The JPL report: Lifting the hood on future car engines 20-page home-improvement section Better lubrication? More mpg? Easier zero-weather starts? Higher hp? 25000-mile oil change? Less wear? The big debate overThe big debate over synthetic oils for your car Will man-made engine oils pay off in your crankcase? Or are they just an expensive, unnecessary luxury? By C. P. GILMORE Here's what the experts are saying about synthetie ofl: ng data exist to support claims of longer drain in- tervals, reduced fuel costs, better cooling, ‘ete,”" writes “A. P, Me. Cloud of Conoco. We beliove that they perhaps hhave something (0 offer for the fi ture" says J.B. Lenier of Gulf Oil, field, Hackers of the now aynthetic fengine oils claim they withstand high temperatures. better, cut oil consumption, betior cold Starting, save gusy reduce, eagle wear, and keep your engine clean ‘enough to eat off of, Hasides, say the boosters, you don't have to chango them for 25,, 60, or even 100,000 males. Others claim that a Tot of the products ealled synthetic will ruin your engine, and that even the good ones aren't worth, the prlee-up to five times ag much as igh-quality conventional ofl ‘What's the truth? In the last two months 1 have visited enough In. Drleation tabaratortes to ast 9 ile ime, spoken to scores of manu: turers, engineers, chemists, and an tomotive experts. And T believe T nf the controversy Oil basics ‘A modern autemobllo engine puts « tere lad on the oft cold starting, tho ell 00 thick for ‘nd bromine eompounde from the eeay gen he fuel and thor hellish sb ftaneer bow around th paton inthe eo Called blow-by gases and and up i the kegs, a dons liquid vate. That ‘ater combines with the eller end oth ‘er substances to form en ecidie sludge, Additives (Over tho yours, the ol companies and eran speclalleed charical companies ike Liza inCivelend haved ‘ped complex combinatens of shereal {altives to gle oll earaln properties 1 Doteigents and disprsons to Keep tno" engine saan, neunze noi, and oep contaminante In surponion 0 thoy can be eliminated at ell rin tine. ‘9 Exvomeprassure ante 1 Rust ond carcosionarevenves. Ss. ‘ol tow tt alow tamper “Viscosity inden Improver. i ra ibrienta thins they rate hike fl stay shin hen eold for better ‘To make sure on oll has te ably to 90! poruian seitnce‘and understand just. why highly ‘qualified people ‘on both sides: and in the middie-hold the views they do. ve also formed some opinions of my own Ti tell you about later ‘The basic disagrooment grows ‘out of the fact that the technology She knoyehow-that goes into synthetic oil for qutomotive use is now. We've been fooling with min- ‘ral’ oils the ones tat come ot fof the ground-for a hundred years. ‘The technology is mature, experts know how to design # food mineral-oll Tubricant and ‘gree on what it should do ‘The story with synthetics is dit ferent. ‘The companies working on them are using many alferent up: proaches, as you'll seo later. Some Ihave worked, ‘some haven't. There are no standards everybody agrees fon. And almost nobody haa donc fenotigh testing with enough difer- tent Kinds of ears and trucks over a Tong. enough period and. under ennngh ‘eanditions to ‘eatify the Skeptics ‘that his product will do what he says it will ‘Another confusing element: ‘The terms “synthetic ofl” and “synthet. fc lubricant” have been used as though thero were a single product Not 0, Pour basally different ‘substances, formulated in nohody Knows how many. ways, are now fon the market, Finally, manufac- turers? elnims range fom conser. vative to wildly exaggerate, Anow class of products ‘There are many possiblo cher cal classes useful as lubricants, today all We action Is eouenteated ‘on four basic types, Two belong #2 fa class called “eaters, which are ‘made by reaeting an’ alcohol and Continued othe Job In he er {rom tach! soci lope ‘ores of Ine saauene ‘wear under heavy-oad conditions, Th T9z-hour tes, check sud formations iow $444 Fouled int valves, rastict breathing, dearoce pert fn loft show concen Ol acroon on lett Is from engine that est using Mobll 1 syrietle lubricant Just boen through ovare double: Clogged seteen le from engina run en length (984 hows) Ford VE requence premium quality FOW-#0 mineral lt Rocker cm covers ftom engines shown (top) and eloaralolls. Reducod sludge hove {oll pump screens) show contest level i