Machines | Is Synthetic Motor Oil Better For Your Car?
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Is synthetic motor oil better than conventional oil? Synthetic Motor Oil Myths - https://youtu.be/Se8-W7rK0H4 Thank you to Pennzoil for bringing me out to the 2016 Canadian GP and sponsoring this video! This video has been compensated by GarageMonkey and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. Subscribe for new videos every Wednesday! - https://goo.gl/VZstk7 The viscosity of an oil is its resistance to flow. A greater viscosity means more resistance to flow, or a thicker oil. A lower viscosity means a thinner oil. Before understanding the benefits of synthetic motor oils, like this Pennzoil Platinum derived from natural gas, we first need to understand the rating system used for motor oils. You’ll often hear 5W-30, or 0W-20 as ratings used in cars today. These are multi-grade viscosity oils, meaning their viscosity grade changes with temperature. The first number, followed by a W, is the cold rating (W stands for Winter), and this means the oil behaves like an SAE 5 grade motor oil (using 5W-30 as the example) while cold, but at operating temperature, at about 100 degrees C, it operates like an SAE 30 grade motor oil. Now 30 is higher than 5, so initially it may seem that the oil would get thicker at higher temperatures, which is obviously not the case. A straight SAE 30 grade oil will be thicker at lower temperatures, as will a 5 grade oil. Even though a 30 weight oil is thicker than a 5 weight oil, at 100C the 30 weight will be thinner than a cold 5 grade oil. Low viscosity at low temperatures is important, because this is where a significant amount of engine wear occurs, so it’s critical to maximize oil flow to protect the engine. At colder temperatures, thinner oils will flow better and thus offer better protection. For a conventional oil, for example while creating a 5W-30 oil, you’ll start with a base oil similar to an SAE grade 5 motor oil, and include additives to alter the viscosity rating. To improve low temperature flow, pour point depressants (PPDs) are added. To increase the viscosity at high temperatures, viscosity index improvers (VIIs) are added. VI improvers are polymers which expand in heat, making it more difficult for flow, thus increasing the viscosity. Synthetic oils, however, can have base oils which are already formulated as a multi-grade oil, meaning you don’t necessarily need additives, or as much additives, to alter the viscosity at different temperatures. The major benefit here is that additives tend to break down over time, so synthetic oils will maintain their original viscosity properties much better throughout the engine oil drain interval versus conventional oils. (Diagram illustrating viscosity vs temperature) If you were to plot two 5W-30 motor oils, one conventional and one synthetic, at the beginning of the oil change interval, they would have similar viscosity properties. At the end of the interval, however, the synthetic would act nearly identical to the original oil, while the conventional oil would be thicker at low temps, and thinner at high temps. Now does this mean that with synthetic motor oils you can extend your engine oil drain interval? No! It just means your engine is better protected throughout the engine oil drain interval. There are still additives (anti-wear, dispersants, anti-foam, detergents, rust inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors) which wear out over time, so you should always change at whatever interval your owners manual suggests. And don't forget to check out my other pages below! Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/engineeringexplained Official Website: http://www.howdoesacarwork.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jasonfenske13 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/engineeringexplained Car Throttle: https://www.carthrottle.com/user/engineeringexplained EE Extra: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsrY4q8xGPJQbQ8HPQZn6iA NEW VIDEO EVERY WEDNESDAY!
Comments
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I love you so much
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What about Gear oil
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I found that banana peel is super slippery, so I'm scraping off all the white stuff and using that - takes a while to produce 3 L but it's really worth it. Quick cold starts here in winther, engine noise decreased by 70%, mpg increased by 20%
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I only use the most crappy and cheapest oil on my crappy and cheap motorbike.
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love this video, just dont love Pennzoil that much. But since they helped put out this info I can deal with that :p
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What!
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My car takes 0W5. When I first saw this, I was like "WTF?"
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great work mate, really detailed information. keep it up.
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The manual for my car says to use 10W-40, but Ive found using WD-40 instead runs better at start up
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This guy should have been the new Spock.
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what is a5 b5 means ? my cars owners manual recommend to use 5w30 a5 b5 oil but i poured mobil super 5w40 a3b4 fiat 9.55535n2 does this harm the engine?
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You look like my friend's dad. lol
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My cats breath smells like tuna.
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Is it true that once you go synthetic you can't go back?
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Lot of theoretic science on this channel. It's good to view things from both theory and experience. If the theory is true that the additives wear out at the same rate between synthetic and conventional oils, then why does everyone in the industry recommend a longer interval with synthetic over conventional oil?
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You said have a 99 integra, I like the 4bangers too! Thanks for the vid. I have been using synthetic on all 7 of my running cars for years.
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great videos very informative, but could you please talk a little slower.
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More complex stuff electric cars don't have to worry about.
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What diesel oil did you use during the demonstration? I run Mobil delvac 5w40 in my duramax for the winter
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AFAIK, mineral oil base is based on its hot rating. example, to make 10W30, the base oil is SAE30, additive is added to make it become multigrade.