Synthetic Motor Oil Versus Regular Oil - Which is Better?

Can you really compare a synthetic motor oil to regular? If so what are the standards that can be used to make it a fair comparison? When it is all said and done oil really is just oil whether it is assembled by a giant chemistry set or by nature. The main difference between conventional oils and synthetics is that you can control the properties of the synthetics to a much finer end point compared to natural oil.

You could look at regular oil like a batch of wine or beer in that each one is slightly different than the last, but with synthetics the formula for a batch never changes! So your first quart of oil is exactly the same as your last one.

Synthetics offer specific advantages over traditional oils one of which would be it's excellent stability at high temperatures. It also uses a base liquid of high performance fluids which are more stable and with the specific additives that they include you can tailor the properties of that specific oil to a much finer degree than that of conventional oils.

Natural motor oil is made up of both long and short chain molecules, and when the engine gets hot some of these shorter chain molecules can evaporate, break down, or oxidize leaving behind nasty crud that is not good for your engine.

So is there an apples to apples comparison? The straight answer is yes and no. The additives in a synthetic oil give it the specific properties that are desired for that particular type of oil. For example you my want to have 10W 40 oil in your high mileage car and with the synthetic it will perform more smoothly. At the same time a regular oil can operate very well within specific boundaries of temperature and pressure, but it will still tend to break down and require changing before the oil turns acidic from the sulfur compounds that are in the oil.

For the record you can switch back and forth with no issues but it is wise to avoid mixing the two if you can avoid that.

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