Why Synthetics

What is a synthetic lubricant?

A synthetic lubricant contains more highly refined base oils than those used in conventional mineral oils, offering you superior protection and performance. Synthetic engine oils provide a variety of benefits that keep your engine running at optimal performance for years. To understand synthetic engine oils, let's look at the origins of engine oils.

There are two basic types of lubricants available:

•  Conventional mineral oils are the traditional types.
•  Synthetic lubricants, which are growing in popularity.

Both types are made from crude oil that comes from the ground. The difference is that synthetic oils are made from more advanced refining processes and are of a higher purity and quality than conventional mineral oils. This not only removes more impurities from the crude oil, it enables individual molecules in the oil to be tailored to the demands of modern engines. These customised molecules provide higher levels of protection and performance.

What's so good about synthetic lubricants?

The performance of synthetic oils is typically more robust, especially in terms of low temperature pumpability and high temperature stability and protection against deposits. These attributes can help towards reduced engine wear, fuel economy potential and long engine life.

Synthetic oils have been developed specifically to cope with extreme conditions found within modern engines. They are much more free-flowing than traditional mineral oils. The biggest benefit is greatly increased engine protection. When an engine is first started, a mineral oil takes some time to circulate, allowing friction between un-lubricated parts to cause wear. In contrast, a synthetic lubricant starts circulating straight away, protecting every moving part within the engine.

Synthetic oils can also significantly improve fuel economy. During the warm-up period of a typical truck journey, mineral oils are thicker and move more slowly, making the engine thirstier and less efficient. Synthetics, however, get to work much more quickly, so the engine reaches peak operating efficiency that much sooner.

Another advantage of synthetics is that they're cleaner and environmentally friendlier – helping to cut engine emissions when compared to conventional mineral oils. Conventional mineral oils also contain greater amounts of impurities, such as sulfur, reactive and unstable hydrocarbons, and other undesirable contaminants that cannot be completely removed by conventional refining of crude oil.

In all these important respects, synthetic lubricants can outperform mineral oils, offering significant advantages over conventional engine oils, such as:

• Excellent Low Temperature Flow Performance -- Pour point is a measure of a lubricant’s ability to flow at low temperatures. Mobil Delvac synthetic lubricants are engineered to reduce internal friction, which results in outstanding flow characteristics at low temperatures. As a result, components are lubricated more effectively, especially during a cold start-up where a significant amount of component wear can take place.
• Viscosity Stability – Higher viscosity index translates to a more stable viscosity across a broad temperature range. As well as the excellent low temperature performance, Mobil Delvac synthetic lubricants resist thinning at elevated temperatures, resulting in superior protection across a greater operating temperature range.
• Improved Oxidation and Thermal Stability – Improved oxidation stability and thermal stability in Mobil Delvac synthetic lubricants results in less viscosity increase with age and better deposit control, which leads to fewer oil changes and less downtime, with the potential for extended oil drain intervals - all of which ultimately save you time and money.
• Excellent Wear Protection – Newer vehicles must be able to handle higher torque and increased shock loads. Mobil Delvac synthetic drivetrain lubricants provide superior anti-scoring performance, which helps increase gear life at high speeds and under shock loading conditions.  Mobil Delvac 1 5W-40 provides excellent wear protection.