Synthetic VS. Synthetic Blend

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I purchased a 2005 Grand Caravan new. It used about 3/4ths of a quart in 1200 miles. My research into a "better oil" led to this site. Dodge says one qt/1000 miles is normal. If the vehicle has more than 60k miles, one Qt/750 miles is normal. I tried different oils, finally settling on Pennzoil Platinum. Consumption went to one qt every 2500 miles.

In 2013, I purchased a 2009 Chrysler T&C. Consumption was consistently one quart/1000 miles. I tried various synthetics including Mobil 1, Pennz Platinum and Mobil 1 High Mileage. They helped a little but not much. I am currently running Pennzoil HM. I just went 2700 miles before adding a quart. Thus far, high mileage oils seem to be reducing consumption the best. My next OCI will be with Pennz Plat HM or Max Life now that price is down on both and availability has improved.
 
In truth here in the USA, it's up to the refiner and blender as to what they call what... The marketing guys aside, PYB and QSGB have prolly been "synthetic blends" for at least a few years now. There is general consensus that the refineries have excess GTL capacity and they are letting the GTL base stocks into the regular oil lines. No advertising or name change. So from the outside you'd think it's a straight mineral based oil ...

OTOH, AmsOil seems to have changed their formula on what used to be considered a full synthetic and it's now sort of a common syn-blend, but again, no name change and no price reduction...

My belief is that most big refiners are somewhat honest and their syn-blends tend to be in the 50/50 range. Maybe 60/40 mineral vs synthetic base stocks...

If you allow Chevrons "Iso-Syn" to be loosely classified as a semi-synthetic in your mind (based on general performance) you get the idea that blends and semi-synthetics are no slouch in most aspects. Sometimes exceeding the performance of less well blended "pure" synthetics as shown in that Chevron video above on base oils and Rotella's TEOST test results (that was old formula (15W-40) and Shell has upgraded Rotella T6 (5W-40) since the video was produced).

If you are really concerned about "pure" synthetic base stocks, you must either buy a Euro spec oil or something like one of Redline's products ... However, I think you can get enough information off the PQIA site to make informed decisions about oil no matter the base stocka used
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With that general info and maybe some discussion of HTHS for various oils, you can get very close to any desired goal, if you can define that goal well enough for discussion ...
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Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
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OTOH, AmsOil seems to have changed their formula on what used to be considered a full synthetic and it's now sort of a common syn-blend, but again, no name change and no price reduction...



"Seems to" and "it's now sort of a common syn-blend"

How you know this? Please post factual statements with links about the actual oils that you are writing about. Thanks.
 
Late last year I started doing the OC's on my in-law's '09 Caravan 3.8L, at around 190,000 miles. It gets driven pretty mercilessly, and I don't wanna know what it's longest OCI has been. Using Maxlife 5w20 consumption dropped at least 40% (to a quart every 1600 miles or so) and I just changed it this past weekend with 203,000 and change on it, hitting a 6K OCI almost right on the head. Base oil change at my shop is Maxlife, because of several experiences like that and that my dad put it in his '97 Suburban from 170,000 mi. to its current 415,000 miles and counting, all the while needing no internal repairs.
 
Good summary - and seems specs played a key role. Not just engine lubes - fluids specs like Dex VI pushes the oxi & shear demands towards III or better ... Do we need a federal version of synthetic when we already get 100k out of it ?
Or 7500-15000 OCI in engines going 300k before the rest of the car calls it a day ?

Amway called every vitamin but theirs synthetic - and Amsoil just the opposite - we get that.
 
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