What does synthetic oil do for my car that regular oil does not?
In: 641
The simplest explanation… Synthetic is man made. As where standard oil is refined from the ground. It typically lasts longer between oil changes and typically has a lower effective working temp.
The simplest explanation… Synthetic is man made. As where standard oil is refined from the ground. It typically lasts longer between oil changes and typically has a lower effective working temp.
The simplest explanation… Synthetic is man made. As where standard oil is refined from the ground. It typically lasts longer between oil changes and typically has a lower effective working temp.
Hi! Mehcanical engineering student and car guy here. I’m so glad you asked! for starters, let’s figure out what oil does.
# TL,DR; what does oil do?
simply put, it lubricates, it cools, and it cleans. good, modern conventional (regular) oil you’ll find on the shelf is simply amazing nowadays, and it is by no means cheap or damaging at all. synthetic oil, instead of being very refined dino-juice mixed with a bunch of additives, starts with a lab-made dino-juice, where all the little molecules of oil are exactly and perfectly made to be good lubricants. think of it like conventional oil is putting river water through a bunch of strainers to get all the small particles out, while lab-made dino-juice is lab-made, pure water. Same water, but one is *exactly* what we want in it, and the other is *98%* what we want, and 2% of stuff that’s not harmful.
# huh?
Go outside and get two rocks. come back inside, and *scrrrrrrape* them together, ten, twenty, fifty times. you’re going to notice four things :
1. you have to press really hard to get them to move, e.g. there’s a lot of **friction,**
2. it’s going to **wear** your rocks a bunch with scratch marks all over,
3. your rocks are eventually going to get hot to the touch because of friction, and
4. you’re going to make a lot of nasty rock dust as you scrape.
# rocks? what about engines?
an engine’s job is to make your car go *vroom,* and move that two tons of metal to take you places. they do that by making gasoline go boom, where the boom pushes on a piece of steel, and it makes the engine turn.
inside your engine, there are a lot of pieces of metal which scrape together. this **friction** creates **heat, wear, and dust.** in an engine, a lot of **clearances** (the small gap between one piece and another) are very tight, sometimes less than a human hair (0.003) inches. if we let engines run without oil, all those clearances wear very quickly, the engine gets very hot, the engine makes a lot of nasty dust that clogs a bunch of places, and the engine no longer works.
# okay, but how does oil fix that?
let’s go back to our rocks and take them under the sink. if we get the rocks wet, and let the sink flow a little bit on your rocks while you rub, you’ll notice all sorts of awesome effects :
1. you need a lot less effort to scrape them than before, e.g. there’s less friction,
2. your rocks are going to have less marks or no scratch marks at all,
3. your rocks are a lot less hot because they’re always being rinsed by a bit of water,
4. and all that dust gets washed away down the drain, leaving your rocks cleaner.
that’s what lubrication does. fancy Chefs use water as a lubricant while they sharpen their knives. a lot of plumbers will wet the pipes they’re installing with soapy water, which is an excellent lubricant, so they fit together good.
in engines, we use a special blend of oil, made by chemical engineers specialized in **trobology**, the study of lubricants and lubrication. engine oil does the same thing as our water :
1. it makes a tiny coating between all the parts that rub together, preventing them from scraping as much. this decreases friction, and decreases wear, e.g., **it lubricates.**
2. the little bit of scraping that’s left can cause some dust, so the oil takes it away and absorbs it. the engine also spits out some stuff into itself from all the explosions, which the oil absorbs too so it’s not getting everything dirty and clogging stuff up. e.g., it **cleans.**
3. all those parts get very hot, since we’re harnessing explosions and all – and since metal gets weaker, softer and more play-dough-y when it’s hot, we don’t want hot metal handling explosions. so just like our water running over our rocks, it **cools** the engine and keeps it running great and safely.
# Awesome, I know how oil works. what about my question, though?
Right!
Modern **conventional** (base) oils are a lot of dino-juice, strained and cleaned up a ton to get the best, most lubricating parts of the dino-juice we want, and then we add a bunch of stuff to them called **additives**. some companies will use Zinc, Calcium, Molybdenum (there’s a mouthful – people just say *molly*) and more to make all that oil do it’s job (cooling, cleaning, and lubricating) better.