due primary to superor ale in sludge foxmaton botwean synthetic persancy characteristics ot eyntete ve of miles on dyna. wate iter ood and gael veregad fo-poreont ‘th Mobil eye.certain types of acid, "The two oth: rs are. synthesized. hydroombons, in which heavy molecules ilar {0 some teaetions found in natural Petroleum are constructed atom by {tom rom various hydrogens and atbon-containing Hight molecules. ‘The synthetic engine ls used In automobiles today are ‘The dibs we eaters or die fore, ‘Thin athe hase sol. found in Bon’s Blt oll, Anwall synthetic Iubricant, Emory's Brigid Co, and many. ther Toca brands "The polyol esters. Base stock of All Peon Bon 30, © Polyalphaotetns. A synthe sized hydrocarbon that isthe main bse. stook for “Mobil 1, Mobi's synthe oil, and. Chevfon's Sub Zero Fluid. Gulf OM aa an active research rogeam on this clas of materials, but ta far no consumer Product © "The alkylated bencenes, Also 1 synthesized hydrocarbon, base stock for Conaco's Polar Start DN: ‘oo, Synthetic ols are getting a lot of attention because they have some important advantages. ‘They are i Iherently mara stnblo. So thoy don! ‘out as much as mineral ols at high temperatures. Most have multiple. ‘without Viscosity characteris mprover. they have excellent natural xency and. dispersaney-fmportant properties in a crankcase lubricant ‘cost ure—fout or fe limes ag much as mineral oils at the retail level. Synthetics are not new. Are: searcher naived FW, ‘Sullivan of Stondard of Indiana had an active esearch program underway in the 1980's. During the Battle of Stalin: The Gerinans then devtleped synthetic lubricants for eold.reather use, After the war, dovelopers of the new jet engines found that Jubricants wouldn't sland up to the jes" searing heat. Esters solved the problem, and to: flay nro weed in all Jot roratt Synthetics began to got attention ——___ GG... witn some of those big 1969 engines we'd take off the oil pan and take aknife and cut outwhar's left of the oiland bounce iton the floor. 9 ‘Two companies developed Emery Industri ket, Conoco's iz an alkylated benzene called Polar Start DN-600 Fluid; Emory's is ¢ diester called Frigid Go; and. Crevron recently came out with a sinilar lubricant called Sub Zero, Fluid, based on volyalphaolefin. ‘The last two are favalable a reill cnly In Alaska, Polar Start can be bought in Alas 4a, Canada, ‘and in come stations around the Lower 48, All of these ‘are SE-rated, and can be used in any ear. ‘The’ companies. make no special. elaims. of better Kas mileage, longer drain intervals, duced wear, and eo on. "The oils are designed strictly for easier lov-tom- perature starting. But low-temperature starting is not what stirzed general interest in synthetic oils a few years ngo, Tt ‘em ft the Spon Un dorthe-hood temperatures » have been ereeping up for years. ‘There has been a trend to smaller, high: ‘engines, more fewer acces and bost hauling, ad. changes, in engine design to meet emission putting together tougher lubricants based on synthetic base stocks that could take the heat Such oils, claim the manufae os, turned out to have a. variety of ‘emarkable qualities. Here are one uf the clals, tong with the tvidence given to support them: High-temperature operation Petroleum il Laas locks {9 oxidize rapidly at about 250° F. With proper additives they can ke more heat thar that, but the font upper Host ta arind UO" E, Some parts of some engines xet hotter than that. Synthetics are made from more stable molecules. Maery B. Reid. Director at Syn thetic Lubricants ef the Hatco Chemical Division of W.R, Grace and Co,, a primary manufneturer of iesters, says that In. general, fester lubricants can be mado. (0 withstand temperatures at_ least 200° F above those at which miner- al oils fail. Synthesized: hydrocar- Hons ean fall into about the same range. “The autosgnition tempera lure of Gulf Synflaid [nat-yet on the market) is about 710" says ‘AL—4B"F, conventional motor oll at left thickens into engiae ‘ishing ge Spire lt ae right (Mobil 1) ows Heel ‘Smahetce are widely used under arctic condiins,Mary Campen, project manager for Gull Oi! Chemicals, “while the thermal-decomposition temperature Is about 625° F. That h thee performance ‘molecular structure, the way the tall ison thecat.” How important is 1 ture capability the time, a en's engino is operat- ing, within