Re: synthetic oil

[bearbvd@domain.elided (Greg Hermann)]

At 7:54 AM 10/29/01, Joe Elliott wrote:
>Quick question:  How is synthetic motor oil made and how does it
>differ chemically from normal oil?  It still comes from crude oil,
>right?

There are a variety of chemical species out there called "synthetic" oil.

Dinny oil is usually highly refined (not reformed) long chain, saturated
hydrocarbons, plus a variety of additive packages. Low ash content is of
importance, particularly for high performance engines.

Synthetics can range anywhere from slightly reformed hydrocarbons to
n-butyl polyol esters. The esters are the _really_ good ones--low viscosity
together with extremely high film strength, and little change in viscosity
with increasing temperature.

Greg

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