Why would brand of oil make a difference?

Well, just to get the discussion going, the oil is getting past the piston rings so different viscosity and film break down parameters - try researching the manufacturer viscosity specs and look for a difference.

My Dad never like synthetics for this reason.

Regards,
Ron Furzeland

 

Franklin, This thought is going to be out there so take it for what its worth. Maybe the Mobil vs. syntec is heavy enough to gather/stay in the rings more and coat the walls a little more??? I'm not an expert but your problem is interesting to think about. I have used mobil in my Ferraris for years(not a Boxer) and have not had this problem. Although I have a friend with a 512BBi and he had made a comment to me about the car using a little more oil, not smoking, just using a little more oil than it did using coventional Castrol. Anyway interesting problem. Regards, Vern

 

I rebuilt a 2 liter Lancia a few years back and the place I order the parts from sent aftermarket rings instead of standard fiat rings, I thought they'd be ok, wrong.
With Castrol dino oil it smoked visibly on acceleration, I changed to Valvoline dino oil, 80% of the smoke went away and the rear of the car didn't nearly as dirty. The oil consumption was probably the same, but at least I didn't have to see it....
I think different formulations/additives of oils do different things.

 

I have seen a few leak free BB's that we couldn't keep syn oil in them so we just use Dino oil of the same weight and no problem.

Years ago I worked in a shop that changed from Valvoline to Kendall oil. Exact weight and specs. We could not keep Kendall in the motors from one oil change to the next on any high mileage cars. They would burn the stuff so fast people were having oil pressure problems from starvation between fuel fill ups. We changed back to Valvoline and the problems just vanished.

 

I'm not an oil "expert", but I do know a lot about them (i think at least). The smoke could be a few reasons. The most simple answer would be quality of the base oil used to manufacture, or the additives used. Not all are equal and most companies have their own propriatary additives and detergents.

Not to hijack your thread, but here's a little info I know about oil.

Syntec along with a lot of the other "synthetic" oils are not really synthetic. They use Group III base oil which is just a highly purified petroleum oil. In other words, it's just a really good dino oil. When Castrol came out with Syntec, Mobil sued them saying that Group III oil is not synthetic. The judge ruled that the word "synthetic" is a marketing term, not a manufacturing process or chemical structure. After the ruling, every oil manufacturer and their dog started used Group III oil as a base for their "synthetics".
Also, never buy "synthetic blends". It's the biggest scam in the oil business that gives the biggest profits. It's just a dino oil with a splash of Group III oil base. So you're paying 100% more, but not getting much better quality. Yet, it only costs the manufacturers about 15% more to make. It gives them huge profits.
If you want a true synthetic in the sense of the word, look for one that uses Group IV PAO (Poly-Alpha-Olefin) or even better is Group V which is a diester base oil. These later two are much more expensive, but they are a MUCH better quality.
Don't get me wrong, Group III based oils are good, but they are not real synthetics. Think of them as a very good petroleum based oil, cause that's what they are.

 

Where's Ali????

Hear is some reading for you.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38205&highlight=Motor+Oil+101

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38329&highlight=Motor+oil+102

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38524&highlight=Motor+Oil+103

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38661&highlight=Motor+Oil+104

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39041&highlight=Motor+Oil+105

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39561&highlight=Motor+Oil+106

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39766&highlight=Motor+Oil+107

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40162&highlight=Motor+Oil+108

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40336&highlight=Motor+Oil+109

Class is in.

 

My point was that it can go by the rings at an alarming rate in an otherwise OK motor.

I have a client with a great running, leak free BB and you can't keep syn in the motor. It all goes out the tail pipes. Dino oil, no problem.

 

This is very interesting, and not something that readily makes any real sense. I know a gentleman who always ran Mobil 1 in his diesel engines and always did the 25,000 mile change interval while always blaming the cars makers for building crappy engines. Every diesel engine he ran (BMW, Ford 6.9 and 7.3, and Mercedes Benz) needed top end overhauls by 100K miles and leaked like sieves.

I had one engine, also a Mercedes 300 diesel, that never used any oil until 2000 miles, but then would use a quart in the next 300 miles. Change it and it was good for 2000 miles again. Obviously something happened to the oil at that late mileage to make the engine start burning it.

In another case, I had a Honda Civic that would fill the yard full of extremely thick oil smoke for about 20 seconds on a cold start, then clear out and run fine. One can of Gunk motor flush and it never smoked again. Obviously dirty rings, but the mechanics involved seem odd. Its simply amazing that something as simple as a piston engine could confound so many people and have everyone scratching thier heads, even after over 125 years in existence.

As much as I am not a fan of synthetic oils except in very very extreme cases, I am truly curious why your engine would behave this way. But excessive oil consumtion is not something to wave off thinking more oil on the cylinders is a good thing. Excessive smoking could result in heavy oily carbon deposits forming up around the piston crown, and choking up the exhaust port and the backside of the exhaust valve head as well as fouling the rings. Obviously the M-1 is able to slip past the rings or valves while the Dino oil cant. Longer molecular chains? I thought that was the whole idea of synthetic, to make a longer chain. Could the Ferrari engine me more damaging to certain oils by shearing them into shorter chains?

 

Here's a link to a forum that Dr Haas is also active in. You won't find a group of people more anal about oil than here. If you have a question about oil, it's already been asked and answered here.

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi

 

I changed my oil last week to 10W40 Castrol GTX. The car supposedly had 20W50 in it from the prior owner. Now I get a little puff of blue smoke at startup. Nothing to worry about I guess after reading the comments here.