the temperature limits of the olf in the erankease, 11 It weren't, you'd know it. But tem- peratures ean rise into the trouble zone, “Probleme wore reported. few yeara ago with some of the bi engines out in tho. southwest, says H. Vaughn Lowther, Mobil 2 cruising along, ofte pulling @ aller, and stop. for lunch. ‘The il would: cool “down fand virtually solidity, He'd come iy to start and the engine "Smokey Yu- ally “known racing-ear id Porutar’ Scikwor nick, nati mechanio ‘columnist, ‘of those big 1969 engines we'd take ‘off the oil pan and take a. knife fand cut out what's left of the ofl fand,bounee It on the floor.” "The problems that plagued those engines of six or seven years ago hhave been largely solved, but tem- Poratures are creeping toward the {rouble area again, eens onbliahed which he compared "high-quel SE mineral put through the gruoling Okdamo: bile TLIC high-temperature test, To ‘pass, the oif must thieken no more than’ 400 percent over 40 hours of continuous running, Several. min- eral oils tested thickened between 7 and’ 180 percent In 40 hours, ‘and from 600 to 1000 percent in 64 hours of running, Bsters, on the other hand, thickened ix and nine pereentaliost not at ale ‘One renson for such performance is the heat resistance of the base ‘molecule itself. Another is the fact that the natural Yseoulty charac: teristics of the olf make it possiblo to use little or no VE improver in some formulations. Since VI. im rovers are sisually heat sensitive, leaving them out produces a mor stable ol ‘To teat high-temperature perfor. ‘mance, Mobil recently put Mobil 1 in a number of police curs used for Datrolling a state parkway. “They put about 4000 miles a. week ‘on those ears,” says Lowther, "most Continued FUEL Ecovony FonorNTo Puwourn row cuevswen oat cat rewutr 12 su 400 «ot ) ‘uel esonemy rons ave varied results, Tive-percant improvement n as ‘but oveal, ears Lbeested wath Mobil 1 5 7 male Ee 5 pres Ie = g aed Oll-economy figures shown at loft in- Pele ‘yolume In 200 houra. Bynthotla tubi mi i ee | ¥ oe ohh g i Bias i a Tonsoni ‘improved ser fo ows Wt at of it at very high spoeds—70 mites fan hour. ‘The ‘care are specially equipped Chrysters, and they some: times get so hot the batteries melt, But we've had beautiful results!” imption tioned earlier, for example, the en ites 2unning with mineral oll used tween 4.8 and 5.5 quarts; the one fon diester used 3.8, In 1¥-million niles of feldtesis, Mobil T showed fan average improvement of 22 per cont compared with premium sual ity’ 10We40 minoral ails. “Standard sequence tests and dynamometer fans show eonsitent 2540 Oper. font improvements in oil economy, says Bob Trites of Amzoi Its not hard to see why, ‘Take two beakers of oil of the same vise ‘Synthetics can seals just as mi 2 lot of the simply evapor fengine and try thetic, you may’ worse: Tt won't exyone agrees 1 ‘about how pens, Mobil's ‘economy is stral thetie, hold them ‘at 800° for’ 160 hours, When Mobil did that, the mineral ofl lost 90 percent of its ‘Welght: the Mobil 1 fve percent aynthetiog dont, (‘Tat brings an important point youre using {oo much oll hecaus”of a leaky ring Job or replacing a Teaky’ seal), ee ‘atcolutely) ev. some improvement in ga mileage, Tt there le vigorous disagreement wuch—and why it hap: 1 ig 4 BW-20 product, That means is very light, A lighter oll, pro Viding it stands up to the beating it gets in the crankcase, giver lest internal frietion and. beter ene mileage than a heavy oil. tural and one eyn- Teal. out ‘around eral oils do, But an, engine “buend" for they tend to. make for exee tes. ‘Te less volatile sive oil consursption, With a yn i) tholie baso, Mebil was able to put together a nonvolatile BW-20 that hhad even better ofl economy than ralneenl TOW -40Fe ‘Mobil has done far more testing than anyone eso, ‘conchusively that to fit with a ayn “tke the problem take the place of a average is four five percent. As of this weiting, the eompany has ‘mun about 85° experiments. with it synths give ying numbers: ef eats in each, fand the cumulative results are Im ressive, ‘Thore is reason to think that apprench to fuel lightfonward: Mobil fem Rago PROOF "erase increase 1800 725 20.6 al 17 = 2400 108 ug un 10.19 : “moo 7a 4000 231 255 24 10.39 : 0027500iileage, even when tested agai ‘mineral olle of the seme viscosity, ‘differences “between