Right. Emissions components are the reason for those. I will concur quite freely that drizler is on target. And that is one area where synthetics do stand out... extreme cold. As for cross hatching, one can give anecdotal evidence easily of it still being prevalent and pronounced even with a conventional or blend. While interesting, 150K is not any kind of real test when it comes to seeing how things are still doing. That is barely even thru half the life cycle of many gas automotive engines. The L96 Vortec 6.0L is one that frequently goes past 300K miles before any issues, even under fleet driver type abuse, and there are many others across the spectrum.
Here is a link to a Ford van engine tear down that turned over 1 million miles on its 5.4L engine. Cross hatch still fully evident and all major components still good enough for further service. The Ford Econoline van that it was in was driven to the site after it had turned over 1 million miles for this engine tear down. To be fair and in interest of full disclosure, these are Schaeffer sponsored videos. But the oil was their 7000 series syn blend and not full synthetic for both engines.
Schaeffer Million Mile Gasoline Engine Teardown - YouTube
And then a million mile Cat C15 engine.
Schaeffer Mfg. Million Mile Diesel Engine Teardown - YouTube
So while there are examples of full synthetics doing exceptional things, there are also many examples of conventionals and blends doing equally as well. Just about every oil maker has some stories / examples or even videos of engines doing well for hundreds of thousands of miles.
Kenmac, why would I have taken the turbo apart at 1 million miles, when it was fully operating at 1.4 million miles when I sold the truck, and it went right to work for the next owner? And turbos have changed from the "old" days. Most of this coking and turbo cool down stuff carried over from the days when babbitt bearings were being used in turbos. That died off over 30 years ago. Turbo technology is much different and the need to go thru elaborate cool downs and such to prevent oil from coking in the turbo is long gone. And modern VG turbos are water cooled as well. And I am sure not interested in tearing down the turbo on my 12.7L S60 engine that has 518K miles on it. Not when it outpaced a lot of newer Cummins and Detroit 15L engines all day long today on the hills, even with having to move a gross weight of 78K lb. And it is doing it on a 10w30 syn blend. And this motor is a factory rebuild that only uses about 2 qts of oil in 20,000 miles.
I never said in any way that conventional base oils are superior to synthetics. I did make mention clearly that only in extreme circumstances do synthetics have any kind of an edge over modern conventional base oils. And most people do not have situations that are in the "extreme". To take that as meaning conventional oils are superior is pretty disingenuous.
