Sully2
Veteran Member
DieselPower said:
... I know! If I used "Brand X" they probably do it for Free...right!...lol You "pay for it" one way or the other!Best Synthetic oil for 5240
- Thread starter SCDolphin
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... I know! If I used "Brand X" they probably do it for Free...right!...lol You "pay for it" one way or the other!mcconoughey
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- Aug 17, 2001
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- 13
I use only synthetic oil in our vehicles and on the tractors. Yet, I agree with posters who think it usually makes little difference for most engines. I like synthetic for mostly whimsical reasons. Car companies sometimes recommend synthetic oil because the high temperature performance can enable the company to avoid installing an engine oil cooler. There may be other reasons known only to the company but not published.
After 50+ years of owning many different engines, I've yet to wear one out. Most of them used whatever standard oil was made at the time. I think that most equipment owners trade in their equipment for reasons other than worn out engines. Are there any posters here whose major reasons for buying new equipment is because their engines wore out?
Economics plays a part. Is it more cost effective to change lower cost common oil sooner, or to buy synthetic oil and keep it longer? I've yet to see a major, high quality research paper on this topic. Most oil choices, as with mine, are based on whim or partial information.
I use Mobil One synthetic oil and top-line Kubota hydraulic fluid in the Kubota tractor simply because I imagine that doing so is a good idea considering that the Kubota--a ZD21 mowing machine--has had some owner reports of hydraulic system failure and that makes me a bit wary. I have zero evidence that Mobil One is significantly superior to other name brand synthetic oils. I do expect that Mobil has a competent research and development program.
Readers wanting more information on engine oils can find numerous technical reports in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) website, easily found online. Look under publications. Some universities have older SAE papers in stock.
From a marketing standpoint, engine manufacturers are under competitive pressure to produce engines that live long using normal oils. Exceptions exist for some high performance autos as several posters noted, but most engines do very well without synthetics. Perhaps as engine oil life monitors become more sophisticated, they can respond to the user's choice of synthetic oil by allowing longer oil change intervals. If, in fact, synthetics justify longer change intervals for synthetic oil.
After 50+ years of owning many different engines, I've yet to wear one out. Most of them used whatever standard oil was made at the time. I think that most equipment owners trade in their equipment for reasons other than worn out engines. Are there any posters here whose major reasons for buying new equipment is because their engines wore out?
Economics plays a part. Is it more cost effective to change lower cost common oil sooner, or to buy synthetic oil and keep it longer? I've yet to see a major, high quality research paper on this topic. Most oil choices, as with mine, are based on whim or partial information.
I use Mobil One synthetic oil and top-line Kubota hydraulic fluid in the Kubota tractor simply because I imagine that doing so is a good idea considering that the Kubota--a ZD21 mowing machine--has had some owner reports of hydraulic system failure and that makes me a bit wary. I have zero evidence that Mobil One is significantly superior to other name brand synthetic oils. I do expect that Mobil has a competent research and development program.
Readers wanting more information on engine oils can find numerous technical reports in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) website, easily found online. Look under publications. Some universities have older SAE papers in stock.
From a marketing standpoint, engine manufacturers are under competitive pressure to produce engines that live long using normal oils. Exceptions exist for some high performance autos as several posters noted, but most engines do very well without synthetics. Perhaps as engine oil life monitors become more sophisticated, they can respond to the user's choice of synthetic oil by allowing longer oil change intervals. If, in fact, synthetics justify longer change intervals for synthetic oil.