therefore, they should help reduce feletan’ and tnprove ower output or gas mileage. Then, of course, ayntheties flow batter in f cold engine, 60 they should gi Dotter mileage during warmup, too ‘Almoat all companies that make synthetics claim some Kind of mileage advantage. ‘They differ fansiderably, perhaps partly” be. fatse of inherent differences fn the ‘materials, partly because most of them have done relatively” little testing and don't have results under widely’ differing. conditions the ind of experience needed be- fore the matter is really settled, ‘Here are some of the claims: ‘© Eon: 15 t0 20 porcent in vari- ‘ous tests, most of them with two cats run on a dynamometer or on road. Al Prot this company ied Smokey Yanick (oho, despite his ato esa ecb hha alo done great deal of on tine research for’ General Motors tnd oes trim oer of eam ns. Smokey" ran 02ineh Ghetrotet enn nn dynam: ter Yor 13" hours on" mineral of, rained it, replaced it with All rot an an anoter, 18 hors and so an, through various power faltinga. His results ‘are shown in the chart with this erticle, Horses Power output was Increased by ight to 10 porcent sith the syn thet. OF With the same horeopoy. crsoutputosgasssavings were i rowed bythe same Saunt Bil {Gent of Sauter Chemial, which tnnkes ‘polyol estor ban ack, tayp, Smokey’ figures rake sense {o fim onl point to the visa Drewute characteris agaln ENVith nner ei, viscosity Hooks linear up to some point "Thon the carve turns uy shar: “The sym: thet simply holds ap better a high temperatures-the way Smoke ey was operating that ehqineand G6So many of these tosts aro boauty tects, Engines runall right with some sludge in them. 99 the mineral oil doesn't Souwithithe aynthetic you keep all i lm on the motal surface and you' {ing better lubrication?” More peppinoss Here's one that's hard 19 mea- sure, but if a lubricant. cuts fe tion’ and gives both better fuel economy and easier cranking at Tow temperatures, them atten should have more of « quality we call “peppiness”” “We irled to ‘quantity peppiness to sme oxtent,” ‘says Lowther. "We took 460 Ml cury and automatically ran through a series of parl-throttle ac- celoratfons. We locked the throttle 2O.percent open and easured the Iniles per hour it had aehieved at the end of a certain number of sec- ‘ends, both unvler hot and cold con- ditions. In both eases, the numbers ‘were sinal, but we did yet a cor sient improvement of about four percent after this rather mild ae celeration.” told me of his ex: eR aE a oes that which he ran'an experinentl des ter formulation, "In Detroit, 21a, 4 hed four 20-oot biel from the freeway entrance. I kept the ‘car outside, ind even 40 the: temperature was zero in the morn: ing 4 go out, start it, Let (t run about 80 seconds to ict all the [eaues come up, back it out ef the Griveway, ‘run’ those four 50-foot blocks and get right on the express way at high speed. Tt dida’t need any warm.” Longer drain interval Car owners were once directed to change oil every £00 miles. Slory, 6 olls got better the change inter: val grew to 1000, 2000, 4000, nally 6000 or 7606, All on mineral ol, ‘Mineral oils could undoubtedly be used under some conditions far longer than they are now. Auto ‘companies are conservative in theit ‘oltehango "recommendations 0 that even those hardest on their cars will have trouble-free service. neers work elosely with ‘develop: ‘Since cot Mobil is ono of the major panies and doesn’t want to upset Hts relationship withthe ear ‘mal ere, itis not. claiming. extended ‘drain capabilites for Mobil in feds, Yet Mobil researchers clearly believe it can go much longer than shows data on taxi £60,000 miles with off drain every Continued apni. 1976 |Siererena Snead ‘Mobil { has also been put through double-length soquenco. HHIC teats “that’s the grueling high-speed tr ), double’ length VC (the low speed sludging conditions test), ana other similarly revealing proce dures. After double the usual beat- ing, the engines easily met the wear and cleanliness standards. they ‘were supposed to. meet after only fone runthrough. Even more. slar- In thes unbelievably. tough sold test in that igh-spoed park way police feet, firot at 12,000-mile intervals, Later, Grain intervals were stretched. The last alt of Une tein 38 quit draining,” says Lowther. "On tomo of those ears we pal 50,000 mites