**Synthetic** oil is all those additives, but mixed into a lab-made dino juice, where all the little molecules are exactly like we want them. we can pick and choose them however we like, so they’re all excellent. synthetic oil flows better and reaches into all the little crevices and passages of an engine better than conventional stuff, and it can take more gunk in it before it’s full of gunk and can no longer clean.
if conventional oil is like me, working a physical job, then synthetic oil is like me, but if I went to the gym. Conventional me can still do my job, but synthetic me would do it that much better in all aspects.
# I heard synthetic is better in the cold. is that true?
**Yes! there’s a big bonus if you live in a cold, snowy, icy place.** Oil gets thicker when it gets colder, and starts to look like syrup. when oil is very cold, it has a harder time flowing, like molasses instead of milk, and it also has a harder time reaching into all those nooks and crannies, like we would if we were all bundled up with coats and hats. This doesn’t cause doom : the engine puts out a lot of heat as it moves, so all the oil eventually gets hot, and back to watery liquid instead of thick syrup. but for that first hour of driving while it’s cold, it’s not going to do it’s job that good.
synthetic oil minds the cold a little less than conventional oil. it’ll still be syrup-y, but less, and since it’s less syrup-y, your engine will start easier in the morning! how about that!
# So… should I use conventional oil, or synthetic oil?
to be quite Frank, both of them are excellent, provided you use good quality oil. gas station oil, with a boring label and all, is usually there for emergencies, when you’re low on oil and you need some right away. the good brands **Quaker state, valvoline, Mobil, Pennzoil, Castrol, Royal purple,** **and more** are all… *pretty much the same*. it’s like coffee : good coffee is good coffee. we all have our preferences (and gearheads will argue to the death on this) but the secret no one really wants to admit is that it’s mostly like which sports team is best. *they’re all pretty good* if you’re talking about the major league ones.
the key to engine longevity is regular maintenance, a good design, and care. if you live in a cold place, consider parking your car indoors – having your oil already warm is a great bonus, since there’s no moment where your engine is less protected as it warms up in the winter. warming the engine oil is unfortunately a lot longer than warming your coolant so your heater starts working, and going hard on the gas pedal before your oil is warm is going to cause stress, and wear. **if you change your oil regularly, keep it topped up, and don’t work your engine hard while it’s still cold, your engine will last you the car’s lifetime.**
Hope that helps! if you’re curious about this stuff, here are a few links below.
[visiting an oil manufacturer and designer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFU6uMYL2EM&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained) with Engineering Explained
[is Pennzoil synthetic better than regular?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qFfAEp9AU&ab_channel=ProjectFarm) with Project Farm
[What’s in my motor oil](https://pqia.org/passenger-car-motor-oil/) thanks to the Petroleum Quality institute of America.
I thought the actual weight of the oil was what it is @ one temperature versus elevated temperature. I.e. 5W20 is less viscous at lower temp than 10W20, but once they get up to temp they have the same viscosity. So viscosity of synthetic and ‘regular’ should be the same for the same weight oil. Thought synthetic took longer to break down due to less impurities
…
Hi! Mehcanical engineering student and car guy here. I’m so glad you asked! for starters, let’s figure out what oil does.
# TL,DR; what does oil do?
simply put, it lubricates, it cools, and it cleans. good, modern conventional (regular) oil you’ll find on the shelf is simply amazing nowadays, and it is by no means cheap or damaging at all. synthetic oil, instead of being very refined dino-juice mixed with a bunch of additives, starts with a lab-made dino-juice, where all the little molecules of oil are exactly and perfectly made to be good lubricants. think of it like conventional oil is putting river water through a bunch of strainers to get all the small particles out, while lab-made dino-juice is lab-made, pure water. Same water, but one is *exactly* what we want in it, and the other is *98%* what we want, and 2% of stuff that’s not harmful.
# huh?
Go outside and get two rocks. come back inside, and *scrrrrrrape* them together, ten, twenty, fifty times. you’re going to notice four things :
1. you have to press really hard to get them to move, e.g. there’s a lot of **friction,**
2. it’s going to **wear** your rocks a bunch with scratch marks all over,
3. your rocks are eventually going to get hot to the touch because of friction, and
4. you’re going to make a lot of nasty rock dust as you scrape.
