Synthetic oil smoke?
 

Does synthetic oil smoke like dino oil. I heard a rumor it does not ??

Yes.

Olive oil doesn't smoke till 450F...........I use this


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...9L._SS500_.jpg

I like extra virgins.

Ah, yes - are they are the ones that often look like the rear end of a London Transport double decker bus ?

Do you want to think about it?:eek:

I also thought it didn't smoke or at least not as much.
I've had customers in with Mobile 1 that showed no oil on the dipstick,engine had no major leaks and the customer said they never saw any smoke. It made sense the rumor was true.

It smokes less in 2cycle motors like weed-eaters etc. ,so I think it would smoke less .

Believe me, it does smoke. My dad has a 90 ZR-1 and those early 90-92 motors were designed without valve stem seals. So they will smoke some on start up and hard accelerations. The later year, 93-95, motors had valve seals to eliminate this. All my dad's motor has ever seen has been Mobil 1 both by him and the previous owner. It smokes and after a while of not washing it, the back end gets black.

That's the ones. Imagine a double decker bus full of extra virgins. You can never have too many extra virgins. :rofl:

Even if some of them smoke.

OK,OK...I honestly couldn't tell you if synthetic smokes more than mineral oil or not. I only put it my own street-driven cars once when I bought a case of Valvoline synthetic and split it between wifey's Isuzu Rodeo and my Ford Ranger. The Isuzu had never used oil before in any noticeable amount but within 2000 miles of putting the synthetic in it the oil light came on and when I checked it there wasn't any showing on the dip stick. It never did visibly smoke or do anything else to indicate that it was using oil excessively and I was never able to figure out where it disappeared to. I understand that synthetic typically has better thermal properties than dino oil, i.e., it doesn't break down below 300 degrees, but I don't know if that would make it smoke more or less than conventional oil. Hope this doesn't add to the confusion too much, and I hope everybody gets those extra virgins!

Now your confusing me. Are you saying synthetic smokes or doesn't smoke ?
Your first post seems to indicate your saying YES it smokes but your 2nd post seems to align with my experience =
The oil in the engine disappeared with no apparent smoke and no leaks.

No wonder so many Muslims live there. :rofl:

What I'm saying is I'm not really sure...but (apparently like yourself) I have experienced mysterious synthetic oil disappearance syndrome and not seen any smoke to indicate that I was burning oil. In my first post I was admittedly being a bit of a smart arse. With the kind of consumption that I was seeing (3 quarts in 2000 miles) there should have been huge billowing clouds of blue smoke but there wasn't...so I suppose it's quite likely that synthetic oil doesn't smoke as much as mineral oil, extra virgins notwithstanding.

Oh those combustion temps will make any oil smoke alright.

From my experience, Synthetic oil smokes just like dino oil. My daughter is driving my '93 GMC pickup. I bought it new and have used Mobil 1 from the beginning. On the way home from picking it up, I had the oil changed to Mobil 1 with just 22 miles on the odometer. This is contrary to what many say on the forum that you can't break-in an engine on synthetic. Well, the engine now has 198,00 miles on it. It's begun smoking just on startup, so the valve seals have finally given up. I checked compression on all cylinders and they're all right around 160 so the rings are OK. By the way, it's a good ole 350. It's puff of smoke on startup looks just like any oil smoke from an engine that needs new seals.
Duane

How did you fix the "mysterious synthetic oil disappearance syndrome"

please do tell... thx...p

I did the logical thing...stopped using synthetic oil!

and just how did that fix the problem? plz explain.... I go through a lot of oil also... mobile 1...... and the last 3 engines i have built do the same thing.....I believe it has a lot to do with long runs above steady 4K RPM....

I have read some of these seemingly endless threads regarding synthetic vs. mineral oil and they always degenerate into an endless (and pointless IMHO) argument. I DO know this...that when I ran 1 batch of Valvoline synthetic in wifey's Rodeo it used 3 quarts of it in 2000 miles, and when I switched back to mineral oil it stopped doing that. I'm sure that before this baby peters out some chemical engineering whiz kid will appear with a sophisticated-sounding explanation. I personally don't know why our car consumed the stuff so voraciously but as it turned out the solution was certainly simple enough. I did use 15-50 Mobil 1 in my vintage racer with good results for 3 years, reason being that synth is well known (to my satisfaction anyway) for resisting high temperatures and here in SoCal we tended to do a lot of racing in hot locales in the summer. For a street-driven car I just can't justify the added expense of synthetic. The whole ZDDP issue is really beginning to rear its ugly head though...this debate will probably never end.

Synthetic seems to find its way passed old seals and gaskets so if you have a lot of mileage I wouldn't use it...
I used it in a differential once and had oil wet spots on every seal with in 1000 miles

My reason for this thread is that recently I have seen many threads on our C3's smoking on startup or other times but still running well and this is perplexing to the owners. I am just looking for a simple fix or trying to
at least make the problem easier to live with.:thumbs:

In almost every case the smoking on startup issue can be traced to worn valve stem seals and/or guides. Also, in almost every case this issue does not create excessive oil consumption. In my own personal case (The infamous Rodeo) I checked every possible seal around the engine for leaks and found none so I can only surmise that all that oil was getting past the rings and/or through the guides. So (At least in the case of Valvoline) there is some property in [their] synthetic oil that allows it to migrate past places that mineral oil doesn't.
I understand the love affair that a lot of people have with their Corvettes; for me I felt as though I had kind of 'achieved something' when I finally got mine after years of hard work. I personally think that people like putting expensive, exotic oil in their Corvettes because they feel as though they are somehow 'protecting their investment', but I had already rebuilt several American V8s before buying my Vette so I wasn't really afraid of taking another motor apart and rebuilding it if I had to, and in the case of my C3 that happened three times before it was finally right (!).
From a purely economic perspective using synthetic oil in an old small- or big-block Chevrolet may provide enough friction reduction benefits to improve gas mileage somewhat but the additional cost of most synthetics easily offsets that, so there is still a net loss. And as for Mobil 1's claim that it's OK to just change out 1 quart and the filter on every other oil change, it still doesn't stop it from getting dirty any faster, which is why you change oil in the first place. The single best justification that I can see for using it (especially the super high-dollar stuff like Red Line, RP, etc.) is if you have a race motor packed full of kryptonite and unobtanium components that you're running at 14,000 RPM that cost upwards of $15,000 to build and you just want to provide that extra little bit of protection for. For a street-driven cruiser (like mine) or even a street car that sees the throttle get buried fairly often I just don't see the need for it. Don't get me wrong- I am in no way trying to represent myself as some kind of expert on the matter, and I'm not in any way advocating that everybody goes out and dumps their expensive synthetic oil in exchange for cheap dino oil. I'm just sharing some of my own personal experience mixed in with what I feel are some mildly educated opinions. Blessings to all!