without draining, The ‘engines wore clean,. showed Signs of excessive wear.” ‘thor companies are not as con: servative in their claims ax Mobil. ‘Amvoll ally elaine that ite yn thetic oil will run for 25,000 miles fand puts it on the ean. Eon pub- Tishes field tests that show cars rat for 30,000 0 40,000 mites without oil change and stayed in good con- dition. ‘The company does “not ‘make specie ol: change claims, ex- cept to say that the product wil fo “four or five mes as long’ as ‘mineral oils. Emery has run ever more ambitious teats, niles, "Phe ether, with am. Emery ‘ester, ran the entire 60,000 with, ‘out draining. ‘The ester-ubrieated ‘ar got 3.7 percont better gas mile- ‘age ‘and ‘batter all economy. But ‘more: When the engines were tor Ine ratings, 9.1 (out of 10) for the synthetically lubrl cated car, 9.6-somewhal bette for the other. But the petroleum: lubricated "ear had "had ils oll drained and sludgo removed every {6000 miles, eight times during the test, while’the oil in the ester Laiciled car sull contalned every Dit of sludge that had been ereated. Other Emery tests show similar results. For example, emery” has iced @ number of large diesel trac: for trucks in the Ryder fleot as test vehicles, diester il il is drained every 12- 16, 000 miles. On teardown, the trucks 28 | roruian science mo SII gee the original fon the. bearings seen that before” for example. has vast experience with racing ears, When T visited him recently in Daytona Beach, he told me of his experience nolyol ester ubricants. "When you disassemble an engine th neral oi," he said, fxamine the. tings and” eying bores with a glass you'll ee rid and serateherthat’s the wear ing on, With a polyol ester, whe you take the engine apart every thing has the appearance of ein etree iach, nthe nein, ran at Indianapolis this yea continued, “we used polyol. When we tore the engine dovin, vou cou ‘wear. at al We put the same bearings back i because the crankshaft nevo touched the bearings: Ive fou star! out with a mineral of certain thickness?” sa Shelly, Wright, view president of technology fer itnoca, Inc, the com pany that makes Ail Proof, "and ‘Yuniek, years until his retirement” years ago. Now he is consultant and an inter uthority on synthetic. oll ” asked if Twas interested 2” he continued, told them they were too expensive, But one of them sont some any: hhow and we put it in the engine Inoue. and forgot about It “Then one day one of the boys fn the dynamometer room called and said thoy wero short of il fun Tad an engine that would 0 fff schedule unless we pul some- thing in it. T remembered the ayn ‘an. gave him that. ‘They called on {old me T hed better come over and take a look, so I looked and I had ng 90 clean in my. {ets put it back in and thetle fon i102 hours a never seen nyt Dad sun it again,’ tiple sequence 1 ever ran. tho oil through 676 hours and that ivelous.httle Ford engine rat was fantastic. “Now T sta getting dotivery on ‘a new Lincoln the 1 Christians, before Paul savy the Tight So we Tent the Scientific Laboratory of the Ford Research and Engineering Laboratory. Back in the mid "60's, two. companies here the petroleum oils sludge up ‘But when they had ‘on tho p ayn and T We put ee Se THT a | A [land | i | io di i» ian Siesta a0 ww ICO ‘lvora oll aiekers reply plow 0 Fr ihn at hig temperatr Synthote co are a costr, hae inereniy be Fgh ond tow-tomparatute itesran it on the “Petroleu ough n, then changed it to this. fyi thetic. After a year, Thad put 25, 000 miles on it, And incidentally, it was garaged outside through’ ‘out the Dearborn winter. ‘Then we| pulled down the engine and looked! it And it was 20 clean we put it back together, put the same oi bback in and ran it for another year. Al together, we ran it four years, ‘The filters, | didn't know when to change them, 30 T changed them ‘every 12,000 miles, 11 was Inctory specs with: new pol plugs at 28,000 and. 78,000 males Novother engine work wns required. PCV valve at teardown was per. fectly “el Tad never Beer changed.” Polter showed mo the wear data the ‘engine. eas carefully mea: sured ‘when it was. diaastmbled. “Ht was fantastically. low. Rings and bearings were within: factory tolerance—like new parts. We ha everson th before.” During. the entire period, Potter also. liad "periodi spectrographie oil analyses made GG Mobil has shown thi gas