# rocks? what about engines?
an engine’s job is to make your car go *vroom,* and move that two tons of metal to take you places. they do that by making gasoline go boom, where the boom pushes on a piece of steel, and it makes the engine turn.
inside your engine, there are a lot of pieces of metal which scrape together. this **friction** creates **heat, wear, and dust.** in an engine, a lot of **clearances** (the small gap between one piece and another) are very tight, sometimes less than a human hair (0.003) inches. if we let engines run without oil, all those clearances wear very quickly, the engine gets very hot, the engine makes a lot of nasty dust that clogs a bunch of places, and the engine no longer works.
# okay, but how does oil fix that?
let’s go back to our rocks and take them under the sink. if we get the rocks wet, and let the sink flow a little bit on your rocks while you rub, you’ll notice all sorts of awesome effects :
1. you need a lot less effort to scrape them than before, e.g. there’s less friction,
2. your rocks are going to have less marks or no scratch marks at all,
3. your rocks are a lot less hot because they’re always being rinsed by a bit of water,
4. and all that dust gets washed away down the drain, leaving your rocks cleaner.
that’s what lubrication does. fancy Chefs use water as a lubricant while they sharpen their knives. a lot of plumbers will wet the pipes they’re installing with soapy water, which is an excellent lubricant, so they fit together good.
in engines, we use a special blend of oil, made by chemical engineers specialized in **trobology**, the study of lubricants and lubrication. engine oil does the same thing as our water :
1. it makes a tiny coating between all the parts that rub together, preventing them from scraping as much. this decreases friction, and decreases wear, e.g., **it lubricates.**
2. the little bit of scraping that’s left can cause some dust, so the oil takes it away and absorbs it. the engine also spits out some stuff into itself from all the explosions, which the oil absorbs too so it’s not getting everything dirty and clogging stuff up. e.g., it **cleans.**
3. all those parts get very hot, since we’re harnessing explosions and all – and since metal gets weaker, softer and more play-dough-y when it’s hot, we don’t want hot metal handling explosions. so just like our water running over our rocks, it **cools** the engine and keeps it running great and safely.
# Awesome, I know how oil works. what about my question, though?
Right!
Modern **conventional** (base) oils are a lot of dino-juice, strained and cleaned up a ton to get the best, most lubricating parts of the dino-juice we want, and then we add a bunch of stuff to them called **additives**. some companies will use Zinc, Calcium, Molybdenum (there’s a mouthful – people just say *molly*) and more to make all that oil do it’s job (cooling, cleaning, and lubricating) better.
**Synthetic** oil is all those additives, but mixed into a lab-made dino juice, where all the little molecules are exactly like we want them. we can pick and choose them however we like, so they’re all excellent. synthetic oil flows better and reaches into all the little crevices and passages of an engine better than conventional stuff, and it can take more gunk in it before it’s full of gunk and can no longer clean.
if conventional oil is like me, working a physical job, then synthetic oil is like me, but if I went to the gym. Conventional me can still do my job, but synthetic me would do it that much better in all aspects.
# I heard synthetic is better in the cold. is that true?
**Yes! there’s a big bonus if you live in a cold, snowy, icy place.** Oil gets thicker when it gets colder, and starts to look like syrup. when oil is very cold, it has a harder time flowing, like molasses instead of milk, and it also has a harder time reaching into all those nooks and crannies, like we would if we were all bundled up with coats and hats. This doesn’t cause doom : the engine puts out a lot of heat as it moves, so all the oil eventually gets hot, and back to watery liquid instead of thick syrup. but for that first hour of driving while it’s cold, it’s not going to do it’s job that good.
synthetic oil minds the cold a little less than conventional oil. it’ll still be syrup-y, but less, and since it’s less syrup-y, your engine will start easier in the morning! how about that!
