synthetic oil....not a good idea with a blower?

The word is that synthetic oil is so slick it will seep through the fittings on your blower and cause smoking, etc.

ADRENLN said:

i thought i read that synthetic motor oil was either bad with a blower or a built engine. i think it was the blower, but why?

i cant remember. can anyone give me some info on this? thanks.

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Never heard that, you shouldn't use synthetic during the break in period on a built motor though.

Never had that problem in +120K miles ....

nwapache said:

The word is that synthetic oil is so slick it will seep through the fittings on your blower and cause smoking, etc.

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+1

You CAN go synth, but it's not recommended by Tim at MPH for his Mongoose kits. I listen to Tim as he is a tuner god.

Don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but when MD did my cams, they told me to change the oil after 1000 miles. Well, it's coming up soon and I thought that with the new parts, it might be a good idea to switch from motorcraft to Mobil 1 synthetic. What do you guys think?

I run 10 psi with no issue. I also have vented breathers on the valve covers. I know with higher boost levels you need to start looking at a running a vacuum pump to keep the crank case pressure down.

They use Mobil1 full synthetic right off the assembly lines in new Porshes, Corvettes, Vipers, etc. I have a hard time believing that it will "damage" anything.

I use royal purple with 10 #'s. No problems, and its slicker then mobile 1.

AmBo said:

+1 I listen to Tim as he is a tuner god.

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Cheese and rice that's ridiculous.

Gimme a break there is so much BS surrounding synthetic oil and what you cant run it in.
If the motor is not leaking or burning oil running synthetic will change nothing other than an increase in economy/power and allow you to extend your oil change interval

laxdman20 said:

I use royal purple with 10 #'s. No problems, and its slicker then mobile 1.

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"Slicker than Mobil 1"???????" Explain that one please! There is no better oil on the market than Mobil 1 0w30 or 0w40, period. Don't waste your money on that purple crap. I have gone through training sessions for work over the last few months with regards to lubricants and nothing comes close to Mobil 1 for wear, startup protection, lubrication properties etc. Don't be fooled by magazine hype. There isn't one highend sportscar manufacturer that will put anything but Mobil in their cars. There is a reason for that. With regards to blower applications what's the difference? There is just a little more pressure in the motor. The difference between a synthetic oil and a mineral oil is only in the size of the molecules. In synthetic oil all the molecules are uniform (same size and shape) in mineral oil the molecules vary in size and shape. That's why in the first days of synthetics twenty years ago there would be some leakage problems due to seals no being very maliable after 100,000+ miles. The synthtics would push there way through the seals because the seals had become rigid. Seal manufacturers and oil manufacturers have worked together to correct this problem so in very few cases will you ever see a leak from changing from mineral oil to synthetic oil.

TweekedGT said:

"Slicker than Mobil 1"???????" Explain that one please! There is no better oil on the market than Mobil 1 0w30 or 0w40, period. Don't waste your money on that purple crap. I have gone through training sessions for work over the last few months with regards to lubricants and nothing comes close to Mobil 1 for wear, startup protection, lubrication properties etc. Don't be fooled by magazine hype. There isn't one highend sportscar manufacturer that will put anything but Mobil in their cars. There is a reason for that. With regards to blower applications what's the difference? There is just a little more pressure in the motor. The difference between a synthetic oil and a mineral oil is only in the size of the molecules. In synthetic oil all the molecules are uniform (same size and shape) in mineral oil the molecules vary in size and shape. That's why in the first days of synthetics twenty years ago there would be some leakage problems due to seals no being very maliable after 100,000+ miles. The synthtics would push there way through the seals because the seals had become rigid. Seal manufacturers and oil manufacturers have worked together to correct this problem so in very few cases will you ever see a leak from changing from mineral oil to synthetic oil.

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Not that I'm a chemist or anything, but I do believe that Red Line can outperform Mobil 1 in protection because of it's Polyolester base stocks (which are the same stocks used to lubricate Pratt and Whittney/GE Aircraft jet engines) while Mobil 1 uses polyalphaolefins mixed into their base stock.

TweekedGT said:

"Slicker than Mobil 1"???????" Explain that one please! There is no better oil on the market than Mobil 1 0w30 or 0w40, period. Don't waste your money on that purple crap. I have gone through training sessions for work over the last few months with regards to lubricants and nothing comes close to Mobil 1 for wear, startup protection, lubrication properties etc. Don't be fooled by magazine hype. There isn't one highend sportscar manufacturer that will put anything but Mobil in their cars. There is a reason for that. With regards to blower applications what's the difference? There is just a little more pressure in the motor. The difference between a synthetic oil and a mineral oil is only in the size of the molecules. In synthetic oil all the molecules are uniform (same size and shape) in mineral oil the molecules vary in size and shape. That's why in the first days of synthetics twenty years ago there would be some leakage problems due to seals no being very maliable after 100,000+ miles. The synthtics would push there way through the seals because the seals had become rigid. Seal manufacturers and oil manufacturers have worked together to correct this problem so in very few cases will you ever see a leak from changing from mineral oil to synthetic oil.

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+1

As an Amsoil Dealer, I thought I'd throw my five cents in. I'll admit that I'm not sure on the blower question, but I'll talk with some of the gear heads I know and see if they have anything to say. I know Amsoil is working with some of the Monster Trucks out there, and they have massive blowers. But if the engine manufacturer says an oil needs to meet a specific spec, then any oil that meets or exceeds that spec should work. Now how well it protects, holds up to heat, etc, can vary. A synthetic will always outperform a petroleum. And a Group IV or V synthetic, will do better than a Group III synthetic. Most synthetics on the market today are Group III petroleum based oil that the API said can be called a synthetic because of a process called hydrocracking that makes the quality of the oil better than a normal petroleum. A Group IV is a PAO based oil, such as Mobil 1 and Amsoil and what many consider the start of the "true synthetics." Redline, unless they changed, is Ester based and considered a Group V oil. When Amsoil came out and Mobil a few years later both were ester based, but found that esters tend to want to attract and retain water, so they changed to PAO.

The "wives tale" of synthetics leaking past seals I remember hearing back in the 70s was originally a Mobil 1 problem. From what I understand when they first released their synthetic, they were buying an ester from Germany that didn't have any additives to help keep seals pliable, so the oil, in particular their thinner viscocity at the time, did get past the seals. I've heard one story that race tracks didn't want cars running synthetics to use their tracks because this leaking. This has long been fixed.

As for Mobil 1 being put into all these various cars, you left off the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO from the list, however the reason I have heard that they use Mobil, at least originally in the Corvette, is because Mobil gives it to them for free, and in return the they get to put a little plaque that says "Use Mobil 1 Only" on the engine which has brainwashed so many. Their marketing strategy has worked well.

RP I'd place lower on the list of synthetics. They have pushed their name into everything over the years, and are not really that great. I've talked to several racers who used and hated the stuff before switching to Amsoil. I even have some questions as to what their base stock is. Last I heard was that their lower line was a blend and only their racing oil was a full PAO, but then after reading an article in one of the Mustang mags last year, the rep for RP was quoted as saying that all synehtics comes from crude. That is wrong! It does if they are using a Group III petroleum "synthetic" in which case they have moved away from PAOs like most of the major manufacturers. Last year Amsoil paid for testing to be done on their motorcycle oils and compared it to around 20 other major motorcycle oil brands, RP being one of them. RP had about 3x the wear, if i recall the results.

There has been a lot of articles on synthetics in the magazines over the past year or two. Many of them have been pretty good, and some have been so off base, it's scary. I've replied to a few of them to correct some information, one of which was printed in Turbo. The more recent articles I have seen have been better.