mileage with M four to five percent. hold far more material fon. where it can't do Parently other factors that Sunthetes to be wed for isomubies were lo “People will tell you that you eat fun an engine for 100,000. ml motive en nie” service. ‘That's where parti Hof the uitier Ine foluble waste materials will accum- the oil. Well, Ws fine yy, bul it doesn’t hold up in alta, with the acids, and starts ral oils. Consequently, rouble. “An important clement i ‘What happens to the | this kind of service is maint you get resins and Syne mpor totic ubrieante are inherently bet at cars can get up toa 10- percent Improvement in jobil 1. The averaye 's around ey thee xine any harm, ‘Theto are also ap. nab Sain intervals even that ito- rs call “Aunt Min. the car fs driven only a few miles ata dime 80 Tt never bat a'chanee. 10 ly. ‘Thus water case, combines fouoswomite seavence me equterente sae, i Tareas @ 100° (378°C) (donee 4000s Bo © eines 7 5 8 Czas = = 1B nee Fe Waning er I Piston Skit Varieh 33M 3393 ‘Wing Land Va Bonin aa She SOhin <5 —a5: igang — Tene ere Rone ‘Cam Pus Liter Wese a. ‘rease ray ‘ais —oooTT iam __ 00020, 0010 _ 00020. FORD SEQUENCE ve Engin tings er [aie re Spe totam) ———| 3 ‘i Piston St Verh 10 = CTs) z ‘Oi SereenClogng omy ‘iting Cagsne Seif 2 [ings 7 Tone ‘ata under “Ste.” column show Mohit bars on dovbie-tena nso reguareequence testzmum- tests, Perfect vari vsidge score! 10. the alkalinity of the praduet, says W. H. Richa, project mai: ager of Mobil 1 ‘Let me give you on exam In the Ford VC test, designed t Simulate low-temperature service, you usually end up with 2 TBN total hase number, « measure of alkalinity ‘and the ability of the ‘il to neutralize acids) of two or Uhtee after 192. ours. Mobi would be twice that~in the range of four to 4.5. That would be be: ‘cause of the base stock itself, the additives, and the lack of, break- down of ihe base stock. We've alsa found that in addition to straight neutealizing of acids, these prod ict give some sort of effect where they ‘tle up the eld products 9 they lose their activity, We think its’ a» physical-chemienl reaction ‘where the particles are fed. oF perhap coll porsed. In'addition, you will tie up your organicacid precutrors—those Shemieals' that form. ‘he act Normally, when crankease you go through tl ess of peroxide format leads to alcobiots ‘on to organic acid” his "65 Lincoln tho engine we've been about” oan taken out for detail study and analysis. Potter got ‘Of! course, ‘Potters expe shouldn't lead just anyone to put find forget this later) there are alot of §90- theties that may not have the per ormanco charactoritice of the top. fprade products. In ad ter i hans his oil analyzed frequently cnows precisely what ix happenin in the oil at every moment, incl ing levels of engine wear and ad tive deplation of the oil, (Incl tally, Potter says regular oil fil won't hold up for this kind ef vice. He uses special depth fle ile by many of the leading fl makers. Fram, for example, sell them tinder Its Cel-Palk teadénnne Motoreraft has no special term o the earton; Took i cam you Use a yn thetic? ‘Unfortunately, there's. no really good way to know. There ts ha slanted, accepted way of des Continuedtormining just what an oil ean do except the SE sequence tests, "The good ayntheties, of courso,” pass hese with ease, some will pass double. and triplesequence tests. But nobody can say for sure what that "means or tually try to devise standards to demonstrate the superior qualities of synthetic, But it took years to agree on the SE sequence fests a correlate them with field experi: tence, Further complicating the prob Teun is the faet that tho automooit ny recommendations 3s, since there are no objective standatds by which they fan be judged—except the SE se- ‘quence iests, It could take three to five years to agree on standards for super ols, in the meantime, a consumers problem is complicated by the fact that not all of the many synthetics fon the market have boen up to the Standards of the top-rated, proper ly formulated lubricants we've been vusting. Tn the early days of the reputable ‘companies made mistakes and mar ketod oils before they were prop: erly tested, Worse, # lot of prod: Uucta were made by sinall marketing ccompantes that bought a’ synthetic base stock from one company, an additive ‘package from another, ‘mixed