# So… should I use conventional oil, or synthetic oil?
to be quite Frank, both of them are excellent, provided you use good quality oil. gas station oil, with a boring label and all, is usually there for emergencies, when you’re low on oil and you need some right away. the good brands **Quaker state, valvoline, Mobil, Pennzoil, Castrol, Royal purple,** **and more** are all… *pretty much the same*. it’s like coffee : good coffee is good coffee. we all have our preferences (and gearheads will argue to the death on this) but the secret no one really wants to admit is that it’s mostly like which sports team is best. *they’re all pretty good* if you’re talking about the major league ones.
the key to engine longevity is regular maintenance, a good design, and care. if you live in a cold place, consider parking your car indoors – having your oil already warm is a great bonus, since there’s no moment where your engine is less protected as it warms up in the winter. warming the engine oil is unfortunately a lot longer than warming your coolant so your heater starts working, and going hard on the gas pedal before your oil is warm is going to cause stress, and wear. **if you change your oil regularly, keep it topped up, and don’t work your engine hard while it’s still cold, your engine will last you the car’s lifetime.**
Hope that helps! if you’re curious about this stuff, here are a few links below.
[visiting an oil manufacturer and designer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFU6uMYL2EM&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained) with Engineering Explained
[is Pennzoil synthetic better than regular?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qFfAEp9AU&ab_channel=ProjectFarm) with Project Farm
[What’s in my motor oil](https://pqia.org/passenger-car-motor-oil/) thanks to the Petroleum Quality institute of America.
Hi! Mehcanical engineering student and car guy here. I’m so glad you asked! for starters, let’s figure out what oil does.
# TL,DR; what does oil do?
simply put, it lubricates, it cools, and it cleans. good, modern conventional (regular) oil you’ll find on the shelf is simply amazing nowadays, and it is by no means cheap or damaging at all. synthetic oil, instead of being very refined dino-juice mixed with a bunch of additives, starts with a lab-made dino-juice, where all the little molecules of oil are exactly and perfectly made to be good lubricants. think of it like conventional oil is putting river water through a bunch of strainers to get all the small particles out, while lab-made dino-juice is lab-made, pure water. Same water, but one is *exactly* what we want in it, and the other is *98%* what we want, and 2% of stuff that’s not harmful.
# huh?
Go outside and get two rocks. come back inside, and *scrrrrrrape* them together, ten, twenty, fifty times. you’re going to notice four things :
1. you have to press really hard to get them to move, e.g. there’s a lot of **friction,**
2. it’s going to **wear** your rocks a bunch with scratch marks all over,
3. your rocks are eventually going to get hot to the touch because of friction, and
4. you’re going to make a lot of nasty rock dust as you scrape.
# rocks? what about engines?
an engine’s job is to make your car go *vroom,* and move that two tons of metal to take you places. they do that by making gasoline go boom, where the boom pushes on a piece of steel, and it makes the engine turn.
inside your engine, there are a lot of pieces of metal which scrape together. this **friction** creates **heat, wear, and dust.** in an engine, a lot of **clearances** (the small gap between one piece and another) are very tight, sometimes less than a human hair (0.003) inches. if we let engines run without oil, all those clearances wear very quickly, the engine gets very hot, the engine makes a lot of nasty dust that clogs a bunch of places, and the engine no longer works.
# okay, but how does oil fix that?
let’s go back to our rocks and take them under the sink. if we get the rocks wet, and let the sink flow a little bit on your rocks while you rub, you’ll notice all sorts of awesome effects :
1. you need a lot less effort to scrape them than before, e.g. there’s less friction,
2. your rocks are going to have less marks or no scratch marks at all,
3. your rocks are a lot less hot because they’re always being rinsed by a bit of water,
4. and all that dust gets washed away down the drain, leaving your rocks cleaner.
that’s what lubrication does. fancy Chefs use water as a lubricant while they sharpen their knives. a lot of plumbers will wet the pipes they’re installing with soapy water, which is an excellent lubricant, so they fit together good.
in engines, we use a special blend of oil, made by chemical engineers specialized in **trobology**, the study of lubricants and lubrication. engine oil does the same thing as our water :
1. it makes a tiny coating between all the parts that rub together, preventing them from scraping as much. this decreases friction, and decreases wear, e.g., **it lubricates.**
2. the little bit of scraping that’s left can cause some dust, so the oil takes it away and absorbs it. the engine also spits out some stuff into itself from all the explosions, which the oil absorbs too so it’s not getting everything dirty and clogging stuff up. e.g., it **cleans.**
3. all those parts get very hot, since we’re harnessing explosions and all – and since metal gets weaker, softer and more play-dough-y when it’s hot, we don’t want hot metal handling explosions. so just like our water running over our rocks, it **cools** the engine and keeps it running great and safely.
