I don't know anything about this supertech oil. However, I am also seeing a lot of misinformation on here that not only doesn't have any objective scientific value, it doesn't even have a foundation in logic. Several of the statements such as I ran it 300K miles an it runs fine, you can or cannot switch between synthetic or conventional, or I added it to my transmission and it fried in 3000 miles have no value. Let's just stick with the facts and this might be easier. These are going to be very general statements and yes I know I'm leaving some things out so feel free to add in anything that might be relevant.
1)what is the difference - in general, synthetic oil has a higher shear rating, higher temperature, and lower ash content than standard oil. All of these together means it has to be replaced less often.
2)If you don't have a good filter, the best oil out there is quickly going to deteriorate to useless.
3)The 3000 mile rating is horse manure. Oil should be changed when it is either dirty, has broken down or load or lost it's additives due to temperature or load, or has sat for a long time and absorbed moisture. There is no hard or fast rule here. For the best information, use your vehicle in different environments and then send the oil in for analysis. BMW and Mercedes have oil changes up to 15,000 miles on some of their vehicles under certain conditions. However, their engines may have lower tolerances, less blow by, etc... The point is that several factors need to be included in how often you change your oil.
4)Switching between conventional and synthetic doesn't make any sense financially or performance wise. Yes you can do it but conventional oil will have high content of ash, etc and may leave more residue in the engine that gets mixed in with the synthetic when it comes through. Stick with one or the other. If you don't need synthetic or you don't plan on keeping your car for 300,000 miles, use conventional. Yes, I know many cars have seen conventional run 300,000 mile but if you actually look at the deposits and wear in the engine, you will see that synthetic will have a lower wear and pretty much no deposits at 300,000 miles. In a conventional car, I run a Mobil 1 filter and Mobil 1 oil and change it at 10,000 miles. I have run it 15,000 miles if I have a lot of highway miles on there. On my Mustang with the blower, it's between 3000 and 5000 depending on oil color. If I race that weekend, fresh oil goes in. Send the oil in to be analyzed several times and find out what's happening to the engine at different mile changes or different oils.
5) I used supertech and my transmission blew up - My question is why? What broke in the tranny, did you drive any differently, did you measure the wear before you put the supertech in, etc..., You have no basis for a cause and effect of the failure so therefore it has no value to this argument.
The reality here is that without any more technical information on the Supertech, I couldn't tell you if it's better than Mobil 1 or worse than Canola Oil. You need to compare the information put out by their scientists to see the difference. Go to an Amsoil or Royal Purple site to see what the difference is with the top of the line oils and then work your way down from there. Those companies also have a lot of information on other company products. There is a lot of people who have published the exact facts on the differences in oil and again, oil filters. I can't stress the the filter issue enough.
Without more information on your car, engine, usage, or 100 other factors, it's hard to make a general statement on oil. I personally use synthetic on everything because it works out cheaper in the long run if I keep the car 200,000 miles. I have also seen engines raced on conventional oil and raced on sythetics. It's a huge difference but it's also a high shear/temperature environment that doesn't really apply to the street unless your car sees 6000 rpm's frequently. If you are into being environmentally concious, it's also less oil wasted although most oil gets recycled nowadays.
The best objective study I ever saw on synthetics was done on taxis in New York. They ran synthetics for 60k miles and sealed the engines. On engines that had regular filter changes oil, no oil changes, and just added oil when needed, there was no measurable wear. On engines they didn't change the filters on, engine wear was equivalent to conventional oil with regular oil changes. However, what they found out was the filters had broken down a long time ago and the engine effectively had no filter for tens of thousands of miles. What it did prove is that synthetic basically doesn't break down,