them together, and. sold them, In many coees, the ackitive packages were designed for peteale tum oils and didn’t work very well in the synthetic. Other manufac. turers imply dumped novel addi tives into mineral oils or blends and sold them’ es aynthotion— mre, tem gi wa Ecler ete pe anode amine ay ake “the claims said it would," said Lowi ig problem was that zine dlithiophosphate-tho princi tear agent used in When I visited Lubrizol recently, research chemist ill Gergely am cube on iho, thoved ime badly worn valve.t from tho company's test engines rin with one synthotle. "We'va had such severe sear that we've. had 90 poruian scixice parte break and the pushrods get all bent up in as tittle as four Emory Indestries, “When we frst got started in this area we did {got more ant they eonti work. 80 we finally concluded that ‘Wo, had to sevelop cur own, Now ‘We've found out how to incorporate zine and yet good! wear chatacter- istics?" All of the manufacturers of synthetic cils T talked to also GGsynthetics got abad name because some pretty unscrupulous guys started to market stuff and labeled it synthetic and it just wouldn't do what the claims said it would. 9 claimed eorsideenbla progress ta. ‘ward the sohition af the went prob. Tem. Gergel isn't convinced, and ‘says he'll have to see more data than isnow available. “Yet “another” problem: All en. ssines have rubberlike seals. around valve stems, rotating. shalts, and other places where “moving "parts have (0 cone wil of the engine ‘The veate. Koop tho oil inside. In mineral oils various types of seal lightly, mab lowed fr inthe design of tho seal. With ester, eels ovell consider- ably more. With synthesized hy- deocarbons, they sell less_and may even shrine Mobil puts some polyol ester in Mobil 1, largely to control seal swell and make Tt come ‘out about tho sama as. for petro- eum. "Mary “authorities “have shined tha “eters eipecialy polyols—can cause. seals t0 {oom ard rab cass onan problems, talked 10. all of the fester manafscturers about this, and all assured me that, they ’ had worked “on, this well-public problom and solved it. Most cafd they “had rever had” an engine problom due to seal avell, Finally, T Heard alot of talk, fabont the’ potontial incompatibility Droblems between mineral oils and ssynthotica, thing of have rowing 1 past, both in this count, tna in Europe; ches of gbemeds known a8. polyglycols has bees tuced a2 automotive lubricating oil ‘These are absolutely noncomy at: Sle with ‘mineral oil and wil jell fand thicken if mineral oil is added to a crankcase containing them. But there seers to be no problem with either synthatic hydrocarbons “which are similar chemically to mineral oiloF cetera, which are Used in some blends of natural and thesized oils. "There are no poly- rlycol engine lubricants on’ the market at this time ‘In the meantime, should you use ‘synthetic? Will tend up costing ‘you less, despite ita higher init ‘ost? As you might guess, different futhoritien anawer these questions in different ‘ways: Here's how the people T talked to did the calcula tions: AM Proof flgures that over 18 25,000.milo period, rogular. if and filters would cost $45, while All Proof, whieh wouldn't have t0 be changed, w ‘The calculation doe Up ofl, but it doesn't take into-no-_ ‘count ‘any fuel saving that igh be realized, Potter, oven thoush hi had 10.5 ‘octane, ‘The reason he got by regular gas, he says fetane requirements up. "ve nev. ‘9 Lincoln engine of tha sat didn't) need” premiun \" he says ‘Mobil figures this way: get a fiverpercent gas Used 6000-mile dain,” ‘Mantey, “then you could save a S18 on gas. You come out on 1 alone, If yout go to, say, a 12, mile drain, then the. benofils ome oven grntor.”"There ao otal. Denuty teste," says AP. MeC fof Conoco, “Engines tun all right ‘with rom sludge in them Whether you change oll every HOH ar 10,000) viles makes vory Tithe dilferenco nthe cost of ronning @ ene. We Fave never recommended that any- body use our oil that didn't need We And if something ia cheaper fred will do tho Job, why pay the fextin mienay? We've never tried to sel mn i a Hugh Mullinger, Chrysler's de Ps fica lubsicante, had a. different point of view, too. Says Mullinger: "Certainly. from the performance thoy are as goods petro ils, bul they're. expensive. that the technology is at hand that can extend oil drains