# Awesome, I know how oil works. what about my question, though?
Right!
Modern **conventional** (base) oils are a lot of dino-juice, strained and cleaned up a ton to get the best, most lubricating parts of the dino-juice we want, and then we add a bunch of stuff to them called **additives**. some companies will use Zinc, Calcium, Molybdenum (there’s a mouthful – people just say *molly*) and more to make all that oil do it’s job (cooling, cleaning, and lubricating) better.
**Synthetic** oil is all those additives, but mixed into a lab-made dino juice, where all the little molecules are exactly like we want them. we can pick and choose them however we like, so they’re all excellent. synthetic oil flows better and reaches into all the little crevices and passages of an engine better than conventional stuff, and it can take more gunk in it before it’s full of gunk and can no longer clean.
if conventional oil is like me, working a physical job, then synthetic oil is like me, but if I went to the gym. Conventional me can still do my job, but synthetic me would do it that much better in all aspects.
# I heard synthetic is better in the cold. is that true?
**Yes! there’s a big bonus if you live in a cold, snowy, icy place.** Oil gets thicker when it gets colder, and starts to look like syrup. when oil is very cold, it has a harder time flowing, like molasses instead of milk, and it also has a harder time reaching into all those nooks and crannies, like we would if we were all bundled up with coats and hats. This doesn’t cause doom : the engine puts out a lot of heat as it moves, so all the oil eventually gets hot, and back to watery liquid instead of thick syrup. but for that first hour of driving while it’s cold, it’s not going to do it’s job that good.
synthetic oil minds the cold a little less than conventional oil. it’ll still be syrup-y, but less, and since it’s less syrup-y, your engine will start easier in the morning! how about that!
# So… should I use conventional oil, or synthetic oil?
to be quite Frank, both of them are excellent, provided you use good quality oil. gas station oil, with a boring label and all, is usually there for emergencies, when you’re low on oil and you need some right away. the good brands **Quaker state, valvoline, Mobil, Pennzoil, Castrol, Royal purple,** **and more** are all… *pretty much the same*. it’s like coffee : good coffee is good coffee. we all have our preferences (and gearheads will argue to the death on this) but the secret no one really wants to admit is that it’s mostly like which sports team is best. *they’re all pretty good* if you’re talking about the major league ones.
the key to engine longevity is regular maintenance, a good design, and care. if you live in a cold place, consider parking your car indoors – having your oil already warm is a great bonus, since there’s no moment where your engine is less protected as it warms up in the winter. warming the engine oil is unfortunately a lot longer than warming your coolant so your heater starts working, and going hard on the gas pedal before your oil is warm is going to cause stress, and wear. **if you change your oil regularly, keep it topped up, and don’t work your engine hard while it’s still cold, your engine will last you the car’s lifetime.**
Hope that helps! if you’re curious about this stuff, here are a few links below.
[visiting an oil manufacturer and designer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFU6uMYL2EM&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained) with Engineering Explained
[is Pennzoil synthetic better than regular?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qFfAEp9AU&ab_channel=ProjectFarm) with Project Farm
[What’s in my motor oil](https://pqia.org/passenger-car-motor-oil/) thanks to the Petroleum Quality institute of America.
I thought the actual weight of the oil was what it is @ one temperature versus elevated temperature. I.e. 5W20 is less viscous at lower temp than 10W20, but once they get up to temp they have the same viscosity. So viscosity of synthetic and ‘regular’ should be the same for the same weight oil. Thought synthetic took longer to break down due to less impurities
…
I thought all the oil in Walmart or car shop sold synthetic oil? What’s natural oil??
I thought the actual weight of the oil was what it is @ one temperature versus elevated temperature. I.e. 5W20 is less viscous at lower temp than 10W20, but once they get up to temp they have the same viscosity. So viscosity of synthetic and ‘regular’ should be the same for the same weight oil. Thought synthetic took longer to break down due to less impurities
…
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