Flyboy Dave
Posts: 13371
Joined: 3/20/2002
From: San Bernardino County,
CA, USA
Status: offline
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Part 1: Why I would never run straight synthetic in my engines.
Let me answer a question by first asking a question. Which oil would you prefer to run
in your new engine....the best oil you ever came across, or the worst oil you ever came
across ? The answer is pretty simple, huh ? You would want the best.
Perhaps I shouldn't have such a disdain for synthetic oils. I made a darn good living
for many years, in part by the use of these lubricants, not by me, but from the customers
that came to our shop for repairs on their motorcycles. One of the first to come along was
NPG synthetic oil. It called for a 40:1 mix that wasn't too bad, except in extreme conditions,
or when the owner mixed the fuel at a leaner oil to gasoline ratio. Klotz came along and
was OK too, but Klotz wasn't used in minimal ratios, it was used at about 20 to 26:1 ratio.
It burned cleaner than some of the mineral oils of the day.
There came a time, when for some reason, the thinking of the day was that less oil was
somehow better for the engine than more oil. "More oil" being the standard factory
recommendation of a 20:1 mix, or 16:1 for racing or heavy duty applications. This is the
period when the fancy (and expensive) snake oils came into the market with all kinds of wild
claims about how their oil was so good, you could use less of it and still have outstanding
results with all the hoopla stated clearly on the label.
Less and less oil in the gas became popular. They got all the way to 100:1 mixture. Imagine
that....100 parts gasoline to only 1 part oil. The fuel for fools who didn't read the factory
recommendation of a good 20:1 mix, rather they believed the snake oil salesman's story
about less was better. The synthetics cost 2 to 3 times as much as decent mineral oil, but
the savings could be had because less oil was used....and this was even better than the plain
old fashioned oils that had been used for years. Something new, something fantastic to grab
the imagination (and pocketbook) of the new machine owner....yes, new and improved indeed.
You would have had to been at the shop during those many years to appreciate the joy me
and two other Journeyman mechanics had, as well as the laughter we shared as we inspected
untold hundreds of engines that were fried to a crisp using the snake oils.. When I say fried
to a crisp, I mean it looked like a blow torch had been taken to the engine with the intent of
destroying it. You could still smell the stink of the overheated metals that melted away. Pistons
that were almost gone around the top from melting....seized engines that had to be pounded
apart with a big hammer....the parts completely dry and devoid of any indication of lubrication
whatsoever.
You would have had to be there to see the crankshafts and rods that were seemingly welded
solidly together from the heat. Some frozen so tight they would not move even beating on
the rod with a hammer. Every time one of us opened up one of these fried engines we would
always call the others over to inspect the carnage, and have a good laugh, and boy did we
have some laughs. It was always about seeing an engine that had been destroyed even
worse than the one before....kind of a contest. The greater the destruction, the bigger the howl.
The destruction of these engines had to be seen to be believed. I must say that even now,
20 years later I still get a kick thinking about those destroyed engines. Of course my job
was to restore that engine to a pristine condition, just like new. It was fun being a top
mechanic in those days, we made great money. We had to tear down and rebuild the engine,
new bearings and such....as well as rebuild the crankshaft and rebore the cylinder, so we
made three monies from one engine working on commision.
Needless to say, to a good flat rate mechanic, the invention of the synthetic oils was just as
good as canned beer....we really liked them snake oils. Very profitable those oils, in the
accessory department were they were sold, and in the service department too.
So, what was the problem with these engines ? What caused them to self destruct ? The oil
caused the failures, nothing else....plain and simple. The synthetic oil failed to provide the
lubrication it said it would. If the owners had used plain old mineral oil, in the quantity stipulated
in the manual their engine would not have incinerated itself.
The synthetic oil failed miserably. It was a disaster for the perfectly good engines engines
that died a horrible death. 
To be continued.
FBD. 
_____________________________
An engineer says.... "That won''t work".
A mechanic says..."Oh yeah, watch this".
"Old Age, and Treachery will overcome youth and skill".
Revver Bro #4.
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RE: I love the smell of glow fuel in the morning....... - 
...but I can sorta laugh now... 