at very little cost inerease in petro: Teum oils, which would then put sgymthetic oll at' cast disad (ge.” "There's some technology to in dicate that’ we might very well Achieve the same type of perfor mance with mineral-oit blends at far les cost than we could with synthetic lubricants," says J. E. Tainer, of Cll heve by of conra, coniiterable tensa to thine tint ‘mineral ole enn be mae to have ‘qualities far better than those hey Tava view, Revo aid Bun, for ox. imple, have recently inieodueed fnew Tong-drain mineral oils. good {or 60,000 miles in diesel truck en- fines, Oils with longer drain ca- abilities could’ also. undoubtedly he designed for ears. Whether they would ‘be more coatelfective for Your car than synthetics Is unset- ed at this time Despite all the controversy, un certainty, and nek of ony data, these things sted out thie thne inieates that there are excellent synthetic lubricants that tla virtually everything claimed for then Unfortunately, there are all fea tabled an mvnthotie that don't. , Fine Iubriennts ean be made from any of the substeices: now enecal we: svathesizad hydrocar- Hetweon basestock ave ‘dive Inckage. Atleast sine people nove now how to do that wight. ‘The ible companies have chosen their router largely because of the Taine they've in, Cla nel Mes Dil have gone with eutlesized hy lrocarhons heeatse ith loses to the petraleum techinlogy they Ienowe ao well, "The ester manufac: LE synthoti« oils are got ting a lot of attenti because they have some inherent advantages. But they also cost more—four or five times as much as mineral oils. 99 related compounds. going rnd that's what ty know how FP'you want in your ear, ¥ TL AS of this welting, Mo test marketed few cations: Albaty,. Sch larly. "Troy, and Syricuse, NY: Mi Boston; Milwauke ‘eapolie and St, Paul; Portland, Ore Providetice, Seattle, a ye ut int tion soon, Ful Mint decision. ns Fat yet een snd, Moat ot the ftlgr makes nee isteihatel sporad ically ‘nivl may oF may 9 fof the good ones. What Tes fn the ty reople in the business yutheties will heared only for specialized service where conven onal oils wor ile, Others. think they ate intrinsically better prod: tues ane will geacualyy, i an evo: Titionary manner, take over the fastomative lubricant market. It they do, they will bring other prob “Alton te wy thesized hydrocnsbons ate made from eruvle ofl and chemicals de snany of tho esters from a Supplies could fenlite automotive market "They M1 be_ me from petrochem! tale, but woud prabably cost more. rome experts, one of, the ‘lariers lighter ki my ears 2 looking at the the companies publish, And ‘be ising them for Tonger than rain intervals on ears oul fof warranty. 'm- not. convinced synthetics are cost effective in all teases that fs, that PML come out pening Jeea overall, But thors'e hho doubt in-my mind that the best rym can co things that the best mineral oils can't. And when Fad itall up, Fd be willing to mething. more for the ensler high-temperature wr engine, and othFrom a book TETL LUBRICATING OM, Before we discuss the hardware in he lubrication system, we should talk ‘little about lubricating oils, There are 0 general types of engine ail: com ‘only available mineral olls and not '§ BY Sl so-common synthesized or “syn thetic" olla, eee eas sae t -Tknow that many major oil companies sperid a lot ‘of money on racing and race car spon- OG (SMOKEY YUNICH WRITES A MONTHLY COLUMN IN POPULAR SCIENCE Mea oMAUEVIE ANT Teo DTE EEN AG AMEN TAGES MART asATe AEN MOREY YUNECK sorships—and | really don't have any- thing against them—but if was racing for serious money, there's no doubt in my mind that | would buy and us synthosiz. i ‘Synthesizedoils have been around fora fong time. Wo first started testing synthetics ovar 30 yoars ago—at that time wo had to pay as much as $37 a quart for the siulf—but | quickly be= came convinced that a “good” syn: \pesized oll has betler lubcciy, baiterjoad:catrving capabililies than any mineral oil in existence, IF .am to believe what | am told by knowledgeable people, synthesized oils are currently used a great deal in professional - motorcycle racing throughout Europe and the Orient. These engines probably produce more specifle powar—measured Wo havo tested synth olls for more than 30. ‘no doubt thet tho hi ra voryoxponsiveand aro not widely avallable. HOGNZANES CALLED