preventec47, that suit you mentioned was Mobil challenging Castrol about their claim of "full synthetic" in which Castrol won. Their Group III base stock was sufficiently changed to be recognized as full synthetic. From what I've read, all synthetics have crude as a base in different quantities, be it modified or otherwise.
---------------
Response - Bob- There are other countries... specifically Germany which I know about which does not respect the USA court ruling about Castrols fake Synthetic. In Germany by god, if you advertise FULL SYNTHETIC you have to deliver full synthetic and MOBIL I know sells the real mccoy Full Synthetic in Germany. And before the lawsuit Mobil use to use
authentic Synthetic base .... after lawsuit they had to compete and lowered their standards.
--------------
I think where you may run into trouble with synthetic is the friction modifiers added to the oil. The oil I use is for wet clutch systems and the discs will not tolerate the extra slippery stuff.
----------
Response - Bob - If you visit Valvoline website you will see that they have a so called Full Synthetic "MOTORCYCLE"
oil with special emphasis on wet clutch protection and adhering to all the JASO and other motorcycle requirements.
Again, if you compare the specs such as shear and viscosity etc between their Full Synthetic and Conventional oil
you will see very little difference and that is because "they both come from the same base stock."
So what I am saying is I dont see where the motorcycle stuff is any kind of extra slippery because it has the same
friction additives and has the same base stock and meet the same standards and NOW... the price of Valvolines
"advertised" Full Synthetic is not even more than other conventional motorcycle oils.
-----------------
How about running some of that slippery juice in your engine and let us know if you have any clutch problems or leaks. That should answer it.
-----------------
Response- Bob- I am using the Valvoline Full Synthetic motorcycle 20-50 and since putting it in it goes 10 mph faster.
(NAH JUST KIDDING about the speed increase)
------------------------
For now I'm going to stick with Valvoline conventional wet clutch protection oil. I don't need a long-change interval oil because the system demands frequent changes due to its filtering set-up.
-------------------
Response- Bob- Based on my comments above, the fake stuff sold in the USA does not have much reason
to have a longer oil change interval. The real stuff in Germany DOES.
The main reason I selected the Valvoline Full Synthetic was that in 20-50 weight the performance
specs seemed minimally better... and heck it might even have been cheaper.
The oil in my motorcycle is never going to see the 25,000 mile
intervals advertised by Mobil in the early 70's..... not even a fifty-eth of that.
The thing about the Heavier weight (20-50) oil is that it will have the identical viscosity as 10-40 but at
a higher temp level which is known to occur in air cooled engines especially in the hot summer.
So in effect I am choosing a 10-40 oil to be run hotter and still meet the minimum viscosity
and shear/wear specs.
Bottom line, I think the oil companies are getting away with a huge marketing rip-off and are
jacking their price up to increase margins on slightly improved regular stuff. So back to the
controversy at hand... Synthetic in motorcycles.... if you agree with my analysis and the oil
is not appreciably different how can it affect motorcycles better or worse ?
If you think I am missing something, or disagree with any premise, please let me know.
Valvoline specs attached
Bob
