Teil 2:
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Post #34:
Now a couple of things to keep in mind,
-Yes, the tests were conducted on Mobil 1 EP [Extended Performance] oil.
-The changeover [to Group III base stocks] has been gradual, it started with some grades and gradually included others.
- Yes, Mobil still claims that their M1 is fully synthetic. No one is arguing that the oil is not fully synthetic going by the current legal nomenclature. The problem arose when Castrol won the ability to call Grp III hydrocracked dino oil a 'synthetic'. Mobil was the company that complained, and when the decision was made to allow it, Mobil saw the opportunity to change their formulations making them cheaper to produce, while retaining the label and maintaining the price.
- Try contacting Mobil and outright asking them "Does Mobil 1 contain Grp III hydrocracked base stocks?" and they will not answer. Go ahead, give it a shot. They're reply is that Mobil 1 is a full synthetic. Well that wasn't the question now was it? considering that they can legally call Grp II hydrocracked basestocks a 'synthetic'. doesn't change the fact that although the hydrocracked oils are now almost as good as some PAO basestocks, they are stil not comparable under extreme conditions (and even PAO's don't hold up as well as ester based oils under extreme conditions).
- There is conjecture that the change to Grp III hydroocracked basestock is now being reversed and is being reverted to PAO, occurring initially only because Mobil 1 had a shortage of available PAO basestock and chose to take advantage of the legal ability to continue calling the oil a full synthetic wth the Grp III stock. This is however, conjecture at this point, and even if it's true, I still personally choose not to support a company that changed it's formulation to something cheaper to produce while sacrificing performance under extreme conditions without disclosing this to their customers and retaining the premium pricing and increasing profit margins.
I'm not saying Mobil 1 is a crappy oil for streetcars. For most cars, even dino is fine. But I push my car hard, and when I'm doing that, I'd rather know that I'm using something that provides great protection. Roadcoursing falls under the category of extreme use. So does dragracing with significantly more HP than stock. The fact that Mobil 1 has shown to shear has removed it from my list of reliiable oils. If I wanted a 20 weight oil, I'd have chosen a stable 20 weight oil, but I don't think 20 weight provides adequate protection under sustained conditions on a roadcourse.
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Post #35:
Forgot about that. I haven't actually used/tested Amsoil myself so I can't say. I've always heard it's a good oil. Never heard anyone say anything bad about it, although there are those who say that Amsoil tends to make their oil out to be much better than it is. Doesn't change the fact that it's still considered a good oil though, but I don't know how well it holds up under extreme use/conditions. The UOA's I've seen on Amsoil were pretty good, but they were all on daily driver unmodded cars. Haven't seen any UOA's on modded cars or ones that see the track, and one of the things about their VOA's is that Amsoil (and Mobil 1) have no moly in their oils.
Moly is a great friction modifier and a very good EP additive. Somewhere in another post I detailed how moly works in the engine. Motul 300V has the highest levels of moly I've ever seen in a gasoline vehicle motor oil. Redline's moly levels are close. M1 and Amsoil have none and Royal Purple has about 1/5 the moly levels of Redline. I don't use Royal Purple motor oils because they tend to shear too. Amsoil is pretty shear stable so if it's cheaper than Redline, I'd say stick with it.
BTW, one thing I forgot to add for those thinking of switching to Redline or Motul 300V. Because these oils are sold as racing oils they do not have to comply with the API's max levels of phosphates. The phosphate content has been reduced for all API certified oils because high levels can lead to decreased life of the catalytic converters. The phosphates however, are in the form of ZDDP (Zinc Dialkyl-Dithio-Phosphate) which is an EP/AW additive which comes into play under extreme conditions. The engineers I spoke to said that ZDDP actually comes into play under very high forces.
ZDDP is a boundary lubricant meaning it comes into play when the oil film is squeezed out under very high pressure (most commonly between the cams and rollers and the rings and cylinders). More ZDDP doesn't mean more protection per se, but longer protection under those conditions. The important part is that ZDDP (and moly which is also a boundary lubricant) can come into play betwen the bearings and journals near redline (due to the very high reciprocating forces) and also with any engine that is making anywhere in the 200+ crank HP/liter. All our modded cars making 450awhp or more fall into this category.
Because these 2 oils aren't API regulated (being marketed as race oils), they don't follow the lowered phospate limits and have high ZDDP levels (good for extreme use), BUT they can potentially kill your catalytic converters quicker. This is not really a problem if you aren't burning oil (or drive a racecar without cats).
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Post #40:
The lowest prices I've found for 300V here were $25.75 per 2 liter can shipped if you order over $100. since we need 3 cans, it was easier to order 4 or more to get the free shipping.
As far as how moly works, I don't know where my post was but here's a quick rundown.
Moly bonds with any metallic surface it's exposed to especially where there's some heat and pressure involved. It fills in surface asperities (roughness) and creates a very, very smooth surface reducing friction. It also acts somewhat similar to graphite in the sense that the molecules shingle. One way folks have described the way moly works is like sliding something over a bunch of playing cards. The cards slide over each other creating low friction.
Moly however bonds pretty strongly to the metal. In fact some folks testing it have said that after moly bonds to the metal surface, the only real way to get it off is to grind it off. I had my bearings dry-film moly coated, but the coaters didn't take precautions to avoid coating the bearing ends (at least they made sure not to coat the bearings backs). I had to scrape the moly coating off the bearings ends to avoid affecting the bearing crush specs and after scraping the coating off (only some of the bearings had the overspray), the ends were left a dull gray and there was no way to change that (since I sure as heck wasn't going to grind the bearing ends).
Moly's bond and friction modifier characteristics can withstand pressures up to 500,000 psi. Althugh this sounds like the Prolong/Zmax etc. BS, the company conducted some tests on the effectiveness of moly (to see if they wanted to use it on their equipment) had a small 3HP engine coated with moly. It ran with no lubrication at all, and when they tore the engine apart, it showed practically no wear.
One of the newer EP/FM/AW additives is Boron. You'll see it in some oils. It works in a similar fashion to Moly and once it bonds to the surface, it supposedly lasts for a good long time. Not sure if it will withstand the pressures moly is good for
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Post #44:
""Originally Posted by Ondontii: Cant you get moly additives by themselves?""
Yep, but not all moly is created equal. Most of the moly additives that you buy separately in small amounts to add to the oil is moly disulfide. while moly disulfide is a good lubricant, the difficulty is with keeping the stuff in suspension so it gets where it needs to go. Most often, it will seperate out of the oil before it has a chance to coat the parts that need it. The other problem is the size. A lot of the moly additives have particulate sizes too large and they get trapped in the filter which = not getting where it's needed and possibily clogging the filter prematurely. Most of the good oils seem to be using organo-form moly's like Moly Dithiocarbamate.
There are probably some moly add packs that are decent but I don't know which ones those would be. It's generally better to just get a better formulated oil to start with.
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Post #46:
[Royal Purple] 10w40 sheared to a 30 weight by the time a UOA was done at 2500 miles. since most oils that shear tend to shear fairly quickly (M1 0w40 will shear within 1000 miles), who knows when it begins shearing? In one of the links to earlier posts I made that Novot posted, I mentioned that under extreme conditions (track use at high temps and repeated redline especially if the car is modded for more HP) it's possible for an oil to start shearing within a couple of hot laps (wonder why some folks can sping a bearing within a few laps of Road America?). Once an oil has sheared, the viscosity loss is permanent.
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