could order the oil and supplies and save some on the price. I also run it in all my farm equipment.

I'd rather spend my money in the US than in the middle east. I trust their oil too. Been 23 years and get great service and trust the product.

Never ask a guy what he thinks of synthetic oil unless you know he uses it.

You have obviously never tested viscosity at -20F or oxidation-coking at 275+F in turbo's. No mention either of your running a four ball wear test.

My 1992 Dodge W250 with the 5.9 intercooled Cummins 5.9 and Getrag five-speed has 340,000 miles on it and the trans has never been touched. No premature fork wear problems that you've mentioned. It also never had synthetic oil in it until last year. So, it went 300,000 hard miles with petro oil in the trans and did just fine. I have synthetic oil now. (real synthetic)
I did that to get the higher heat rating (flash point) that is not available with conventional multi-visc oil.

The popular rumour is . . that the Getrag needs to run 1 quart overfull for best reliability. I've run mine that way for the past couple of years but can't say if it really helps anything. Certainly hasn't hurt.

I DO like Amsoil - mainly because of their history with the USA military. Amsoil started out selling military grade synthetic oil to civilians. Amsoil also offers certain versions with a high ZDDP level that I look for.

I owned a Mercedes 240 D with a standard 4 speed transmission. The transmission called for Dextron 2 transmission fluid even though it was a standard transmission. The synthetic alternative was Amsoil, I can't remember the weight. I tried it and couldn't shift without grinding the gears. I went back to Dextron and was fine. My theory was that Amsoil was so slick that it didn't cause enough drag during the shift. Any guesses? Ellis

I wonder if your model has aluminum shifter forks? I don't know why his had problems with that. Just know what corrected the problem.

No guesses here. I run Amsoil auto trans. fluid in a 1987 F250 diesel. It works fine with it.

I've never had to see inside the trans so I don't know. I have heard for years that the Getrag needs to be run 1 quart over-full. Maybe those forks are the reason? I love mine. Smoothest shifting HD 5 speed I've ever used. I'm not crazy about the ratio though. There's a big gap between 2nd and 3rd. You really notice when towing something heavy. Maybe that's why the 6 speed came out later.

Oddly, my 1999 Kia Sportage also has a Getrag 5 speed. It also has been trouble-free - but obviously smaller and not HD.

If it started grinding while shifting - the synchro clutches weren't grabbing like they should. Mercedes probably had brass cone-clutches. I assume the Dextron had the proper friction modifiers for that application and whatever Amsoil you used - did not.

i guess i don't get your comment extended oil changes around 16,000 miles. not unusual to do that on regular basis in our mail route vehicles,not planned that way sometimes that just when it gets changed cause those add up so quick when you run a mail route,still just running plain old 10w30 mobil ,just happens to be whats in shop at present. usually run vehicles till 300,000 if can,usually not to hard to do as long as stay waay from the chevy vehicle stuff.

Check out this link, clears up a lot of BS.

There is no reason you can't mix conventional oil with synthetic.
I have put Mobil 1 in new engines and changet them to Mobil 1 synthetic with more than 200,000 miles with equally good results, no leaks with Mobil 1.
If any of you remember when mobil 1 was sold in the black metal cans(30+ years ago) and said "100% pure syntetic oil" on the can ?
That statement was followed by a little *
At the bottom of the can, the * said "excluding additive carrier". The additive carrier was 5-10% mineral oil to keep the additives suspended in the Pao synthetic oil base stock.

Anyone remember Lifetime Lube? They made synthetic oil before Mobil 1 was on the market, but they could not keep the additives in suspension in the 100% PAO synthetic oil, something Mobil fixed by adding just a bit of mineral oil.

Hydrocracked grp3 synthetic oil is not quite as good as a grp 4 PAO, but it is a high quality grp 3 oil which is better than conventional mineral oil.

When other oil co's started selling grp 3 hydrocracked oils as synthetic oil, Mobil took them to court,claiming that only a grp 4 PAO oil could be called synthetic. Those other companeys stated that their hydrocracked mineral oil was very different and better than conventional mineral oil, so qualified to be called synthetic.
The cort agreed, Mobil lost that one.
I believe Mobil had found that if you can't beat them, you better join them or lose market share.

Mobil still sells Mobil 1 PAO synthetic in the silver lable (7500 mile) , or the gold lable with stronger additive package for 15,000 miles.
Mobil also sells the cheaper "Super synthetic" to compete with the other hydrocracked synthetic brands. Mobil will not say, but Super synthetic appears to be a grp 3 hydrocracked oil instead of the grp4 PAO base of MObil 1.
Synthetic oil myths.

I would like them too IF they didn't use "pyramid" marketing strategy.

That business model where the worker bees at the bottom support all the drones above them doesn't fit my work ethic.

Never would buy a synthetic "blend" motor oil, because ther is absolutely no standard on what percent synthetic and what percent regular oil. Some of these companies probably only use about 5 or 10 percent synthetic, and even then it is the cheap type. If you want to use a "blend", then blend it yourself; example 3 quarts Mobil One and 2 quarts regular oil. Tom

Its not about the base oil, its about the additive packages on top of the the quality base oils.

If you look at the api and jasso and euro testing of oils, you will find that heavy duty oils perform well with either the group3 base or the group4 base oils. And in many cases a blend of group3 and 4 oils can perform better than a group 4 oil alone.

So all the talk about pao or hydrocracked group 3 is really just talk. take either one and add a great additive package to it and you will get great wear and performance results. Buy an oil that meets or exceeds your needs and you will do good. anyone who cares only about the base oil is a fool on a fools errand. Throw all the marketing aside and look at the api tests results and then pick an oil that meets or exceeds your needs. you will be surprized that the best oils are not always the most expensive oils. api, jasso and euro tests are actually very similar and produce almost identical results. The difference being that the american markets has more very good oil products while the euro markets have only low and high oils. the hydrocracking process developed by chevron and used by most american refineries produced lots of very very good performing oils over here that were not availible elsewhere. Other counties had groupII oil or groupIV oils and no middle ground. well made group III oils with a great additive package will perform better than group iv oils with NO additive package. So again, buy oil that is rated heavy duty and has a good additive package. Diesel trucks now run a million miles between overhauls with the better oils.
Its not about the synthetic nearly as much as its about the additive package.